 |
| Swedish Army Museum |
 |
| Karl XII statue near Parliament |
I visited the Army Museum five years ago as a small celebration after being successful in a job interview. That visit was a great experience but I unfortunately lost the photographs I took.
 |
Exhibits don't get much better than this
close in shot - the shock of the charge!
As if I needed any more inspiration! |
Having arrange to meet two of the blog and LoA Fighting Talk forum members for a game in the evening they had suggested a visit to the museum in the late afternoon.. how could I pass up such an opportunity particularly with the imminent release of Warfare Miniatures Great Northern War range.
 |
| see text for interesting observations notes |
 |
| see text for interesting observations notes |
Although we could have spent most of the day there we restricted ourselves to 90 minutes and focusing on the Thirty Years War and the Great Northern War.
CLOSE UP OF CAVALRY EQUIPMENT SHOT
Always interesting to see what you paint on model soldiers up close. Look at the cover on the holster. It is leather work and not an edged cloth cover. The lining of the holster interior which appears chamois, is showing. The pouch over the right shoulder has a black leather face but is of chamois coloured leather or cloth.
The saddle cloth extends well down onto the animal's flanks. The carbine is slung low and loose. The sword is secured to the wrist with a lather strap.
 |
| Officer |
 |
| musketeer of Skane Wars vintage |
The officer at the back of the shot above seems to be dressed for a later period than the Skane Wars. The infantryman does not have apostles but rather a bullet bag.
 |
| neck cloth is striped! |
One of the most informative parts of my visit was listening to the proper Swedish pronunciation of the various regimental names. Oh, how wrong we get it here in the English speaking world! Saying Swedish words with English pronunciation makes them sound rather ugly and in some cases clumsy. Listening to a Swede say the names puts the whole thing into a different perspective. The language has a soft sound with very few hard letters. My big lesson came with the word Bjorneberg. I would have (and probably did say) Be-jorn - berg. Michael politely corrected me to something closer to the sound Bey-orn-ay-bay. He made me practice a few times too! Hilton, go to the back of the class!
 |
| The plain nature of the equipment is striking |
I restricted my iphone photography to items directly relating to the Great Northern War. The trophy room was indeed a revelation.
The vignette of the siege lines created a real sense of the size of gabions. The infantryman has a very plain uniform.
 |
| Infantryman behind fascines |
 |
Soren conducts an inspection in the trenches!
|
Our tour will continue with several other blog posts including: GNW trophies and equipment, other museum eye candy ad a trip to the Vasa Museum to see the magnificent 1628 Warship Vasa restored!
 |
| It all ended in tears - why the Swedes do it differently now. |
