The High Command

So to speak.

Some years ago I inherited a random and diverse collection of French for Egypt. Some were Willies for the later battles of the campaign, ditto some Old Glory. I believe they were surplus from the Collection of Charles Grant which he's probably had in the 1990s while he was writing his books on the campaign and his series of articles for Practical Wargamer.

Some bits of this collection were useful and joined my current army which is my round about way of saying I painted something.

I forget which regiment this is...

Will he be the beginning of another regiment or will he hang about the Corsican Tyrant?

One just needs a large enough piece of plastic to mount them on.

I do like the uniform and will likely do a unit. I am keeping my French cavalry units fairly small as they did not get to Egypt in any great strength. The 7eme bis Hussars are 8 troopers and an officer for example, and that's the standard I'll build the two mooted units of Dragoons I have in mind as well.

Well, that's enough 'castles in the air' for one day.

Keep on smiling. 

Catching Up

 Sometimes I realise that a lot of what I am working on does not always make it to the blog, so to make up for that, let me post a few pictures of a long-term project.

Now, I simply need a horde of mamluks.

A Savant with an exciting piece of natural history to describe.

General Bonaparte passes the time with General Kleber.

A few of the 7ème bis de hussards. There are some more that need to be based.

Tweaking Mameluke basing.

 

Chaaaaaaarge!

I think this might do the trick. Not every horse-man will get his base so liberally garnished with followers, but ... enough will. Then there might also be a subsequent rank to reinforce the illusion.

I need to get my hands on some more 40x75mm Renedra bases to see how an entire unit looks.

What do you think?

Building Little Boats

 or...

Dhow are you?

The bits.

Still painting Frenchmen in Egypt, be reassured.

However, I was reading the excellent 'Napoleon in Egypt' by Paul Strathern and is starting to become clear to me that I would benefit from some watercraft, so wat could be more appropriate or more multi-use than an Arabian Dhow.

I well remember the templates available on the Major-Generals' marvellous website, so off I flew via the Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/20060614041903/http://zeitcom.com/majgen/index.html) and downloaded them.

The lead ship in her class.

In the photo above you can see the deck united with the hull. The smaller pieces are the fore and aft decks that will be raised a little higher then the level of the main deck by means of some shims underneath them.

The decks are heavy card with the planking drawn in black biro and then with the odd plank picked out with a wash of one colour or another. It's surprisingly colourful and effective. I'm kind of regretting using such strongly coloured paper for the hull - a manila folder seems a better option in retrospect.

Next comes the mast, yard, sail and some rudimentary rigging.

I am thinking three or four might be a good number for this flotilla?

Some Mamelukes

 Can I call them mamluks please?

Anyway. this is the start of the Mamluk cavalry horde.

The whole collection

I'm thinking this is the ranty army commander Angry Bey

The leader of the light cavalry. Murat Bey?

Breaking up the look of the cavalry with varied weapons &c

I’ve been looking at these figures and thinking a bit.

How does this seem – mount each horseman on a 50mmx50mm base and allow him two ‘followers’ on 25mmx25mm bases that can be placed behind him. They’d be the people picking up his discarded muskets and pistols for him. They might also be used (or re-used) as infantry in other contexts.

One or two might be equipped with banners to add to the spectacle.

Thoughts?

Napoleon in Egypt

 Well, now. What to do when you are a little weary of painting tartan and your Prussians are yet to put in an appearance?

Why, you pick up the threads of an old project, of course.

Trudge, trudge, trudge. le desert mauvais... le cafard... les mirages

I painted three of these over the weekend - the thirds' base is still a bit of a WiP so he's not made the cut photographically.

They really are quite enjoyable figures to paint and I can get one done in about an hour without too much of an effort.

They will be joining the 9eme de Ligne in short order.

Using the Charge! organisation is something of a cliché with me, but, you know you pays your money and takes your choises.

The ultimate plan here is three Charge!-style units of three line and one Grenadier company, another unit of light infantry and two units (12 figures each) of cavalry - one of hussars and one of dragoon.

I have 3/4 of the first unit of infantry done and scraps of cavalry units and half the Light infantry.

Then there are the Mamelukes.

Mr Stadden at Waterloo

 Inspired by yesterdays' Minot-fondling I rose early (Was it only 05.30? Surely not!) I combed through my small collection of vintage 30mm Napoleonic miniatures. I was seeking inspiration. I found it in the form, of a Stadden British company officer - still available from Tradition. he was in a bit of a state. Originally painted in enamels, his white trousers were patchy and scarred and his jacket was much chipped. His sword was bent and one corner of his base was turned over upon itself.

Tsk! This would ever do! I cannot think of a single officer of the British Army who would permit himself to meet the enemy in such a state! So, out with the red (albeit with a dab of brown to dull it down), the grey for new trousers, a dab of bright gold here and there and a lovely bright silver for his carefully straightened sword blade.

Ready for anything the French can throw his way.

He is now able to meet the French upon terms that would not be an embarrassment.

Barry Minot

 Some of my favourite miniatures are the Naploeonic range made by Barry Minot in the 1970s.

There were British and French for Waterloo. I know of infantry for both, and Cuirassiers for the French, The Cuirassiers came in the form of an Officer, bugler and a couple of troopers - at least. that's what I have of them.

I thought I would put up some pictures of the few British Infantry I have. They are beautiful figures, slim and well proportioned and a delight to behold

Where should one start but with the veritable "BN1" of the range. A member of one of the 'Centre' companies, he marches with a determined air, "Belgian" shako set square on his head.

Note if you will, the neatness of the paintjob. I wish I could paint as well as this.

Our next entrant I shall call "BN2" - centre company, standing, firing. Again, look at the fanatic neatness of those tapes on his jacket. Marvellously precise paint-work.

BN3. British Drummer, Belgic Shako. Or not, it does not matter. Another lovely figure. The painting may or may not be accurate; I am not enough of a button-counter to try or even be qualified to critique another hobbyists work. Again, though this is a lovely, clean piece of painting.

Maybe BN 4, maybe not, Nonetheless, I shall name this composition so. What a wonderful piece this is. Charming animation to this single-piece casting.

All the fab four (five?)-some.

The Minot figures scale quite well with the Willie range for height and pleasing looseness of style. They remind me of the Stadden range in terms of their and bulk and fineness of detail.

I give them a 10/10 for my favourite Napoleonic figures and if anyone wants to sell me any, drop me a line at bloggerator@gmail.com.

les Bleus, redux

 In Line... Skirmishers out.

 In Battalion Column, Skirmishers out front

 In Square, Skirmishers in.

In March Column.

Les Bleus

Just while I am waiting on some Vietnam kit to arrive, I'm off and painting some French Infantry for the 100 Days.

Waterloo 1815 figures with something of the feel of the old Esci/Italeri figures. The base is 50mm/2" wide. I am intending eight figures per base and four bases per unit.

Grenadiers of Nassau

First the front side

Then the back side

Drying varnish gleaming in the early morning sunshine...

What's the latest?

The first batch of French Dragoons of course! Whatever else?

Napoleon, in the Rhineland with some Dragoons?

Oh yes, the rest of the Curassiers

Oh, a Dutch Battery appears to be about to either deliver some mighty stick or be completely overrun.

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...

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.