The League of Augsburg

Raw internal view - a front face will conceal the lower floor

One of my big dilemmas building this project was deciding whether to have removable roofs on the buildings. As many of the scenarios in the book are Donnybrook scale skirmishes and involve missions which have to be completed by various factions I thought that have internals in at least some of the buildings was a necessity.

mock up with...

Although not finished this piece is getting close with natural weathering taking place

At the approximate mid point of this project and having listened to the comments and feedback from Blog members and friends I thought it would be good to include a few shots of the walls of Derry provided by Peter. I used as my inspiration the drawings of Philip Armstrong (Painting the Past), old prints, modern...

Irish musketeer with French equipment

These shots are a selection of the many I took of individuals during the day. Sergeant Thomas O'Brogain carried enough authority  to encourage many of his group to 'pose' for the camera!

Ensign David O'Brogain

I gave inane instructions to the very nice people and they did their best to do what I was asking of them.

This uniform could be many regiments

I was...

roof tiles from cheap cardboard found at the back of notepads

The early stages of this project saw big progress. Walls appeared, stairways,a breach and a  gateway filled six feet of boards. Gouging and plastering and sanding and painting created a real sense that things were cracking on apace.

this middle board has taken over 40 hours alone so far.

When I started assembling the buildings around the...

Now, I know a few of you will be reading this and saying - 'what breach?' but actually there were various points around the walls which had taken a bit of a pounding. There was a serious Jacobite assault during which they attempted to destroy a damaged bastion near Butcher's Gate facing out on to the bog side (west).

This is what I originally planned using the Kallistra pieces.

I intend to use these...

Gateway placed on in front of wet ditch under construction

Having fallen at the first hurdle with the 10mm medieval  piece from Kallistra I bit the bullet and decided to make a gate house for myself from scratch.

buildings on the inner wall under construction around the gateway

The original gates of Derry are long gone and have been replaced by semi ornamental arches and bridges. The available...

The original idea - jacked up Kallistra 10mm walls x 4 feet

You have got to be careful with titles like 'Derry's Walls'. It might attract the wrong kind of traffic. Needless to say, it was hard to keep certain ear worms from taking over during my construction project. I managed to suppress that particular demon by running the entire boxed set of MORSE in my workshop as I indulged in my most...

mixed infantry

There were several groups taking part but I did not get the official titles of them all. Many of the lads came from Co Donegal and represented the men of Purcell's Regiment under Colonel Cannon at Killiecrankie. Some of the re enactors were from England but I did not get the group's name.

Pike with two wings of shot

I believe a Scots unit going under the name of Loudon's represented...

Dunfermline's Gentlemen Volunteers

In this post you'll see some fantastic pictures of the small but very authentic and energetic group of equestrian re enactors representing the Earl of Dunfermline's Gentlemen Volunteers serving with Dundee at Killiecrankie.

An unusual view of the Horse

Led by Alan Larsen who has carved quite a profile for himself with his group The Troop, his brilliant performance...

The event was in the area occupied by Mackay's baggage train.

I swithered (for non Scots swither is 'to hesitate') about getting out of bed that morning. I had loads to do for the show at Claymore the following weekend and did not relish 4 hours in the car during the awful summer we are having here in Caledonia. In the end, the prospect of some good pics for the new books plus meeting some people I...

BLB has several additional rules which can be used to give this action some further depth and flavour. I recommend the following are used:

You must drive the Jacobite Army from the field. Victory will be complete if you do so without losing more than 50% of your own strength

Jacobite Objective

You must hold position and repulse the imminent attack. Victory will be complete if you are able to counterattack and drive the Rebels off the field.