Breton Domnonée Dark Age cavalry II

Breton cavalry II

A unit of medium Breton cavalry for my Kingdom of Domnonée project, another project from the 2019 pile that was partially completed and required a few steps to complete them. I am almost at a end for this army one more cavalry unit, a command and thirty figures. This will give me quite a large army for the 5th through to the 8th century and by swapping out some infantry and cavalry will stretch until the 9th century.

The figures in this unit are footsore with one converted gripping beast celt to make up the unit. Quite happy with the plaid on these.

"walk the battlefield in the morning, wargame in the afternoon"™

Salut
Matt

The Black Prince Edward III

Edward the III, the Black Prince

If you have been following you will know that this year I am adding to my Early 100YW armies using predominantly Claymore, Old Glory and selected Perry and Crusader miniatures, I have around 120 figures to add to my English, Scots, Bretons and French. 

In addition one of my goals this year I will also be building a historical 14th century chateau for my TTSFN (total Terrain System For Now) table.

Edward the Black Prince, a miniature sculpted by the Perry twins. Released by Warhammer Historical quite a long time ago. I painted it for the “Metal” painting competition on the guild Wargamers forum.


We visited the Poitiers battlefield last September and walked quite a bit of it. The signs need some work but happy to see it not completely surrounded by houses.

Nearby I would recommend visiting Abbaye Saint-Junien de Nouaillé-Maupertuis in the valley. A wonderful Fortified medieval Abbey with many stages of construction, much of the grounds are walkable. A book on the Battle and the Abbaye is available in French at the L'Hotel de Ville located in the Abbaye gatehouse.

"Wargaming History"™

Cheers

Matt

Confederate Marines

The last remnants of 2019 projects are leaving my table this week, first up a rebase and touch up of some Confederate Marines that suffered during our move from Australia to France. Basically highlighted and touched up the scratches and dings and re-flocked the base.

The figures are from the first corps range and are the only 28mm confederate marines I know of on the market. They were originally built for our clubs Atlanta campaigns.

A rare unit, as they mostly only acted in companies, serving the the ships and gunboats with the Navy. But they served on land was along with ex ship crews at the siege of Atlanta, they were formed into a unit and manned Fort Ogeechee, manning the guns and defending the bastions until the Atlantas surrender. The other battles that they served on land include Fort Fischer and at Drewy's Bluff after the scuttling of the Viginia-Merrimac. The last battle they served in was at Saylors creek, a battalion was formed with ex naval personnel and marines defending the James River fortifications.

The flag references a 1861 company flag, as I am unaware of any marine unit or dismounted ship crew ever carrying a flag on land and is hand painted. These chaps will join the sale of my ACW collection in the coming months.

Cheers

Matt

ref Marine Corps Gazette, June 1978 Col T.J Saxon

Lion d’OR cafe 20mm buildings part six

Completed my first piece of my 2020 list, a building this week, after discussion on Facebook about the name of a cafe that would suit all of the regions close to my house Normandy, Brittany and Pays de Loire. After a suggestion and the doing some follow up research I settled on the “Lion d’Or” which possibly refers to the Normandy and Maine/Anjou golden lion used by William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets in the region.

The building is from the Raventhorpe 20mm Normandy building range, the only additions I made were the paper sign on the side, the clear plastic glass from Christ card box, the curtains from tissue and the sign writing for the business sign and on the window with a brush.

Cheers
Matt

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a successful 2020, may the dice be with you!

Cheers

Matt

20mm Normandy cafe, what is in a name

Almost completed my 20mm Normandy Cafe all I need to do is name it. I need a name that will work for Normandy, Brittany and Pays de La Loire, so I can use it o on my table in any location. Thoughts guys? I have currently digging through my 1939 copy of the Blues guide to Normandy for inspiration.

Cheers
Matt