Les Belges Advance...

Belgium is probably not the top of many peoples list of "must do" VSF nations (probably not even for the Belgians themselves) but I have found them to be much more interesting than stereotypes suggest, even if their 19th century history is not widely known to those outside the country. Writing a Belgian supplement for Land Ironclads has proven to be like peeling an onion, stripping one layer to find something new underneath. From their involvement in the Mexico to the Congo via French machinations to annex them after the Austro-Prussian War there is certainly more to them than meets the eye.

Of course they have proven a quite attractive little project given the quality of the forthcoming Brigade Models shiny new toys which I quickly put a photo of each up on White Wine Sauce yesterday before the light failed but here present some more...

Whilst most of the models have been based up for battles on Flanders green fields against the French, as you can see at the top I did base up two of the Charlotte-Ameilie class (as an experiment) as on Martian service. Having given it some more thought (and as they are the smallest class of land ironclad in the game) I intend to purchase some autumnal foliage clumps to add some red vegetation in the near future.

The others, as with the French, have odd 2mm Irregular figures dotted around to give a concept of scale as well as the odd foliage clump acting as a tree. I did toy with have one bursting through a wood but it looked somewhat silly when I did a dry run.

Next on the painting table are the two sets of contraptions Brigade are also releasing as part of the Belgian army, plus some of Irregular's 2mm SF range which I think will make excellent Aurorean Martian contraptions (the models I picked have a slightly pulp look which suits the scientifically focussed Auroreans). I was hoping to crack on with these today but a persistent ear infection is draining the will to work and all I feel like doing is trying to fall asleep in front of the telly (much needed sleep as the pain kept me awake most of the night). Maybe tomorrow...