Matters diverse

 Having avoided bad flu/colds over the winter l came down with a stinker on Thursday, the eve of my birthday.

My middle daughter has worked hard recently on the garden and on my birthday l decided to give the train the first outing of the year. Unfortunately almost immediately the train took some fibrous plant material into the gear wheel where the motor connects with the wheel and stopped immediately. So far l have been unable to get it out.

Two thirds of the family came round for a meal on my birthday , the others being down with a bug.

Daughter number one made a Schwartzwald cake as the birthday cake, it was excellent.

I now am officially a State Pension recipient.

Earlier in the day I had been out briefly to see a local art exhibition and have lunch. Note Barbour padded jacket  which was my present from the family. 

Also got this from them, should come in handy with Bolt Action etc.

One of the paintings l saw at the exhibition.

Much of Thursday was sitting around miserably listening to the cricket.

My daughter working hard in the garden this week.

Jan would have been 64 today, kept thinking  of the Beatles song…

Did little as feeling a tad vile . Did make the VWC which was as enjoyable and stimulating as ever. Some work was done on the third and latest box of Strelets. 

We have been enjoying my Christmas present of late especially with the clear nights and full moon.

 

The Angelica is coming out and will be six feet later in the season.

The Rhubarb too has returned with the promise of good eating ahead.

 

A few Transilvanian recruits

 Finished a few recruits for Transilvania -

A tankette representing the motorised elements of the cavalry regiments. Note the Transilvanian colours to aid aerial identification.

A Skoda 75mm Mountain Howitzer to support the infantry.

Finally in some boxes of Strelets each sprue comes with a 17th century Strelsi figure. This was the case with Italian figures l recently used as Volare Cantare troops. So l popped the four figures aside and had a wee think. What I came up with was using them as woodsmen/hunters/ trappers with no formal military training but good shots. They were recruited in times of war by the Transilvanian army. They will be deployed in my games with a defensive ( last line of defence ?) role , probably to hold a wood village or bridge . They can retreat but not advance. We will see how it goes…

Thoroughly modern Alfonso or the Army of the Duchy of Volare Cantare

 

Duke Alfonso’s favourite things are dancing and playing tennis but he realises a chap must keep up with the times and have a thoroughly modern army.

Duke Alfonso’s best friend is a rather extreme poet . Alfonso and him flew over Vienna together and dropped poems not bombs Alfonso had an awful cold the day the poet and his chums went to Fiume. Alfonso was rather relieved and has discovered the extreme poet is more extreme than Alfonso cares to be.

Alfonso loves the new , the shiny and the modern. He has shiny planes as part of his army and tankettes too.

There are mountain troops to patrol the high passes and mountain howitzers to help them. Engineers wait to build bridges and more.

The back bone of the Ducal army however are the infantry regiments l to Xlll.

Alfonso loves the art work of his futurist artist friends but finds their politics too much. But their canvases are so forward looking…

The Duke even had a go at painting in the style himself, with some success. Storm clouds are gathering, Transilvania is on the march as are its friends an£ enemies. Reluctantly the Duke will have to pop the tennis racquet away, clean the paintbrush and prepare for harder times ahead…

What l did for World Toy Soldier Day…

 

This is what I did for WTSD- painted , based and crewed two 1/72 mountain guns, painted some trees for the forthcoming game with these figures, touched up the paint l had flaked off when taking the painted figures off the sprue and added some sand to make better basing for the mountain troops.

Another angle of the above work…

Opened the door to the postwoman bringing me some more Strelets to work on and opened the package up.

Trees, mountain guns etc at 08:05 this morning having been assembled yesterday. That’s the Volare Cantare Ducal forces completed now. An order of battle and fluff in the coming days…

Happy Toy Soldier Day to all my readers! Huzzah, Huzzah and Huzzah for the hobby!🎉🎉🎉

Volare Cantare units

 Been working on some Volare Cantare units-

Firstly some tankettes, resin . 

Wanted to distinguish the Duchy’s mountain troops. They are a militia recruited from mountainous areas of the Duchy , specialising in mountain warfare. I decided to use grit to suggest rocky terrain, might make the bases less green more barren browns or greys…

Duchy engineers depicted in a similar way to those of Transilvania using spare tools from a Perry sprue, Eight Army I think.

Another view of the mountain troops. Yesterday l ordered a couple of mountain artillery pieces on eBay, hoping them to arrive later in the week. Run out of Army Painter Strong tone and my green , hope to pick up locally tomorrow or Wednesday.

If anyone has any Strelets WW1 Austro Hungarian infantry in gas mask or no gas masks l would be interested as l can’t track them down at all…

Opposition

As l can’t get into town this weekend l ordered a box of the above as opposition. They arrive by post yesterday afternoon.

I expected grey plastic but was not deterred by the blue , well a little.

Here are some first attempts at painting yesterday afternoon and early evening.

All in all they have come up nicely so far.

State of play when I left them to dry overnight. I will continue this morning. The figures will represent the forces of the Duchy of Volare Cantare. For those who haven’t ventured into the Duchy here is a wee introduction from thirteen years ago -

https://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2013/09/imagineering-volare-cantare.html

 

The Army of Transilvania

Inspired by Bob’s Belle Epoche forces for the Portable Wargame l organised this army from beyond the woods, near the mountains , lakes and forests , a little east of the former Empire and just around the corner from The Duchy of Volare Cantare. The Jazz Age meets The Tambal Age more Hot Club de Carpathia than Paris. The army of Transilvania -

The army consists of regular infantry, militia, bicycle mounted infantry, dismounted cavalry and a small but enthusiastic unit of engineers.

 The army on parade-

Five regiments of regular infantry including one machine gun one

Five regiments of local militia 

Three of bicycle infantry

Two of dismounted cavalry who had disposed of their horses and traditions and await mechanisation 

One of engineers , proud products of the new school of military engineering in the capital