Real Maps

Hoping people might find these interesting and even inspiring.


This is a real map of the Duchy of Courland (or Kurland) that I downloaded some time ago, but now I can't locate the link. If my information is correct the cartographer's name is Schreiber and the map is from 1749. An interesting tidbit I found is that the Duchy had the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago as possessions for a time while the Duchy was an independent country.

Here are some links to other real maps of the 17th and 18th centuries:

This first link is to a set of atlases covering portions of France at a very large scale, mid to late 1700's.

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/documentation/archim/atlasdetrudaine.htm

This link is to a map by Matthaus (or Mathias) Vischer of portions of Austria, from around 1697. This is the map I used as inspiration for my maps.

http://www.noel.gv.at/land-zukunft/geschichte-landeskunde/landesgeschichte/vischerkarte.html

And finally, a link to a blog that has pictures and links to quite a few manuscript French maps from the 17th-19th centuries.

http://makingmaps.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/working-maps-17th-19th-century-french-manuscript-maps/

On the miniature front I am in the process of prepping a bunch of minis (mostly SYW stuff, but also a few fantasy minis I received from a friend recently or had sitting boxed away for a while) for painting so I may not have any new finished ones to post before this month is over. This is not my favorite step, but it's a necessary one. It takes time to clean all the flash and mold lines, drill and pin parts as needed, and glue to bases. I also use greenstuff to hide the join between the miniature's base and the washers I glue them to, or to plug the holes in slottabases as the case may be. As I said, it takes time, but I believe the result is worth the time and effort.