Deutsches Historisches Museum

Painting of Early WW1 battle.

(Deutsches Historisches Museum).

Dear readers, during the last week yours truly have been kidnapped from the hobby table, and taken abroad on business. The upside was, that the impending meeting would be with an Ad Agency - in Berlin! 

Ran into this guy in the middle of the street.

Friedrich is yet again popular - due to his multi-cultural support during his reign,
his enlightenment adherence and supposed homosexuality.

My travel plans offered me a generous 4 hrs extra time in the city, which I enthusiastically spend on visiting two landmarks of particular interest to the history hobbyist. The fantastic Berliner Zinnfiguren Shop next to Savigny Platz, and the monumentally impressive German National History Museum (Deutsches Historisches Museum).

The Berliner Stadtschloss anno 2015.

€105.000.000 is being poured into the re-construction.

After a double quick check-in at the hotel, I made my way down to Alexanderplatz for a mandatory Kurrywurst. A short post-lunch walk took me over to the "Museumsinsel" and past the massive construction ground for the re-building of the Berliner Stadtschloss - the palace that housed many kings of Prussia and a few Kaisers of the German Reich. 

The Stadtschloss late 19th Cent.

It was destroyed after WW2 by German Communists, and in its places they build the Volkskammer (DDR Parlament) during the German division into east and west. After the reunification the decision was made to rebuild the old Scholß for its historic and symbolic value - a project of some €105.000.000!

At the entrance of the museum Bismarck carefully examines all the visitors.

Having gazed at the massive Stadtschloss, it was finally time to enter the holy Grail - the German National History Museum. Here follows a series of pictures from my visit:

Medieval German/Teutonic pavisade.

Late medieval maximillian armour.

Samples from the Thirty Years War armoury.

Die Lange - The tall guards of Friedrich's father.

His passion for tall men took him across Europe with bounty hunters searching 

for the next colossus to get enrolled.

Frederick the Great's uniform.

Having read about this king since I was a young teenager, 

it was pretty special to actually see this thing live.

The actual hat Napoleon wore at Waterloo, 

captured as a trophy by the Prussians.

The Prussians storm the Danish position at Als.

The War of 1864.

Captured Danish flags.

The war of 1864.

The extremely effective Needle-gun used against 

the Austrians and the French in 1866 and 1870-71.

The actual uniform of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Note the shorter left sleeve. Wilhelm had an underdeveloped left arm.

WW1 British and French uniforms.

Beautiful and large (1.5 meter) model of the sms Markgraf,

 which fought at the Battle of Jutland in 1916.

The nazification period in the 30ies.

Different kinds of Nazi party uniforms.

Nazi Propaganda Poster focusing on the young audience.

"The youth serves the Führer. All 10 year old in the Hitler Jugend".

"Volkshalle."

An original model by Albert Speer.

German infantry uniform of 1944.

"The Liberation Game"

Who can reach Berlin first?

Portraits of  people who were exterminated at Dachau.

Original Newspaper from 1945 announcing Hitler's death.

Germany 1945 - a land in absolute ruins.

Germany divided - a DDR boarder post.

Actual pieces of the Berlin Wall.

For someone who grew up in the 80ies, 

this part of the museum left the greatest impression on me. 

The Deutsches Historisches Museum kept me entranced for several hours.

As I left the building and strolled down Unter den Linden towards The Brandenburger Tor, I was still digesting the impressions I had gathered. What a magnificent, turbulent, terrible but grand history this country has. 

Thank you very much for reading.

Thirty Years War figures from Horcata Miniatures - A Review

Horcata Miniatures Light Cavalryman.
(The Horse is Front Rank)

When visiting SALUTE this year I had arranged to meet up with Czech miniature producer Emil Horky, the owner of Horcata Miniatures. Emil was there for the second time, and was accompagnied by his son who is also interested in the hobby.

It was a real pleasure meeting the Horkys, and their miniatures deserve some attention here on the blog. Something for all you interested in the Thirty Years War or ECW.

Same miniature seen from the other side.
Lovely clean sculpting with clear details = easy to paint!

I first found Horcata Miniatures when searching the internet for really good Thirty Year War miniatures in 28 mm. For me this means modern sculpting, naturally proportioned miniatures and reasonable prices.

Their website give away Horcata Miniatures as a very personal project run by a period enthusiast, and my God the miniatures were fantastic. Sculpted by Paul Hicks, and with both cavalry and infantry in abundance, I couldn’t keep away.

Bugler

Packaging:

The figures are delivered carefully wrapped and packaged.

There is no branded packaging or extras, just high quality miniatures.

Cuirassier discharging pistol.
Perfect for your caracole formation.

Sculpting:

The range is sculpted by Paul Hicks, and in all the positive ways imaginable this shows.

It’s very clean and crisp sculpting, with well-proportioned miniature looking incredibly inviting to paint. Also there doesn’t seem to be a lot of recycled figures/poses. They all look very individually made, and this will of course add character to the finished units.

Size Comparison:
Left to right: Foundry, Horcata and Warlord.

Size:

The horsemen are about 30 mm from heel to tip of the head.

This is about the same size as for instance Warlords plastic ECW cavalry.

Comparing them with Foundry and Warlord, I find Horcata mixes very well with both,

and should anyone have a collection in the mentioned makes, I wouldn’t think twice about mixing in some of the Horcata minis, even in the same units to spice them up.

Cornet

Price: 

Each figure is GBP 1.40 - cavalry and infantry alike.

However, the horses will add an extra GBP 1.90 (see Range),

so each cavalry figure is really GBP 3.30 per figure & horse.

Foundry is about GBP 4.00 per figure & horse

Warlord metal blisters are about GBP 2.33 per figure & horse.

Warlord plastic cavalry about GBP 1.66 per figure & horse.

Light cavalryman skirmishing

Range:

At the moment Horcata offers 17 different cavalry figures and 33 different infantry figures. That is actually really good, when considering in a normal plastic kit you’ll get 2-4 dollies with a few arms/heads options. So there is real potential to add some character to your ranks with Horcata.

A note about the cavalry; Horcata offers only the riders. Each miniature is sculpted with saddle to fit the horses from Front Rank Miniatures, which is OK, as long as you’re aware of this. 

The infantry range is full of character!

Fluff: 

The website contains both historical info on the Thirty Years War, a blog with regular updates on the range and a webshop which helpfully have imagery showing the miniatures washed in black for better view of the sculpting. 

Lovely animation in the sculpting.

Rating: 8/10. 

Horcata Miniatures would get a clear 10 points for the quality of their miniatures, but with a deduction for not having their own horses and the lack of branded packaging (which could really push this amazing product) I’m at 8 points in total. 

So, dear Wargamers - if you don’t have these minis in your TYW or ECW collection, you’re missing out on some real characters for your ranks.

Thank you very much for reading!

Gustavus Adolphus – The Lion of the North

 Gustavus charging forward on the battlefield of Lützen

I’ve had the Pike & Shotte rule book on my shelf for quite a while, and since it’ll be the rules of preference for the coming Scanian War gaming, I decided it was time for a test run.

Before gaming though, I had to complete my TYW collection with some proper C-in-C figures. And when talking TYW, who better to model than Gustavus Adolphus, the The Lion of the North, or ”Das Löwe aus dem Mitternacht” as they probably would have said on the German countryside at the time.


The king's portrait

Fascinating people, and later great commanders like Napoleon, Gustavus innovated and revolutionized the military field tactics of his time. Using cavalry as chock troops, and adding flexible firepower in the ranks, using small detachments of musketeers along with his innovative use of field artillery, laid the foundation for victories like Breitenfeld and Lützen.

Gustavus’ success as a military innovator also saw him plough his way into the 30 Years War, laying the foundation for a Swedish Empire that would stand almost 100 years. But he would do it at a very high price.


"God with Us" - Gustavus preparing for the charge 

Always leading from the front, a bullet wound from the previous Polish campaign, prevented Gustavus from wearing a breastplate.  This would prove to have fatal consequences at Lüzten, were he rode to his death in a mad cavalry charge leading the Swedish Smålands Cavalry into an isolated situation on the battlefield. Here he caught a bullet in the arm that severed the bone.

 

Streiff - now on display at the Royal Armory Museum in Stockholm

His horse, Streiff, also got hit, and became increasingly hard to control. In the confusion Gustavus got surrounded by enemy cavalry, received another gunshot to the lower body and fell to the ground.  A mad fight followed between the few men Gustavus had left and the Imperial cavalry unit. All the Swedes were slain, but one of the them survived his wounds to later tell the story of what now ensued.

 

The death of Gustavus at Lützen 1632

The King laying wounded on the ground, was encircled by the dismounted enemy cavalry. Upon asking him the question “Who are you sir?” he answered truthfully “I’m Gustavus, the King of Sweden”. Realizing the value of their prisoner, the enemy troopers tried to bring the wounded king with them. Unfortunately Gustavus had at this time in his life become pretty obese. The job proved too hard on the imperials, and before leaving him behind, they gave him a shoot to the head, ran their swords through the now dead king a few more time, robbed him of all clothes and jewelry and took off.


Streiff taking his master into the midst of battle

The wounded horse, Streiff, had meanwhile returned to the Swedish lines with an empty saddle. This had immediate demoralizing effect, as it became clear to all that something terrible had happened to the King. Frantic rallying and stern discipline saw the Swedes through the rest of the battle, and the Imperials left the field to them in the early evening. But it was a costly victory indeed.

The horse and all the kings’ clothes was later returned from Austria to Sweden, as a gift of friendship. They can now be seen at the Royal Swedish Armory Museum in Stockholm.

Thank you very much for reading!