SYW Hanoverian Commander on Recon

For the Reconnaissance Bonus Round I have a Hanoverian Command group having a scout of the enemy.  We have a general with a jaeger officer and sentry.  Figures are all 28mm, the general is Front Rank and the two Jaegers are from the Perry AWI Hessian range.

I picture the scene where the general goes forward to get the lay of the land.  He lets the sharp-eyed Jaeger office use the glass to get the best report.  Meanwhile the jaeger on guard takes advantage of the break to get in a puff or two on his pipe.

I had trouble finding information on Hanoverian generals uniforms during the Seven Year's War, but in the end went with an officer's regimental uniform.  Generals in both the British and Prussian armies wore their regimentals, so I figured that would work for Hanoverians too.  This fellow wears the Uniform of the Wangenheim Infantry, red with straw facings.  The inhaler during the SWY was Georg August von Wangenheim who was promoted through the general ranks over the war.  He served in detached roles on occasion and seems to have been less of a fossilized relic than other Hanoverians.  

The general was a breeze to paint - the Front Rank figures generally have clean poses and good detail.  Front Rank's run a little chunkier than Perry's do but I figure that Jaegers should be lithe and wiry and the general's mount looks a solid block of German warm blood horseflesh.

The Hanoverian Freytag's Jaegers (along with the Hessian Jaegers) were seemingly everywhere in the campaign in Western Germany and heavily involved in the Kleine Krieg.  Greatly expanded over the war by 1760 there were 6 mounted and 6 foot jaeger companies.  Dress was utilitarian, green without facing colours with straw breeches.  While the Hanoverians intended to arm them with rifles, apparently regular muskets were more common due to shortages.  By contrast Hessian jaegers brought their own hunting rifles!

I find that the jaeger green is always problematic to paint, it being difficult to get the sweet spot between two faded and too flat matte.  I shaded and dry brushed to the point of "close enough for government work" and left them at that.  The officer's yellow sash was also interesting.  These figures are from my favourite packs from Perry, AWI Hessian garrison musketeers and command at ease.

I've been using round bases for command stands, and this one looked a little big for the figures.  I therefore tried to add some terra forming using a bark chip.

Aside from the Bonus Round points, make that 20 points for the 1 mounted and two foot 28mm figures.  Duels Wallah those points should be ratcheted up on the Black Powdometer.

AHPC Childhood Bonus Round - Return to the Lace Wars

My submission for the "childhood" round is this vignette featuring three members of the Brunswick Lieb Regiment from the SYW.  And no there's not a child among them and it does look more like a "musician"bonus post.  But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Ok, more details.  My entire work this year is my SYW project which to me is a nostalgic return to my childhood.  As a young lad (I'm guessing 8-10) my father gave a copy of this book by Rene North (I bet many grognards have the same volume).  Family circumstances being that I rarely saw my dad in my first 5 years, and not at all for another 10 years, any gift from him tended to get a lot of my attention. 

Forty five plus years later, I've still got stuck in my head snippets from the book about the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War.   The  "Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers" incident from Fontenoy, the Minden roses, the Walloon dragoons in the Austrian army and the red brick walls of the Diesbach Regiment that Freddy's artillery could not breach.  So when I started a SYW project for Sharp Practice, it became a homecoming for me.  Plus I found I really, really like painting lace wars uniforms.  So much so that my SP project has expanded into a Black Powder/Honours of War project.

The figures are all Perry miniatures Hessians from their AWI line from two separate command packs (there are I believe 8 Hessian command packs in the Perry line). The Lieb regiment drummers wore a yellow coat as shown in the period folk art illustration.  

The officer has adopted some campaign mods, turning back his coat, changing to low cut soft boots and added a cloak worn bandoleer style.  I am picturing a moment of a long day's march as the troops settle into camp routine.  An officer pauses to here one drummer play a plaintive folk song on his fife as the second takes a well deserved breather.

And yes, the vignette was meant to be my music bonus round submission but I was laid low by the flu.  I could have taken any of my output (well except the Luftwaffe flight entry) or ongoing projects to represent this return to childhood.  This one happened to be the one that rolled off the assembly line at the right moment.

Shout Out for Fast Delivery

I thought I should give a shout out to NorthStar Figures based on a recent order that I placed with them.  This was the second order I've placed with NorthStar since the end of August and both arrived PDQ, the most recent one week after order.

For someone in the wilds of Saskatchewan that's extremely fast turnaround.  Postal delivery on war-games materials is always an issue for Canadians, as we are almost always ordering from overseas and typically from Britain.  Perry Miniatures have always been excellent on trans-Atlantic orders but it looks like North Star are equally strong.

Many of my blog readers are from the UK, so are used to fast and easy delivery, and I suspect that the American readers will also expect this.  Canadian manufacturers are few and far between and don't really offer what I want which means the perils of ordering from abroad.  There are a few basic rules of thumb in this regard.

• It is not worth considering ordering figures from the US.  Americans just don't get the rest of the world in posting or in anything else.  Shipping charges are astronomical, delivery is so slow that is must be routed via camel train through the Silk Road.  Moreover, they typical pack things in a box that this about 12 sizes larger than what's required (must be overcompensating for something, like their President) meaning the box won't fit my letter box but also that it invariably attracts the revenue man meaning that I get his with duty and sales tax.
• Among British Manufacturers there are two types - those that deduct VAT for overseas orders and those that don't.  Perry, NorthStar and Front Rank fall into the first category, most others the second.  There is a middle ground of companies that keep the VAT but don't charge shipping over a reasonable level (like Dixon at the 25 quid level).  Basically deducting the VAT  nets out most of the shipping charges. 
• Regardless of how good the company is on quick turnaround, the shipping time is essentially a crap shoot - or a multi-layered stochastic probability exercise to use the technical term.  It's very much a matter of when it hits the dock vs when the ship leaves the dock vs when and where the ship docks in Canada.
• Brits have figured out that small is good - I typically get a small box or bubble envelope that fits easily in my mail box.  Getting hit with duty and sales tax is rare, almost unheard of.
• Ordering books from overseas is just not worth it.  The cost and time involved are huge - much better to get the PDF or E-book.