Vorwärts Husaren!

Hoi,

Sometimes it's great to have some time AND inspiration to finish a project! Yesterday I found time, energy and inspiration to finally finish the last mounted regiment for my 7YW Austrian army. This regiment would be a hussar regiment. Why? Well very simple, a long time ago I obtained quite a large amount of Revell 7YW Prussian Hussars. These chaps are very nicely done and since I had heaps lying around anyway, I decided to paint them as Austrians. Okay there's more reasons for this decision then I'm actually telling now: I also have decided that, while I will probably end up doing a Prussian army in the end, it will be last in the list first up are a British- and then a Hanoverian army. Lastly these were already painted, badly I must add, by me years ago. Therefore it was about time to give them a decent paintjob and list them amongst the active units instead of waiting in some dusty box in the cupboard.

For the colour-scheme I chose a blue one form the excellent Kronoskaf website, they depict the Szechényi Hussars.Don't ask me how to pronounce this!

Here are the pictures

Frontal view:

Close up:

Back view:

Side view:

Close up:

Now I know I've said these chaps are the last mounted regiment for my Austrian Army yet, as often is: this is not a very hard resolution of mine. I will probably cave in and paint a new one if and when opportunity presents itself but for now I only have two more Austrian foot regiments to paint before my planned units are done...

Cheers Sander

Listening to:  "Wasting Light" by the Foo Fighters

Army showcase: First Aragon Borderers

Hoi,

Some time ago I photographed most of my Battletech collection. Today's update brings you my Federated Commonwealth regiment of the First Aragon Borderers. In the Sourcebook Federated Suns they are described as a regular Battlemech regiment with an added battalion of armoured fighting vehicles rather then a full Regimental Combat Team, therefore I have added a fair amount of tanks and stuff.
The colour scheme came about as a combination of the Aragon's own blue scheme combined with the blue-line scheme from the computer game Mechwarrior 4 vengeance. I like it a LOT! This probably is my nicest looking CBT army to date, at least in my humble opinion. I like playing my Jade Falcons better still...

The whole army arrayed on parade:

Heavy and Assault lances plus the armoured cars, VTOL and hover-crafts:

Light or recon lance:

The armoured support:

As you can see the company is several 'Mechs short and these will be added when available. There are some very nice Unseen chassis in this lot and I am really happy with how they turned out!

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Best of Kula Shaker" by Kula Shaker

French Cuirassiers

Hoi,

In between other projects I am still building my Napoleonic wargames armies. Today's update brings you the second regiment of French Napoleonic Cuirassiers I've finished. The first regiment has purplish regimental facings this latter has yellow ones.

The figures, of course, are Zvezda's and great mini's they are! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "To the faithful departed" by the Cranberries

Army showcase: 5th Sword of Light

Hoi,

In the continuing series of Army Showcases the next instalment for Classic Battletech my regiment from the Draconis Combine the 5th Sword of Light.

This regiment came about mainly because I had bought the new starter box for Battletech which included some crude plastic battlemechs. Among them was a Dragon; a classic Draconis Combine battlemech. So I knew I had to start a Draco regiment. The choosing of a colour-scheme was quite difficult since I had a red scheme in mind when thinking of the DC but it appeared that most DC regiments have white schemes for their troops... So upon doing some research I settled for the 5th Sword of Light. They were pretty mauled after the 4th Succession War and the ensuing Clan invasion, and so they were the right unit for me to start building it up again.

At present it is made up of a near full company of mechs, just missing one for the Assault Lance, but still lacking in armoured support. The source book for the DC mentions them without such auxiliaries, but I will add them anyway. The first of these is the swiftwind scout car added in this picture.

Light and medium Lances:

Heavy and Assault Lances:

The latest additions to this regiment are this Warhammer (left), Hunchback (right) and the scout car (front) which I like pretty much. They are all splendid metal models. The Warhammer is an Unseen model, the Hunchback is from the new clam shell package "Sword and Dragon" and the Swiftwind is just an old hand lying in my bits box.

That's all for today folks!

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Ghostboy" by Gabriel Rios

Join the Alliance in their fight against the Empire!

Hoi,

As promised earlier here are some more pictures of my Star Wars Alliance fighters.
These models are from Studio Bergstrom's 1"fighter ships range, at present I only have the Alliance fighters in house, so I cannot comment on the Imperial fighters but boy are these nifty little craft!

The detail is enormously fine for such small mini's and still they paint up a treat!

First up, are more shots from the A-wings.The red one is the familiar colour scheme from the movies, the blue one I picked off of the www.

The next series of pictures shows one of my two X-wings. These are great too and much larger then the A-wing just like they would be in "real life".

Did state these craft were mine, just now? Oh well that's a small lie, since I am painting them up for my buddy Mark and his son Enzo. Like me they are huge Star Wars fans and I thought these would be cool for them to have. As I am duly in love with the Studio Bergstrom produce, I will end up buying some of these for myself in the end anyway I guess.

Cheers and may the Force be with you!

Sander

Listening to: "Tron Legacy" by Daft Punk 

Odds and ends

Hoi,

While a steady drizzle is washing away the snow outside I tried to make some pictures of some loose ends lying around here on the workbench.

A while ago I bought some very nice Star Wars star fighters from Studio Bergstrom and have finished the A-Wings. I have also finished painting the X-wings but still have the basing to do.
Due to the bad weather I could not get any better pictures but more will follow soon.

I also finished this Dystopian Wars Mansion on an Amera Plastics hill. It can double as an island or hill with mansion on it.

More stuff will be updated when available.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "The Empire Strikes Back" by John Williams

Far far from Ypres!

Hoi,

Each year I am allowed to organise a school-trip to the Ypres area. IIt's awesome to go there with 100 odd pupils and see how the madness of the Great War sinks in when we visit Tyne Cot cemetery. The Netherlands remained neutral during the conflict and so the history of the Great War is not very well known to the larger audience. The German occupation during the Second World War has made a very big and lasting impact on the Dutch National Conscience and has reduced the First World War to just one of the causes of the Second World War.
That's why we visit it: to make it more known what happened in the Trenches and in the Deserts and other battlegrounds of the Great War. We have a very enthusiastic group of teachers who pull this cart, with me in the fore.

Last Wednesday me and friend and co-worker Jos, went to prepare the visit as we do each year. This time we were able to visit more secluded spots we had not previously visited before. Places we sadly will not visit with the pupils because they are too far out of the practical route but very interesting nevertheless.

First we went to the small hamlet of Zandvoorde (near Zonnebeeke) where local amateur archaeologists have excavated a German Command bunker and made it accessible to the public. It's super and... totally for free!

I've made loads of detail shots in case I want to recreate it in scale one day

The bunker was build by the 27th Armierungs Battaljon.

Next up we went to Wijtschaete we\here another couple of bunkers are situated. According to a book I own about bunkers and pill boxes on the Western Front these have been build as New Zealand HMG nests. The bunkers were not accessible but there was a "small" cemetery located near. It's in the middle of nowhere and therefore we guessed not many visitors would come and pay their respects. As such we went up the field of honour and duly paid our sincerest respect.

Smack in the middle of the Ypres industrial park is the Yorkshire trench and dug out located. These were uncovered when the grounds were prepared for building more industrial stuff but locals called The Diggers, prevented this and restored the dug out and trench system. Sadly the dug-outs are not properly drained, and had filled with water when we attended.

Cheers Sander

 Listening to: "Far far from Wipers" collected songs from the trenches several artists