c.18th Field Works & Siege Fortifications

My friend the 18th Century enthusiast bought a bunch of siege-works for me to paint and use in the game I hope to play before packing up and shipping him his Vauban fortress.  It was a lot more work but worth it since they will be very useful for and add a lot to the "look" of the siege game.  This post is virtually all visual, since there's not much to explain beyond the photos.

I've included LINKS and online catalogue photos from the 5 companies he ordered from here first.

FIELD-WORKS -- THE SOURCES...

1. ANYSCALE MODELS:

Available here:

https://www.anyscalemodels.com/shop/wargames/accessories-1-56-or-28mm.html

2. LEAGUE OF AUGSBIURG/WARFARE MINIATURES

Available here:

https://www.warfareminiaturesusa.com/collections/artillery-and-siege-equipment

3. TABLETOP ART

Available here:

https://tabletop-art.de/Terrain-28mm

4. ACHESON CREATIONS:

Available here:

https://www.achesoncreations.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=category&virtuemart_category_id=40

...and finally one last item was this Hudson & Allen SIEGE MINE HEAD from...

5. VATICAN ENTERPRISES:

Available here:

http://www.wargamescenics.com/products.html


FIELD WORKS -- THE RAW RESIN & LEAD...

FIELD WORKS -- THE PAINTING PROCESS...

First thing was to wash the resin pieces in water and a bit of dishwashing liquid to remove any residual "mold releasing agent."

I base-coated all resin and metal pieces in RUST-OLEUM FLAT BROWN spray-paint.

Then I painted everything in a variety of acrylic craft paints, mostly shades of brown and gray.

Here's a ton of pics:

THE HUDSON AND ALLEN MINEHEAD...

DETOUR TO THE TABLE...

The more I painted and based and took photos of these entrenchments, often with my handful of officer figures posed among them, the more I felt there should be a CAMP TABLE present for them to confer around!  Since the friend I was painting all this for had already placed substantial orders with just about all the companies that make such models, at first I thought we'd missed the opportunity to get one, since it seemed silly to place another order for just one little 28mm aka: 1/56th scale table.  But then I did a Google search for 18th Century camp tables and stumbled on a table I really liked the look of -- it wasn't actually a military camp table but an 18th Century Dutch farm table.  It struck me as rough-hewn & rustic but with a touch of simple elegance.  So I decided to try and make a 28mm size version myself, using a mix of balsa and bass wood and used BBQ matches.

Here's a few photos of the full-size table:

And here are a bunch of photos of the mini version I made:

I was very happy with how my mini reproduction turned out!  Finally here's the "Under Construction" gabions base, which might help represent extension of the besiegers SAPS or PARALELLS on the table during an 18th Century siege game...

WHEW.  That's enough fieldworks painted for now and the foreseeable future.

This concludes just about everything I will be painting for my expat friend.  I am about to pack it all up and ship it all out.  Hopefully it will all arrive intact.  I still have a bunch more "postcard" pics of the Vauban set-up to post, some of which were taken by a photographer friend of mine with a real camera in place of my iPhone, so should look an order of magnitude better than what I've posted so far.  Then it will be on to posting about my preparation for Summer 2020's 140th Anniversary BATTLE OF KANDAHAR aka: BABA WALI.  I've already started working on the Orders of Battle for the British and Afghan armies and doing research on uniforms for the Indian Army regiments involved, which as anyone familiar with Anglo-Indian army of the 19th Century knows, is always a challenge!  For visitors to this blog, I hope you've enjoyed my sojourn into 18th Century Europe and/or North America, and are ready to return with me to c.1880 India and Afghanistan.