We Apologise for the Interruption - Normal Service Will Resume as Soon as Possible

Insert your choice of cheesy music here.

I haven't been active on the blog of late due to a number of factors, including 4 days off work last week feeling generally bleaugh. On top of that I've misplaced the camera's SD card with photos of my last ignominious defeat at the hands of John R. I swear I would have put them up if I could find them, John. Honest!

To give a quick run down of the match in lieu of photos, I pitted my Anglo-Portuguese against John's Polish division. It would have been a relatively evenly matched game except for his %^&! 12lbers! He assured me they were only 3 lbers, the dirty scoundrel!

Things seemed to go swimmingly, though I should have probably been a tad more aggressive, rather than wait to be pounded by his big guns. I managed to send my light dragoons into his right flank in an opportunity charge that wrecked one battalion and forced the advance on that flank to halt, while his lancers and artillery dealt with the threat. On the other flank I had my heavy dragoons positioned to threaten his cuirassiers if they made any forward movement. What I didn't take in to account was that I'd left them too far away to try the opportunity charge as his 12-effing-pounders were supporting his cavalry and my dragoons had already been plastered by a volley or two. So when his cuirassiers charged my infantry (who were still in line) they had no cavlary support, and failed to get into square! Goodnight Irene!

On the painting front, I'm churning through another battalion of Schilling French, substituting SHQ command figures, as I miscalculated the number of officers and drummers I'd need for 9 figure battalions. They don't look out of place to my mind. They're very versatile, as I've used then with both the chunkier style sculpting and the finer recent outputs by HaT. I used Robert's hairpin method to replace the toothpick with something more Manly, but in 1/72 scale it resembles a machete or cutlass (yaarrr!) more than a gentleman's side-arm!

SHQ officer with butch sword

Schilling voltiguer cornet

SHQ drummer

Schilling march-attack fusilier

Also, I've taken time out to paint up another Franznap French lancer. I'm happy to see that he's got the metal figures available for sale at his online shop, so if you can't resist, go on and treat yourself to some of the best figures in 1/72 scale out there at the moment.