I'm on vacation, and what better to do than clean up a few figures and put them in black primer.

Reading a book maybe?

Lots of reading, in this book( second part of a biography in Dutch), almost 800 pages long. But by far the best read I yet had in 2015.

My vacation is almost over, so I'll soon start painting those Dutch-Belgian dragoons!

A few pictures of recently painted miniatures.

As the title says, here are a few pictures of freshly painted miniatures.
I painted my first Napoleonic cavalry unit ever, the Dutch 6th Hussars. Lots of detail on these, so it took lots of time to paint them.
Following our Black Powder scale, this is a standard 12 fig unit, plus one casualty base.

All are Perry Miniatures, as are all my Napoleonics.

Next , some artillery for my Dutch-Belgians, a foot battery and a horse battery. (1 gun  = 1 battery)

And last for now, the Perry commemorative  model for Richard III, killed at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and  which body was found under a parking place on 4 february 2013.

At my blister this, model was called "Return of the King", but for some reason this is changed on the website to "Commemorative Richard III". Why should that be?

As usual, all pictures can be expanded by simply clicking on them.

I hope it won't take too long before a new update. I had a bit of a painters block I guess during summer. And the summer is not yet finished...

Visiting Waterloo, 2015.

I don't live that far away from the battlefield of Waterloo, and to avoid the extreme stir that the memorial weekend will bring, I made my visit on 6th june this year.

There is a new museum, just opened a few weeks ago. It is well worth visiting. You can have a sort of ipod with a clear explanation in most languages.

The first part of the museum is all about Napoleon and the changes that France went through from Louis XVI to the republique. A few of his battles are also shortly introduced.

 The second part of the museum is a large display of uniforms from all armies, as you can see from the pictures.

British troops and command.

French troops.

Dutch-Belgians and Nassau troops.

And Prussians.

Napoleon with his loyal Mamluk serf.

French high command.

At the end of this, you can see a short 3D movie about the battle. The best place to enjoy this movie is at the front rows. There are no seats, so everyone has to stand up, which gives as much as possible the effect of actually being on the battlefield. Very well done!

The last part of the museum is about what happened in Europe after the battle, up to first world war (1914-1918).

You can also enter the old Panorama tower, next to the museum.

Some pictures of this spectacular 360° painting:

And while you are there, why not go up the stairs all the way to the Lion?

The panorama you have from there is worth walking all those stairs.

We also made the short trip to Braine-l'Alleud to see the Wellington museum. Thoug a bit dated now, compared to the new visitors centre, I very much liked this small museum, with some special and sometimes strange object on display. A congreve rocket, among others!

We went back a few hunderd meters and at the other side of the street, you can now visit a temporary exibition named "Histoire en Briques". This can be translated to history in stones. All objects on display here are made with Lego bricks, and have something to do with Napoleon. If you have kids with you do make a visit, they will love it, and so will you probably!

There is also a corner where kids can go constructing their own buildings.

One more warning for those that go to the memorial weekend, if in any way possible DON'T COME WITH YOUR CAR! There is hardly any parking place around the "Butte du Lion", I guess around 200, and with 120.000 tickets sold, Chaos assured...

Return to Ancients.

Ancients is still my prime wargames period. To be more precise, ancient Greece up to the fall of the Hellenistic kingdoms. This still is a fairly wide period, and if you also count in their possible enemies... I don't think I will ever have enough of them.
If I may give you a link to another blog with an excellent battle report and pictures of the battl of Hydaspes, head over to caliban-somewhen
20 Elephants on the Indians' side, truly spectacular!

Last year (2014) I visited Salute and bought some 1st Corps Scythian heavy cavalry. The figures were just new, and since I did not have any heavy Scythians yet, "had to buy them". Here we are, a year later, and finaly half of them actualy got painted!
The horses are a bit on the small side, compared to the Foundry Scythians, but other than that, great sculpts. One thing I didn't know when I bought them is that they come in a few pieces. You have a horse, a rider, a hand with attached weapon, a shield and a quiver with bow. It all had to be glued together, so quite a bit of superglue ended on my hands. Luckely I didn't glue my fingers on one of the miniatures, but I am out of superglue for the moment.

As you can see, nice, well detailed figures.

On top of that, I also got two other figures painted. These two Vikings were drifting along the painting table half painted since, well lets call it a long time. Over 18 months at least.
And now they are completed! Strangely enough, I don't have any other Vikings. I don't even know why I bought them. (Is that reason enough to start a new army?) It is a Viking king from Crusader Miniatures and a character from Gripping Beast. I can't find the king on the website anymore, so it could be I'm wrong on that one.

All pictures are still made on my painting table. I will try to have a proper "photo studio" ready net time.

Gaming-wise it has been a bit less recently. Only a few board games. The closest to wargaming we played was Command and Colors ancients. After several years of owning the basic box and three supplements, we are coming close to playing the last scenario of the basic box...