"Not the comfy chair!"

 This post looks at a vignette I have just finished using an old kit from Wargames Foundry.

Horse carried sedan chair - 28mm kit from Wargames Foundry

Tabletop Garnish

I have to admit that this model is table-top 'garnish', rather than being a direct part of an army.  I suppose it may feature as an objective in a small action game at some point, but I really like things like this to add 'flavour' to the tabletop. It has always been something that attracts me to a table set up and it is definitely something I focus on more and more when planning games and tables.  The down-side is that this type of table-top garnish is not always at the top of the priority list for painting.  

History of Sedan Chairs

Litters, palanquins and sedan chairs have been a common form of transport throughout history, from the Americas to China.  In 1630s London, where they proved a convenient means of transport in the narrow streets, they were popular enough for their hire to be licensed by Royal consent.   Sedan chairs were commonly carried by both people and animals.

Illustration from Wagner's European Weapons and Warfare 1618 - 1648.

The Pile of Potential

This set of figures came to light during a very deep dive in to my ‘pile of potential’.  This set was at the very bottom, probably the oldest item in the pile. I can still remember buying it.  I bought the set at a muster of the Sealed Knot reenactment society in what must have been either the late 80s or very early 90s.  The larger SK musters featured numerous traders, mostly catering to reenactment equipment, but also some who realised that many reenactors are also gamers. I don’t remember the trader, but this was the early days for Wargames Foundry when product was still sold ‘loose’ and not yet packaged. For over thirty years the kit has been in a random paper bag buried in the pile of models waiting for attention.

The mysterious paper bag, hidden at the very bottom of my ‘pile of potential’.

All pieces present and correct, thanks to the paper bag!

Foundry still sell this set (link) but I was able to refer to my treasured hard-copy catalogue, of a similar vintage to the figures, to check on how the finished product was meant to appear. 

A prized possession: an original hardcopy catalogue of the Foundry English Civil War and Thirty Years War ranges. 

The kit illustration from the catalogue - no fancy product photos back in the day! 

I can remember that one of the ground breaking things about this Perry-sculpted range was that it included sets of models that were not necessarily intended to be rank and file parts of the army, but rather to create less usual vignettes.  Thankfully this idea is quite common now and many ranges have this sort of kit available.

Building The Kit

Fortunately all the pieces of the kit had survived the many years in the bottom of a box in a paper bag.  As you would expect from an all metal kit, a fair bit of filing, scrapping and filling was required to get the kit together. I painted the passengers, riders and horses separately to the chair.  Once painted the parts were carefully glued together and small touch-ups made.  The final piece is fixed on a handy Warbases 2mm MDF base.

Riders and passengers ready for assembly.

The beasts of burden ready for the harness.

The chair ready for passengers.

The Final Model

I am very pleased to have this model table-ready after more than three decades wait. It just shows there is always hope for things in the unpainted pile.

Detail with the male passenger giving directions to the lead 'chairman'.

With the oldest item in the pile painted this must mean there is room for something new to be added! In the next post I will cover the next project I’m starting that will require some new orders to top up the pile of potential.

A glimpse of the other passenger.

Until next time!

Andy @ FOGH (The Friends of General Haig).

 

Tribute: Bryan Ansell (1955-2023)

It was poignant that I was preparing this Wargames Foundry (link) kit, and writing this post, when I heard the very sad news that Bryan Ansell had died.  (Bryan’s family have run Wargames Foundry on and off for over thirty years.) Bryan has had a massive influence on the wargaming hobby. Fellow Friend of General Haig, John Stallard, has written a fine tribute to Bryan here: https://warlord-community.warlordgames.com/in-memoriam-bryan-charles-ansell/ .  Thank you, Bryan, and may you rest in peace.

Stakes, and all of the trimmings

In this blog entry I liven up some bases of stakes, or Swinefeathers, that I made in my last post with some simple vignettes to add to my 17th century Swedish army.

“Hurry up Sven; those horsemen are closer than you think!”.  Warlord, Foundry and Perry 28mm musketeers preparing to give fire, while Bloody Miniatures are setting up the Swinefeathers.

In the previous blog post (link) I described how I used the Warlord Games’ Swinefeathers to create bases of temporary defences for my Swedish musketeers. These looked fine but were perhaps just a little bit bland.  Over recent months I’ve been inspired by seeing some great vignettes on different social media and so I’d thought I’d have a go at something similar for my Swinefeather bases. 

(For the record, some of my favourite vignette creators are:

• Martin at 7th Son - https://youtu.be/Ff1NyKdXBmU, 
• Bedford at the Just Add Water blog - http://justaddwater-bedford.blogspot.com/search/label/Hundred%20Years%20War%20English, and  
• Sir Sidney Roundwood at Roundwood’s World blog  - https://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/2021/05/soldiers-of-fortune-regiment-de-kinsky.html.)

I started by thinking about what sort of vignettes would make sense on a base of Swinefeathers. These vignettes would be used in games like the other Swinefeather bases and so they needed to fit on the same 60 mm x 40 mm bases. I came up with broadly two categories. The first was to show musketeers in the process of a deploying the swine feathers, and the second was to show the Swinefeathers after being damaged during the battle.

This time it is Avanpost musketeers hoping their comrades hold fire until they’ve finished putting in the last two swinefeathers.

I searched through my “pile of opportunity“ for likely candidate figures and other bits of battlefield detritus to sprinkle about. I came up with the following four sets of figures.

28mm Bloody Miniatures with assorted equipment from various manufacturers. 

I’m a big fan of the Bloody Miniatures range (https://www.bloodyminiatures.co.uk) and I have a nice stash from the recent releases.  I selected a couple of figures that suggested themselves for a base showing men setting up Swinefeathers. One figure was originally thrusting a pole alarm, but with a little bit of conversion, I felt that I had made him look as if he was driving a Swinefeather into the ground. There was also a figure who I thought would make a fine sergeant of Musketeers who would be helping out, setting up a Swinefeather. As well as the two figures I found some suitable pieces of equipment to add to the base; a musket, rest, powder bottle, halberd, and a club to be used to bang in the stakes. With the figures ready, and all the pieces of equipment to hand, I experimented with different positions so I could fit everything on the 60 mm x 40 mm base. This experimentation also showed where I could add Swinefeathers, already set-up, to the base. 

Avanpost 28mm resin miniatures with various manufacturers’ equipment.

Next, I had some Avanpost musketeer figures that were in the process of loading their muskets, but with a small bit of conversion to remove the muskets, I could make them look like they were planting swine feathers into the ground. As with the previous base, I added some pieces of equipment around the two figures to give the impression of a working party.

For the bases showing battle damaged Swinefeathers I was at first just going to model a base with couple of the stakes broken. Then I wondered about adding some wounded figures to the base as well.  On finding a downed horse (also from Avanpost) in my ‘pile’ I thought this would be ideal to add to a base of Swinefeathers.  The horse fitted neatly on to one of the 60mm x 40mm bases and I could add damaged and regular Swinefeathers around it.

Warlord 28mm wounded musketeer tries to crawl through the damaged swinefeathers.

Finally, and in a similar way to the previous base, a Warlord wounded musketeer could be added to a base with some damaged swinefeathers. I imagined cannon shot blasting through the stakes just before Imperial musketeers tried to assault the Swedes behind the stakes.

Avanpost 28mm resin wounded horse.

Warlord 28mm casualty crawling through the swinefeathers.

I had fun painting up the few figures and pieces of equipment for the vignette bases. A nice palette cleanser between regular units of figures!

Using Swinefeathers in games of Pike & Shotte

Now that I can deploy swinefeathers on the battlefield some rules are required.  Luckily both supplements for Warlord Games’ Pike & Shotte rules, ‘The Devil’s Playground’ and ‘To Kill A King’, include the same special rules for all sorts of permanent and temporary defences.

Here is their suggestion:

“Stakes or Swedish (Swine) Feathers

… Effect of such devices is defensive and applied to hand-to-hand, not shooting.

• Negates all charging bonuses.
• Negates cavalry vs. non-pike combat result bonus
• Need one complete turn for the defenders to set up or remove. If defenders lose a round of combat during hand-to-hand then the stakes or swine-feather defence is lost.”

I think these rules will certainly help a unit of shot when it is charged by the enemy. A few trial games will be required to get the feel of the rules’ effect.  Whether it is enough, or too much, will be a subjective judgement as we don’t have much evidence to go on.   I’d be very interested to hear about other peoples’ experiences with swinefeathers in games of the period, whether using Pike & Shotte or other rule systems.

Next time, back to the more regular stuff.

Until next time!

Andy @ The Friends of General Haig