Little Great War - Theatre Maps and other things

A very model of a modern major-general 
of the Ruberian Army

Methought to bridge the gap between postings by a kind of 'catch-up' of odd bits and pieces that I have been tinkering with lately. We'll begin with one of my doodles, a general officer of the Ruberian Army, drawn, rather hopefully, in the style of a cartoonist I much admire: Ronald Searle.

Following are the Theatre Maps. The Azurian I made some time ago, the Medifluvian about a week ago, the 'Hyrcanian Karadeniz' the last day or so. It is possible I will have to add 'theatre maps' for naval operations - especially, I think in the Mesogesean Sea, and the Karadeniz.

Azurian Theatre

Medifluvia Theatre

Hyrcanian Karadeniz Theatre

Meanwhile I have been wanting at least one Army to have Maxim machine guns instead of the Nordenfeld/Garners and Gatlings. The North Island vendor having one box in stock I nabbed it: Zvezda WW1 Russians. Very well-thought out box: bally nice figures, 36 infantry, which gave me 9x4-figure stands; a Maksim Machine gun with two of a crew, and a command group of officer and flag bearer.  The figures and machine guns require some assembly, but as the result looks good and animated and the poses all look sensible - excellent buy.

A Second Army for Izumrud-Zeleniya (GREEN)
adding a box of Zvezda WW1 Russians

Izumrud-Zeleniya 2nd Army comprises
3 Infantry Divisions of 3 regimental stands each
1 Cavalry (Cossack) Division of 4 stands (HaT)
1 Maksim Battalion stand
2 Field Artillery stands (these are Strelets-R)

This Army is a deal smaller than 1st Army, which has 16 regimental stands (4 Divisions), and a third Artillery regiment.

The latest addition to my Chubby Marine Merchant 
Navy - an armed freighter

Inspired by a picture in a recent blog or facebook posting, I knocked together the pictured armed merchantman. My merchant marine now comprises 6 vessels, two of them armed. The armed merchants might be used for commerce raiding or simply to carry cargo.

La Guerre du Nord - a whole different project.
This is something that has been in the pipeline for a long, long time, as has the War of the Nations.

Whole other project - 'Guerre du Nord' 
Brunswickers and Nassauers forming the
Anglo-Continental III (Provisional) Corps

Not interested in collecting all and every contingent, I'm going with what I have. The First and Second Allied Army Corps will simply be British. One might suppose among the redcoats there are some Hanoverians, say, and there are no Dutch-Belgians, but we are talking a whole alternate universe, here. Nevertheless, the thing is intended to look something like the Hundred days' campaign.

The Brunswicker foot (early Minifigs) and uhlans (not sure of their provenance) I have had for nigh on 50 years. It is a long time since they saw action. The Black hussars are actually Italieri plastics, but they don't look out of place with the other Brunswickers. I forgot to mention the small contingent of Jager just behind the cavalry. I think they were originally Austrians, but I painted them up as Brunswicker Jager - a small unit of 10 Warrior figures. Cute little guys, but a little delicate: their muskets are apt to lose the shapr end.

The other green guys I bought second hand two or three years back - Minifigs. I supposed them to be (painted as) Nassauers. The flags have been added. Having no flag bearers, I just thread the flag staff through the arms of a couple of musketeers. The artillery is a howitzer, crewed by RHA  gunners. All my British artillery is crewed by the Royal Horse Artillery.  I bought the army second about 20 years ago, and that was what it has. I have added a little to the army since: an extra infantry unit, and a 12-figure unit of the Royal Scots Greys. That last was an impulse buy, but ... we-ell....

Commanding this corps will be the good old Duke of Brunswick, the Minifigs mounted figure just visible in the picture behind the uhlans. 

Of course, the Prussians will be present...