Well, today was a good day, weather reasonable, i finally said bye bye to the "Ramillies 1706" project and got something nice in the post!!! Joy, joy, happy, happy!
On Ramillies, i would say this was the most difficult and tricky of all the Osprey's i've done thus far and a few have been tricky let me tell ya! Trying to get refs for artefacts or armour and match up refs with the descriptions etc. But this was just a very tough book to do as the scale was big and the history of the battle somewhat confused and misunderstood i would hazard to say. but trying to truncate a massive battle into 3 images is always a tall order...
The landscape around Ramillies and the other villages, is very undulating and rolling, one minute you see the church next you cant see it, due to hillocks and sunken roads etc. So it was tricky to convey some of this, even with photos, of which we took about 300ish and around 40 will be used, but its one of those fields of battle one should walk to appreciate the tactics and movement of the armies.
We had some great people helping us, including a god amongst tailors Gabriele Mendella, whos knowledge of french clothing and equipment was of great help! What he doesn't know about period clothing isn't worth knowing...but also Robert Hall and Iain Stanford who are much underrated as experts in the period and what they haven't read/know on this period isn't worth worrying about! But Mike, really did put his heart and soul in this one, usuing period sources in original languages and forgotten accounts by the combatants, as well as dealing with the translations, but he came up with some real eye opening quotes and accounts, which should illuminate this battle even more than previous.
It was trip and i enjoyed it, although it was arduous here and there, but now onto pastures new!
On Ramillies, i would say this was the most difficult and tricky of all the Osprey's i've done thus far and a few have been tricky let me tell ya! Trying to get refs for artefacts or armour and match up refs with the descriptions etc. But this was just a very tough book to do as the scale was big and the history of the battle somewhat confused and misunderstood i would hazard to say. but trying to truncate a massive battle into 3 images is always a tall order...
The landscape around Ramillies and the other villages, is very undulating and rolling, one minute you see the church next you cant see it, due to hillocks and sunken roads etc. So it was tricky to convey some of this, even with photos, of which we took about 300ish and around 40 will be used, but its one of those fields of battle one should walk to appreciate the tactics and movement of the armies.
We had some great people helping us, including a god amongst tailors Gabriele Mendella, whos knowledge of french clothing and equipment was of great help! What he doesn't know about period clothing isn't worth knowing...but also Robert Hall and Iain Stanford who are much underrated as experts in the period and what they haven't read/know on this period isn't worth worrying about! But Mike, really did put his heart and soul in this one, usuing period sources in original languages and forgotten accounts by the combatants, as well as dealing with the translations, but he came up with some real eye opening quotes and accounts, which should illuminate this battle even more than previous.
It was trip and i enjoyed it, although it was arduous here and there, but now onto pastures new!
The Osprey on Ramillies has been illustrated by you? I couldn't be more delighted as I love the period, well from around 1685-1720, so this is the icing on the cake. Can't wait to see it.
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