Almansa 1707 - 2mm Spanish Chuch

My painting has slowed down recently, but I did manage to get this wonderful Brigade Models Mediterranean Church finished.

Its quite big as you can see by the pics, so its probably more a Cathedral size?

It was too big to go on the 40x40 town bases, so I thought I'd make a feature of it. Giving it walls and a graveyard.

Which are all made from card!

And can come out, if you wanna place a stand of troops in the area.

The gravestones are a little large for 2mm. I did try to cut them smaller, but it just didn't look right, so I stuck with the over sized gravestones and tombs. Which I think was the better idea.

Almansa 1707 - 2mm Farms

 

No, there weren't any farms on the Almansa battlefield that I'm aware of, but I thought it'd be rather rude not to have a few ready and waiting for future battles.

All the buildings are a mix of Irregular and Brigade Models

From Brigade's Mediterranean and Roman/Greek range and Irregular's Roman/Greek range.

They're all based on 40x40 bases from Warbases.

I am in the middle of making some field to go with the farms, again to try and fill out the battlefield with terrain. So look out for them soon......I hope?

Almansa 1707 - 2mm Village

 

Just a small post today.....

When I was basing up my buildings to make my Spanish town of Almansa, I had a few buildings left over. So I decided to base them different and make them into a line.

Of course these can still be pulled apart an used individually.

If I remember correctly some of these are from Brigade Models and some from Irregular, to me they seem to fit together perfectly?

Almansa 1707 - 2mm Blockhouses

 

Technically, I don't need these luvvly Brigade Models Blockhouses for my Almansa project, but I just couldn't pass the up. 

You get 4 different buildings in a pack for the rather nice price of £1

Check them out at this Link

I originally based up a ew of them on a 20mm round base, but thought about it again and glued 6 of the 8 onto

some slate chippings.

I painted them up in the same way I painted the hill for my castle a few posts ago.

I'm not sure how they would be used in a game, but will probably be more tabletop decoration, than anything else.

For the final 2 buildings, I based them onto odd shaped card bases, on top of little foam hills.

Look out for more Almansa terrain items over the coming week.

Almansa 1707 - 2mm Spanish/Mediterranean Buildings

 

I've got the castle, so needed some normal homes and houses. Brigade Models make a range of excellent 2mm Mediterranean buildings, so these were my first choice and at £6.25 for 20 mixed buildings you can't go wrong.

I also bought some Roman buildings too and used the more modern buildings to add to the collection. I'm not sure if Almansa had a town square, but my Almansa does! 

Then I saw the recently released  2/3mm Greek buildings from Irregular Miniatures by Geoff Addison and realised that some of the buildings would fit in very nice with the Brigade models. The Fountain in the town square above is from this collection, based on some sandpaper.

I liked the look of Reject Richard's 2mm buildings, he painted up for his French Wars of Religion, so I based mine up on the same sized base as his, 40 x 40. And based then to look a little like a street like Richard did. So if need be we can borrow each others for our games.

Here they are in all their splendour around Almansa Castle. With a base of  2mm Spanish infantry for scale.

There's loads more terrain to come!

Almansa 1707 - 2mm Almansa Castle

 

After finishing the two opposing armies for my Almansa 1707 project, I thought I better start making some terrain. The first thing on my mind was whether or not to make Almansa Castle, as it didn't feature in the battle, the Franco-Spanish army set their battle lines with their back to it. But as the armies are in 2mm and there's a lot of room for terrain I thought why the hell not!

Almansa Castle resides on an elongated rocky, craggy mass rising out of the plain on the north edge of the city of Almansa, in the province of Albacete in what is now called Castilla La Mancha. It is speculated that both a Roman fort and a Moorish fortress occupied the site before the conquest in Almansa by James I 'the Conqueror', the King of Aragon, in 1255. He ceded Almansa to the Knights Templar, and it is very likely they constructed some sort of the castle on the rocky summit before they were discredited and suppressed in 1312. Much of the castle as we see it today was built by Don Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (1282- ), about 1346. He was extremely wealthy and powerful, and chose writing as his vocation and greatest claim to future fame.

In 1444 King Juan [John] II granted Almansa, and the surrounding area in southeastern Spain, to Alfonso Téllez Girón y Vázquez de Acuña (d. 1449), a Castilian soldier and nobleman of Portuguese origin. He passed Almansa on to his son, Juan Fernández Pacheco y Téllez Girón, generally known as Don Juan Pacheco (1419-1474), 2nd Marques of Villena, who added the tall rectangular donjon and other sections to the castle. In 1469 when Princess Isabella married Fernando [Ferdinand] II, King of Aragon, and the War of Castilian Succession soon followed, Juan Pacheco sided with Juana of Castile, known as la Beltraneja (bastard daughter of King Henry IV), in a losing cause.

Beginning in the 16th century, the castle was in a continuous state of gradual deterioration, though it was used by troops of the Duke of Berwick in 1707 during the War of Spanish Succession. Berwick commanded the troops of the Philip V, Bourbon claimant to the Spanish throne, against his Habsburg rival, Archduke Charles of Austria. Clearly outnumbered, Berwick won what has been described as "the single most important battle fought in Spain". The castle had so deteriorated by 1919 that the mayor of Almansa requested permission to demolish it. A report by the Royal Academy of History resulted in the ruin not only being saved, but declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1921. Several restoration projects have resulted in the castle being an important and stunning tourist attraction.

So back to my model after the history lesson.

I didn't have much to go on, apart from modern photos online, but found this plan below, so I tried to copy it the best I could with various Castle bits and bobs from the great selection of Modular Castles at Brigade Models. Unfortunately its made as to how the castle looks today, not in its heyday or in 1707. I just couldn't find the info. I was helped by Julián, who recreated the battle using converted Playmobile figures.  His Facebook site is called PlayAlmansa Espana, check it out.

Its nowhere near an exact copy, and is slightly too big, but hey ho, this is 2mm after all.

The map's great but I couldn't work out the scale, so I took a quick look on Google earth, very close to the castle is a football pitch, so I based the scale from the normal size of a football pitch, 110x70 yards or 100 x 64 metres

The hill is made from layers of purple foam cut about to try and simulate the mount, based on a plasticard base.

I covered the mount with layers of Polyfiller to sculpt the terrain.

I did mean to do a few shots after everyday of how I was progressing, but kept forgetting, so here's 1 pic to give you an idea???

Do check out Brigade Games 2mm scale buildings, they make some fantastic terrain items. I've bought quite a bit and will be showing some other stuff over the next couple of weeks.

Well I'm rather pleased with it, even if its not 100% correct or even the right size, but I won't tell

 anyone if you don't???

Cavalier 23 Loot

I think I had a rather successful time at Cavalier last Sunday?

Here's what I bought.....shhhhh don't tell the Mrs!!

From the excellent Iron Gate Scenery a large Sailboat and 2 Spanish Reconquista figures

Yusef Ibn Tashfin

Victory Cross at Peleyo

Just gotta paint them like they have now???

A collection of figures from the one and only Col Bill.

5 WSS Grenadiers for Donnybrook Imperialist army and a donkey.

2 Belt Fed Girls, Dabria - Angel of Death and Charlene a Vietnam War Surfer Girl

Charlie Don't Surf, but Charlene does!!

Also two more pack of civvies from their Border Reiver range.

Border Bairns - Lads & Belligerent Border wife and Bairn

My first time buying some of Brigade Models luvvly 2mm building. (I did get stacks for Xmas from Mrs R and the kids) I bought some Mediterranean houses and a Vauban Fortress.

2 cans of green spray

A selection of Valleji paints

And loads of stuff from Debris of War!!!

Here is where my wallet was emptied the most!

Two great looking ponds, one looks like it may need cleaning out with all the green algae floating in it.

Also some ruins.

4 packs of great looking hedges to add to.........

this luvvly lot!! I spotted these hedges on Debris of Wars Facebook site on Saturday and saw they were up for sale at the show. I couldn't resist!!

Lastly, more stuff from Debris of War

some 2mm grass tufts and 3 packs of rows of vegetables.

I'm gonna use these for scenery in my 2mm Almansa projects. They'd make great hedges and maybe a field of Olive trees, you never know????

And that me spent out, until the next show that is!!!

Cheers

Ray