Pike and Musket Organisation of Swedish battalions

Grimbsy Mariner, on his blog last week, threw me into a panic over the organisation of a Swedish battalion in the Great Northern War. In particular he had, like me, put his pikes in a block in the centre with grenadiers on the flanks. He had read that this was wrong, however, saying that: "Poltava, The Battle That Shook Europe" makes reference to pikes scattered through the battalion. However, Pat Condray in his booklet "Swedish & Russian Armies of the Great Northern War" (1990) is less clear. He talks about pikes being a third of the company strength and deployed either in the center of the battalion, the center of the company or across the width of the battalion."

After a lot of web trawling I cam across this which offers two alternative deployments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion_(Sweden)

I will happily stick to my pikes in the centre approach as a result, as the alternative smaller pike blocks would only work if you were using 6mm or 10mm figures I reckon.

More GNW Swedes painted

The story so far. I've actually got more painted than unpainted which must be unique for me!

I finished another ten figures over the last two days so my regiments now look like this (yellow are completed).

I intend to get another five of the Kalmar Regiment ready for painting so they can catch up a bit.

I need to buy a few more figures to complete them but still have enough to be going on with for a bit. Maybe I will pick them up if I go to Salute this year. Musketeer Miniatures keep promising Russians so lets hope they can actually deliver. I keep reading about people on the internet who, like me have started off the period with Swedes but are growing disillusioned by the lack of opposition. I would be very happy to start on some Russians this year, although what I really want to see are Danes.

Standard Bearer and more Grenadiers for the Kalmar Regiment

I finished a few more figures for the Kalmar regiment including the first of the two standard bearers, using the Little Big Men flag, of course. Actually I was tired when I did the flag and didn't do a great job on it but hopefully the second one will be better. The large rock on his base is needed because the weight of the staff, finial and the tomato puree tube flag made him overbalance!

I have five more musketeers under way so hope to get them done this month.

I am hoping that Musketeer will be at Colours in ten days time so I can pick up the missing figures I need to complete the first two regiments.

More for the Bjorneborgs Regiment

I have finished another batch of figures and have now completed two of the five "companies" for the regiment. So here is the right flank grenadiers and musketeers.

I have also painted half of the 10 pikemen I will need so I am just one figure away from having the unit half completed. I have now started work on the last five pikemen so hope to have them done in a week or so, as they are much quicker to paint than the musketeers.

Back painting the GNW

Well, I am back painting some GNW figures after a six month break taken up by lots of Darkest Africa and gladiators (mainly).

Musketeer Miniatures are claiming that the Swedish Cavalry and the Russian pikemen and grenadiers are imminent, but then they've been saying that for months! It doesn't matter so much as I have still got a lot of figures to do!

I have six more figures varnished and they just need metalwork, bayonet and sword scabbards, pikes and a flag to be done so I hope I can post pictures of them them on Saturday. I have now based another six as well.

I am due to go on holiday shortly and I always take some figures to paint so it might just be I take the GNW Swedes with me as they are easy to paint and therefore as relaxing as they should be!

Bjorneborgs Regiment: Pikemen

I finished two pikemen, a musketman and another grenadier for the Bjorneborgs Regiment today. I had painted the first four figures in a generic way, with yellow flaps on their karpus', as I never actually intended to build a unit, but Bjorneborgs had blue hats so I repainted the first four I did. I have nine out of 36 figures done. I have just based another five figures; three for Bjorneborgs and two for Kalmar so will try and get them done in the next few weeks.

Kalmar Regiment: Drummer

The 1644 rules call for one musician per regiment so here is my first drummer. I based the drum on one I photographed in the Army Museum in Stockholm last Autumn.

I have now painted nine out of the 36 figures I will need for this regiment. I still need to buy a few more for it but I am starting to get there, I think. Should finish off a few for the other regiment I'm working on tomorrow, before I go and see my sister's new house (which is five minutes walk from a Games Workshop, worryingly).