Austrian Artillery Expansion

Following the rapid expansion of the Austrian infantry and cavalry forces this year I felt it would be a good idea to also add to the artillery contingent. I've been able to do this once again thanks to the generosity of Don W.

The figures are a mixture of Hinton Hunt and DK castings that have been refurbished by me in a style that fits in with my existing two batteries. The guns are all original Hinton Hunt ones.

I have a limber to do and then there will be a full parade of the whole six batteries. 

Pondering Prussians and a wargame at Tony's

You will remember that earlier this year I was the lucky recipient of some very nice vintage Hinton Hunt Prussian castings from Ian. Amongst them were quite a few of PN.5 (the figure cast with a separate musket). I've been wondering about the best way to animate these so couldn't resist having a go and after several attempts I came up with this.

I did try a few other options but none of them looked very realistic poses so this rather safe version will be the one I use for a unit.

This week I was fortunate to get an invite to Tony's for a War of the Spanish Succession game with his superb Les Higgins forces using his Corporal John Lite rules. The rules have some similarities to C&C but Tony has done away with cards and introduced a clever brigade activation system instead. The game progressed at a fair old pace and we fought to a conclusion in four hours which was impressive. Tony has already posted an AAR here so what follows are just a few photos of his lovely toys.

This is the view from my side of the table. I went for the Austrians again as it seemed a good idea after my success at Nigel's last month.

French cavalry on the move.

The view from Tony's side of the table.

I've always had a thing for cavalry with lobster-pot helmets.

This cavalry clash was a big one and it lasted for the whole game.

My lads got a lucky break with a random event double move that allowed me to rapidly advance my centre.

This village was worth 1VP to whoever held it. Here you can see the French have beaten me to it.

And here you can see that I have pushed them out - hooray!

These very smart chaps are from Hessen-Kassel. They went forward bravely and immediately routed. The mini-dice shows which brigade they belonged to.

This unit of French cavalry hid in a turnip field for much of the game. Nice to see those old Britains hedges.

In the last turn of the game I managed to destroy one of Tony's guard cavalry units and unhorse both of his cavalry commanders (that was 3VPs).

More Hessians this time hanging back a bit.

The table at the end of play, I managed to just pull off a victory on points.

Here the Comte de Marsin pushes forward with a regiment of infantry but a bit late to affect the outcome of the battle.

Next up will be a few more Austrians then things will definitely be going in a Prussian direction.

Hampden at Hendon (Off Topic #40)

We were in London this week and I managed to convince Mrs S to take a trip out to the RAF Museum (not sure how I did that) because I wanted to take a look at the Hampden that has recently gone on display. There are very few examples of the Hampden Bomber left and I had never seen one before. My interest in this aircraft is that my father - W/O Dennis Spencer DFC - did his operational training on them in Canada during 1943.

It's a very sleek design and impressive even without wings fitted ("where are the wings?" said Mrs S - good question).

It has a very long thin tail. There are upper and lower gunner positions just above and below the wings.

As a Navigator he was impressed with the excellent visibilty from his position (or 'office' as he called it) in the nose. To me it looked like an incredibly exposed location and one that I personally would never have wished to occupy.

The Navigator's position was in this plexi-glass 'greenhouse' in the front of the aircraft and just below the Pilot's position. The Navigator was also the Bomb Aimer and had a machine gun for forward firing.

See how ridiculously narrow the fuselage is (old git is for scale).

He told me that the fuselage was very narrow hence the nickname 'flying suitcase' but I didn't think it would be this narrow. How he ever managed to crawl back (under the pilot's seat) and up to the observation hatch to take readings with his sextant and then return again whilst in flight baffles me. I'm not very big but I doubt I could even turn around inside the thing. If you were in trouble and had to put on a parachute and find an exit I can't see how it would be possible. Fortunately for him this was never put to the test as by the time he completed training and returned home the Hampden had been declared obsolete.

The rear part of the fuselage has been reconstructed but an original part is displayed next to it that still shows bullet holes from the day the aircraft crashed.

This particular aircraft was recovered from Russia in 1991. Operating from the Shetland Isles it had crashed there in 1942 during a mission to protect an Arctic Convoy. At this point in the restoration only the fuselage has been made good so there are no wings but it's still possible to get a good idea of how the whole aircraft would have looked.

The engine and wheel give a better idea of the size that a fully restored version would be (old git again for scale).

The Beaufighter.

One nice thing for me is that the Hampden is displayed next to the Beaufighter which is the aircraft my father actually did fly operations on.