A Bevy of Bavarian Beauties

General

 All figures are Willies and therefore superb!

Officer of the Arco Cuirassiers

Colonel of the Kurprinz Regiment

Pikemen and an NCO, likewise of the Kurprinz Regiment

Poking About...

Here we all are again. It has been a while since I last posted here - not too much to say, I suppose!

So, what's up with you?

I've been plugging away at my 20mm French Napoleonic troops. Four units of foot, a command group and a couple of guns now, which I feel is reasonable progress I'm working away at another gun and crew as well as a caisson - all from the Zvezda set I have been ruining my eyesight over.

I have also been looking wistfully at one of my perennial favorites - the Great War in Africa. In my own case, this is not just the swashbuckling antics of Lettow-Vorbecks men in Africa, but it also takes in pseudo colonial,  and dashing antics on the part of German and Empire forces in the Pacific in the form of the various actions undertaken to snap up Germany's Pacific posessions in China and New Guinea as well as the hunt for the gallant raider "Emden".

Two lovely websites I have happened upon have many excellent images of Germany's colonial troops.

The first is extremely comprehensive:

http://www.germancolonialuniforms.co.uk/

The second has a series of charming water colours that show the Germans and their Askari troops on campaign and are wonderfully evocative of the war:

http://www.reichskolonialamt.de/inhalt/rehfeldt/rehfeldt.htm

I'm prompted to pull out my HaT Askari and seeing what might be done with them. Twenty-man Feldkompagnies with an attached Maxim and ten Ruga-Ruga and another twenty porters seems fairly reasonable organization to build. Three FK painted and you might add a mountain gun. Six and you might even add a Koenigsburg gun!

Oh, if only Suren had been pulled into this period!

The first of a few...

So then, here it is, my first French unit. You'll recall I my last post that they are HaT infantry with Italeri head swaps.

I've got it in my head that these will be some of Delaborde's men at Roliça. 

I have decided that stage one of this project will be the French order of battle for that action and then stage two (so-called!) will be to build from there to Vimiero.

Let's see how we go.

From Little Things...

Moving on now from 54mm plastics, to the other end of the spectrum - yes, glorious 20mm, but still in plastic.

I was fortunate recently to meet a gentleman who was divesting a large stash of 20mm plastic and without looking too much, leapt.

I have started with French infantry, using this:

And this:

To create this (the blue background is there to create contrast):

Which finally looks rather like this:

Oddly, to me the result looks rather like a teeny weeny Elite miniature.

Lots of inspiration to be had here:

http://rosbiffrog.blogspot.com

With warm regards to Dan...

27th Foot - Airfix 1/32

Ahh, the old Airfix Polythene 1/32 figures. I am pretty sure I bought a box of these with my pocket money when I was about 12!

Charles Stadden

Whilst waiting on certain figures to arrive, I often find myself doodling, as it were, with the paintbrush. Like most other hobbyists, I have a large pile of unpainted lead, sometimes certain items within are - er - years old.

So it was with these Stadden  French Napoleonic figures. Some were from an eBay purchase of a mixed lot, others were from a hare-brained scheme to do the first regiment of Grenadiers of the Guard as a Charge! style unit.

This is starting to look like a series of posts on the classics of wargame figure design of the past sixty years or so.

HE Knights in 30mm

Holger Ericsson is best known in the English speaking world probably for his 40mm Karoliner moulds available today through Prince August and for his designs for SAE in the 1950s and 1960s.

He was also a prolific sculptor in the 30mm scale, Those of you familiar with the Tradition and Spencer Smith websites will be familiar with is exquisite Horse and Musket era troops. Both are of great beauty, but it is in his depiction of the moving horse that his real skill is displayed, and his cavalry are especially worth collecting.

It is possible still to buy his other figures through this tribute website:

http://www.hefigures.com/

Highly recommended for their efficient service. Best of all for lummocks like me, they speak English!

Without further ado, a picture of some of the HE knights.

As nature intended

Not from one of John Garrett's books!

I have painted these figures in the heraldry of French knights who fought at Poitiers, although their armour styles are from considerably later, perhaps the 1420s. I have one more standard bearer to paint then i will move on to some 30 Years' War cavalry that I purchased at the same time.

Geological time passes and figures are painted...

Murad Bey

A Mameluke Cavalier

Officer of the 7eme bis

1970s Naughty French Hussarette

 Not the first nor the last of the genre...

The Bold General

The scientific Away Team

The retinue of an Arab slaver

Tough guy...

Waiting on the next castings from Tradition. Looking forward to them mightily.

Napoleon in Egypt

Ahhh, Napoleon in Egypt. It seems that this is a persistent butterfly for many war gamers, myself included.

At first glance it seems t have a lot to recommend it. A wide variety of actions, from the smoke-billowing squares of the battle of the Pyramids, to Desaix's colonial campaign against Murad Bey along the upper Nile, to Siege operations and open battles.

Mamluk, British and French forces all offer a variety of colour that is most attractive; the French seem particularly exotic with their various interim uniforms.

So I am taking the plunge myself. Willie French in bicornes versus various "Islamics" that I intend to pilfer from across the whole of the range.

I think that I shall be organising the french in Demi-Brigades of three 16 figure batallions, each with a few command figures. The Demi-Brigade will hold the colour and a mounted officr. This will offer me some scope for conversions to which I am looking forward.

What? That's the same as the "Charge!" organisation?

Well, I never...

Wargaming the Franco-Prussian War

Last year I managed to acquire a small collection of Franco-Prussian War figures. They were 25mm Tradition (plus a few plastic Spencer Smith) figures originally from the collection of Stuart Asquith which he has shown considerable ingenuity in assembling from diverse sources.

Tradition Bavarians

I have been slowly adding to it myself along the same lines and I am at the point where it is time to start doing something with the collection. It's about eight units per side now of infantry at ten figures per unit. There are also two units of cavalry at eight figures per side as well. No guns yet, but that it a problem I am sure I can resolve.

Tradition Prussians

Now here's the thing. I am looking at this collection as a game in a box (or two) that I can pull out, have a game with in a couple of hours whilst hitting the beer and chatting amiably about toy soldiers and so on.

Old SAE Swedish Cavalry repainted as Prussian Dragoons

Can anyone in blog-land suggest a ruleset? or do I need to write my own?