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Onwards and Upwards. . .

Fife & Drum/Minden Austrian and Prussian limber teams await assembly, atop their Litko bases, tonight following the Young Master's bedtime.

Well, despite the disappointing results with the layered foamcore hills, I am forging ahead with the painting plan for the year, laid out last January, and moving onto horse teams, riders, and limbers for my various two-gun batteries.  I think there are five of these although there might actually be six now that I think about it.  So, this is what will occupy my evenings for the next couple of months, by which time the fall semester will have just commenced, and free time once again will become a bit more scarce.  

As usual, I'll strive for a neat impression of men, beasts, and vehicles without getting too bogged down in a mire of tiny details in the interest of getting these painted, bases terrained (slightly), and into the collection sometime before decrepitude becomes an issue.  Since a certain birthday looms menacingly on the horizon, eventual decrepitude is on my mind once in a while.  Along with drooling, making unintelligible (very) old man noises, and letching after young nurses from my wheelchair in the shade of a large tree.  Blame that on a diet of too many Carry On movies in my youth.  We got most of them on TV here in the U.S., usually on Saturday afternoons during the winters via the old WTAF -TV Channel 29 out of Philadelphia.  The misadventures and misbehavior of Frankie Howard, Bernard Cribbins, and the regulars in these films were invariably hilarious to my 13-year old self.

Returning to the matter at hand, however. . .  Still in the pile of unpainted lead are four remaining horse teams, plus limbers and riders -- two each of Austrian and Prussian -- to provide conveyance for any future additions of cannon, carts, wagons, coaches, or similar that Jim Purky, proprietor of Fife & Drum, might tempt us with down the road.  Once in a while, it seems, I manage to plan ahead with greater care than was the case with those blasted hills.

By the way. . .  I have a question, which maybe one or five of you could answer for me, please?  During the SYW period, on which horse was it typical for the rider to sit?  Front left, or rear left?  Was this fairly standard, or different according to the army in question?  Anyone whose knowledge of this sort of thing, as well as the harnessing and positioning of the draft horses, is welcome to sound off here.  I want to make sure everything is as it should be, semi-fictitious setting and armies notwithstanding, before cementing things in place on the bases.  Thank-yous in advance.

On a fun note of re-discovery, finally, I unearthed a couple of forgotten Black Hussar wagons with horse teams and drovers plus a pair of F&D Austrian 12-pounder guns while digging through one of my plastic boxes of figures this morning after breakfast and a few household chores.  Odd how that happens.  You order stuff, receive it, unwrap it, take it out of the packet, think "That'll look great one day when I get to it," then put everything away and promptly forget about it.   Kind of nice when you stumble over these items some months or even years later.  So, these two wagons and teams will need painterly attention at some point too.  Maybe during the Christmas and New Year's period?

-- Stokes

Comments

Conrad Kinch said…
Good Lord - that's a lot of limbers!
tidders said…
Those'll keep you busy for a while
Der Alte Fritz said…
I think that Stoke's purchase paid for the moulds all by themselves.

Fritz

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