The War of Spanish Succession

My wargames butterfly is always stimulated by a good game of toy soldiers.
As far as this flutter with the War of Spanish Succession is concerned it was 2 games of toy soldiers...


In June I attended a weekend get together of members and associates of the A Military Gentleman Forum... This is a group formed of people who bought the book 'A Military Gentleman of the 18th Century' by John Ray...on buying the book you were given the chance to enrol in the forum.


Johns blog is here... http://amilitarygentleman.blogspot.co.uk/


Over the weekend Paul Robinson of the Grimsby Wargames Club put on an excellent battle of Ramillies game which I played on both days...day one as the French and day two as the Allies (or the Maritime Powers).

Day one...

Day two...


See Pauls blog for more coverage... http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.co.uk/?view=classic
                                                          http://www.grimsbywargamessociety.com/


This was easy temptation for me as I have 'history' with this period, having painted up a number of Prussian units and built the terrain boards for a large Blenheim game put on by my friend Adrian Shepherd some twenty-five years ago.


Instead of just jumping in and buying hordes of toy soldiers, I have just picked up two units of infantry, both eighteen figures strong.
One unit of Allies which I am painting as Prussian Kronpinz regiment and one of French which will be the Royal Italien regiment.


Both units came from Front Rank's excellent range... https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/18th-century/spanish-succession/


While I was waiting for my toys to arrive I got stuck into some reading...

This a great little book a good primmer for Marlborough's campaigns...


Although it did make me smile at the part where he refers to Marshal Tallard being held captive at Nottingham Castle...you might be forgiven for imagining a dank castle dungeon...

Not quite...

Charles Grant's books ...a must have...
http://www.caliverbooks.com/Partizan%20Press/partizan_phm_3.shtml
http://www.caliverbooks.com/Partizan%20Press/partizan_phm_4.shtml

A few more from my library...some old some new...

Now these are really useful,available from Baccus 6mm...
https://www.baccus6mm.com/catalogue/WSSUniformCDs/


There are of course many more books available.
If you are a newcomer to the period I would suggest a look at the Wikipedia page on the subject...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession#Leadership.2C_strategy_and_contending_forces


One of the surprising things I like about the War of Spanish Succession is the fact that there was wide spread use of mercenary troops...especially on the Allied side...you tend to think of this practice as a Renaissance thing ...for me this means lots of pretty uniforms and flags.

Hurrah! a painted toy soldier...


This is my test figure... I don't normally paint eyes in but these guys seem to suit it...
I didn't paint in the whites, I just put a dark brown dot for the pupils.

Everything is blocked in with flat colours...

Then given a coat of Aly's Brown Liquid...

Its not as bad as it sounds, it is a wash made up of...

40% Agrax Earthshade, 40% Seraphim Sepia and 20% Lahmian Medium...
The final ingredient is a few drops of Drakenhof Nightshade...
The colour you are looking for is not quite Brown any more but not entirely Payne's grey.
I usually put in a drop at a time and check the colour on a piece of white plastic or paper.
When painting figures with white uniforms I dilute the wash further with Medium.


Well so far so good...
 I didn't get any more painting done this weekend as I was off playing toy soldiers with my friends ...


To be continued ....


All the best.   Aly