Waitrose ale and brown paper

Tonight, with the aid of Waitrose Organic Ale - which I can recommend to all of you, I have taken my 18th century galley forward. I have used brown paper as planking and decking which has saved all the effort of drawing planking myself. The next stage will be to add detail followed by masts and oars. I am tempted to use it as either a Swedish or Prussian Galley. Guenther on Yahoo SYW has provided me with useful info - thanks Guenther. Combined with material from the SYW Association journal and material I have gathered I feel that Pomerania is beckoning....
I will provide pictures as things develop. Oh finally , please support Waitrose in their excellent selections of ale and German wines...

Wolf Pits

Today it was rather rainy so I thought I would have a go at producing some hastily dug field defences for my Croats - called Wolf Pits. Firstly I took a MDF base and stuck a circle or two of twine on to form the holes. The landscape was built up with tetrion and a pebble or two. After drying it was painted and grassed.

A couple of Croat figures from RSM were cut off at the waist and added to the brown painted holes. All was left to finally dry with the figures supported as shown. I will post a finished photo later...

Easy like Sunday morning...

Fysk, the officer in charge on duty today, opened the door of the tower and was met by a slight breeze. Altough he had climbed these stairs daily for over twenty years now he had never quite reconciled himelf to the horrors of the drop. He had struggled his way up the external stairs of the church tower ( a pattern of church with external stairs leading to an observation point which was replicated in every town , village and hamlet in the Duchy) in much worse conditions than today. He thought of the great storm of '38 and the lightening strike five years ago.

Finally reaching the top, Fysk tucked his telescope under his arm and began to munch upon the hard cheese he had bought. His thoughts turned to his wife and sons working and living in the tower room below and to Fr Erlkksson -whose church this was. The bells suddenly broke into life jerking Fysk from his reverie. He watched the tiny figures as they made their way into the church below...

Lhasa ,Tibet...

In a temple , near the very heart of Lhasa , an exhausted member of the Ducal Society of Tradgardland makes his own private devotions in thanksgiving for his safe arrival after months of travelling. He is aware that he has seen much no other Tradgardlander has ever seen. His mind returns to his prayers once more...

A conch shell sounds outside and he makes his way out into the brilliant light of a new dawn.

On the workbench...

Here are two pictures of the ship I reffered to in the last posting- early stages but moving forward. I will post more as progress is made!

Card , P.V.A and paper...

I have put pen to paper and have begun to map the major lake in the border area - it contains a number of island whose ownership is hotly contested by Skogsmork and Tradgardland. Today whilst taking my daughters to the orthodontist's I will photocopy the original and enlarge to A3 - I will work at this size then reduce down to A4 once more. I am tentatively pleased so far...
Last night I got out some card , paper and glue and started to build a boat! it was very absorbing and has started well. The waterline model is surprisingly robust, 8 inches long and has the looks of a fine lake going vessel. I will draw planking onto paper and clad her in that rather than painting. i got up 6.00a.m and got the decks added and some more work done - a satisfying morning's work so far...

Holiday/mapping and a request for help...

Well I am back ! I had a super week in Yorkshire with the family - looked for fossils (and found some ) upon the beach, saw an interesting exhibition of local Roman archaeaology in Malton, bought superb kippers in Whitby and took a copy of Battlegames to further research my campaign map!

A lot seems to be happening in EvE and the Jacobites have done so well! I have posted this picture to give an idea of the lakes and hills on the Skogsmork Tradgardland border - where my mini campaign will be set. I am starting the mapping process which will be at the scale of roughly 2.5 inches to the mile - this will give enough detail to work in well with my skirmish rule idea of small scale combat and maneuver.

The largest lake in the area has the border running through it and is patrolled from both sides by boatmen. They will use boats equipped as follows:

10 metre boat with 16 oars equipped with 2x 3pdr guns , with sail also.

24 metre boat with thirty oars equpiied with 6 x 3pdr , with sails also.

I currently mapping the largest lake in the area and need your help- I am looking for information about German place name endings with topographical meanings to add some flavour to the map - can you help? Well I had better get back to the mapping and gardening while the sun shines...