Murawski Miniatures

Those of you that already follow Roger Murrow's blog RTB At Large, or have used his painting service are aware he has recently commissioned a 28mm Polish Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw miniature range sculpted by the very talented Paul Hicks.  What you might not of know (at least I didn't) is that this range finally has a name and an excellent website of its own:  Murawski Miniatures.

From their home page:

"As an avid collector and painter, as well as occasional gamer, of 28mm Napoleonic miniatures, my major area of interest is the 1812-1814 period in Russia and northern Europe. One of the frustrating things about collecting for this period of history was the lack of high quality, historically accurate and well-proportioned Duchy of Warsaw Poles, as well as many of the other smaller states. To this end I decided to do something about it; how else was I going to refight Borodino and Leipzig?"

I'll let Roger's fine range of miniatures and website speak for itself, but I definitely plan on collecting at least a brigade plus as part of my joint 1813 Napoleonic project on the Immer Vorwärts!  blog.  Hopefully I can finally put in an order during March just in time for my birthday!  :-)
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Secret Weapon Miniatures - Military Discount

Update:  OK, this has been going on for awhile now and even expanded late last year.  Still worth passing on in my opinion.

I don't know how long Secret Weapon Miniatures have been doing a military discount (See here), but I only recently spotted this info so it's new to me at least.  Although I try not to "advertise" on Der Feldmarschall, I do appreciated the gesture on their part and thought it was worthy enough to pass along.  Especially since it also applies to us older 40+ gents that are no longer in the service.  :-)

From the Secret Weapon website:

Effective immediately all active and veteran members of the US, British, Canadian, and Australian armed forces, and their dependent families, are eligible for a lifetime 10% military discount.

Send a photograph of you WITH your military ID, to misterjustin at Secret Weapon Miniatures --- com along with the email address associated with your account. If the name on the form and the name on the account match you will be added to the discount group. After your confirmation email a 10% discount will automatically be applied to all future orders.

In addition Secret Weapon will continue to ship all orders addressed to an APO via Priority Mail.

It's my way of saying thank you to the incredible men and women, and their families, that serve their countries armed forces.

NOTE: Please do NOT send a scan or photocopy of your military ID. This is prohibited by federal regulation. US service members may also send one of the DD forms but please redact your SSN. This information will not be stored and will be deleted immediately after your account is verified.

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Designing the Ultimate Game Room

The Grand Design!

Although the original post is from 2010, I just came across this jaw dropping Wargaming Room over at Wargaming Workshop.  The post goes into great detail from concept to design to final glorious execution, and then goes on to breaks down every section and feature of the room.  Having a fabulous War Room / Man Cave is just about every gamer's dream, and if you are looking for ideas there is no better place to start so I just had to pass it along.

It appears all the furniture, fixtures, and cabinets have been custom made to produce this visually stunning and very comfortable looking gamer haven.  Along with the main game table and display cases, it also includes an impressive hobby area and storage space for just about everything you can think of.  There's even an attached (not pictured in the post) work room for the heavy duty and dusty hobby work, stocked with enough man toys to make Tim Taylor proud.

Although it looks like the blog site has not been active lately, there's still tons of great stuff to see at the Wargaming Workshop.  Check it out!
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In case you missed it

Well, my new joint 1813 Napoleonic project blog Immer Vorwärts! with my friend Eric has been chugging away for one month now.  Although a number of you have popped over and decided to follow our new endeavor, I fear many have not updated their blog rolls.  For the rest, this is one more plug to invite you to come on over and take a look, and hopefully give the new site a "Follow" as well.  :-)

Still much more in the pipeline for the ole' Der Feldmarschall blog, but I will certainly be posting on here when I have a newly painted unit or battle report to pass along from the other site.  Thanks for your support!

January's Immer Vorwärts! posts:

1813 - A Joint Napoleonic Project

New Soldiers & New Paints

Setting down the Basics

Prussian Fusiliers - WIP

Prussian Fusiliers - WIP +1

February:

Basing Ballast & Paint

Basing Flock & Foliage

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Napoleonic Ottomans & Warlord Sale

A well done Ottoman Army during the Horse and Musket era is quite a sight on the table top.  It's something you don't see too often, and something I've long dreamed of painting up as part of a future Seven Years War project.  For some reason I never considered them an option during the Napoleonic Wars, but a pair of wonderful looking battles over at the Lonely Gamers blog reminded me that the Russians were fighting the Ottomans during Napoleon's day as well.

The Battle of Obilesti 1807 - Ottomans Vs Russian

I just had to share some of the pictures, but I'll let the pics speak for themselves.  Be sure to click on the links to see the two battle reports that feature many more shots of these very well painted Russian and Ottoman Napoleonic era armies. Inspirational stuff!

 The Battle of Ruschuk 4th July 1811 - Ottomans Vs Russian

Finally, just passing along that Warlord Games is having a sale on their Hail Caesar, Black Powder, and Pike & Shotte rulebooks.  Until February 1st, they're offering roughly a 33% discount on these books.  I was already looking at picking up Albion Triumphant (Not on sale, too new.), but this looks like a great opportunity to finally grab Pike & Shotte as well.  I'd love to get Hail Caeser too, but probably not this time.

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Imperial Inspiration

54th Krieg

Spotted two excellent Imperial Guard (one Traitor) armies over at GMM Studios last week that I thought were well worth passing along.  One of the things I love about the blogosphere is the tremendous amount of inspiration found out there from our fellow gamers and hobbyists.  These two "army" pics are only the teaser,  There are literately gazillions more that can be found right here.

Nurgle Traitors

If that wasn't enough inspiration for ya, then check out this battle report that pits the two armies against each other.  Even if you don't care for Imperial Guard stuff the terrain is quite amazing too.  Truly awesome stuff!

Last but certainly not least, in keeping with the "Imperial" theme of this post, here's a fun little video documenting Darth Vader's little known handicap.

Bonus Video! (Hard of Hearing Vader)



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Westfalia Miniatures

Started as a desire to fill a niche of providing medics for a 28mm 1813 Prussian army, Westfalia Miniatures grown little by little in 2012 with various odd projects to the verge of releasing a line of Saxon Napoleonic miniatures in 2013.  As I had mentioned before, I recently received a couple packs of their miniatures, and I figured I'd give you a closer look and a little overview.  (Click to enlarge the pics as always.)

The first pack is a eight figure set of Hanoverian Jaegers from the Feldjaegerkorps von Kielmannsegge (Say that three times fast!)  These chaps were raised in the spring of 1813 from foresters and huntsman and wore a uniform reflecting that origin with semi-civilian caps that were later replaced by shakos in 1815.  They fought with destinction at the Battle of the Goehrde, the siege of Hamburg and finally during the 100 Days Campaign ending with Waterloo.  Overall a very lovely and detailed set of miniatures that may someday inspire me to paint up small force from Hanover, but for now will fight alongside my 1813 Prussians as another unit of Jägers.

Above are the first four figures in the set: a captain, hornist, and two jaegers; one wearing a civilian cap.  In the pics below are a Scharfschuetze (Sharpshooter) and three more jaegers to finish the set.  While I'm no expert on authenticity, they match the Richard Knötel plate quite well and are full of details like tin cups, cap badges, and the Scharfschuetze having a double breasted kollet and the others single. 

Being the ultra light fighters that they are, the poses are full of action.  They can easily be paired up in two man teams as they are wont to do: one firing and the other reloading/repositioning.  The real scale anatomically correct proportions of these Paul Hicks sculpts rivals the fine work of the Perry Brothers, as opposed to the dwarfy shortness of the Wargames Foundry line or the slightly wide/chunky miniatures from Front Rank and Calpe.

The second set I received was the original pack of Prussian Medics.  The set contains two Compagnie-Chirurgen, one Battalions-Chirurg, and one Eskadrons-Chirurg.  Again these are finely detailed and scaled figures that can be used in advancing battalions and firing lines among the troops, on casualty markers, or find a place on a command stand or rear echelon vignette.

Both sets were very clean castings with very little to no flash.  Mold lines are hard to find and imperfections in the metal almost nonexistent.  The quality of the metal and casts more than match the quality of the sculpts.  Also there's nothing small, fidgety, or easily breakable about the casts.  Even the rifles and running poses feel strong.  The poses seem to have been designed with this in mind along with ease of casting, and small breakable parts like swords are strategically sculpted along the leg for example.

Perry - Westfalia - Perry - Westfalia - Perry - Westfalia - Foundry - Westfalia - Foundry

Although I don't have a wide range of miniature manufacturers available for comparison, you can see they scale favorably with Perry Miniatures (French are the same, Prussians slightly larger) as well as Wargames Foundry (slightly shorter).  All in all, these miniatures should have no problem fitting in with most Napoleonic ranges, within units or on the same table top.  The realistic scale is probably the number one thing I love about sculpts from Paul Hicks.  If Westfalia's upcoming miniatures are anything as good as Roger Morrow's Poles (also sculpted by Paul Hicks), then it looks like I'll be painting some Saxons later this year.  :-)

So if you're into 28mm Napoleonics, be sure to visit the Westfalia Miniatures site and see their latest and greatest.  Here's a link to their recent newsletter.  The customer service and friendly communication I received was top notch.  I was careful not to call this post a review, because it really is a well deserved product endorsement, and I wish them the best of luck in the future!  :-)

Finally, I thought I would include another quick mention of my new Napoleonic blog Immer Vorwärts! which covers a joint project set during the 1813 Campaign in Germany.
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The Good and The Golden

F#@%IN A!!

I interrupt this regularly scheduled wargaming blog to bring you the return of the NHL!  Despite a tentative deal made over the weekend, my hockey numbness caused by the lockout probably won't subside until I watch a game actually being played, but hey, it's a great way to start the week.  :-)

How does this remotely tie in with miniature wargaming other than the blog author being a hockey fan and the fact that it's my blog and I'll do whatever the...  Well, I tend to watch a lot of hockey (when they're not fighting over money) during the Winter, and when the hockey game is on I tend to do a lot of hobbying.  So yeah...

Congrats boys!

Also over the weekend, Team USA took the GOLD in the IIHF World Junior (under 20) Championship, beating last year's winner Sweden.  I realize that most Americans don't even know this tournament exists, but our neighbors to the north live and breathe by this stuff and a certain team didn't even win a medal this year.  Gee, I'm really... sorry... to hear that...  ;-)

Good weekend for hockey fans and hopefully a boon to my hobby efforts.  :-D
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New Year, New Blog, & New Minis

2012 was not a great year for me hobby-wise, but somehow this blog managed to chug along despite life getting the way quite frequently last year.  Even December ended with a dud as my Dad ended up being in and out of the hospital even after Christmas, so I am quite behind in my blog posts, visits, and e-mails (sorry).

Although I do not see myself as an eternal optimist, I can be stubborn sometimes, so despite 2012 I have "endeavored to persevere" and launch my new joint Napoleonic blog Immer Vorwärts!  Joined by my good friend Eric Hagen, this new blog will deal solely with our 1813 Napoleonic project.  Samples of Eric's talents can be found all over Der Feldmarschall, which by the way, will continue to chronicle the mixed bag that is my wargaming hobby.  :-)

So go on over and check out the new blog and give us a "Follow."  I promise you won't regret it.  ;-)

Best Christmas gift this year!  :-)

One of December's bright spots (along with Dad turning out OK) was receiving some very lovely miniatures compliments of Kawe over at Großbeeren 1813 from his personal miniature range venture Westfalia Miniatures.  I promise to do a proper review later, but for now I just say these are excellent figures sculpted by Paul Hicks.  Thank you very much Kawe (one of those late e-mails...), I hope to get painting on them this weekend!

Check 'em out!

Last but not least...  Have a Happy New Year!

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