A Scandihooligan Interlude

Last year, Sandy, Morgan and I were able to visit Norway and see our dear friend Ellen and her daughter Lena in Oslo. Part of my heritage are some of my ancestors came from Sweden and it has always been a friendly joke between Ellen and myself. 

This weekend, Sandy and I decided to go down to Wilmington, Delaware and visit the Kalmar Nykel, which is a reconstruction of one of the vessels that landed in what is now Wilmington in 1638, carrying the first settlers for Nya Svierge, or New Sweden. The colony only lasted until 1655, when the Dutch came and took over the place. But the Swedish influence on the area, including a swath of land all the way up to Philadelphia is still extant, especially in the Swedish Lutheran churches. 

The visitor center for the Old Swedes Historic Site is a house moved down from Delaware County that was built after the colony was taken over by the Dutch, but in the old Swedish style. 

The altar inside Old Swedes Church. Founded in 1698, it is still an active church. 

Erik Bjork was the lead minister from the founding and for many years after

An outside view of Old Swedes Church

A monument at Fort Christina, well, the location where it stood. A stone's throw from Old Swedes Church, it was erected in 1938 by the Swedish government in honour of the founding of the colony. 

Where the less than formidable Fort Christina was built... 

An artist's impression of how the fort might have appeared....hmmm....not that hard to build...

Inside the Copeland Center, there is a painting by Patrick O'Brian of the Kalmar Nykel which tells of its fate off of Scotland during the First Anglo-Dutch War. 

 

A depiction of the Nya Sveirge colony. 

And the Kalmar Nykel herself. Maybe next time, I'll be able to check her out. 

But in the meantime...maybe there's something I could paint up between the Dutch, the Swedes, and maybe some First Nations or Pirate marauders...hmmm.... 

The Copeland Marine Center was open, but the vessel was getting ready for some kind of gala event, so she wasn't open for tours. Overall, it was a very interesting time. Again, another historical gem hidden right in plain sight. 

After our wandering, we drove up to Kennett Square and enjoyed a wonderful late lunch at Emis Cafe. 

Overall, just a grand day out. 

Weekend Update

As another lovely weekend comes to a close here in the Duchy, it seems time for a bit of reflection. 

It was rather nice to get out and about yesterday even if that meant missing the weekly VWC meeting and not getting up to Luzerne County to roll dice and push lead. It was also the Del-Val Gamers' Game Day and I chose not to go there either. 

Instead, Sandy and I went to Baldwin's Book Barn in Chester County. Baldwin's is built into an old dairy barn that was constructed in 1822. It's now a five-story, so to speak, bookstore with over 300,000 old, rare, and contemporary books for sale. It's amazing. 

Of course, I found something...

After visiting Baldwin's, we headed off to Skippack Village to visit a specialty cheese shop and have lunch. There were two cheeses we were especially looking for, more Norwegian brown cheese and some taleggio cheese, which is often called the Italian brie. Delicious stuff.  

Today, after doing some of my schoolwork, I found myself with a half an hour to kill before a Zoom call, so I thought I would pop onto ChatGPT (we have been talking a great deal about AI in my one Army class) and decided to ask for a background for a fictional English Civil War campaign in a fictional county. I was prompted to do this after visiting one of my usual blog haunts and reading several of the owner's posts about the English Civil War. 

I liked how he based his figures, one large 4-inch by 3-inch base for a unit of infantry or cavalry. Anyway, it made me think and then I got out another Abandoned Project from the Pile of Shame....

After noodling around with some of the figures, I decided to pop down to the local Home Depot to get a broom for suitable pikes, since they are bendy and less prone to breakage and wounding than metal pikes. 

Hmmm.....maybe if I can find another loose figure, 10 foot to a base, make one of the pikemen into a standard bearer... Hmmm....

Well, I think there might be another project to clean up and I think I have found the motivation to do so...wasn't there a Pike and Shot variant of The Portable Wargame? Why, yes, indeed, there was....

More anon. 

More Franco-Prussian War French

As my course winds down, I've been coming to the end of the remounting process for my job lot of French. All the figures have now been removed from their original bases and are in various stages of repair and repainting. 

Today, I managed to finish two unit of French Sailors, Falcon Miniatures, and two units of Chasseurs a' Cheval, which are old Minifigs. 

The cavalry were easy, just a quick rebase. Six figures on two bases. 

Two bases, each counting as one Regiment for V&B. Or two units for TPW/AGW

The sailors required much more work. They were essentially painted black with just the flesh and some muskets painted. The Falcon Miniatures figures do not have the sheepskin jerkin, rather they wear just the tunic and have minimal equipment. 

I could have found a couple of officer figures but decided instead to let the matelots stay under their own leadership. I'm sure they can shift for themselves. 

So far, I've a fairly good-sized force that needs a lot of bases painted green. I suppose that will be the task for the weekend, when not engrossed in study. I did break out the Big Bag of Prussian Lead to see what I need to do to get a start on The Other Side. 

More anon. 

The Bots of September

Not so much a new sci-fi novel, as an observation about the number pf "hits" that the blog has been recording recently. 

I was visiting another favourite hobby blog of mine and the owner was mentioning this same trend. To be fair it was not something I had been thinking about, but I noticed that after my recent posts about DDay Ohio, the number had increased. Way, way, wayyyyyy more hits than normal. 

Either one of two things, first, Spam Bots like my toy soldiers and other folderol. Or two, Big Brother has suddenly realized I am a threat and "they" are sizing up my undoubtedly secret plans to overthrow Fearless Leader with toy soldiers whilst wearing wool clothing. 

Or not. And it's all in my head. 

But I do appreciate anyone who pops by for a visit. Bot or not. 

Much progress has been made on the Franco-Prussian war horde of French. And there is the possibility of a trek up to the wilds of Luzerne County this weekend for a game. 

I'll post pictures of the one, for certain, and the other, if I can attend. 

Meanwhile....

A new naval period has generated some interest based on the course I am currently attending. And there might be the chance of a few ships being bought for a small game...oh, that David Manley fellow is SUCH an evil genius....

Weekend Update

As the summer turns into the autumn here in the Duchy, thoughts of Winter Quarters and projects uncompleted start to run amok. 

Before OttoCon, I was able to purchase a rather good-sized collection of....roughly...painted figures for the Franco-Prussian War. Far more artillery than I would ever need and plenty of Crapauds, even though many of them...almost all of them really, needed a touch up. 

The last few days I've been able to get a start on them, half-hour here, half-hour there, in between my course and over lunch and so on. 

Row upon row of men and guns being sorted...terrible work, really...but someone must do it...

As the figures were glued on wooden bases, I had to soak them first, then scrape, then go from there. 

A good many figures are my favourite old Falcon Miniatures, made by my late friend Jim Parcella. I love these pumpkin-headed lumps. Easy to paint. 

Three reconditioned battalions (or maybe regiments..) and two stands of Mitrailleuse 

The goal is to use Volley & Bayonet, with each stand as a battalion or a regiment, depending on how big of a battle I want to fight. But being just slightly clever, I also have 12 figures per infantry base, the same number you need for Howard Whitehouse's A Gentleman's War rules. And with a stand being a "unit", I can also play The Portable Wargame with them as well. 

Once I've got these little fellas all set, I'll have to make up an inventory to see what's lacking (truth be told, not much, I put four more battalions from the Lead Pile of Shame on painting sticks, with many more to spare) and fill in those holes. I've got a sizeable bag o' lead for the Prussians that I can follow up with. 

Maybe Christmas will be spent in the Ruhr Valley... 

Allez vouz! 

The First of September Post

It's a re-enactor thing. For twenty plus years I was a member of the 1st New Jersey Regiment (The Jersey Blues) of the Continental Line. There is a running joke about this fife and drum song being played every September 1st in this house. Couldn't pass it by without posting this. 

A tip of the cocked hat (and shako, too) to my good friend, fellow wargamer, and fellow retired re-enactor, Mark N. of My Brave Fusiliers blog, that I also support. 

Mark served for many, many years at Minuteman National Park as a ranger in the NPS. He has a wealth of information about the AWI period and is also an all-around great guy. Do please give his blog a visit. I have it linked to mine. 

And now, back to reading about Columbus and Da Gama for graduate classes.