Something New?

 Well now, yes and no would have to be my honest response to any enquiry. Back in the day, when the world was young, Phil and I had a collection of figures for the War of the Spanish Succession. Of course back then they were Minifigs 25mm figures with hand painted flags and standards. As was the usual outcome in time they were sold on to finance a new project - first if I recall correctly to a South Wales gamer and then I believe on to the late John Tuckey. I wonder where they are now? But I digress: we hhave chatted over time about revisiting the period, madness you'd think when I already have a decent sized SYW collection. But then, I'm a wargamer, and when did common sense ever deter any of us from starting something new?

The first parcel I received was from Caliver Books and brought C.S.Grant's classic handbook on armies of the period. I think in our previous venture we might have had access to some of this research - via Military Modelling perhaps? I shall spend some time on planning from where and how to set about collecting and painting units with the help of this book. But first I thought that I would buy just a few figures, enough for a Foot regiment, and a few commanders. I did consider revisiting Minifigs for this, but in the end I sent my order to Wargames Foundry as you can probably see~

Ordered on Monday, received on Tuesday, cleaned up and spray undercoated on Wednesday! Ready for painting on our return from The North on Friday!

In its first incarnation, a joint project between Phil and me, I painted the Franco-Bavarians and Phil the Allies. Units then were 12 [or 16?] figures, I confess I can't remember clearly, but this time I wanted to eschew those sizes in favour of slightly larger looking regiments. I've provisionally settled on three 80x60mm bases and infantry regiments of around 20-24 figures.

As an aside, it was around the time of the original collection when Matt first got involved in our games, throwing the dice for us and generally joining in the fun. When I mentioned the new venture to him his immediate response was to demand the return of The Custard Men, as the Danish Life Guard in Phil's Allied army had been christened! I'm obviously obliged to follow my son's request, so these chaps will form the Den Kongelige Livgarde til Fods.

Flags of War, who have a decent range of flags for the WSS, don't currently offer an appropriate set for them, but happily David via his splendid Not By Appointment blog has come to the rescue and has downloadable versions of their flags. You can get an idea of the look of them and the regiment from the picture below which I've borrowed from the net!

These are Warfare Miniatures I believe, which will no doubt figure in my collection in due time, though in a different guise of course. But all that lies some time in the future for now, first I have to paint the figures I've shown and start to plan out future purchases over the coming months...