French Line Battalions : No Frills

Recently I started a little project to get some battalions added to my collection quickly. Over the years while adding to my lead mountain I've picked up a lot of loose part painted figures from friends and fellow gamers who have for whatever reason decided not to continue with their 15mm Naps. Previousl I would trade them away for unpainted lead, however I have now decided to speed paint them up and force them into my own armies. 

1st up are 2 battalions of French in advancing poses. They have been cleaned up with scalpel and files to the best I could manage and have been given a no frills paint job.

I have a few more videos of the process on YouTube if anyone is interested. These 2 were finished in 3 weeks so I'm very happy with them!

As the troops are from different collections they were pretty much repainted so they matched each other and my own collection. I have dropped a few highlights and no buttons were painted but despite the short cuts they have come out pretty nice and on the table who will notice?

I threw a few casualties into the mix to give them a hard fighting look. And plenty of overalls plus ticking material was blocked in.

So not the cleanest looking battalions but I'm chuffed they are ticked off my "to do" list!!!

This may well be my last post of 2016. I hope you are all enjoying our hobby and thanks to everyone who has dropped by to have a look or left a comment!!

Have a great Christmas and all the best for 2017!!!

Borodino : Falkirk Wargames Club

In November the lads from the Falkirk Wargames Club put on a 3 day re-fight of the Battle of Borodino. I couldn't get the time off work for the whole weekend however I did manage to get over to Al's to see the set up.

I've put together a wee video and a few pics below. 15mm figures using General de Brigade rules.

The figures are from various collections including some of my own.

This was a spectacular looking table with the company of like minded Napoleonic enthusiasts, I am gutted that I couldn't get the weekend off to take part. Such is life!

The Russians setting out a defensive line.

 

Somewhere around 7000 15mm figures were used throughout the weekend and as expected casualties were high, very high!

The great redoubt built by Peter, I now have the inspiration to build my own some time soon. John S. the gabion defences you sold me will come in very handy!

The French camp with Napoleon in the centre with his historically accurate purple jumper.

Some Germanic cavalry, very pretty.

Very sweet little pontoon bridges.

The Russian HQ looks a little concerned at the scale of the French threat.

Kutuzov scouting out the enemy positions.

That's my post for today, short and sweet. The battle was fought to a bloody draw just like the original.

 I have a few other wee bits and pieces on the go so I hope to get a couple of posts up next month.

Happy Wargaming!

Saxon Von Polenz

Sorry for the lack of updates, I kinda lost the passion for blogging as I don't really have the time to type posts as well as paint so the posts has given way a bit. I do try to keep up with everyone's blogs but I miss a lot. It's maybe also the success of blogs as there are so many excellent blogs to keep track of now. 

I did manage to get a unit finished recently, my Saxon von Polenz cavalry regiment that I started a good while ago and have stop started a few times. I have lost the love for  them a few times which is unfortunate as it's not a difficult uniform to paint. 

The figures are from AB and are lovely however I have to say were a real challenge to clean and continued to be.

However they are done now and look good based up. 

The von Polenz regiment is a very pretty 1, along the lines of the fancy pants French with the wolves teeth saddle of early Prussians or Russians. Very colourfully yet simple at the same time. 

This will be 1 of 3 Saxon light cavalry regiments I'll be doing. the hussars will be next although again looking at the figures I'm put off by the amount of clean up needed around the legs and saddle.

I've been considering dropping some detail work on my painting as on the tabletop it just isn't seen. I'll be having a good think about it as I would like to add a lot more painted figures to my collection over the years.

Anyway that's them done, another 1 ticked off and I'm pleased how they came out in the end.

Hope everyone is enjoying their current projects and hopefully get something else painted up in November. 

Happy Wargaming!!!

Prussian Powder Wagon

Following on from my Prussian horse artillery caisson I've managed to get another of my Prussian vehicles finished. This time a powder wagon.

As usual I've made a wee video of the finished vehicle on YouTube if anyone is interested.

I spotted on the Perry Miniatures website a lovely painted model of a Prussian powder wagon so I decided to try and capture a little bit of its flavour.

The vehicle itself is again a really lovely model produced by bluemoon. I added the T bar at the front from a warbases vehicle and it fits very well. The drivers again are from AB and as usual are excellent.

Obviously being Prussian the text on the wagon is in German so if you spot an error please let me know!

I added a little step onto the vehicle by drilling and threading a little bit of plasticard. I am not 100% sure on this however the position of the little overhang shouts out for a step to me.

This time I went for the regular train driver uniform although it's a tricky 1 to nail down exactly.  From what I've read, been told and seen it was a straight forward dark blue coat with mid to light blue collar with white metal buttons.

They appear to have worn the regular reinforced overall and I went for a red lining like the artillery drivers. Again they appear to have carried a cavalry style sabre on black beltwork.

I am still very much enjoying bring the little bluemoon vehicles to life, however I may take a break to get some more troops finished off.

Mai and I have a little getaway planned so I'll probably not get much progress done for a bit.

Happy Wargaming!!!   

Prussian Horse Artillery Caisson

Life continues to be pretty busy however in my spare time I have slowly pushed on with my Prussian artillery vehicle project.

So the 1st of my artillery park finished is a caisson for my horse artillery batteries.

As mentioned before the vehicle is from the relatively new Bluemoon Prussian range and is really lovely. The drivers are from AB, I had consciously decided a number of years ago to only use a 4 horses team for each of my AB limbers, with the thought of converting Prussian support vehicles this left me spare drivers.

I'm so happy that bluemoon decided to do the support vehicles as they have given me so much inspiration.

For the horse caisson drivers following advice from the lads on FB I decided to add a litewka plus the leatherwork and fittings the horse drivers may have worn. This was added with greenstuff and hasn't come out to badly. 

The caisson was painted with my trusty humbrol Prussian blue lightend with an old grey I have kept over the years so my Prussian vehicles all match.  

The traces were made with twisted thin wire threads and were superglued into holes I drilled at the attachment points. I then created attachment loops and harness with greenstuff. 

I may use this week guy as my profile pic sometime?

All in all a nice little project, the traces were the tricky bit but I think worth it.

I hope everyone is finding some time to paint their toys.

Happy Wargaming!

Some mixed WIP

It's been a while, I've had the urge to build and paint however life has been quite hectic. I have managed a wee bit of progress. I have 2 projects on the go at the moment. 

Saxon light cavalry

I have around 13 finished now however I've jumped again.

As I have a whole lot of prussian artillery wagons on the go. Mostly the lovely Bluemoon vehicles with AB teams.

I've fallen in love with the little bluemoon wagons, a friend put me onto them and now I own Russian, French, Austrian as well as Prussian vehicles.

Here's hoping they do saxon soon!

OK that's me for the moment.

Happy wargaming!!!

Saxon Light Infantry Complete

I've had these guys sitting around finished for a good while now with just the basing needing ticked off, thankfully over the past couple of days I managed to fit them in and so they are the newest recruits to my Napoleonic collection. 

Very happy how they have turned out overall. I like the shades of green however I have never really been 100% happy with the shine that the Foundry paints produce compared to Vallejo, Andrea or even GW yet the shades when varnished look very good.

It's really nice to see how the conversions have turned out, the calf skin covers are maybe my favourite as from a distance they say Saxon more than anything else. The buttons and ticking material also looks pretty good to my eye so definitely nice touch to the unit.

Like a Bavarian light battalion I did earlier I feel the firing line works well and I definitely regret leaving out a few figures from the Bavarian line as suggested by a fellow gamer. To me a firing line looks best when there are plenty of troops in it and there is a lot happening. 

1 of my favourites in the line is the converted Austrian casualty set, they fit in as Saxons very well.

In this pic are 2 musicians, they were a bugger as just before I started to paint I spotted that instead of wings they should have epaulettes. They were a pain and a little rushed, however they will do fine!!!

The mounted officer, I took the white plume from the Peter Bunde plate, probably should be a green plume but who cares!!!

I pinched the idea of the hunting horn on the shako cover from a lovely painted 28mm figure and the Westfalia plates. Apparently the 1st regiment had the pompom colours reversed so these guys are the 1st battalion of the 2nd regiment.

The little casualty figures really add a lot to the battalion so thank goodness Mr Barton sculpted them!!!

A wee close up of the ticking material

A well shot up base!

My Saxons so far, only 6 battalions strong, hopefully I will continue to add to them over the coming year!!!

Thanks for taking the time
Happy Wargaming!!!

Saxon Light Infantry WIP2

This is a very pleasant post for me as the idea to do this battalion has been in my head for a good few years now. When I 1st noticed the difference with the light infantry uniform to the regular line infantry it knocked me off a little as I realised I would probably have to convert the troops. So I'm very happy to see the battalion coming together at long last, and also that the conversion work I've done on them looks not bad at all.

This video is a little old as I am now in the process of finishing off the bases. I plan to do a 2nd battalion, however I'm short a few skirmishing figures so they will have to wait for the moment.

So this is the 32 man battalion glued down and ready to add the sand with PVA

The 1st stage was to get the main troops finished. I tried to put a good variety of headgear and trousers within the unit to give a more unique look.

The calf skin covers were probably the most fun to make and paint as it seems to have been a very Saxon specific piece of kit that must have looked splendid on the battlefield?

These wee guys are converted from Bavarian troops and are probably the weakest area of the battalion as I did the head swaps so long ago. I think on at least 2 of them the heads sit a little to low on the shoulders. However within the battalion who will notice, perhaps a cannon exploded close by? 

Another couple of firing dudes this time with shako uncovered.

My mounted officer, possibly a little fancy considering how all the rest are dressed? I am really happy how his buttons and gorget came out.

Maybe my favourite in the battalion are the officer and trooper converted from an Austrian casualty set as I had to remove the officers sash. I like the way the uniform front falls open plus how the gorget hangs from the uniform (I picked up the idea for this from a Europa militaria book with pictures of french Napoleonic reenactors). 

Another little guy I like, I changed the boots into a more line infantry officer style at the last minute however he still looks fine. Maybe the belt would be better hidden behind the large flap on the front of his overalls?

And a Zimmerman who possibly doesn't quite fit in as he is walking forward while everyone else is standing firing, loading (or dying) around the place.

Thanks for sharing my little journey with these guys!!!
Next time you see them the basing will be 100% complete.

Happy wargaming!!!