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...

Backlog, part II

I'm back again, with more pictures of painted miniatures.
These were only recently painted. All are Perry Miniatures.

First pictures are the Orange-Nassau regiment, consisting of two battalions. The first battalion is considered "large" in Black Powder terms, the second battalion is standard sized.
In real life the batalions had 893 (1st) and 688 (2nd) men before any fighting started.

And naturally also two casualty markers.

Last weekend I also painted a high command stand for the Dutch-Belgians.

It is general de Perponcher-Sedlnitzk and General Baron de Constant Rebecque. Perponcher is the one holding the map, while Constant Rebecque is pointing to were the enemy is coming forming line. In the rear you can see an ADC handing over orders to a mounted guide. Another guide is holding one of the generals horse. 

There is a lot of detail on these miniatures, and as I wanted them to look good, spend several hours to paint them. I am very pleased with the result, and hope you like them too!

I was not able to go to Salute this year, but the first pictures must be on the WWW around this time I guess. 

I have another update of the blog planned, but this time, it will not have any painted miniatures or games! 

PS, I just now noted the small pieces of flock on the rear of the guide's horse. They are not in the paint, luckely, I just removed them. Strange that this is more visible in a picture.

Backlog, part I.

I'm really sorry it took so long to update my blog again. All kind of things happened, of which I'm not going to dwell upon here.

So, what did I do since that last short message, early january? Not a lot of gaming, there was always something which came in between. But I do got some miniatures painted. The goal is to paint at least as much miniatures as I did last year. And if possible do more!
Due to circumstances, I have some extra free time currently.
I'm unable to get into my gaming room, were I normaly take the pictures for my blog. The pictures are now taken on my painting table, and not in the best circumstances (light). But that will change again shortly. I hope.

Some pictures to show what I've got table-ready*:
Ancient Greek cavalry. I hardly had any of them, and added these.

I now have 20 mounted Greeks, which is still is a minimum I think, for the large number of hoplites I have. The ones I already had, have also been rebased, to fit in with the rest of my army. All are Wargames Foundry.

I've painted a fantasy / mythology miniature also. It is a Minotaur from Otherworld. This is an excellent miniature, and I wanted to make the best of it. So I repainted the skin color three times. II wasn't happy with the result the first two times...

As you can see, it is a rather large miniature. The peltast is from Lucid Eye.

That's it for now. More painted miniatures will follow soon.

*Not really, I still have to varnish all these miniatures.