Evilstu's Historical Tinkering

Some prep-work done for the anti-Hapsburg side of the Thirty Years War. All Warlord minis. Even with low-part count minis I assemble really slowly, so it’s taken a solid chunk of the last three days to grind out the below, but this will be the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the 2 armies done. I can then add some fun ‘whistles and bells’ like dragoons, storming parties or proper cuirassiers later.

The back left tray contains a box of Swedish Infantry – block of 16 pike with command and 2 sleeves of 12 musketeers. As with the Hapsburg side I’ve left the musket rests off as these won’t fit onto the 20mm square bases I’m using. I think these may have begun to be phased out mid-war in some forces anyhow as muskets were made lighter by shortening the barrels.

Back right tray has 2 units of commanded shot (you get 6 really nice single piece metal shot minis with each of the Swedish Cav boxes) and a Swedish Leather Gun plus crew.

Front left tray has a unit of Scots Covenanters who I will be using as Scots mercenaries in Swedish service. So a hodden grey paint scheme and blue caps and they can happily pull double duty as Covenanters or Swedish mercenaries as required (paint scheme luckily works for both…).

Front Right tray has a Scottish Frame Gun, Scots Saker and a couple of characters (Covenanter commander, Lord Leven and a Standard Bearer). Lord Leven fought in the Thirty Years war before returning home to fight in the English Civil wars so again will happily work in both periods. The Saker seems to be equivalent to the generic cannon, but the sculpts on the crew are just brilliant. So much personality! Really pleased with them, will take close-up pics once painted. The frame gun was my surprise of the week. Wasn’t really too taken with it initially, but as with the saker, the crew sculpts are excellent. Also, there is a mule included which has a second frame gun strapped to it’s back. So the two can be combined as a display piece, or you could have a limbered/unlimbered tabletop option, or alternatively use the mule on it’s own on a second base to turn the one blister into a cheeky 2 gun battery.

Below photo shows the cavalry from 2 boxes of Swedish cavalry. As I’m running in groups of 8 I can get 3 units out of the 2 (12 cav) boxes. Used the metal command figures and helmets for 2 groups of Swedish Cavalry – I’ll field one as light cav, and the other (the ones with the armour sculpted on) as Swedish Cuirassiers. The last 8 I used the plastic brim hats and sword arms, making sure to use the riders without cuirass and with sword hilts hidden whee possible (so I didn’t need to curt the tops off the sheathed swords to remove hilts – planning trumps my inherent laziness in this instance…) which I will use as a unit of Finnish Hakkapeliitta (Having no head for languages I’ll confess I may not got the spelling right on that one first go….), so all in all a fair bit of flexibility and variety from a couple of boxes, plus plenty of spares into the bits box.

Warlord have also just released a bunch more TYW characters so I may need to pull the trigger on another ‘bits and pieces’ order so I have some variety in command figures.

On the terrain front, my replacement hobby saw arrived today so I can get to work on some gates for the orchards (Doweling and coffee stirrers will be the medium of choice). Have also 3d printed and primed a stack more walls, and bases for free standing trees, so should get some terrain sorted soon. Then planning a vineyard, some crop fields and paddocks with livestock, plus a few 3D printed houses. Will then need to smarten up my roads and lanes a little but should hopefully have a reasonably presented table once done.

…Then I’ll let myself get distracted again by other projects…