After 5 consecutive French Rev games, I decided it was time for a break but I've been too busy since then to even decide what to play or paint.
I like listening to ebooks, especially when my hands are busy and my brain isn't, so I started in on Bradford's The Great Siege of Malta 1565 thinking it might get the juices flowing.
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| Converted Meisterzin British, original homecast Turk, Irregular Jannisary, converted Prince August French. |
Yeah, ok, I'm not sure how I went from Malta 1565 to Acre 1799, but its all good.
For most of this century, some prototype Turks and some samples for a possible 1529 siege of Vienna setting, or some of the coastal raids on Italy, have been hanging around. Last year I finally sat down to see what would be involved, and how it would fit in to my plans. The result were the conclusions that it was never going to happen, but some skirmishes might be possible, and that I still missed my 15mm 1790's Turkish army.
Recently I've been looking at my handful of Turks and at my French Rev forces and day dreaming. Tonight I decided that it was time to stop thinking and start doing! I'm not planning on a scaled down siege of Acre but some MacDuff skirmishes with small forces clashing over some village, mountain pass or an oasis, (...maybe one with a small fortified town...), THAT sounds doable and potentially fun.
Hi Ross, got the book by Bradford, it has some great prints, taken from original plates. The book played a part in my raising a 28mm Ottoman army. My problem with the Turks, I always wanted to raise some more lol.
ReplyDeleteMichael
Ross, if I may change the content, I believe the photograph of the RN figure wearing a sailor-suit and pit helmet was a petty officer c.1880, have now seen two modern paintings/prints wearing the same outfit which give this rank, the old photograph differs only in the colour being blue.
DeleteMichael
I had to dig a bit to remind myself of the context, but I got it!
DeleteI don't put a lot of faith in modern prints unless I know about the artist and sources and more than passing knowledge about the subject. In this case I don't claim any knowledge!
Generally promotion to petty officer seems to have entailed a change from seamen's blouse to jacket and tie. ((i) or earlier on top hat and jacket with brass buttons vs shirts in working order etc(/i) ) One does not want any chance of a petty officer being mistaken from a rating in combat or other emergency. But I don't know when or at what level of non commissioned officer this applied at which time in history so it could well be right.
In any case, when it comes to toy soldiers, I love'em but convenience usually trumps accuracy!