A general view of the 2013 refight of Elbow River from early in the game.
Arguing Austrian/Zichenauer engineers during the same tabletop encounter. I painted a few different version of the uniform worn by Austrian engineers here -- there was, apparently, a change in uniform regulations between the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War according to my Osprey volume on the subject -- to add some visual interest.
Gawking local gentry along the edge of the battlefield. The figures come from various manufactures here, including Eureka, Blue Moon, and Minden plus those oblivious frolicking Jacdaw aristocrats in the background.
Minden Austrians painted as Saxon staff. These would be really nice, but I loaded too much Woodland Scenics fine grass scatter material onto the bases, darn it. The trick, as I once read in a book I've got on model railway and diorama scenery, is to let some of the ground material below (in this case stained fine sand) show through. The suggestion of turf is preferable to coating your bases in a veritable golf course-like carpet of the stuff as is the case here. Sadly, it's easy to get carried away when terraining your vignette bases. Less is more as they say.
A Minden Austrian Hussar officer and an RSM95 Croat. This particular vignette is one of my favorites. Small bases of just two or three figures often suggest some kind of story or other and add a great deal of character to the tabletop even if they don't play a direct part in the miniature battles. Unlike the photograph above, the more restrained groundwork on this vignette base seems much more convincing I think.
Some of General de Latte's Zichenauers about to wade into the Elbow River to engage the Stollenians on the far side.
Enjoy!
-- Stokes
Comments
Cheers, PD
Are you planning to base your armies to match your vignettes? Or are you leaving them on the plainer bases?
Phil