Join us at Hammerhead Show on Saturday 5th March

With the help of the group I game with, I will be putting on a participation/display game at the Hammerhead Show, which is being held at the Newark Showground on Saturday 5th March. 

https://www.hammerheadshow.co.uk/

The game will be based on the Battle of Prague which took place on 6th May 1757. (On the games list it is currently just called '7 Years War', as I had not decided what to do when we sent the entry details).

The game will use pretty much all of my Austrian and Prussian figures, with a few Russian cuirassiers giving the Austrians a hand (I wonder how many will notice). The infantry are all from the 'new' SYW range, but as the cavalry moulds are not yet all done, only the dragoons and mounted officers are from the new SYW range, with the hussars and (converted) cuirassiers from the Rossbach and Karoliner ranges

We are using the 'A Gentleman's War' rules, which are a fun set, these have been modified using a simpler move/activation sequence, to make them more suitable for a large participation game - there are still loads of dice to roll!.

As I have said, it will be a participation game, and the rules are easy to pick up and there will be plenty of us around to sort out any problems, so if you can come and push around some toys, throw some dice (there are lots of dice) or just see the figures and have a chat it would be good to see you there.

(Do any of you need any heads for your figures - I have quite a few spare (especially Prussian and Russian Guards), so if you need anything in particular let me know and I will see if I have any and take them to the show?).

Austrian Jager

I've just completed a small unit of Austrian jager,

For these I used the following figures:

• The new infantry kneeling and standing firing
• The new hornist
• The Russian infantry officer with 'musket'
• The Prussian NCO with 'musket' from Russian officer
• The Prussian advancing infantryman
• The new jager head

My troops have gaiters rather than the high boots depicted in most illustrations. The figures have gaiters, and the information is contradictory, I did not feel it worth the effort of showing boots, which would be difficult to model on the bent legs.

The casket in the mould is not quite right, so I made a couple of modifications:

• The casting has a domed top, whereas I think it should be level - not a difficult job to file it down. (Do it before sticking on the plume, I had not spotted the need to file the top down until after I had glued on the plume, which made it more tricky).
• They are usually shown with a green plume, which is not present in the mould. I made one by cutting the bayonet off the muskets (see below), gluing it on the side, cutting to length (it is easier to cut off the top after gluing, as it gives more to hold as the glue sets (superglue and accelerator)), and then roughening up the sides using a mini-drill.

All of the figures have the musket cut down to a rifle. The Austrian jager rifle was 1120mm long. Assuming an infantryman is 5'5" (1652mm), with the figures standing 42mm high this gives a length of 28.5mm.

I quite enjoyed making these, they are a good example of what we have been trying to do with the range, making a figure which is close to the historical detail by mixing and matching other components.