A wargamer´s trip to Arnhem - (part 1) Oosterbeek Airborne museum and surroundings

 

The days of the Carnival break were spent in the Netherlands and - obviously - around Arnhem and Oosterbeek, with a short visit to Eindhoven, Nijmegen and the Vught concentration camp. 

The Oosterbeek Airborne Museum (there is another at Arnhem) is the old Hartenstein Hotel and the HQ of the 1st British Airborne Division during the 9 days of the Market Garden campaign, and also the center of the defensive perimeter very close to the east/west main artery of Oosterbeek, Utrechtseweg. 

As we flew cheap with backpacks I was not able to carry my two large volumes of Market Garden Then and Now but was able to take my two excellent volumes on Arnhem and Oosterbeek of Battleground Europe by Frank Steer which cleared many doubts on the way and helped me find virtually everything I needed. 

Unfortunately, the tennis courts were the German prisoners  were held are gone and turned into a sort of rest area. 

Inside the museum you can find a great collection of items very well displayed. The container next to the British paratrooper is of good usage both for modeller and wargamer. 

A Polish radioman.

                           

A very good selection of weapons in the vitrine to the left. The 50mm German mortar is interesting with a base in dunkelgelb and the tube in panzer gray. The large Nebelwerfer rocket probably belonged to Von Tettau´s large Kampfgruppe or less likely to the 10th SS Panzer division as these ones operated south of the lower Rhine. 

I´m not sure if this was the first 8cm German mortar I´ve seen but it looked quite big. I think that its representation in 1/72-20mm size should be slightly increased in most brands. 

It was nice to see the British webbing in a light pea green tone close to what I did with my British paratroopers. 

This is a British list of 'Gerry' casualties fu..., sorry, taken by this sniper. 

Frost´s hunting horn ended up in the museum after some adventures. Now I need a 20mm John Frost with a hunting horn. 

A painting of the medical aid from both sides around the Crossroads.

An animated battle map is one of the best features of this museum as it shows the events from the day one up to the last. Of course, in the basement you can take a ride in a Horsa Glider and go through Oosterbeek ruins in another great animation.  

The HQ of the artillery regiment of the 1st British Airborne was situated some 100 meters to the south of the museum and is represented by this battered 17 pdr AT gun. 

                             

As you can see there is more than one Urkuhart, with the British version (183 cm)) being slightly taller than the portuguese one (170 cm). Unfortunately the weight between the two is getting dangerously close. 

                          

                                                         

The first modelling consequence upon arrival was to repaint sand yellow a good part of the white walls of my scratch built Hartenstein hotel /Airborne Museum as white walls was the perception that many had during decades. I left the interior white but I may go for some paper wall decoration as in the original. 

Next: part 2 with more Oosterbeek

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram was constituted by the 2nd Jägers, the 5th Chevau-Légers and an artillery battery. During the battle the brigade was involved in the fighting around Aderklaa, defending the place, then loosing it and later recapturing it.  

I placed some of the Jägers with the old Raupenhelm of 1805 which, I think (or hope), that was still used by some units. The skirmish bases are not intended for brigade size wargames with most of the line infantry in Age Of Eagles having the SK mark showing skirmishing ability. The problem, at least for me, comes when a brigade only has infantry made of Jägers, not being very logical to show these troops in rectangular bases with 6 figures or even less. So I like to use these smaller stands that can be spread a bit all over. Another advantage is using them in smaller scale actions using other rules. 

The majority of the Jägers were changed to have the newer Corsican hat. The figures used were Esci British and Russian figures without shako. The trumpet came from the Esci Prussian and the third figure from the left is Italeri with my last Hat Corsican hat from their Austrian Landwehr box.

The brim of the hats were made from small pieces of card glued on the head. Then on top a piece of Belgian shako (without the top part) was glued. All Jägers, including the ones with the Raupenhelm, got a backpack. The rifles were also cut down to show the Jägerstutzen short rifle 1795 model and the Jägerkarabiner 1807 model. 

Klenau´s Chevau-Léger Regiment is made from the Revell British Life Guards, less the plume, on top of Airfix Hussar horses, due to the rear pointy shabraque. 

The more I paint these old types of plastic figures the more I get convinced that the figure designers of Revell, Airfix, Esci (and Italeri to an extent) were thinking to provide the basic types of equipment used in the Napoleonic wars and then trusting in its soft plastic for the conversion of whatever necessary by modellers and wargamers. In fact they had their hands full was they were making figures for all possible periods of history and thuis choice seems totally logical. Then StreletsR and Hat changed all this by making everything you need. In fact the British Life Guards can be turned easily into Austrian Dragoons or Chevau-Légers simply by changing the horse, cutting the plume and ignoring a bag under the canteen. Almost all horse´s legs in the air were glued to the base in order to provide a sturdier stand. 

                                 

Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim was considered one of the best Austrian commanders of the 1809 war but he killed himself in 1811 at the age of 41 due to an unknown scandal while writing a book on that famous campaign. 

Next: French Cuirassiers

Austrian Uhlan Archduke Charles Regiment and Sommariva Cuirassier regiment for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Austrian bug continues to bite. Painting Austrian cavalry is a very relaxing thing as the uniforms are not complicated and some beautiful units can be formed. 

The cuirassiers on the back row came straight from the Hat box but really challenging were the conversions made on the Mars box of Austrian Uhlans.

Even so the Hat Austrian cuirassiers had to have some changes as there are only figures holding a sword. One of them got his right arm bent in order to old a flag; another one became an officer with enlarged crest and different painted cuirass; the last change was the cornet who lost his sword, had its arm bent in order to hold a cornet. 

Heavily engaged on the 2nd day of Wagram, the Sommariva regiment participated in the frontal clashes against Davout´s III corps. 

The Mars Uhlans are more troublesome. With only four poses these figures are (L/R) an officer, two lancers holding high his lance or his sword and another one falling from his injured horse. There is a separate sprue with rifles, muskets, sword but only 3 lances. Like this you would have only 3 lancers, 3 swordsmen with others being officers and wounded Uhlans. 

Some changes had to be made then. One of the officers became a cornet...

... and nine others got plastic broom bristles for the lances and paper pennants after some changes on the arms. The falling horses had its front legs cut from the base and glued in a more natural position together with its mounted figure who had its right arm taken from the reigns and got a lance The Archduke Charles Uhlan regiment was not at Wagram but participated in the actions of Aspern-Essling a few months before. 

Next: 1809 Austrian Chevau-légers and Jägers

More 1809 Austrian infantry (IR 10 and Grenadier Battalion Brezjinsky) for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Austrian infantry is in fact never fully made. You need hundreds of stands for Wagram, (in AOE terms - even at 1 stand/360 figures you need 223 bases of line infantry) and I´m around a bit more than half of the total. Together with this IR 10, made of Esci and Italeri figures, I painted one more Grenadier Battalion and an artillery stand. 

Two of the infantry battalions are Austrian figures but the third battalion got a different treatment. The torsos on the 2nd and 3rd ranks are French "line" from Esci with Austrian heads taken from kneeling figures. There are simply too many in both Esci and Italeri boxes and making three ranks, two of them standing, doesn´t help.  Backpacks were placed in all figures that didn´t have them. The French uniform in both brands have short coat tails and suit an Austrian unit very well if appropriately painted.

Like this they don´t stand that bad and you can reduce the number of headless figures. A good number of kneeling Esci and Italeri Austrians was still kept as I intend to couple them with Hat or Strelets Austrians.

The kneeling figures have to be used due to their numbers in old boxes. In fact I`m not sure if the Austrian infantry kneeled  even when in square like the British did with its first rank. 

The Esci figure biting its cartridge was converted into a drummer and is now smoking its pipe. 

This one, originally a Prussian sprue, came by mistake inside a box of Wurttemberg artillery as both are blue. The coat was cut here and there and painted as Austrian.

Next: more Austrian cavalry. 

The Granary of Essling for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Granary of Essling is one of the essentials of the battle of Aspern-Essling, the other being the church of Aspern. This was a long time project that I wanted to get my hands on somehow. I thought about ordering one in 3d resin and 15mm but the easy shape of the building convinced me to scratchbuild it.

Even if Aspern-Essling was an Austrian victory the French Grenadiers of Lannes managed to keep the Granary up to the end of the battle after constant attacks by the reserve Austrian Grenadiers of Rosenberg on the 2nd day. 

The true building should be 50cm long in 1/72nd scale but this one is 16cm X 11cm. Only the height, 15cm, is close to the real 19cm. Card was used for the outer walls and roof. The windows are external and the small dormers are made in BlueBoard with card roofs.

The inside of the building was strenghtened with plywood which also serves to represent the 1 meter thickness of the walls that even resisted to cannon fire. 

The roof has this simple approach with the painting job -hopefully- doing the rest. 

The small side entrance is again in BlueBoard. This material is great for you to avoid lots of calculations as its a very easy material to work.

The roof fits nicely on the walls with the help of some plywood. 

The painting was simple: black priming; ochre walls with sand drybrush.The roof got dark grey on top of the black, followed by lighter greys for the the tiles with a brick red color at the end. 

A few pieces of card gave some details for the doors.

The front painting was copied from recent photos but in a slightly simplistic way. 

More details for the openings.

The back part of the building. The corners were made with many dozens of small card rectangles. A bit boring but the result is much better than simply painting them.

Archduke Charles is also an old desire of mine. Initially I thought about going Franznap which produces an amazing metal model of the man with one of the Nr. 15 regiment Zach  flags in its hands, something portrayed in many period paintings. In the end I opted for the cheaper and faster solution which was to convert the Austrian Italeri officer on horse and placing a Prussian head on top. 

The other models are also Italeri. The one with the telescope is a converted French officer from the staff box; the Hungarian officer is a conversion mixing the mounted Austrian officer with Hungarian legs (clearly a very conservative person keeping its old Raupenhelm as the Hungarian were the first to receive the shako around 1809) and the foot staff officer is Prussian with French head. 

The mounted generals are Esci and Italeri bodies from the Scots Grey boxes with  Prussian heads. 

The plume, coat tails and sashes are made from GreenStuff. The result is nice and the great thing about the numerous boxes of Napoleonic 1/72nd scale figure is the conversion possibility of having even the ones not made by the main brands. 

The Bissingen Grenadier battalion was also added and painted in the colors of the Nr 50 IR. The only figure to be converted was the flagbearer which began its life as a marching Grenadier before being promoted to a concentrated fire attraction.  

Next: more Napoleonics