Well they're out of storage although not in a proper order as we are (and have been) in the midst of building work for the last six months and my shed has been press ganged into storage.The text is in Italian but the illustrations are anotated in English so that if you already had a more general history you should be able to work it out, it's copiously illustrated in black and white with some nice colour illustrations as well.
I think it's a pretty good book for this period,especially if the Ospreys aren't cutting the mustard!
Additionally on Jonathan's blog he discussed project management in relation to this hobby, having been inspired by Prufrock (Here's no great matter) and further developed by Natholeon (Natholeon's Empires) I find other peoples approach interesting so here is mine.
It seems a little odd to be applying such terms to a hobby but we are necessarily in the buisiness of producing armies, so my current range of projects are:
Great Italian wars, 28mm as all of my figures are, well on the way to having a playable force, over 350 painted and based infantry at least 4 stands of gendarmes, 6 artillery pieces,4 wagons, command stands and a unit of stradiots .I could do with more light cavalry and probably gendarmes,which I have, it's taken 4 years to get to this level for me which I'm happy about,2 years of primarily painting Italian wars, in the last year other periods have crept in.
Napoleonic, French and Austrian for the 1809 campaign 3 x 24 figure infantry units painted one unit painted and based, 5 x 24 figureinfantry, 5 x 12 figure cavalry units assembled and primed 3 x cannon and crew assembled ,all French. I figured I'd better start this now if I've any chance of finishing it before I die!I see yhis picking up the slack as the Italian wars wind down, well maybe!
Bolt action soviets, my nephews who I play with are both into bolt action so I'm kind of going along with them, nothing even assembled yet but units that are primarily one colour hold some appeal!
War of three kingdoms,English civil war, I have a basically complete Covenanters army and 5 painted generic Royalist/Parliamentarians regiments awaiting basing, needing cavalry and artillery, nice to dip into and the period I play most.
War of the Roses, I have 3 basic Impetus armies painted, awaiting basing, they are individually based at the moment doing double duty for Lion Rampant.
Frostgrave, resurrected 1970's/ 1980's figures for D&D painted in enamel by teenage me needing basing.
What I tend to do is just grab any little bit of time and do something and it's surprising what gets done, previously I'd try and wait fir a decent amount of time which never really came around and I'd get fed up, so now I'm little and often, it seem's to work for me!
All the best Iain
Iain, thank you for posting a few photos from your 19th century uniform book. It looks to be focused on the Parmesan Army 1849-1859. Is that correct? I see Mario Zannoni is the author/illustrator. I have Mario's uniform book on the Austrian Army of 1859 and it is a classic. It should be in everyone's library with an interest in the period.
ReplyDeleteAs for your project planning look to be progressing well. We have much in common with respect to periods of interest. Your GIW project is getting quite large and hope to see it out on the gaming table.
For 28mm Napoleonics, I went the Peninsular route and kept the larger and more varied theatres in 15mm. 1809 is a logical choice for gaming in the heart of the continent. France vs Austria can see action throughout the Napoleonic wars.
ECW (has the naming convention been changed to War of Three Kingdoms?) is a favorite of mine as well. Hope to see these troops in a game some day too.
Painting a little every day is a key to getting troops on the battlefield.
Thanks for the comment Jonathan, The war of three kingdoms actually dates from the 17th century, England, Ireland and Scotland , the ECW does kind of ignore the other two kingdoms that played important parts in the conflict and certainly in Ireland the war cast a long shadow.
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Very, very interesting. Thank You Iain.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Michal!
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I'm with you Iain little and often....I have also come to the conclusion that having at least two or three of the next units and a couple of individual figures prepared and ready to go works best. Then as soon as you are bored just switch and the figures keep falling off the production line. I do have my original naopleonics but they don't see much table time........nice idea but focussing on ancients, ACW and WW2 all in 28 mm.😀
ReplyDeleteThere is always scope for a bit of change, it is meant to be a hobby after all! I'm trying to do what you say and have multiple periods primed and ready to go as well.
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Love books on uniforms and armor. Your Italian book is a fine representation. Best wishes for all of your projects.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, very kind of you.
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I LOVE this castle, always interesting to look at such beautiful and old buildings...and nice books btw!
ReplyDeleteThanks Phil,that's very kind of you!
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Only have a few books on uniforms, mainly WW2 Brit and Soviet based. If I ever dip a toe into a new Historical era, I'll probably pick up something for reference - though with the internet so accessible, it sometimes seems a bit pointless.
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving a comment Dai, I like reference books at one point I had every man at arms and elite osprey published! I have to research stuff on the Internet but I generally find you get a bit more detail with a book, plus I just like holding a real book, I look at a screen enough!
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Great Picture of Chepstow, I used to go there a lot as a child, my mum was born in the town.
ReplyDeleteYes, lovely castle, just the right side of ruined!
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