Blogging or lack there of.

I have been busy producing a board game, travelling and painting 19th century figs. I have toyed with the idea of making the Cavenderia blog a more comprehensive blog, featuring all of my hobby stuff in one place, but am not certain that is the direction for this blog. Needless to say I need to paint some 18th century figs and do some linear warfare. I will be attending the SYW convention this year and nothing gives spurs me on like a deadline so look for some new postings here soon.

The Murder of Chief Cornstalk

This past weekend I traveled about 45 minutes north to the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia to watch a re-enactment of the siege of Fort Randolph and the murder of Chief Cornstalk. The re-enactment was conducted in two parts 1. The murder of Chief Cornstalk and 2. The siege of the fort by a combined Shawnee/Mingo force. Pictured to the left is the fort commander, actually the first of two (2) commanders as the siege took place under a different captain. I spent some time talking to the fellow and he makes powder horns for a living.

Here is a shot of the Chief walking to meet the commander and a shot of the crowd. Beautiful day and a really nice turn-out, probably about 300 people. The tickets were $3.00/person so the historical society probably made over $1,000 with ticket sales and food.

This is a shot of a cooking area where they were making corn cakes for a donation. Basically cornbread in a patty. They even had chickens running around.

Here is a photo from the inside of the fort with militia guarding the parapet. There were probably 50 or so Militiamen, 20 women and children and about 20 Native Americans conducting the re-enactment.

I guess I should touch on the history. Chief Cornstalk was leader of the Shawnee during the time of Virginia Governor Lord Dunmore. Dunmore had worked out a deal with the Shawnee gaining possession of land up to the Ohio River. As always however, colonist always want to expand and expand they did until Cornstalk, who had tried peacefully to resolve the dispute declared war on the Virginians. This conflict would be known as Lord Dunmore's War. The largest battle being Cornstalk attacking the right wing of the Virginia militia at the "pleasant point" where the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers meet.

Chief Cornstalk lead between 800-1,000 woodland Indians against the Virginians. The battle lasted all day and took a heavy toll on the Virginians but in the end the natives withdrew. A settlement was worked out and the war ended. Needles to say, Cornstalk was not a popular character with the average settler. Later after the AWI, the native Americans were again ready to make war over the land near the Ohio. Chief Cornstalk, who had always advocated peace and only attacked when no option was left, travelled to Fort Randolph to warn the commander there that he could control the natives no longer.

The captain decided he would be better off holding Cornstalk captive as a deterrent. However, several militiamen decided it was time to get revenge and one evening decided to murder Cornstalk and his sons inside the fort. The picture to the left is a Murial painted on the Town of Point Pleasant's flood wall. Click on all pictures to enlarge. The town has done a really nice job converting the old flood wall into a river park with Murial's of the history of Point Pleasant all the way along it.



After the murder a force of approximately 300 Native Americans lay siege to the Fort. The re-enactment was very interesting in the fact that during the battle the crowd was split into two (2) groups half stayed in the fort to watch the militia fight and half went outside to watch the native approach. After which, the groups switched so you could watch both sides of the battle. It was actually the Chief's daughter known as the Grenadier Squaw, because of her ability to fight which convinced the natives to stop the Battle.

Native Americans attacking. I meant to photoshop out the houses. The replica fort is in a park outside of town, the actual Fort Randolph set on the point were the Battle of Point Pleasant had happened earlier. There may have been few Indians but they did a really good job, whooping and even running up to catch a child farming before the fight began.

This guy was exceptional, spoke Shawnee, was the leader of the natives and even had his nose pierced. I found out from the commander re-enactor that this man travelled all over re-enacting various woodland Indians.

After the battle we headed over to a pub and had a nosh, then visited the flood wall and river park. Pictured to the left is the man himself, Lord Dunmore. If you click on the picture look at the lower left you can really tell where the sympathy of the artist lay. Actually, I was surprised that the performance was so anti-colonial and pro-Shawnee. Usually the Europeans are portrayed as heroic but this was a nice change.






A couple of more images from the flood wall of the Battle of Point Pleasant plenty of imagery for wargaming.

This image shows the colonial encampment along the point. Some historians argue that the Battle of Point Pleasant was the first battle of the AWI as Lord Dunmore was secretly in league with the Shawnee wanting to get rid of some rebellious type colonist. However, this is highly unlikely in my opinion.

Finally we made our way over to the park at the point which is the actual former location of Fort Randolph and the Battle. The sign here is bit biased toward the first battle of the AWI argument. I am just showing this to tick off anyone from Lexington. The park is very nice on the banks of both rivers and the remains of Chief Cornstalk are buried there.

A photo of the obelisk memorial at the park. This was a very enjoyable day and I would highly recommend that if you are ever in the vicinity of Point Pleasant, WV on the third weekend in May stop by and enjoy the town. On a side note Point Pleasant is also the home of the mysterious Mothman who legend says destroyed the bridge out of town in the 1960's. A trip would not be complete to without a Mothman sighting and my wife just happened to accidentally snap a shot of him.



Note the shiny eyes and vapid expression. Truly a horrible beast.

Murder of Chief Cornstalk

I will be travelling to Point Pleasant, West Virginia, about 1 hour from my house, this weekend to watch the re-enactment of the murder of Chief Cornstalk of the Shawnee. Point Pleasant was the site of the largest battle of Lord Dunmore's war fought on October 10, 1774 and argued by some historians, myself not included, that the Battle of Point Pleasant was the first battle of the American War for Independence (AWI). The basis for the argument was that Lord Dunmore, Tory Governor of Virginia, was actually in league with the Indians and instructed them to attack the Virginia militia under Andrew Lewis at Point Pleasant while he delayed his wing of the Army en route. I will be filming the activities and taking photos. I may also be inclined to plan a skirmish game around the event. In painting news, since the weather has turned warm I have been doing a great deal of gardening and outdoor work, not much painting production. I have purchased some Perry Miniatures English Civil War figures and have been painting British Colonial Sudan Pendraken 10mm figures. Hopefully I will get back into painting up the Cavenderi troops again soon. I will have a report of my travels after this weekend.

The picture above is of the town's flood wall painted up with the history of Point Pleasant.

ciao

Painting anything that moves

I have been painting quite a bit lately. Just wanted to share a few pics of what I have been up to. To the left is IR-Owens of Cavenderia. My friend David did a nice write-up on the history of the unit in a previous post. The figures are Old Glory 15mm and I will need to finish the bases soon.


Next picture is of some 10mm Old Glory figs that I have painted up as Reichsarmee for my 10mm project. I will detail these in more depth as the project advances.

Next up a new Cavenderi Hussar regiment, the Economou Hussars. I have not written anything about this unit yet but found myself painting up a nice looking dragoon one evening and naming the unit after my Brother-in-law. Perhaps an ex-Morian commander in Cavenderi service. The uniform is dark blue with light blue horse furniture and yellow trousers and cuffs withwhite chords, bearskin hat with yellow bag and black feathers.

Side view just realized I need to finish the horse.

Left side view with a view of his rifle. Very animated pose for the rider but it does not look as thought the horse is willing to start trotting.

Some 10mm mideival miniatures. D'monyar halbadiers and the Dread Lord Redecker. Some minis I am working on for some Warmaster gaming.

15mm Egyptian Fellah Infantry for my Sudan Blog. Very unhappy with this paint job, but this is a review of what I have been painting not the painting itself. :)

10mm Crossbowman, the McGill Free company of crossbowman.

15mm Battle honor fig, sculpted by Anthony Barton, some of the best looking 15mm figures I have seen. I bought a few packs for Fire and fury and Brother vs. Brother rules. This fellow is a southern veteran skirmisher.

Some Yankees have appeared to get the drop on the old confederate.

All figures Battle honors figures sculpted by Anthony Barton. Mounted on pennys for skirmishing.

Warhammer 28mm Greatsword painted up a Landsneck. I went a little crazy on the amount of ribbons and colors but it was fun to paint. I found this old Albrecht Dhurer post card and used it for the background. I do not usually do non-metallic, metallic painting but gave it a shot on this figure. The sword, hilt and breast paint are all acryllic non-metalic paint. I also was playing with my photo software and made the background fade to black and white.

White background. More photography fun. Settling in to paint a bunch of Fuzzy Wuzzys (10mm Pendraken) for my Sudan blog but will try to stay on task painting up SYW stuff and will try to get some games and fiction in soon.

ciao,

Update

10mm project is moving along, I have painted up some infantry and cavalry. A little off pace but plugging away. I will try and get some pictures up soon. I may get to go to the SYW convention yet, looking like 60/40 so I had best get to painting up the Bavarian cavalry. I had a painters moment last night. I was painting some 10mm Wurttemburg Infantry and finished a stand when I looked over and saw an old GamesWorkshop Empire Greatsword figure that I had primed black a while back. I have not played Warhammer in years but something inspired me to pick up the little guy and have a go. Before I knew it, it was one o'clock in the morning and I had a really nice looking fig finished. I am a little tired this morning. I had no idea it was so late I was just caught up in the moment painting away and listening to music. I have based IR-Owens for Cavenderia and will try to finish the bases for a photo. I have believe my next post will be a bunch of pictures of everything I have been painting. It has been a little bi-polar all of the different projects, even painted up some 10mm Napoleonic miniatures, why? I don't know, however just a quick post wanted to share my Zen painting moment and hope you all have one soon.

State of Cavenderia

I have been painting quite a bit lately and formulating some plans. I have been painting 28mm Crusader Cuirassiers as Bavarian Taxis Cuirassiers for the Seven Years War Convention. I have nearly completed Cavenderi IR-Owens as Old Glory 15mm figs and have started painting 10mm Old Glory figs as the Reichsarmee. I have also painted up some 15mm Old Glory Egyptians for my Sudan blog but I digress.

I have been threatening to play a game for a long time but never manage it. Therefore, a plan must be put into place.

1.) I have four sets of rules that I wish to play with escalating bases needed for each system.
2.) I can paint 10mm figs the fastest usually painting up 10 figs or one 30 x 30 mm base during my lunch hour at work.
3.) I have complete reference materials for most historical SYW armies, Pengal and Hurt, Biles, Osprey and web sites.
4.) I have a pretty good relationship with my old glory distributor.

Step one.
Might and Reason Sam Mustafa: only requires two (2) bases per unit, i.e. brigade that means I can reasonably paint up three (3) units a week and should be able to paint up two (2) small armies in a month. So my plan is to play a game of Might and Reason around the first of March.

Step two.
Piquet Field of Battle: requires four (4) bases per unit. i.e. brigade, so if I repeat the exact same painting plan as the month of February I should have enough units to play a game of Piquet Field of Battle by early April.

Step three.
Die Kriegspeil: I just purchased this set of rules and have read through it, looks as if most units require six (6) bases per unit i.e. battalion, so I can sprinkle in some grenadiers and follow the same painting scheme allowing me to play a game of Die Kriegspeil in May.

Step four.
Fire and Fury for SYW, large units are required for this game, if I follow my same painting output I could generate eight (8) bases per unit by June.

I have selected the Reichsarmee to paint up as this will let me paint many different uniforms and flags. I think for the allies I will paint up the Hanoverians and Brunswickers. Additionally, I intend to play some additional rules sets when able, Pro-Gloria, Warfare in the Age of Reason, both of which I already have and probably purchasing BAR and Koenig Krieg.

I will attempt to update daily during this run if not at least weekly. Looking forward to this project. I also hope to catch up on some of my old projects, the documentary of the Reich Duke Wilhelms visit and Cavenderi fiction, the fate of poor Dukas has been suspended for some time.

Hope everyone is well.

ciao,

Taxis Cuirassier

Although I may not make the Seven Years War Convention in Southbend this year, my goal has been to paint a unit of 28mm Bavarians each year for the convention. I do not play in 28mm but was inspired by pictures of Bill Protz's war games. The opportunity to play in last years "Bring your own Battalion" BAR game with Bill and other bloggers of note was too much to pass up. So looking around the web I decided auxiliary corp Bavarians would be my contribution to the game. Looking back, Reichsarmee Bavarians might have been a better choice as Mr. Protz fields the French but I liked infantry regiment (IR)-Kurprinz's uniforms.

So long story short, I painted up a battalion headed to the convention and watched my battalion get wiped out on turn 2 by "those dreaded black hussars". I immediately vowed that next years unit must be some cavalry to protect my precious battalion.

I began researching Bavarian cavalry and soon discovered that all of the Bavarian cavalry remained on peace time establishments and did not take the field in battle. Oh well, wrong infantry why not incorrect cavalry to match, so for this year's unit I selected Taxis Cuirassiers. A Bavarian cavalry regiment consisted of 9 companies of 38 men divided into 3 squads or 114 men per squad in BAR 1:10 man ratio that is 12 figs for a cavalry squad.

For Christmas I was given a box of Crusader Austrian Cuirassiers, thank you sister. To the left are a series of pictures of my first Taxis Cuirassier trooper. I also received a new digital camera for Christmas and have not gotten the hang of it yet so the pictures are a bit dark.

I checked some on-line resources and decided the red horse furniture and white coats would make a nice contrast to my blue infantry. I have developed a couple of new techniques over the year in painting and will share them here.

I have discovered that I like to highlight black with a dark gray-green color. I have tried different grays and blue in the past but find that the green really works for me. You might try it and see what you think.

I have also started painting white with a first coat of a reddish brown, followed by a taupe and then a creamy white, this gives the effect of a slightly worn white coat. The cream color makes a nice contrast to the stark white straps.

I am still crap at painting red, but I probably always will be. I paint gray in the areas for the red first, this makes the red brighter but I have not figured out how to make a nice highlight. I have experimented with oranges and adding white but neither works to my taste.

A final note, the build of the trooper is a bit slighter than the build of the infantry and I think this makes him look more proportional, although he does have a very square jaw and shallow face making him look quite a bit like former Pittsburgh Steelers Football coach Bill Cowher.

I have enjoyed painting this fig and look forward to painting up the entire unit. I took a little artistic license on the lapels making them entirely blue as opposed to just lined with blue. One thing that did strike me as odd about the figure was the amount of flashing between the horses' front legs. I had to remove quite a bit and if you look it is pretty messy. Other than that it is a pretty good looking model. Perhaps one day this valiant Bavarian trooper will teach those dastardly hussars a lesson.

Thanks for stopping by. Next up some 15mm Old Glory Cavenderi battalions and when my rules arrive a review of Kriegkunst (General de Brigades, SYW rules).

ciao,