Mike Hobbs is someone I encountered listening to Meeples and Miniatures.
His death is a shock even though I never met him or corresponded with him.
He was a key member of the podcast team that introduced me to serial wargaming podcasts.
And the one that I think is most signficiant was the mental health podcast He and Neil Shuck ran together. That was a great contribution by two very open and honest people, discussing very real issues of mental health and how it affects people in such a damaging way.
Above all they managed to convey optimism around a subject that can seem so negative.
Neil Shuck’s words are worth reading. Thank you Neil Shuck and
Brigata Milano was part of Division Turr being formed before crossing from Sicily to the mainland. The figures have good animation I think.
The Bersaglieri wore a green uniform with red facings. This chap has lost his feathers courtesy of lucky toys casting!The soldier on the right sports a cloak and pointy hat so probably came on the boat from Uruguay or has copied those that did. The soldiers wore white uniforms with red facings.
The bugler has a kepi – all the rage at this time (1859/60). He has acquired some Piedmontese uniform trousers.
I have again used the fine words and black and white pictures of osprey MAA 520 Armies of the Italian Wars of Unification 1848-1870 pt2.
You can find out more on the Garibaldini troops Garibaldi took to Sicily with him and those that followed on in my recent postings.
Finally you may notice the easter egg style basing!
My current preoccuption with european wars in the post Napoleonic era have been fuelled by some book buying.
the most recent arrival – this old book is interesting because the illustrations are highly selective. The text explains why – to support a narrative concerning the evolution of uniforms rather than trying to show what each country chose.Lucy Riall is a very well respected modern author and focuses on the themes of what the Risorgimento means and to whom.This is a great dip in book full of easily accessed facts and provides the framework of what can be a confusing time in Italy.This book has lots of anecdotes which I plan to use in my imaginations campaigns.Having already devoured the South German War by the same author I have just started this book. The small actions around the lakes just cry out for a skirmish ruleset.Old but still full of useful information and given only limited interest today, means a dearth of current publications on 19th century Italy, these booklets are very worthwhile.I have a feeling this ruleset may being hooking up with Michael Embree’s Radestky Marches book for a skirmish or two.A quite unexpected catch. I really like the Funcken style and this book delivers it in spades. Lucky for me it is right on the dates and although it ends just before Crimea it does cover the crucial 1848 revolutionary year.Another recent acquisition – I like the grid rule set and it comes with handy campaign and solo rules all integrated as you desire. It even has naval rules. actually it does modern, fantasy and sci fi as well – not that I need them for my VTW – Vienna Tratey Wars
So my period is called the Vienna Treaty Wars and the era roughly covers 1815 to 1871.
Currently I have been painting quite well although right now a campaign beckons. I never thought I would be doing anything post napoleonic – thank you again Mr Renaissance Troll!
This figure shows one of Garibaldi’s Guides who were mounted (when they had horses!).
I have shown this officer in the uniform they landed in Sicily with and wore until the fall of Palermo.
They then switched to an all grey uniform. One wonders if the bright uniforms marked them out for the enemy sharpshooters? Although with an army of red shirts that might have been less of a problem?
The Holy Roman Empire ended by Napoleonic War recovered enough in the guise of the Austrian Empire to be at the top table with the other Victors – Russia, Prussia and Great Britain.
In 1815 the Vienna Congress led to a treaty where the 4 great powers attempted to create a balance of power in Europe to end major wars while also dismantling concepts of liberty and freedom.
By 1848 a reinvigorated Austria routed the Piedmontese liberation of Lombardy while France ended the short lived Roman Republic on behalf of the Pope.
So my wars of the italian unification project actually fits better into what I am calling the Vienna Treaty Wars. shortened to VTW with 5 key dates appended, they will make good categories on my blog.
VTW1815 – heralds the regression back to 18th century values
VTW1830 – sees the first significant european rebellions especially in France
VTW1848 – sees mass revolution break out across Europe
VTW1859 – the French (now an Empire again) end Austrian interest in much of Italy
These are my Piedmontese Line Infantry. They compliment the Bersaglieri which I posted earlier this year.
They also compliment the first unit in this Wars of the Italian Unification (WotIU) project which I completed. However in one respect they don’t – height. Some of these figures are 26mm tall so verge on the 28mm club!
That first unit was Hat ACW union troops so “kepi” men. I reckon that by 1860 Piedmontese troops would still be seen in frock style coats while sporting kepi’s.
The current offering here is soldiers wearing the small shako with a greatcoat. They also have short gaiters with baggy trousers. The french style is clear.
The figures are by Lucky Toys.
I just made up two sprues from the lucky toys sets – you get four in each set. And I took King Victor Emmanuel II from the Garibaldi redshirt set.
The Plastic Soldier Review gave them a muted response being very unhappy with the moulds – lack of undercut or some things like the shakoes struggling to even look remotely correct.
I have previously posted the Bersaglieri.
Verdict – these figures don’t look much on the sprue and the Plastic Soldier Review is unfavourable. Yet they painted up ok and the animation is some of the best in the world of 1/72 plastics. My one objection is that they are big and tall so fail to fit in with my strelets/hat figures.
Still I might just build some skirmisher units with them.
Well this week temperatures will hit 23 degrees centigrade so although Easter promises just a mere 7 degrees, nature has declared spring is sprung.
so this is a farewell to winter 2020 which threw up some late snow amongst other things plus a sustained cold period which is always good for curtailing the sort of mischevious insects which eat my gardening efforts.
This year the “wolf moon” was brilliant! We don’t have sparrows – we have sparrowhawks
That last photo – it could be a pigeon but it is definitely a sparrowhawk – I posted a previous intermission shot of it with spread wings. Over our heads it once managed an amazing “stall turn” literally turning in position – chasing a blue tit – the blue tit still got away though.
Tucked away in the text either side of the Osprey 520 colour plates there is a very neat summary of volunteer units from both the 1848/49 and 1859/60 Wars of the Italian Unification (WotIU).
One of the best Osprey Men at Arms books I have bought!
One such detail is about the first three expeditions of volunteers sent in 1860, from Piedmont, after Garibaldis’ first success in Sicily.
One wave of reinforcements was led by Enrico Consenz and I have shown what some might have worn here.
Three figures are depicted as infantrymen in a “ticking” blouse with white trousers for the fierce sicilian summer.
The Bersaglieri were shock troops as well as sharpshooters – has he run out of ammunition? The kneeling fully equipped infantryman is trying to look confident – aiming carefully – maybe after some limited training, an uneasy voyage and leaving his desk job in Lombardy?
The sharpshooter (Bersaglieri) is dressed in dark blue tunic and grey/blue trousers. This reflects the uniforms of the Pidemontese/Sardinian line infantry.
I guess the elite Bersaglieri might have been supplied by the Piedmontese/Volunteer funders better than the ordinary infantryman who in a “ticking” material uniform might have looked less impressive.
There appears a lot of information might be available for the purest – my modelling approach is that the logistics and quartermaster services were at best inconsistent. This explains why one lowly infantryman has a full pack although the others may have just left theirs somewhere!
In the summer heat of Sicily I wonder who was the easier target?
The box art probably depicts the meeting of Piedmontese and Garibaldinis at Teano on 20 October 1860 after overunning both the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Italy in the mid 19th century continues to fascinate me with my project to build armies of the Risorgimento, Wars of the Italian Unification (WotIU), or even the decline and fall of the Austro Hungarian Empire. The fact is that “The Empire”, once Holy Roman and western successor to the original Roman Empire, had its hands all over Italy having displaced French and Spanish interests after the fall of Napoleon in 1815.
The Kingdom of Sardinia is confusingly also known as the Kingdom of Piedmont which was just part of its claim.
So you often get written descriptions of Piedmontese fighting or occasionally Sardinians but usually Bersaglieri (who did all the fighting!). My recent Bersagleri efforts can be seen in this post.
Actually it is not true about the Bersagleri being the only soldiers in Italian armies – its a bit like British Grenadiers being the only useful infantry in a british army. Bersaglieri (sharpshooters) were elite troops armed with rifled muskets and latterly breech loading rifles, who were often in the thick of the fighting, used as shock troops, and using a freedom of action which in turn required much greater discipline.
So in the wargaming world it is not surprising the mainstream manufacturers have gone for Bersaglieri.
Sadly this range by Waterloo 1815 remains incomplete
Waterloo 1815 make their Italian Bersaglieri in 1/72. Strelets actually name their offering Sardinians – technically correct – again their are characteristically Bersaglieri.
Strelets’ only adventure into this war era – although they did a lot of Crimean figures – key ones are now out of production – and yes the Bersagleri really fought there alongside the French, Turks and British.
The poor old line infantry of Sardinia/Piedmont get short shrift. The saving grace is the Amercian Civil War where manufacturers offer an abundance of figures which can be borrowed………..
Shakoes can be a problem, yet even here clothing fashion in military terms meant armies in the mid 19th century tended to be either “french” (kepis/short shakoes) or “germanic” (helmets/caps) or “british” (short shakoes/caps) in styling. And then of course you get emulation. The British love of “bearskin” clad soldiers dates from the demise of Napoleons’ Imperial Guard. Within a few years the French had resurrected their own Bearskin Guardsmen as well. And it seems everyone had a post Napoleonic frenzy in glitzy uniforms for almost 40 years until barrel rifling and breech loaders changed warfare.
Finally you find tucked away a manufacturer who has provided apparently everything you need for the Sardinian kingdom.
Lucky Toys made two sets – garibaldi’s redshirts (very 1859 I think) and Piedmont Infantry and Bersaglieri (again circa 1859 I think). Thats easy to explain – 1859 was the war year which saw the Austrian grip on Italy collapse.
All this adds up to lots of possibilities for mid 19th century armies fighting across Italy.
Here is Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia courtesy of Lucky Toys.
So there will be some posts on my latest additions to the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Question is – which decade?
The Wargaming Erratic 