Uniforms

Here are some pictures of future releases for our Ottoman Turkish range.The first piece is a lovely vignette of a Janissary Cauldron party. For those unfamiliar with this tradition the 'cooking pot' was more precious to Janissary units than any flag. Many of their senior officers had titles relating to posts from the kitchen such as the Soup Maker, the Scullion, the Chef and the Baker. The hearth was seen as at the centre of the Janissary Corps hence this being a centre piece for Janissary units.The second is a previously previewed set of officers for various units in dress less formal than that worn by Janissaries. These would fit well in many units over a wide period from the 1600s to the mid 1700s.

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This was a big job and involved the sculpting of brand new horses in addition to creating all of the various combinations of weapons used by Ottoman cavalry in the 17th and 18th centuries. Clib has done outstanding work on these and set an amazing benchmark for any future cavalry we release.We have a Command set - two officers and a standard bearer. One officer has a helmet with turban wrapped around. By the 17th century sipahis were not as heavily armoured as those of the 15th and mid 16th century.We have bowmen - these are split waist figures and can be used as Sipahis of the Porte, Timariot Sipahis or irregular cavalry. The poses are dramatic and in combination with the mounts create a very strong sense of movement. These are just tacked together temporarily for photography purposes and the two halves fit together very well.We have riders with open hands for carrying lances or javelins these also could be used for almost any role within the Turkish mounted contingents.Of course, no Ottoman army would be co

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Code OT07 Tufeckci firingI know, several months late. C minus on report card and detention for me. Nevertheless, painting these thirty models in five days was not as onerous a chore as it may at first sound.They were really fun to do. The sculpting is wonderful and the poses interesting and natural.Code OT12 Bosniaks/Irregulars loadingI used the following speedy method:1. Hand brushed white undercoat2. Paint flesh and wash with a watered skin tone3. Paint flat colours on all other areas4. Wash with water based soft tone Army Painter (except skin areas).5. Hand brushed matt varnish - solvent basedCode OT010 Segban loadingI avoided certain colours such as - red (except for a couple of hats) and used a very controlled and muted palette selection around stone, browns, buff, sand, off white etc with an  occasional shot of pink, black, green and light blue.I wanted these troops to look poorer, less military and more paramilitary - volunteers, conscripts, booty soldiers, borderers and similar.Code OT08 Tufeckci

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Neil Roberts outstanding cover with some of Clarence's internal illosThe new Great Northern War supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition is calledWith Talon and ClawThe reason? Eagles and lions with their talons and claws appear in almost all of the arms of the combatant nations of the Great Northern and Eastern Wars - Swedes, Danes, Saxons, Prussians, Poles, Imperialists and Russians.... they were all tearing at each other for years. Some sample pages printed at half sizeIt may seem that I have been at this book for years but we are almost there. As a little bit of hard evidence I wanted to let anyone interested (and it seems that there are a fair few of you) have a shufti at some of the material going into the book. In fact, although the is no official release date I already have pre orders! Some of you were so keen that you got your shout in early. Thanks for that.The force builder section has more than 10 pages of full colour and brand new uniform and flag plates from ClarenceThe book is e

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1677.....The Ottoman Empire, allied with Crimean Tatars is pushing north on the west bank of the great Dnieper river into the Ukranian territories. The first line of defence is offered by Cossacks on both sides of the river.A strong Turkish force composed mainly of infantry has been given the objective of capturing a small Cossack settlement near an ancient Patzinak burial site known locally as Skull Mound. The Cossacks have fortified the village and built temporary defensive works atop the skull hill. A large combined force of infantry and cavalry is rushing to block the advance of the Turks and their Tatar allies........The Ottoman force prepares to attack Skull Mound Ottoman ForceCommander: Skilful. 2 squadrons of Timariot Sipahis. Drilled with lance.1 squadron of Tatars. Raw with bow3 field guns - 1 with Master gunner.1 unit of 12 Archers - Drilled3 units of Sekban infantry. Drilled with matchlock muskets.4 units of Janissaries. Veteran with flintlock muskets.2 units of Guard Janissaries (8 &

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Mass charge by Polish cavalry 1683My snorkel has just broken the surface as I come up for air before submerging again into SALUTE 19 on Friday and Saturday.Brunswick-Celle infantry 1690sI have not been blogging with regularity over the last three weeks simply because I have snatched every waking hour to finish off the last photos for the new GNW supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners.The shot pool now stands at 307 pictures considered and about a further 200+ rejected for various reasons.The defence of Vlasivka 1709 - from the Battle report in the bookOf the 190 shots which appear in the book, 183 are finalized and in place. I have 7 little troublemakers to complete three of which should be done by the time this post appears. Taking wargaming pictures is great fun but very intensive. I remember watching Duncan Macfarlane do it about twenty years ago without the benefit of a digital camera and Photoshop. You really had to get it right then.Janissary columnNow at least, my process involves:1.Set up.2.Test shot

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Onwards to Vlasivka 1709Trailing the Building your Force section of the new GNW Supplement to Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd Edition, here is the Swedish Force which fights in the example game Vlasivka 1709. The battle is a dramatic walk through the rule amendments for the Swedish army and the game was an extremely close run affair. Shots from the action are included in this post.The Swedes are expensive using the points system and this is the force which arrives in dribs and drabs on the table to overcome a Russian force almost twice its size on the road to Poltava.25 points of Swedish table top powerSwedish Force circa 17091 Veteran-Elite ‘Pike & Shot ’battalion with flintlock muskets, Swedish @ 3.5 points   3.5 points2 Drilled ‘Pike & Shot’ battalions with flintlock muskets, Swedish each @ 2 points       2 points3 Veteran squadrons of ‘Blade’ Horse, Swedish, each @ 3 points               &nbs

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An Osprey style compilation of Kuruc forces on the march mixing phases of its existenceThe by ways of the late 17th century and early 18th provide magnificently juicy brain food for wargamers. Although I had in passing, read about the Kuruc Rebellion in Hungary during the first decade of the 18th century I had gone no further than a quick skim of what it was all about.During the compilation of material for the new GNW Supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners, I did a little more digging and was delighted with the gaming possibilities. This post focuses on the Kuruc forces and how gamers may be tempted as a side project, to construct a Kuruc table top army.This compilation shot shows Tatars, Poles, Bulgarians, Ottomans, French and Swedes on the Kuruc march...Rákóczi Ferenc was a Hungarian noble who fought to free his country from Habsburg rule during the first decade of the 18th century. France, at war with the Grand Alliance in the War of the Spanish Succession, recognized the weakness of the Austrian position

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Another generous offer from the Helion Company for members of the League of Augsburg Blog...William III's Italian Ally: Piedmont and the War of the League of Augsburg 1683-1697 by CIRO PAOLETTI, illustrations by Bruno Mugnaihttps://www.helion.co.uk/war-and-soldiers-in-the-early-reig…from now till the end of March £25 post free within the UK, at cost shipping for the rest of the world.To order the book please send me an email to charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk with WLLIAM III's ITALIAN ALLY in the header bar.In the main text section please add your address and add the email you use for PayPal transactions, this speeds up thing. Note- you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay by PayPal. If you don't like the shipping costs, simply cancel the invoice.I'll be reviewing the book on the blog soon

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For members of the League of Augsburg blog here in another attractive offer from Helion:WARS AND SOLDIERS IN THE EARLY REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. VOLUME 1 - THE ARMY OF THE UNITED PROVINCES OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1660-1687 by Bruno Mugnaihttps://www.helion.co.uk/war-and-soldiers-in-the-early-reig…from now till the end of March £25 post free within the UK, at cost shipping for the rest of the world.To order the book please send me an email to charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk with THE ARMY OF THE UNITED PROVINCES SPECIAL OFFER in the header bar.In the main text section please add your address and add the email you use for PayPal transactions, this speeds up thing. Note- you do not need to have a PayPal account to pay by PayPal. If you don't like the shipping costs, simply cancel the invoice.I'll be reviewing the book on the blog soon

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Charge! The Swedish Liv Dragoon Regiment thunders down upon its quaking enemiesIt's a legitimate question. Why has it taken you so long to produce a unit of your own cavalry, based in your own 'chevron' style?Time and conflicting priorities is the answer. I don't have enough of the former and an abundance of the latter.Squadron 1 full charge in chevronI did paint about eighteen riders but only three or four horses. That enabled me to get the web shop stocked but a long way off a 'game ready' unit.Squadron 1 - the chevron is more obvious from this angleSince these chaps emerge about a year ago we've released about another 140 models many of which required painting. We done several show, travelled hundreds of gaming miles and I have been working on several publications and articles. Not excuses, just facts.Squadron 1 rear viewNevertheless, the rapid progress on the new GNW supplement inspired me to get some of these chaps table ready and photographed. I painted around seventeen horses and an additional three ri

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Cossack infantry advancingInvigorated by the excellent progress being made on the GNW Supplement for BLB, I treated myself to some painting which was not actually on the very backlogged schedule.In addition to the painting I did some more reading on Cossacks and found that over the years I had fallen into swallowing a few cliches about them. Perhaps it was too much exposure to the Battleground hex based Napoleon in Russia  computer game or, believing all the Taras Bulba hype.Cossack infantry Command - The Hetman is particularly fine as is the hat waving Ivan!For some reason, I had missed the fact that much perhaps the majority, of a Cossack army was composed of infantry which preferred to fight from the protection of defences.All together now!  You can just hear them singing 'Stenka Razin!' I learned that at Primary school!The Sword & Flame army guide appears to suggest that the mounted component of a force was a relatively small minority compared with the musket armed or levy element. Wagons al

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Danish infantry brigade takes position 1693-1700Forgive the paraphrasing of Carlsberg's strap-line of the last decades but....Danish infantry attack the FrenchIf you know any Danes you'll also know they are quite distinct from other Scandinavians. I always find the Danish approach engaging. Direct, curious, straight and no nonsense. They usually like to have some fun too. You know where you are in the company of Dane!The sample force for Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition - see key belowDanish Force 17002 Veteran ‘All musket’ battalions with flintlock muskets                                             5 points3 Drilled ‘All musket’ battalions with flintlock muskets each @ 1.5 points                4.5 points3 Drilled-Elite squadrons of ‘Bullet’ Horse, armour each @ 1.5 points                   &

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Russian Force #1 details below in the textWhere have I been then? Up to my armpits in getting the GNW/Eastern Wars supplement for Beneath the Lily Banners 3rd edition moved forward.Russian field gun in a log redoubtThe book is being laid out right now and the early views are very encouraging. Despite a pretty extensive archive of shots, I knew I didn't have enough of the right kind. I have thus forsaken the paint brush since January 1 and focused on focusing the lens on the toys.Russian Moscow Dragoons move up to the front.As I have mentioned in previous posts. You need to take a lot of pictures to get the shots you want. So far, the new book has spaces for over 150 shots so that means hundreds of clicks in order to produce this required (and growing) number. The book is already at circa 140 pages and rising (largely due to the lay out format we have been using).RUSSIAN FORCE #1 (Photo at top of post)Drilled battalion REGULATION with flintlock @ 1.5 point x 4 = 6 pointsRaw battalion REGULATION with flintlock

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Helion is offering to followers of the League of Augsburg Blog: Armies and Enemies of Louis XIV Volume 1 by Mark Allen which is a super, illustrated compilation of his work on the period 1660-1720 first run in Wargames lllustrated LAST CENTURY!  The offer price is £20 ex shipping. The RRP is £26.96 making this an attractive offer. If you want to order: email charlesjsingleton@yahoo.co.uk. It is essential to include MARK ALLEN BOOK OFFER in the subject line and a delivery address and paypal email address in the text body for invoicing.OFFER CLOSES JANUARY 31 2019As a taster, here is the preface in full, written by some bloke....When Duncan Macfarlane, the perspicacious proprietor of Wargames Illustrated commissioned Mark Allen to write a series of articles beginning with a four parter on The War of the Grand Alliance followed by another twenty odd feature pieces, it was as if the rains had finally come after almost perpetual drought. Since that issue of th

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