Sunday, January 7, 2018

'Flight' from SidneyR: Troops in Flight, 1688


"When an entire Victory is obtain’d, he who hath lost the day 
should not lose his Courage too, but ought to 
gather up his Shipwreck, rally his dispers’d and broken troops,
 get new recruits, dissemble his losses, 
encourage his party and draw to a head again; 
these are things practis’d by all intelligent Generals." 

Pallas Armata, Chapter XXII, 1683


I love the idea of replacing formed wargames units of troops which are in rout on the tabletop with bases of shattered troops in flight.  The first themed round of the Challenge gave me the chance to create such a "flight", depicting two groups of troops, each of which could replace a routed unit on my late seventeenth century tabletop.


I got the idea from a Barry Hilton article in War-games Illustrated in the 1990s, and all the credit for the idea is therefore Barry's not mine.  I set about creating the bases before the Challenge started, ordering the MDF bases from Warbases, and converting the figures to provide two unique scenes.



The French hussar attacking the German gunner is converted from an ECW dragoon, with a Polish dragoon head, and a spare pistol arm, with a greenstuff coat.  Yes, it was that kind of a project...!  The other figures are from 1st Corps, Wargames Foundry and Perry Miniatures.



I made another four such bases, and hopefully they'll appear later in the Challenge.


19 comments:

  1. Great work yet again Sidney! Not at all what popped into mind when I heard “flight” but it completly works. I also love the base work, very themematic.

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  2. Brilliant work again Sid, the painting and composition of these bases is top notch. That French hussar conversion is a little work of art!

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  3. Nice play on words there Sid, never mind the beautiful brushwork.

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  4. Fantastic work mate! The effort you’ve put into these models and bases is outstanding!

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  5. Very evocative Sidney, and beautifully executed too

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  6. Exquisite work as always; well played Sir Sidney!

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  7. Creative interpretation and a great paint job.

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  8. I'd expect nothing except stunning work from you Sid, and, of course, you came through with flying colours. Beautiful work my friend. :)

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  9. Brilliant idea! Very well executed with some lovely brushwork.

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  10. Wonderful work Sudney - you've captured flight very well indeed. Love you colour palettes

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  11. Wow! Great idea for the theme and super painting and basing. I can't get enough units painted to think about this sort of routed marker.

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  12. Those are some wonderful vignettes, Sidney! I appreciate all the work you put into these counters too!
    I'd much rather see stuff like this on a table rather than card tiles!

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  13. Tried to leave a comment before, just great idea, conversions and painting, brilliant!
    Best Iain

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