Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Transportation Improvements

Here in the Soweiter League we have been working on improving the transportation networks. The first phase of this is a set of roads. These are all of the ones I have made so far, but I have more material for more pieces. I cut the pieces out of thin mdf board, which I find easy to work with if not the sturdiest material. Then I painted the roads with 3 shades of brown craft paint and the edges with 3 shades of green craft paint. At this stage I think they look pretty good and I'm thinking I won't flock them, at least for now.
So far I have made a number of straight pieces (some slightly wavy as you can see), a couple of corner curvess and a couple of T intersections. I plan to make at least a couple more corners and a 4-way crossroads. Does anyone else who uses road sections have other/additional shapes they find useful? I do plan to make a bridge or 2 soon, probably ones that can just be laid over my existing river sections and link up to the roads sections.

I like the painted look enough I'm considering scrapping my old river sections at some point and making new rivers just like the road pieces (or not :) ), along with a gaming table top. I'm also tempted to make some Grantian buildings along the lines of those seen in the Grand Duchy of Stollen or Lead Gardens (although it's not like I'm running short of ideas for projects!).

Be that as it may, any advice on useful road pieces is welcome. Thanks!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Heavy Cavalry and Others

Introducing the Cuirassiers Royale of the Batrachian Army. This unit is sponsored by the king's devoted and wise uncle, Jean-Louis, but lead by a younger more active colonel. Coats are red, turnbacks, trousers, etc. are buff. The bugler's coat is buff with red turnbacks. The cuirasses are bronzed.
A rear view of the bugler, to give you a better idea of the coloring.
General von und zum Beispiel of Hesse-Pfeffernusse, Quartermaster General for the Soweiter forces.
A pack camel I've had for years and finally painted. (possible desert adventures in The League's future?)
Soweiter League militia command, for the militia figures previously shown. The guy on the far right is a flag-bearer. I gave him a shortened flagpole made of brass tubing. This way I can slip in various flags if I want.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Flag Updates

Submitted for your perusal:
I've been working on minor redesigns of some old flags, as well as some new flags for new units.
The first set are infantry flags for the Batrachians. The 3 on the left are, from top to bottom, the King's Musketeers, The Queen's Musketeers, and the Musketeers de Limbourg. The main thing I'm trying there are slightly brighter colors. The flags on the right are, from top to bottom, the grenadiers, the Pandours du Pinque, and the Pandours du Noir (referred by some as the Pandours de Gris or Grey Pandours - these are veterans) (this last unit is not painted yet).
note - the crosses are meant to indicate the button and hat trim colors - yellow crosses for gold/brass/yellow buttons and hat trim; white/gray crosses for silver/pewter/white buttons and hat trim. Going back I realized I had painted all of the units so far with gold/brass/ yellow buttons and hat trim.

The second set of flags are for cavalry, Batrachian on the left and Soweiter League on the right. On the left, from top to bottom, are the Poupon Dragoons de la Moutarde (again, not much of a change, just a little darker gray and a little brighter yellow), and a unit of Cuirassiers (just finished painting, working on a name for them - I'm thinking something along the lines of the Cuirassiers Royale, sponsered by the king's devoted and wise uncle, Jean-Louis, but lead by a younger more active colonel). On the right, from top to bottom, are the Ober-Umlaut Untersee Horse Marines and the Jingleheimer-Schwartz Cavalry.



I based most of these flags on basic templates posted by Bluebear Jeff long ago on his Saxe-Bearstein blog (search his blog for "flags") or go directly to the flag templates post. Thanks Jeff! Heraldry and other embellishements added by me.


Helpful comments are welcome as always! Snide remarks you can keep to yourself... ;-)

Updates made after helpful comments from Bluebear Jeff and Jean-Louis