Friday 14 December 2012

Pretext for War

Felt the need to create a background for a tiff. Instituted a journal: Mercurius Frigidius to provide same. Painting proceeds, not fast enough.

Saturday 8 December 2012

SACRIFICIAL VICTIMS

A tour to a flea-market yielded some plunder. A bunch of tin-soldier oddments.
Some giant cowboys and indians - 65mm! Lovely colours...

Also some wierd Kongelige Livgarder. Extremely heavy 70mm tall and obviously meant to hold a rifle.


 Then some armed sailors, could be Germans from second world war or GDR ? Nice paint job...

Buried in the box I then found a nice little Holger Erikson Karl XII ! Not the right scale but I don't think I will throw him in the pot.



The rest may end their days reincarnated as 40mm PA figures. 2.5 kilo tin for 100Kr is not so bad.
I will look around the web to see if the others are anything special but they will have to be special to be saved from a tour in the pot!

Wednesday 5 December 2012

SCALES AND BASING

My brain hurts..
Still trying to find an efficient scale which fits with the figures, the table and the capability to recreate a meaningfully large map.. simple, just have to square a circle, put a quart into a pint pot etc.

Lars Høglund's book includes a copy of a wonderful engraving from 1692 which shows 'The Campement of an Infantry Regiment deployed in 2 Battalions, Each Comprising 6 companies or 600 men.' The drawing is signed 'Carolus', which must be Karl XI (1660-1697). The printer? is apparently a 'Stuart' - ikke Svenske!

I noticed that this encampment closely mirrors a field deployment. Even down to the piled arms having the pikes (piquer) in the centre and muskets (mousquetter) to the flanks. The space given for the 600 man battalion is not so different than a field deployment. 20 tents are shown for each company giving about 5 men per tent. They must have been small, presumably carried on carts behind a marching army. The officers get proportionately larger accommodations!

The frontage of the encampment is given as 150 ell (66cm) which is 100m. The two battalions are laid out with the same distance between them. The four companies of each battalion in their place.

One battalion is commanded by the Colonel, the other by the Lieutenant Colonel.

There are avenues between the tents - 2 per company - which allow the companies to stream out and form up without crossing each other or getting mixed up. Presumably they form up somewhere at the top of the diagram, having retrieved their arms.

The whole thing seems to reflect a desire to allow rapid deployment from the tents into a field formation. This is consistent with the uber efficiency drive of Karl XI.