Tuesday 9 November 2010

Flags of Hassland



The flag of Hassland is called the Hassvlag. The Hassvlag has dimensions 1:2, with the cross having a ratio of 3:1:6 with the long edge, and 2:1:2 with the short edge. The inner cherry cross is half the width of the whole (white) cross.

Officially the colours of the Hassvlag are referred to as midnight blue, and Prince's pink. This colour should not be confused, however, with the facing colour of the Princeguard regiment, which is much lighter in colour.


The royal flag of Hassland has the cross banded with golden bands, and is flown according to protocol wherever the monarch is in residence or visiting.

There are two variants of the Hass war flag. The first has the Hassvlag defaced with a golden sword running along the horizontal bar of the cross, with the quillions or guard at the level of the vertical.


The second form of the Hass war flag has two swords either side of the horizontal arm of the cross, with the guards in the hoist cantons. Whilst the two are used in parallel they are not interchangeable, with tradition or royal ordinance determining usage.

In either form of the war flag, there is no single style of sword used. The closest to a general war flag is that which is flown by the army's general staff, which uses a stylised longsword, as shown. Individual regiments or institutions may use different swords, again governed by tradition, although the device must always be a sword. In particular, colonial regiments generally use local swords in their design.

Geography of Hassland


The Kingdom of Hassland is a coastal country, and shares borders with three neighbouring provinces. There are four major rivers in Hassland; the Elaise, Iben and Oss originating within, and the Avort originating without. Its de facto capital, Praden, is located on the southern side of the peninsula, at the mouth of the river Oss.

Hassland has a mixture of types of terrain, with a large proportion of arable farmland and pasture. The peninsula is less fertile, with some heathland and a low range of hills from which the Elaise springs. The south is mountainous, with some large established forests.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Some Pictures

I plan to do regimental profiles for each of the units I paint, but in the meantime I'm putting up the photographs of my work so far.

This is all the 6mm I've painted to date- four regiments of foot, one of horse, and one command stand.

This is a picture of the second line unit I painted (a bit better than the first). I'm using the British-style units, with four grenadiers. These are actually a bit fiddly and had I known just how fiddly I would have asked to have just line strips instead. That said, I do like how they look. The mounted colonels came from seeing mounted colonels in units in 28mm, which I thought looked quite good. There isn't much room for them, but they just about get on, and they do make the stand look more complete for me.

I haven't added colours to any of the units- I'd only today decided on the flag of Hassland, but they're in the works. The pole itself is made from a map-pin, with the plastic head broken off. It's fairly easy to cut the cast banner pole away, and stick this in. These are a little taller, and much stronger than the cast originals, which I was worried would eventually break off.

A Bit of Background

Well, after much discussion, I've finally started my imagi-nation blog, all about my fictional nation of Hassland. I plan to split this blog between In-Character posts, with information (and possibly narrative) told from the point of view of Hassland being a real country, and Out-of-Character posts, with me rambling on about how putting together my Imagi-nation army is going. I know a lot of blogs stick to one or the other, but I like the idea of keeping all of this project together.

I'd had the urge to get some 6mm miniatures for quite a while, and after I got a sample pack of Baccus miniatures (a really good idea, if you're tempted- not expensive, and have a variety of strips showcasing the range for your period of interest) I knew I'd have to get more. The idea for an imagi-nation was also playing in my mind, so it seemed natural to combine the two.

The Kingdom of Hassland, c.1700


Flag
The Hassvlag (Cherry-red Nordic cross inside white Nordic cross on midnight blue field)

Anthem

Van Tassel’s March

Capital
Praden

Official Languages
English, French (de facto); minority Dutch

Demonym
Hass

Government
Absolute Monarchy
Monarch- Queen Matilda III
First Minister- Cer Henry Synne

Political Divisions- Mainland
12 counties (each subdivided into between three and eight wards)
78 wards

Political Divisions- Colonial
4 Colonial territories

Population
~ 19,200,000 (Mainland)
~ 1,100,000 (Overseas territories)

Area
~440,000 km2

Armed Forces
~ 207,300 (Hass) (10.8 per 1000)
~13,600 (Colonial) (12.4 per 1000)

Currency
Hass Sovereign