NAPOLEONICS IN MINIATURE

Saxon WIP 7

2012-01-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

So my pics are mince, sorry for that as I'm actually very happy with these guys. I have been jumping about (thankfully within the same nation, however still destructive for a good flow of painting) from line to lights and then to artillery. I have managed to screw the nut and get all of my Von Low battalion base painted, AP'd and have done almost half to completion.

I managed to forget the gold band on the officers shakos so I'll have catch that later. I used regal blue for my facing colour and I feel it works a treat, not to dark after the army painter and not to light either.

The mounted officer is slightly converted so he looks different from from my last battalion officer. I repositioned his arm and took off his head and repositioned him looking forward. I have no idea if the saddle covers should have royal logo's but I just gave them a few light swirls for fun.

The regular infantry guys look sweet and as well as the AP are shaded with all 3 Foundry whites (were they needed, I don't really know? maybe just 2 would have done fine?).

despite his glossy appearance this little guy is a dream for me (compared to the last 1 I did!) as I feel the head swap came out fine (he used to be a french grenadier sapper with beard). I struggled a bit with the apron but it looks not to bad. I now have him all highlighted and matt.

The Saxon sappers/pioneers are a little bit of pain for me as when I think of any S/P's I think grenadier and red cords and the only pic I've seen of 1 had red cords (however he was from the artillery so that didn't really help). With the Saxons having completely independent grenadier battalions I think of their S/P having red cords but the line guy I have decided to go with the white cords and NCO coloured pompom (and my light infantry S/P will have dark green). I you know any different please feel free to correct me!!!

15mm Prussian 1806 (3)

2012-01-20T00:09:00.000-08:00

In between working on my Saxons I thought it was about time I posted some more pics of Von Blucher (Johns) excellent early Prussian collection.

This time up are the infantry, not sure of the regiments name so hopefully John will fill us in?

I have the officer in this set but he is destined to be head swapped into a Bavarians officer at some point.

And the lights (jagers?). My brother David and I painted a good few 15mm Minifigs in this uniform basically because we followed the Funcken and thought that the main Prussian troops were in green (seems daft now but we were just starting out and we didn't know anything).

The AB early Prussians look the business . . .

. . . and John has done a fine job with them!

I hope everyone is getting back into the swing of painting etc after Christmas and New Year, I'm snowed under at work at the moment and don't get nearly enough time to paint or even look around blogs.Thanks to everone who has followed my we blog and feel free to leave a link to your own in the comments as sometimes when I click on the avatar there is no returning link. All the best!!!

Saxon Command Finished

2012-01-05T11:20:00.000-08:00

That's the brigade command finished for my 1812 Saxons. Took a while with the conversions but I'm happy how they turned out. I feel the General especially turned out well and I like the combination of uniforms from the big French hat with Saxon cockade to the Germanic style short boots and red breeches plus big shiny star.

Also happy how the horses came out. The Generals horse was painted bestial brown, AP'd then repainted with with the same colour and highlighted with a little cream added, then the socks and mane etc were lightened progressively.

I know the Army Painter method is seen as taking a shortcut but there was quite a bit of painting involved in these 2 afterwards. The horse furniture on both riders I used a GW crimson with Formula P3 Skorne red then AP'd then the skorne red was used on its own (I kept the Generals a shade darker). The Generals breeches were 1st painted skorne red then AP'd and highlighted by repainting skorne red and then adding a little Vallejo vermillion for the highlight.

I went with a warmer flesh tone then highlighted with a lighter flesh after the AP. The coat was GW regal blue, AP'd then repainted and highlighted with a mix of regal blue and mordian blue. I had to go lighter again afterwards as my shading was too subtle (my old WW2 tank painting habits catching me out again!).

I'm pleased with how the epaulets etc turned out. Not sure if I would use wire again or pro-create for the aiguillette? I'll have to do more tests.

1 area I messed around too much was my grey highlights on the bicornes (daft I know). With my shakos I just use a dark grey for speed however with larger surface areas I think I will need to do 2 shades by adding black to the grey as my dark grey is a bit to light.

My wee dudes with their buddies. I'll have to get stuck into the next battalion when I am next off work. Can't fight those massed Russian with only 1 battalion. Very tempted to go straight to my artillery but I really want to have Saxon looking guns and the only way is to convert the French guns I have. I found pics on line of the Calpe Saxon guns un-assembled and pics from Dr Summerfield's Saxon artillery book but to do them right I would really need to see how everything fits together. 1 for the future maybe?

Saxon WIP 6

2012-01-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've had a Saxon command stand in the back of my mind for months, thinking what figures I would use for them. I finally settled on 2 as mentioned in my last post and I just wanted to show you how they developed into a Saxon General and ADC.

The figure on the left is an AB Austrian command figure. He fits the bill because he has the short boots shown on the pics of Saxon General plus he is pretty much a blank canvas as he has no epaulettes or turn-backs and there is very litte saddle detail.

I started by adding the saddle detail to the General as well as reshaping its rear. I gave him epaulettes and repositioned his hat to the later style (this was pinned into place). I then turned it into a French pattern bicorne while adding the Saxon style of national cockade and pin. The ADC was given an aiguillette made of wire and the ADC armband on the right side and rear.

Here they are mounted up, baset coated and painted with Army Painter dark tone. I'm finding the Army Painter is helping me get my figures painted quicker however after the AP is applied I still do a fair bit of fine detailing. I believe I do just as much painting as before when I worked from dark to light from a black undercoat.

Forgot to mention I also added some appropriate lace to the Generals chest plus turn-backs and an iron cross to the ADC. I'll post pics when they are totally finished.

Saxons WIP 5

2011-12-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of pics to show I have actually started my next Saxon battalion. I didn't feel much like painting tonight however I plugged on and got my 1st wee man for the battalion AP'd just to make sure they would look fine. I let him dry for a short while and started messing around with the second coat (just to test the water). Thumbs up!!!

1st battalion Von Low (blue facings with white metal buttons) all cleaned up and ready to be painted. Loads of conflicting info on uniforms (even my flag sheets have conflicting names). I'm going with what the 28mm guys say.

A crap pic (someone with jam fingers was using the camera at Christmas and I have been struggling to clean it). Anyway just like my last battalion I did a test figure and he looks pretty good. Once totally dry he will be pretty much repainted, I went with a darker flesh undercoat (that looks not too bad), I'll highlight with the lighter shade so with the AP it will look like 3 shades.

The Master Plan: Robert over at "La Bricole Forum" set the rules on the painting comp (bog standard troops from any Nation). I consider the Saxons to be a cut above (ahmm) however they fit the bill. I have set myself the challenge of painting 3 line battalions (yes 3) and 1 light battalion as well as a foot artillery battery and command base, oh and some jagers before close of play 31th March. Will I be able to do it? Not a chance in the hot burny place!!! However I will try to do as much as I can as after all its a great excuse to get stuck into that unpainted lead pile.

Started converting my Saxon command tonight as I couldn't be bothered painting and just wanted to chill watching a fikm. The General was an Austrian with reshaped saddle and bicorne repositioned, fine detail still to be added. The ADC was French with the roll around his chest removed and saddle reshaped and again the fine detail to be added. I have planned to keep all my nations brigade command to 2 figures but I was tempted to make this a 3 man and put in a white uniformed mounted officer to differenciate the Saxons from my fuure French. I decided with the 2 as the red breeches of the general should sort that out.

Been on shift since 31st December 2011 and finished today 2nd at 3pm. Again I didn't much fancy sitting down to paint so after a wee sleep I did some more work on converting my Austrian and French command into Saxons following pics I have found online. With a bit of luck I will be finished them tomorrow and they will be ready to paint. Sorry about the pics being a little rough.

Competition Time (1)

2011-12-24T17:57:00.000-08:00

I would like to wish everyone a very

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Thanks to everyone who has visited my blog for a wee look or to leave a comment and to everyone I have exchanged emails with. It has been a fun year even if I didn't get very many figures painted and I will work towards changing that ASAP!!!

Now to a little bit of Business, Curt over at Analogue Hobbies has started another competition. Even though I have no thoughts that I can paint enough figures to win it is great fun taking part and inspiration to get the brushes out. The comp started 20th December (my 1st efforts of 2 walls and a hallway in my house were not scored!!!).

And a second competition has also begun!!! Robert over at La Bricole has started a Naps comp (bog standard troops). Again I don't for a minute believe I have a chance of winning but it is great to be taking part alongside so many top painters and I'm excited to see all the troops coming together.

These are the troops I hope to paint for both competitions, roughly a Saxon brigade in total. As you can see I have all my gear looked out for them. I won't be sticking rigidly to any 1812 or 1813 order of battle (sorry to any purists reading).

If I get half this lot finished I will be happy so wish me luck!!!

28mm French Artillery (1)

2011-12-24T08:23:00.000-08:00

This is my brother David's French foot battery from Perry miniatures. I think young David painted the first 1 to get David started and he finished the rest. I think they are great!

Was speaking with David about the colours he used on the guns as I would like to use the same for my own and it would appear they used my Foundry dragoon green shade and highlight (and I'm not getting them back!!!)

You can't beat that greatcoat campaign look.

The caission kit looks excellent and is my favourite (David made a few wee bits to sit around his base, I'll have to ask him what they all are). I think the Caission still has a highlight and some inner detail to be finished.

It is amazing how much detail you can get in with the army painter.

More cool little hangers around.

There is a nice story behind these (you may have already read?). I ordered the Perry heavy cavalry army deal plus ADC and another artillery crew. I received the figures that as you would expect are superb. However it appeared we had received a Guard horse artillery gun and crew instead of the heavy cavalry Generals. I sent an email off to Perry Miniatures explaining what happened and as quick as a flash the Generals arrived and Alan Perry said we could keep the Guard horse artillery set!!! How cool is that. David loves them and no doubt will complete the battery so a win, win all round.

28mm French Line (1)

2011-12-22T01:43:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before my brother David has started a collection of 28mm Naps using Perry figures and he is quite quickly working his way through them. Des if you are reading this I would like to introduce to you your new enemy :0)

David has completed 4 line battalions.

2 with eagles (I think the 108th and the 57th, the terrible 57th!) and 2 with fanions plus loose voltigeurs. The flags like our French 15's come from the excellent "Flags for the Lads" 1812 French range.

David says he coul'd have done them without Army Painter. David has been following the Saxon Dog blog for a good while now and it has obviously inspired him to get his troops finished off.

Some of the voltigeurs with a spare command stand to increase the number of battalions if the figures are reduced per unit.

I think I may start my own 28mm collection sometime in the new year?
There will be lots more to come as I bought David the Perry Miniatures heavy cavalry army deal for Christmas!!!

And finally the General de Brigade (I think?).
Finished artillery to follow!

Our Young Guard

2011-12-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

Well the 2nd Annual Analogue Hobbies painting comp has started and I have been stuck painting the house. Anyway tonight we made our way up to my parents to drop off some snow shovels and popped into my brothers on the way home. The Davids have been busy painting and I wanted to get some pics.

Seems like a long time ago now when David and I got back into Naps and the 1st show we went to was the Falkirk wargames show. There was a guy selling off all his unpainted OG 15's (large packs of roughly 100). David was cautious as he wasn't sure how long the phase would last but I still bought a stack.

This young guard battalion was the 1st figures I painted from the haul. David decided on French so I chose to go for Prussians (and later russians) so my OG young guard were put to the back of the line.

Over the last few years young David has come through as a cracking figure painter and he like his dad has started doing French (as well as space marines, 15mm and 20mm WW2 and LotR). recently he was asking about the young guard and I passed onto him the remaining 2 battalions (as well as 3 battalions of middle guard so watch this space).

It is great to see the young guard finally finished and ready to join David's French army (especially as they don't count as guard!!!).

The flags come from "Flags for the Lads" French 1812 range and are excellent.

Lets hope I can get some of my own stash of lead finished soon.

15mm Prussian 1806 (2)

2011-12-14T16:43:00.000-08:00

Here are some more of John's excellent early Napoleonic Prussians.

I think this will be a command for the lights (or jaegers?).

Again John has used my favourite figure from the Jena set.

I know I am in the wrong period but for some reason this figure in the centre always reminds me of Fredrick the Great.

I wish I had the determination to get so many of my commands finshed for the same army!

Some really nice Prussian dragoons.

And the Von Beeren cuirassiers.

I have been looking for this colour of yellow myself for some time, dark but bright.

Next I will show John's artillery.

15mm Prussian 1806 (1)

2011-12-08T00:20:00.000-08:00

A few months back I completed a couple of Napoleonic purchases with 1 of our cousins from the USA (Von Blucher). With us enjoying the same hobby we kept in contact and have shared some very pleasant and helpful correspondence (The internet certainly does shrink the world). Anyway Von Blucher (John) is a brilliant figure painter and has allowed me to post some pictures of his fine work.

1st up are some of Von Bluchers command stands.

As you will most probably know already if Naps are your thing these figures are from the 1806 AB Prussian range. A range I don't know myself in great detail.

This figure is 1 of my favourites, I have him converted to a Bavarian ADC ready to paint so to see how John has tackled him is very helpful.

I think John and I have a very similar style for painting uniforms and horses? I am a little lazy on the faces of my figures by just using 1 flesh tone over my black undercoat giving a high contrast. I decided early on with my collection that I just didn't have enough available time to add the extra detail. I very much prefer how John does his!

I particularly like John's horses as although we have the same style of painting I have a tendency to go way to dark and subtle with my horses.

This horse (and rider) is stunning! I love the shading on the horse.

When I see a collection of well painted figures like these I instantly want to go and get my paints out!

I'm sure you will have found John's figures as inspiring as I have and I will post more pics soon.

Saxons finished!

2011-11-23T21:06:00.000-08:00

I have been on a bit of a high tonight. Text JP out of the blue to see if the guys had any games planned mid week (usually I am working and can't make it) and I hit the jackpot!!! The guys had arranged a 2 night battle at the 'D' mans new house (10mm Naps Peninsular). Thankfully I was welcome to come along and the 1st night was great fun!!! Pics to come!!!

Anyway I returned pretty late but inspired and decided to sit down and get my wee guys finished and here they are.

I'm well chuffed with them in the end as I have been fitting them in the odd hour here and there and I have to be honest and say I wasn't really challenged with them. The Army Painter broke the back of them and after that I just felt they were pretty much complete. The weird thing is the AP kind of fools you. You paint the base coats of the figure then apply the AP and leave it to dry and then you go back and use another coat and then highlight those colours. So you really are applying 2 or 3 shades and it doesn't feel like it because after the AP is applied you feel as if the figure is ready to game with.
Does that sound stupid?

I felt the detail on the edge of the flag was poor so I have painted over it until a later date when I will either handpaint it (or maybe the Flags for the Lads guys will bring out an 1812 Saxon set and save me the hassle?).

The wee sapper turned out not too bad. if I look close in at him I would say his head sits too far up and should be more into the collar. I tried different Saxon heads and this was the 1 that best fitted.

So who are these guys anyway? Well I did think I was painting Prinz Clemens regiment from the sources I used but it would appear these guys (green facings with white metal buttons) are Von Low which is fine as I had them down to paint anyway.

Will I be painting any more Saxons, Definitely! I have 3 more line battalions, a grenadier battalion, light battalion and also a foot artillery battery to do.

Question is what will I paint next?

Anyone have any suggestions on what figures they would like to see painted?

Bavarians, Russians, Saxons, Prussians, French? Command, Cavalry, Artillery or Foot?

Saxons WIP 4

2011-11-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

I know I said that I wouldn't be posting anymore work in progress pics until they were all based and finished but I think it will be another week or 2 before I get the chance to finish them due to work (and decorating before Christmas commitments, remember if the wife asks you ain't seen me painting wee men!!!). So I decided on 1 more WIP set of pics as I just got them based up.

Loads of finishing to do: another coat of PVA, earth brown then dry brush lighter on the sand. Then I have to work at finshing off each individual base. I have left a lot of buttons and highlights to the last plus a few corrections on details, drummers wings etc (However they are now a unit and all based up ;0).

My wee sapper dude, very pleased with him and over all well happy with the AP method for painting white.

Oh and 1 last point . . . Saxons Rock!! I'll definitely be doing a good few more.

Saxons WIP 3

2011-11-17T19:38:00.000-08:00

OK last post of the Saxons until I get them all finished off and based up, However I wanted to share my latest little piece of madness!!!

Sometimes a month will pass or maybe 3 without any little stars floating about my head but surprisingly recently I have had a few. Been looking around the Calpe site and also at Von Peter's website to try and get some inspiration for my own Saxons and here is what I came up with, a little sapper with calfskin shako cover and a little bit of conversion work. And this is after I decided that I was going to bump through my Saxons!!!

It all started with an AB Saxon foot officer in greatcoat that didn't quite fit in with the rest of his pals and as I didn't have any marching infantry spares I had to find something to fill the gap. I had dropped the idea of converting a sapper for these guys a few months back but then after seeing the Calpe 1 it reminded me that I had a few spare French infantry sapper that I didn't need.

At 1st I thought I would just file the original head and add some green stuff and he would be done. Unfortunately it would appear that the Saxons didn't sport a massive beard and also wore the standard shako. I have a few spare flag guys so I swapped his head (drilled it and pin it) and added trouser, changed the apron as well as adding collar, side burns and clipped the eppaulettes., not perfect but he will do just fine. I only wish I could get a cast of 4 or 5 more to save me doing it all again for the next battalion!!!

Just encase you thought I was joking about getting stuck into these guys here they are all in their different stages. If I hadn't got sidetracked with my wee pal they would be all AP'd.

A little comparison shot, I went with a deeper gold for the second batch and it worked out much better. I think once highlighted it will look good. Also there are a number of figures who don't have shako cords and I think with the next battalion I will add calfskin covers to their shakos.

Saxons WIP 2

2011-11-14T08:59:00.000-08:00

Been feeling like a kid again since trying out the army painter last night. I have the day off and have spent most of it decorating (and if the wife asks that is what I have been doing all day ;0). The past hour I gave in and managed to finish off my four Saxon test figures for the Prinz Clemens.

Big apology right out for the poor pictures, I will get that sorted over the coming months. Just wanted to say how pleased I am with my wee guys.

I decided to go with the Foundry Austrian white mid tone to repaint the uniform after AP and I am happy with that and then a final little highlight with the light white (you can't really make it out from my pics).

I will have to be more careful with my base coats as the army painter doesn't seem to be as forgiving on 15mm Naps. Not sure if it makes any difference at all to highlighting the flesh again after using the AP? I highlighted the cheek bones, nose etc of this officer ut he looks exactly like the others who didn't get the highlight. Also forgot to highlight the officers hat and boots with dark grey.

Also I think I will go down a shade for the sword blades and epaulettes etc so as my final highlight stands out better. Woodwork I will do the opposite and go lighter as the AP works best on them.

Still not sure 100% about my green for this regiment and trying to dull it down after the AP isn't so easy (something for me to think about). Really important to file/cut away any cast lines as they would stand out a mile with the AP.

Overall, very happy with my test and I recon if the figures are prepared and based up ready to paint I think I could get a battalion AP'd in a day and maybe finish it off the next (basing would another story though).

Now all I have to do is find a day!!!

A huge thanks to everyone who has took the interest to check out my blog over the past year and to all the new folk who have followed it. Great to know there are loads of people who have a similar interest in Naps. And again thanks to all your comments!!!

Saxons WIP 1

2011-11-13T13:31:00.000-08:00

Well I have jumped again, I have been keen to start my Saxons for a very, very long time and I've had it in the back of my mind how I was going to do them. I plan on not spending as much time on them as I do with my other armies (especially as my free time is very limited at the moment) and with my brother's army painter exploits I decided that this was the path I would take. (army painter on 15mm AB Naps, Can he be serious I hear you say!!! Well yeah but just as a wee test to see if it works out) .

The only thing to work out was what shade of army painter (I decided on dark tone) and what colours to use for whites (Foundry white shade and I have a feeling I should have went with the mid tone!).

Anyway I blocked in the colours (missed a couple of details and maybe the green is too bright) and painted on the AP (hard to control the stuff when it is dipped) and I have to say I am really pleased with the results.

It took about 25 mins to paint these four and that isn't at all bad, and once dry I will be painting in all the main detail I have missed, a couple of highlights on the white plus I'll try and dull down the green.

Still I am pretty chuffed with the result as they look not too bad for the time I spent on them!!! Will I be doing all my figures with army painter from now on? Na I doubt it, but it does look to be a handy tool to get some wee men painted up ASAP!

Bavarian Lights WIP

2011-10-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time these guys were brought out of their Chinese take-away boxes and restarted. I was really enjoying painting my Bavarians when I decided everything should be put away until the dust in the loft settled.

I finished the remaining base colours and stuck them onto some new bases last week. So with a day off today I got the white glue out and stuck on some sand, let it dry and then cleaned up around the feet etc then sealed the sand in with a very thin coat of PVA.

Next step will be to get the ground work painted, dry brushed and then tidy up the black undercoat on the areas I have rubbed off before I finish the detail work (buttons, highlights weapons etc).

Despite the many false starts with them they are starting to come together. I should have finished them long ago so if I get them finished by the end of October I'll be happy!

C.W.C 10.9.11 part2

2011-10-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Totally forgot about the 2nd part of our club battle back in September. Just to fill you in JP, Jon B and Des have been embracing the GdB deluxe addition while I've been absent and have been bumping and bashing their way through the changes. To be honest looking back we were all over the place with a lot of our thinking but it didn't matter. Our wee men were out and moving around the table and that's the main thing!

Anyway when we last seen them David's French columns were running head long into a six gun Russian foot battery!!!

Enough to make any grown man fill their boots. Still they held their nerve and managed to charge home.

Meanwhile along to our right the rest of the Prussians and Bavarians were holding their own.

I was able to bottle up the French cavalry reserves and I had my fingers crossed that time would run down before they could break through.

This 1 is for my brother David!!! His newly finished French battalions captured the guns, massacred the gunners and were well on the way to capturing the main hill.

Then things started to look decidedly dodgy at my end of the table when the French guard began to appear on my left!! (who thought up this daft scenario anyway JP???)

As the day went on more and more French poured onto the hill and with only Prussian reserves in (well reserve) things looked bleak to say the least.

Darkness was beginning to fall and we could hear a rather large lady in the room next door practicing her vocal exercises so we decided to call it a day. The French had taken 1 of the main hills (no wonder with the amount of troops they had). The Guard had begun to turn my flank and our centre was no more.

Loads of mistakes made but we had fun.

Fun in the Loft

2011-10-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Having a weekend off has become pretty unusual for me so when I end up with 3 days off I don't know what to do with myself. I know I should be cracking on painting the loft to get it all finished and ready for carpeting but I've had a few new arrivals and fancied messing about with them.

1) I picked up a couple of resin redoubts (as well as fleches) from a wargamer in the USA. My 40mmx40mm artillery don't quite fit them so I will have to do some sawing/patching to sort that out. I will be mounting them on some board and repainting them etc.

A little tester for possible battles to come.

I don't have many French done so it will be down to the David's to supply an enemy for my Russians to fight.

2) My brother David managed to pick me up some tables and chairs for our wargames. Brilliant!!!

He is going to see if he can get me another table so fingers crossed.

3) I mentioned a few posts back that I picked up some Fantassin Prussians from ebay. Well this is them with a couple of spare AB's and a BH mounted officer added in.

All the figures in this photo are Fantassin. I have pretty much totally repainted them. To be honest I'm not that impressed with the casting. The figures are the same size as AB's but some of the detail is pretty rough and there are a few arms missing. I have no idea where these figures started life so there is no way of telling if they are copies or originals?

Anyway I have based up the 2nd battalion and added in some spare AB's to fill up the numbers. This is how the figures came to me so I'm happy how the 1st battalion came out.

4) David spotted this while on holiday (and I pinched it!) and thought it would be good for something. I have no idea if it is the right period or style for our Naps battles? I was thinking of using it for Saxony 1813 or France 1814, possibly even Belgium 1815, what do you think?

C.W.C 10.9.11 part1

2011-10-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

So it's now the 1st of October and I've been working flat out since these pictures were taken. JP (shown below in a hooped jumper that his wife knitted him for Christmas last year) has been off to Spain golfing with friends and back for 2 weeks (with the usual tan) and I'm only now getting round to posting the battle report for our game back in September!

Yet another rusty Napoleonic game: We had a good crowd on the day (8) for our game alone. the 3 Johns, JP and Jon B have moved onto the deluxe GdB rules so they were the order of the day. DC, Tam, DEsMONd, my brother David and me.

The wife and I had, had a skin full the night before (Mai managed to drink a full 3 Coppaburgs instead of her usual 1 glass of red before falling asleep) so I was happy to take a flank. I had a mixed heavy cavalry brigade of Prussian and Russian Cuirass.

With a light brigade of Prussian lancers (with some Russian cossacks attached for effect, and they did panic their opponents!!!). The Lancers (that I bought myself!!!) were painted and based by JP for his own collection and look great.

In the allied centre (my right) was Jon B with a mixed Prussian/Russian infantry brigade with supporting artillery holding 1 of the 2 French objectives.

Facing Jon was the main French thrust from David P Snr with his newly painted French battalions (and 1 of mine ;0) and John M with another French brigade slightly off to our left.

The French goal for the day was to take 1 of the 2 hills commanding the battlefield. I thought that was a bit too easy with the amount of troops the guys had!!!

JP was assaulting our far right (DC) with another load of French infantry.

As well as a horde of French light cavalry.

Japanese Fighter Pilot

2011-09-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is just for fun.

Knowing that winter is just around the corner I picked up a cool hat and gloves set for Mai and by chance Mai had ordered up some new boots.

Throw in an old winter jacket and as if by magic Mai is transformed into a WW2 fighter pilot.

Right back to the Naps.
I have again been far to busy with work (taking all sorts of shifts to get our saving back on track). These were originally my own figures but I passed them (as well as some other stuff) to my buddy JP for some help provided and also for being a thoroughly nice bloke. I think he has made a great job of them!

I mentioned it before but I really like the Napoleonic eye candy.

I picked up 2 lots of 15mm Prussians off ebay at very good prices recently.
You know the kind of lots, not so good photo's, you think some of the figs are AB so you watch to see if the price is right. Well I won cavalry and infantry/artillery for a good price and it turned out a nice deal as the cavalry had a 24 man AB regiment (that I was counting on) as well as a bonus AB lancer regiment (26) and 16 fantassin hussars and a small mountain of other makes. The second lot were AB artillery and just short of 2 battalions of fantassin Prussians with again a good few other makes. I took a mad turn and cleaned up the Fantassin infantry adding in some AB figures to make 2 battalions of the Colberg regimen. They are almost finished as I JP style machine gun painted them and they are not looking too bad.

Also the loft is now complete with electrics and woodwork so all I have to do is finish painting it and put a carpet down, pick up a chair from Ikea and I hopefully will be ready for some serious painting!!!

BH French Infantry 1

2011-09-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today I was able to make it down to the club and the guys put on a pretty big Naps game (battle report to come). I managed to take some pics of my brother Davids growing collection. Sorry for the qualtiy of pics.

Neil if you are reading this buddy most of these marching dudes are the BH figures you sent up with a few AB command added in. They have helped David fill out his French battalions, so many thanks!!!

Flags are from "Flags for the Lads" French 1812 range and are brilliant.

You can see the guard command base in the background still needign to have the flag/fanion fitted. Filling in as line command for the day.

1st Battalion 57th Iine

2011-08-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

For the past 20 years I have had a huge amount of 25/28mm Naps figures taking space around our family homes and last year I finally decided that I was not going to start them let alone finish them. I posted on this blog with a hope for a swap with any fellow wargamer who was looking to move from 15mm to 28mm Naps. I was lucky that Neil from Napoleonic Wargamer had the same idea as me and was happy to swap his AB and Battle Honours collection for my Elite and Essex collection.

I had planned to rush through my French, not painting any buttons or edging, with very little detail work so I would have a force to fight my Prussians and Russians pretty quick but that turned out to be a piece of nonsense as I ended up trying to hit as much detail as I could. Something about spots, leopard and changing comes to mind.

Neil had given me a good start with around 14 of the figures being base coated already plus some flesh and a fair bit of detail was present in some so I managed to put them into my own style pretty easily.

The hardest part was deciding on the shades of grey so the white belts didn't look to harsh or not strong enough. I ended up with my old trust codex grey for the belts with a highlight of a lighter grey before the white on the trousers.

Anyway I am pretty happy how they are turning out. I stupidly messed up the flag. I glued the eagle the wrong way round and had to try and turn it! Total killer!!! Beautiful flags from the 1812 set of Flags for the Lads (I like their French Flags a lot!)

Any mistakes with pom poms or wings for the drummers etc feel free to point them out. I haven't looked at French for a very long time and probably missed a lot of detail. I got a little confused with the command group, I take it the eagle guard is a grenadier figure?

Carlisle or Bust

2011-08-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

At the turn of the month Mai and I managed a little weekend away with our family. David spotted a campsite (mostly wigwams) online last year and we were keen to try it out. Just before we left Mai and I picked up our new car a wee Suzuki Alto (my 1st new car).

Mai fell in love instantly.

Me with the shugs outside Carlisle castle (Ian left, me centre and young David right)

David with his WW2 Japanese infantry hat (nae it's from regatta).

Most of the Motley crew, Mina P, Jim P (my oldest bro), David P Jnr, David P Snr (David started all this modelling/wagaming/figure painting stuff off! sometimes I wonder if David hadn't painted wee figures from childhood would I have started at all? All I was interested in as a kid was playing football and it was only sitting around looking over his shoulder as he painted his 15mm French Minifigs that I took an interest in toy soldiers,) plus Ian and me.

Mia having her 1st drink of the night (a big event as Mai is usually smashed after 2 glasses of wine!!! Seriously!!!!)

I seem to have grown an extra chin lately.

It seems our camera is great at catching pictures at night nad especially flames.

Me and the boys keeping the home fires burning.

This is the luxury the girls had to sleep in.

Us guys were in a large tent. I had a camp bed and I kept my mouth shut as it was excellent. the Davids had an air bed that seemed to go flat each night. Jim, well Jim is ex army of 22 years and can lay down just about anywhere and get a good nights sleep (he had our new airbed and when I vaulted over him around 7.30am to go for a shower he looked like a little baby deer all snuggled up ;-)

Perry French WIP

2011-08-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

I stopped over at my brother David's house before we set off for Claymore in Edinburgh and as well as the figures from my previous post I managed to take a few pics of David's growing 28mm French force.

As I've mentioned before, this is a bit of a change for David as I had stacks and stacks of 25/28mm Naps up until last year and he didn't ever fancy touching them. After trying out 28mm ACW figures with Army Painter and also seeing the cracking figures over on the Saxon Dog blog David finally convinced himself to have a go at a few figures.

I think they have turned out brilliant!!! Young David started off a few of the Artillery crew but pretty much all the figures you see here have been painted by David Snr. As you can see they are not 100% finished as yet.

At each show David has been slowly adding to his collection. The last lot being a caission and artillery helpers.

I would say my favourites are the artillery figures but all the figures look great to me. It goes without saying I will have to in time paint up some Perry Prussians (and hopefully Russians) to fight them!!!

Again the pics were taken on the Saturday morning with the light streaming through David's patio doors but you can see the figures pretty well.

Davids French Guard 1

2011-08-06T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well I have nothing to show myself at the moment (almost finished an AB French line battalion) although my young nephew David has been working his way through two 15mm French Guard battalions, 1 AB and 1 Old Glory (Sorry about the crappy pics)

I personally prefer the Old Glory figures as there are so many poses

To me they really look like old grumblers

The mounted officer if anyone is interested is an extra Ney figure we had that I converted with some miliput. The Davids have 2 AB chasseur battalions that I gave them as a Christmas present a couple of years ago and this is the 1st finished (flag are from Flags for the Lads)

Wargaming Loft WIP

2011-07-03T03:55:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has dropped by my blog in the past few months will have read that I have been getting my loft floored and turned into a storage room (wargaming room). So I thought it was about time I posted some pictures of how it is coming along.

The project stopped for a couple of months with Mai and I over in the Philippines and our joiner Paul building a castle round his house (yes a castle!!!) as his daughter was the queen at a local gala day.

While we were away my brother David kept the project on track and it is really coming together well and we can now see an end in sight.

There will be storage spaces for all our junk (mostly mine :-) under the roof angles.

And with good use of an unused cupboard we have a stair up into the loft.

Von Hannah donated some 2x2 wargaming tiles he was getting rid of so when it's all complete and I have a few tables they will do until I make up my mind what my plans are. I couldn't resist getting some troops out for a photoshoot!!!

Napoleon and Chums

2011-06-26T17:24:00.001-07:00

Like many I have been having a hard time with blogger to the point I was just going to give up on it. I have followed all the advice fellow bloggers have given me but still I cannot post comments on others blogs. huff! And there are loads I would like to comment on! Also it seems that my followers have disappeared from the screen?

Anyway I have been working all weekend and I have a short break this evening before starting back shift again tomorrow. I didn't plan on painting until my wife mentioned that I hadn't painted anything in a good while. Since we've been away in the Philippines my brother David has been rattling through his Perry French (3 battalions and 3 guns plus crew finished and they look cracking) and he was telling me the other night on the phone that he had ordered up a howitzer, limber and a few command sets (1 of which was Napoleon). He wasn't sure about having a go at Napoleon yet and I said I would give him a go.

So over dinner Mai produced a little black box with the above Perry figures that David had passed onto her the other night while she was visiting . Mai suggested I chill out with a glass of red and get my paints out (I love my wife :-) So for the 1st time since we got back I got stuck in. Gave the figures a fast clean up and glued them onto some bases, blackened them up and blocked in some colours. I have only spent 2 hours on painting them so far as I want to knock them together pretty quick and I'm glad to say I'm really enjoying them. The camera hasn't picked up the shades great but they are there. In closer inspection I could have spent a bit more time on the clean up but I am sure David will be pleased with them when they are done. Hope I don't upset anyone here but I have to say I am finding the 28mm Naps much easier to detail and also faster to paint than 15mm AB figures.

I'll just add they have given me the chance to try out some Foundry flesh I picked up at the Falkirk show. I used the native American tones mid and light with a final bit of white added to the light for the highlight. I must say I am very happy with them so far

(cheers for the tip R)

Philippines 1

2011-06-10T04:14:00.001-07:00

Well sadly that's us back from the philippines and back to work, the 3 weeks disappeared fast but thankfully we got the chance to have some fun!

The last time I was over was 2006 and the kids are all growing up fast.

We planned to go later in the year but Jim and Mina (already married almost 2 years ago!) decided to have their church wedding in May and as best man I had to be there. Try making a full room of Filipinos laugh at your best man speech when you have a thick Scottish accent! (I'm sure everyone in the room had a strong grasp of English but I do not!!!)

And the picture that proves that not only am I younger and better looking than my wife,
I'm also a better dancer ;-)

The Santa Cruz de Mayo, A religious celebration held each night during the month of May for the children of each barangy (mini council area).

This is my goddaughter Angel, the last time I saw her she was a baby and now she speaks perfect English (favourite fraze "Smack Down"). The kids watch far to much wrestling!!!

Some boating fun down at Raphaels Farm (our new neighbour).

Marky challenged me to a sumo fight off (I kicked his ass!!)

We didn't have much rain but when it did rain WOW!!!
This is a world famous Jeepney.

We also made some new friends on our travels.
This is Colin and Delia (lovely people) with Jim, Mina, Mylene and myself.

Roger as I know you love cats this 1 is for you buddy, When we were sitting in the garden late at night enjoying our chilled beers little visitors would drop by from time to time.

Collection So Far

2011-05-08T07:51:00.001-07:00

This is definitely my last post for a while. A few people have asked to see a picture of how my collection is coming together so I took some pics when photographing my Russian jagers. They were all put in the boxes in a hurry after our last battle so are not in order.

I stupidly forgot to add in my Minifigs Prussian to the pics (4 battalion, artillery battery and jager) but it gives you an idea of where I am at.

Cavalry: Prussian dragoons, cuirassier, Russian cuirassier plus Prussian command. Russian horse limber and some Prussian jager.
Prussian infantry: Silesian jager battalion, West Prussian regiment (3 bts), Pommeranian landwher battalion, 2 reserve battalions, foot battery and 3 command stands.
Prussian Infantry: West Prussian grenadiers, 2 guard battalions
Artillery: Russian horse battery, foot battery and foot limber plus Prussian horse battery.

Bavarians: Kinkel battalion, foot battery, limber and command.
Russians: Line battalion and jager battalion with some WIP cossacks (and some more Prussian jager).

Russian infantry Old Glory: 2 line battalions, 1 jager, 3 grenadier (now 4), 12pdr foot battery and command. I plan to experiment and expand on my Old Glory and Battle Honours Russians. I think I have 8 or 9 battalions, 2 foot batteries of OG and 4 BH still to do. I want to paint them up fast so as I can then move onto my AB Russians. I'll post pics to show how I get on. I have around 30 cossacks, 3 Russian bts, 2 Bavarian bts and a Russian foot battery on the go (cleaned up and undercoated)

Russian Jager

2011-05-04T12:19:00.001-07:00

Moving on from the Stylish blog nominations I have been working through some more Russians. These have been great fun if not a little tricky to do. I wasn't expecting to have anything done for a good while as I agreed to help out a friend with some figures, however he is away on holiday and I will be going soon too so we've put it on hold till June. (any burglars who stumble onto my blog the house will be occupied the whole time we are away ;-)

The post is a little picture heavy so sorry about that. The Jagers are all from AB and as I mentioned earlier were a little tricky as with the black belts against the green uniform you really don't get to see how they will finish up until you get the final grey highlight on and varnish them.

My regular setup with the elite base split so they can either be placed at the head of the column or placed at either side of the centre companies.

These guys are the 2nd battalion of 11th jager regiment from 7th division in 1812. I have 3 more battalions to do.

I added a hornist into the front rank of my main command stand to try and give them a more light infantry feel. Also my jagers (as with my Prussian fusiliers and Bavarian/Saxon lights) are all in skirmish order either firing, loading or advancing, my line are all in march attack. It's just my way of differentiating between my light and line.

I picked up some AB casualty figures in a swap with Neil of the Napoleonic Wargamer blog (thanks Neil) and will be adding some into all my jager battalions.

When I plan my battalions I try to add at least 1 character figure into each full company, either a musician, officer, NCO or casualty just to give a little extra interest.

I'm not sure if this will be of any help to anyone but since this little tip was passed to me for doing my WW2 bases years ago I have found it really handy. I put my static grass into old washed out and dried plastic fairy bottles (doesn't have to be fairy ;-) and after I have added PVA to my base I shoot the grass onto the areas (over an old take-away container). I find this helps the static grass stay standing up and afterwards you just pour the excess grass back into the bottle.

Also I have been working on some cossacks I picked up a couple of years ago from Stuart at our club. JP had hammered through them so I debased and demounted them, cleaned them up with files and mounted them on new bases. I blacked the areas JP had missed and have started repainting them. As with the rest of my OG Russians I am not going to spending as much time on them as with my AB's.

They still have to have their metal work cleaned up and the horses need finished but they are coming together well. I have 15 OG and 30 of a Polish manufacturer as well as a hand full of BH and AB's.

I've also managed to get another OG Russian grenadier battalion based and varnished. All they need now is their flags and grassed to finish them off.

I'll be heading off to Falkirk for their annual show this Saturday. I'll be just off night shift so will be half dead but if you see someone wandering around with a rucksack full of goodies who looks like the guy in this photo it is most probably me (i'm the 1 with the red hair!). By all means say hello as it would be cool to put some faces to names.
This will definitely be my last post for a good while so Happy painting!
Cheers Paul

Award Ceremony

2011-05-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

Right it is time I took a break from my very busy schedule to receive my nomination for:

I have no idea when and where the award started going around but the 1st time I spotted it was over at The Angry Lurkers blog. It is with great pride that my wee local blog from rural Scotland has been nominated not once, not twice but 3 times!!!! The wife spotted 2 nominations last night and by the 3rd she had me pinned down and questioned me if I had been stupid enough to invest our savings in some pyramid/chain letter type scheme? I would just like to say that everything is under control now and she understands that it is just a bit of online fun!!!

Anyway I would like to thank my little old Mum, my hard as nails Dad (SERIOUSLY HE IS), my lovely wife (goes without saying but I better say it anyway if you know what I mean) and the wee mouse who visits us from time to time when its cold outside. You have been my inspiration (that and the gallons of red wine it takes to keep a steady hand while painting the piping on a 15mm figure ;0) So who are the gallant knights I have to thank for nominating me for this prestigious award I here you say? Well in no particular order:

Doc from http://docsartofwar.blogspot.com/
KP from http://kingsleypark64.blogspot.com/

Carlo from http://militaryminiatures-carloantonio.blogspot.com/

I just spotted that Mr Rosbif from: http://rosbiffrog.blogspot.com/

has given me a 4th nomination for "stylish blogger" so thanks again guys!!!

ok WHATS NEXT? 7 Things you probably didn't know about me:

1. I am very shy by nature and am not so comfortable in daylight. I think it has something to do with my red hair, pale skin and freckles? Yes I am a red head (actually more golden now)
2. For a couple of years I worked as a male stripper until a very unfortunate groin injury from the heel of an ex-girlfriend cut my career short.
3. I lived in Slovakia for a short while and managed to travel around most of Eastern Europe during that time. Probably the best time of my life as I didn't have a mortgage to pay!
(beautiful part of the world)
4. I was a Graphic Designer for around 12 years in a former life and very much enjoyed it and picking up a few awards along the way too. I miss my Mac (only time in my life I felt respected in a job).
5. After some intense physiotherapy I tried to make a comeback at the stripping but when your wife laughs you off the stage you know it's time to hang up the old elephant G-string!
6. I'm married to a little Filipina lady who is older than me!!! :0) (Yes you are, little old lady!!)
7. Oh I don't know? I don't like odd numbers as they are too fiddly, I mean 7 what can you do with a 7? try dividing it by 2 and see what happens!
Legal disclaimer: Either all, some or very little of the text above may be false. In true Hollywood style I leave it up to you the reader to decide. I got Tiger blood baby! :-)

And now to the really difficult bit, of all the excellent blogs I follow which 10 will receive the finger of fate? It could be you?
Drum Roll

Well it was a rough nights sleep last night but I have finally decided on the 10 blogs/bloggers who will receive my nomination for the Stylish Blogger Award, and the Nominees are again in no particular order as you are all great!!!
1. Ken over at: http://napoleonicadventures.blogspot.com/ Ken and I have almost 100% the same interest in figures, scale and nations and I have had loads of fun and interesting discussions with Ken since starting back into Naps.
2. Sgt Steiner over at : http://sgtsteiner.blogspot.com/ Sgt. Steiner seems to be pulling out great looking armies almost ever week and anyone who can do that deserves an award in my book.
3. Ged over at: http://gerryjelliottsituation.blogspot.com/ This is 1 mans love of our hobby with his friends and family joining in to make what looks to be 1 of the most impressive wargames holiday destinations I have seen!
4. Roger over at: http://rtbatlarge.blogspot.com/ Not only has Roger managed to put together a brilliant collection of 28mm armies, he is also a really nice bloke and we have been bouncing Naps info off each other for a good while now and he has helped keep my own interest in our hobby flowing.
5. Robert over at: http://skyoriszag.blogspot.com/ I started following Roberts Russian project a good while back and it has been a great inspiration for my own and again Robert has been a great help with many things hobby related.
6. Mr P over at: http://peelerswargamespage.blogspot.com/ The energy and enthusiasm Mr P puts into our hobby is there to be seen in his blog. I believe every wargame he takes part in he enjoys. Keep up the great blogging!
7. From Captain Richard over at:http://captainrichardsminiaturecivilwar.blogspot.com/ This is 1 of my favourite blogs, If you are into ACW figures and history you have to see this blog! He actually scratch built a Union observation balloon in 28mm!
8.From Matt over at: http://matratmatt.blogspot.com/ Matts work has slowed down his figure output of late and his Naps blog has been put on ice for the moment but still loads of excellent figures to be seen!
9. From Ian over at: http://hintonhunt.blogspot.com/ A different style of wargames figures (would it be fair to call them Old School Ian?). Real dedication to his love of toy soldiers and nostalgia for the figures he collected some years back. After seeing his blog I now have the odd shifty around bring and buys just in case there are some HH figures going cheap that may help him out with his collection.
10. From Neil over on: http://wargamespainting.blogspot.com/ Neil has helped me and my brother David in a huge way with our 15mm Napoleonic collection. I know he doesn't get much time for painting but what he has done so far is excellent. He also has some other cool blogs if you are into FOW or 40K.

Thanks to the guys for nominating me and also for all the bloggers doing brilliant figures and posting them online for our inspiration! Best regards Paul

Naps 16.4.11

2011-04-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

My nephew David and I decided to have a wee game of GdB today at the club. I had been well oiled the night before and was a bit worse for ware so David set up the terrain and chose the scenario. The Prussians had been duffed over in a previous battle (probably last week!!!) and had pulled back setting up a defensive line awaiting the pursuing French.

David's been rattling through some AB guard (a Christmas present from me 2 years ago, and they say I am a slow painter!!) so it gave him the chance to get them on the table.

David was expecting me to set up right across from him but I decided to defend the left corner and try to force his French troops into a narrow funnel of death!

View from behind the allied lines

Somehow I managed to not get a good front pic of Davids newly based guard!!!

The guy who's doing my loft called off Wednesday leaving me with a free afternoon and knowing David was working through some guard I headed up to give him a hand. I had cleaned up this command group for him a few months ago so it only took a couple of hours to get some colour on them.

I took the Marshal pretty much to a finish and David has added the detail to the rest. Almost done, the wee guy at the back will have a guard fanion added. I think a destroyed cannon would look cool with a Prussian casualty resting against it?

My Prussians shuffling into position to await the French onslaught.

David decided to take on my Prussian dragoons with 2 cuirassier regiments. It could have been a decisive move but with the lack of space they ended up bottled in between his own advancing infantry and the wood!

The Battlefield as the French begin their advance. My 2 cuirassier regiments were up against Davids lights. With me setting up 1st I was sure David would put his cuirassiers up against my own leaving his lights to mop up my dragoons.

Things are starting to look scary!!!

Davids 1st charge with his cuirassiers sends my dragoons into retreat unforming my horse battery and leaving it at the mercy of the advancing French! Thankfully his horses are blown and have to return to his own lines.

Then began a series of crazy dice. In the charge faze David had the chance to charge the unformed artillery and rolled a double 1! Then I rolled a double 6 from the front of the square and faltered his other cuirassiers! Once my dragoons had reformed I tried to charge 1 of the French columns and rolled a double 1! It was all a bit of a kerfuffle

In the end my 2 cuirassier regiments destroyed Davids lights and my infantry were gaining the upper hand after another double 6 with my horse battery and some high dice in melee. We probably made loads of mistakes but it was fun. We seriously need more practice as the gaps between games at times can be months.

Naps 9.4.11

2011-04-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

I have been having a bit of bother with blogger the past few posts and I can't suss out what I'm doing different so I have decided to change my format a bit.

Last Saturday we had a pretty large game of Naps. It was an interesting affair with ten players in all involved in the game. JP text me during the week to see if I was up for it and by mid week we had DC, David P snr, JP and myself confirmed. Von Hannah added his name to the list late Friday with David P jnr, John M and Jon B confirming on Saturday. At the last minute we had another couple of recruits joined us (Alan and Tam).

JP and David P snr started setting up the French lines (we had decided that the French would be attacking so they were given a large amount of troops for the job).

Far too many if you ask me!!!!

DC appeared near the end of our set up and with Tam's entrance DC somehow managed to pop another French cavalry brigade onto the table complete with horse battery (without us allies noticing! I swear that man has 4 hands!!!).

So it was a big layout, JP and John M had the French right, each with a brigade of infantry and a brigade of cavalry. The French ended up with 8 cavalry regiments to our 3!

It was going to be a tough day for the good guys!

And DC was in the French centre with an infantry brigade.

Tam and David P were on the French left.

Alan being new to Naps and GdB took the all important Prussian right flank with my newly finished East Prussian cuirassiers and West Prussian dragoons.

It is always a tense time when a newly finished unit takes to the field of battle!

Jon B was inside right with a Prussian brigade.

And young David took a Russian brigade in the centre.

It was a good opportunity for me to take stock and see what's lacking from my armies and the main thing that I can see that's needed is cavalry, cavalry and more cavalry.

I'll really have to pull my finger out and get some more painted.

I took a mixed bag of Prussians with 2 guard battalions, my newly finished reserve battalions and a landwehr battalion.

I was pretty chuffed on Saturday as all of the allied figures were from my own collection plus I had a full Minifigs Prussian brigade still in the box.

Some self promotion with my newly finished reserve battalions taking to the field.

Von Hannah made it ten on the day being the last to arrive with his usual health eating plan of pie and cakes from the local deli.

It would be another greasy day for my Russian cuirassiers!

Von Hannah set the ball rolling by sending out the cuirass to try and dent the French lights before they had a chance to start a plan of attack. It was a bold move that almost worked as the French lancers failed to join the fray at 1st but soon their numbers would tell. Maybe a little more caution and some good rolling with his 6 gun horse battery could have steadied the ship? Who am I to talk as my Prussians tried to change their order and ended up taking a major move backwards!!!

At the other end of the table the Prussian cavalry were holding their own against a cuirassier brigade but yet again the superior French quality would shine through.

Pretty soon the French infantry was pressing our brave troops all across the line, I put in a poor showing (although I was diddled out of firing canister at some approaching cavalry!!!!)

my new reserve were easily crushed and only my guard infantry held their own.

In the end it was a devastating victory for the French and the fields of Saxony were soaked with Allied blood. However there will be more battles to come as we fight on to throw the Corsican Ogre from the fatherland!

East Prussian Cuirassiers

2011-04-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

I kind of rushed to finish these guys off today for a Naps game at the club.

These are my East Prussian cuirassiers from AB

As I mentioned before I wasn't really that happy with them as I was expecting charging cuirassiers and I'm still not too keen on them but they are finished and they had their 1st outing today. I'll post a battle report soon

Also as I mentioned before please don't use my saddle colour as a guide as I believe they should be red and for some unknown reason (really weird for me) I chose to paint them with the facing colour. The flag is a cracker, I picked up a set of 15mm flags on ebay from a company called signifer (I think?). The infantry flags were too small for AB figures but the cavalry flags are spot on.

I will tidy up the finer details later (around buttons, some of the horses eyes etc) but for now they have a single coat of varnish applied, they are grassed and I am sure they will grow on me.

I should add that the AB Prussian cuirassiers didn't come with a standard so I clipped off a sword and drilled out the hand before inserting a straightened paper clip. I then made a new hand and attachment from green stuff to hold the standard.

Prussian 6th Reserve

2011-04-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

I managed to finish my 1st 2 battalions of the Prussian 6th reserve.

The 1st battalion are West Prussians with crimson facing colour.

To be honest the flag was a big mistake as it is crap looking but in the end I had to include it as 1 of the figures guns broke and I didn't have a spare so he is repaired and the gun is resting against the stiffened flag.

In the end they don't look too bad especially as I knocked them together really fast, the main thing is they are finished and ready to take the field!

I feel much better about my Silesian battalion as their lemon yellow facings make them stand out much more.

Also I lightened the grey of their uniforms much more than the West Prussians and it does help lift them.

Again the flag is poor but as I had included 1 in the 1st battalion I felt I had to give them 1 too. These figures would definately look better without a flag or with a flag from their parent regiment. I'll maybe switch them in the future?

So 2 down and 1 to go but I think it will be a long time in coming as I have a good few other figures I would like to do 1st!

Prussian Workbench 5

2011-03-29T15:58:00.000-07:00

Actually struggling a bit tonight with blogger, can't seem to get the text to stay where it's meant to go!!! a REAL PISSER!!!! Anyway life is a little hectic work etc. . .

Figure painting wise I have been trying to fit in an hour here and there a I have surprisingly been making a good bit of progress (although I have to admit to cutting some corners to get more done). I had a couple of Old Glory reserve battalions pretty much cleaned up and ready to go so I fired the black undercoat on and got stuck in.

I managed to rattle through 2 battalions in just over a week so pretty good going and to me they look fine for the gaming table. Both battalions are from the 6th reserve regiment that have the turn backs to their coats (that Old Glory have included in their figures ). These are the Silesian's.

And this is the 1st of 2 West Prussian reserve battalions (the 2nd will be in all blue). The fancy pants had to be different! No matter they should paint up fine as it is all blue.

I love painting all grey uniforms, a coat of codex grey and a couple of lighter shades and your done!

I didn't even bother with the buttons on the reservists. The only figures I detailed were the line officers, NCO's and drummers to help them stand out. So some sand on the bases finish up the painting and varnishing and they are ready for action! I have decided to add flags to my reserve battalions, I know they didn't officially have any but I am thinking that maybe some kind ladies from their district knocked some together for them? Works for me and it looks better on the table.

Another unit I have been working on my East Prussian cuirassiers from AB. I had put them away in a dark corner for a very long time.

I am sorry to say I am not so keen on these guys and that is why it has take me so long to paint them. 1st up I was expecting them to be charging (maybe I've been spoiled with the AB charging Russians) and 2nd they are almost identical to the BH Prussian cuirassiers.

Anyway they are almost done now. I had to convert a trooper to a flag man as I didn't see the option when ordering them. Anyone reading this who is going to do the same regiment please don't follow my light blue saddle covers, for some reason I didn't like the look of red and unusually for me made a decision to go with the facing colour. I know it is wrong but for me I decided the light blue looked better.

I actually managed to finish up a little command base in a couple of hours. An old landwher officer (as ray pointed out) being stabbed in the arm by a mounted General in full dress. He isn't really it's just a bad angle, if there was a large pole in the background I would most probably have managed to have it coming out of 1 of their heads!

When I ordered the BH Prussian command pack I got 12 of this officer figure so I have been doing what I can to make him look different. This time I added the Guard Star, Iron Cross and saddle cloth with green stuff.

Naps 19.3.11 (Part1)

2011-03-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

Saturday past we managed to rustle up six players for another game of Naps. I've been reading the John Gill book 'With Eagles to Glory' recently and had planned an 1809 game with Robert bringing along his Austrians and Wurtembergers. As usual life had other plans and we ended up with Russians against French. I didn't bring any troops with me so thankfully Robert had plenty of Russians to go around! A sad little side note: The Motherwell Wargames Club has closed its doors. It was held on a Tuesday night and my brother David, nephew David and myself started wargaming there. Unfortunately being a week night made attendance very difficult and over time the numbers dropped. Hopefully some of the guys will make it down to Carluke the odd Saturday.

In the foreground part of my little railway village I knocked together for the day and newly donated bridge. JP produced an old snooker table cloth and out came his blue chalk for water (I prefer the GW mats as the emerald green baize messes with my camera shots but what the heck).

So on the Russian side (continuing to clear the dastardly French from brother German soil) was Robert T, Jon B and myself and on the side of the Evil French aggressors JP, David P and David P jnr.

So we went our separate ways to discuss our plans for the day and it was decided that Robert would refuse the flank (whatever that would mean?) and would try and hold off whatever came at him with a reduced force while Jon B and myself made a large push in the centre and right of centre while I would attempt to hold the French left off with my Russian cuirassier brigade.

There will probably be a good few more pictures than necessary so I do apologies!

The Russian advance begins: This is another little item I picked up on ebay. A little church that will hopefully eventually be detailed, airbrushed and placed on a little base with a wall surround. I have read so many accounts of fighting around church yards in the Napoleonic period and I thought this had some potential?

I held back a couple of battalions from the main advance as we already had six going in for the kill. My thinking was if the 1st lot did the damage they would come through and clean up and hopefully deal with any interference from the fresh French battalions to the right.

Our Russian battalions all positioned ready for the fight. I should point out that we are still using GdB 2nd edition for our battles as some of the guys haven't picked up the deluxe edition yet.

While Jon and I were getting ourselves shuffling our troops into their attack formations David jnr put their own attack plan into effect. The heavies protecting their right as the infantry concentrated on denting Roberts little force.

Robert decides to shift his light cavalry to protect his centre covered as they go by his Old Glory jagers. Sweet figures I have a few battalions of these to finish off and I have a soft spot for them.

Robert put his jager into skirmish order to try and pick off the odd figure as the French advanced.

A close up of what was facing David's French force.

As I mentioned earlier the figures are all from Roberts collection.
Robert has built up a pretty huge collection of 15mm Napoleonic figures over the years. A lot of them are painted by himself although he was saying he has also picked up figures from ebay and also a friend painted a good number too. His Russians are made up of AB, Battle Honours and Old Glory castings and as an army look ace.

Everything was in position, the presence of my cavalry had forced David's 2 spare infantry battalions into square and my horse battery was able to take some casualties off them and the nearest infantry in line. Things were looking promising!

No turning back now, a cheer went along the front for mother russia and our troops went into full charge .

to be continued . . .

Railway buildings

2011-03-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, real life has been getting in the way of my wee hobby. My job is going through some changes at the moment and I should be changing shift pattern pretty soon. Also my loft continues to come together at a slow pace with the floor down and 2 windows in place it's really taking shape and hopefully within a few months I will finally have a permanent place to paint and game (and more importantly for my wife have a place to store all my gear out of her sight!).

Saturday we managed to get a game of Naps on the go again (report to follow) and I took the chance to get some snaps of a little side project I have on the go. Years ago when I was building my 1/72 and 1/76 scale tanks I was hunting around for quality buildings that could be detailed and added to little late war diorama's. I looked at model railway buildings and although lovely the scale was out for what I needed.

However I've been planning on doing some built up area's for my 1813 Prussians (the type you see in the background of the Osprey books). I picked up some resin buildings at shows and had also been thinking of making a good few myself until it came to me that possibly the railway buildings may do the Job? A quick search on ebay and I spotted that Faller, Kibri and others had produced just what I was looking for! and HO/OO is a great match for 15mm.

The buildings I have posted are in the rough at the moment but you can see the potential in them. I managed to pick up some kits that are already built saving me a good few hours and with a bit more work: a base, some fine detail and a good paint job I think they will look great and another bonus is as they are plastic they are also very light! Hope this is of help to someone else planning their 1813 battles for 2013.

We spotted a huge full walled German town for £80 boxed (great value). If my wargaming plans come together over the next couple of years I will buy it, split it up and use it for some eye candy.

Naps 26.2.11

2011-02-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

This last couple of weeks have been a complete washout as regards gaming and painting my wee men as I have been living off 4-5hours sleep a day. I feel like the little lass out of the exorcist with my head spinning around. Thankfully I got a couple of days break from my crazy schedule and with a bit of luck JP had arranged a game of Naps down at our club. Worked out lucky for both of us in the end as the lad who was meant to be playing JP decided not to turn up and didn't bother to contact him either.

So JP let me know there was a game on and I put out the feelers to see who else was interested and we ended up with 5 players in all.

Robert and Von Hannah played the Prussians while JP, Billy and myself played the French.

The Prussians were defending for the day with JP, Billy and myself popping out to have a little discussion about out route of attack. It was decided that Billy and JP would try to punch a whole in Von Hannah's line and I would use my 2 cuirassier regiments and an infantry brigade to hold the Prussian right flank at bay.

Robert was in charge of the Prussian right with a couple of brigades of infantry and a couple of cavalry regiments (1 light and 1 landwher). So my cuirassiers should have the upper hand.

Robert seemed set on an aggressive approach so my engage orders were switched to assault and my cavalry took the fight right to Roberts advancing troops.

I rolled a double six in 1 melee and high in the other so the Prussian cavalry on the left was pretty much taken care of.

With the resulting rolls my cuirassiers returned to their own lines to sort themselves out.

Meanwhile my infantry steadied itself to hold the flow of advancing Prussians, however their eyes were firmly fixed on trying to stem the flow of Frenchmen smashing into the Prussian centre.

Despite Von Hannah's heavy cavalry chasing away JP's light cavalry on the Prussian left and him rolling an incredible number of way above average dice (with his solid metal dice that we are sure he got from loadeddice.com!) eventually the French battalions managed to punch a huge hole in the Prussian centre and a French victory was declared!!!

A good game and I'm sure enjoyed by all even if we were a bit rusty. Figures were from the collections of JP, David P and my own.

Bavarian Workbench 4

2011-02-13T07:47:00.001-08:00

I have been putting together and painting my 1st Bavarian light infantry battalion for the 1812-13 period (5th Butler) and although it has been a good bit of work I have been really enjoying doing them and wanted to share how they are coming together.

There are a good selection of figures from the AB Bavarian skirmishers but I wanted to add in some different figures to make the unit look unique.

In all there are 8 head swaps and some other fine details like trousers added to the figures who come with gaiters.

The additional figures I have added come from the Bavarian casualty set a sapper from the fantassin range and also some figures from the AB Austrian and Saxon range (some are very close to the Bavarian uniform).

I have been thinking of the best way to make a hornist for my lights. I had converted a fantassin Bavarian flag man but when I picked up some Saxon casualty figures this guy stood out. A simple head swap and his musket removed and his horn added with some fuse wire with a finer wire twisted to form the cord. I still have to finish of the tassels and tidy the main horn part.

I enjoy doing these little conversions as much as painting the figures. I'm not 100% sure if this is the best way to make the horn but until I bump into someone who can point me to a better way this will have to do. It also gives me a good bit of practice as I would really like to try my hand at sculpting my own 28mm figures on day.

Bavarian Foot Artillery

2011-02-07T03:51:00.001-08:00

I know I said I would be doing a Bavarian light infantry battalion next but these little guys have been glaring at me from their little take-away box desperate to be finished so I dug them out, cleaned them up and got stuck into them.

So 3 guns and crew, no problem they should be easy to do I hear you say? well no these guys have actually been a little bit more complicated than they look! 1st off I bought them as part of an already painted job lot on ebay from a very helpful guy from Germany (who very kindly threw in some extra Bavarian casualties). For speed I planned on repainting them to my own style without stripping them so I cleaned them up based them on 40mm x 40mm bases and applied the sand around them (I always mount my artillery before painting as it helps me get started seeing them in position).

Anyway I blocked in the black to cover the areas I felt needed touched up and painted 1 figure to test out the colours (it was a bit difficult as they were painted pretty thick but it seemed ok so far). However when I tried painting more they just started to irritate me as the finish just was not what I was looking for as the paint was far to thick and obscuring the detail so frustration got the better of me and I tossed them in the "simple green" to strip them down (bases and all!).

So they lay there for a few days before I fetched them out and cleaned them off and remounted them on new bases ready to paint. I bought the Austrian guns separately unpainted and I had undercoated them a few weeks back so all I had to do was paint the crews.

I wanted a rich looking blue similar to the many pictures I have seen of the Bavarian artillery uniform and decided on using the Foundry French paints but with a little alteration. The figures were undercoated in black and then I blocked in a mix of Prussian blue and French blue. I then used the French blue as a highlight and then to finish off I used French blue light on the raised area. The colour is very effective to my own eyes and much richer than the test figure I did. The only problem I can see is it's not so easy to see the difference in shades from a distance so I may skip a stage when it comes to doing my Bavarian position battery?

When it came to reds again I wanted to produce something close to the colours I had seen so I went for Formula P3 skorne red for the collar, cuffs, etc but it was a little dark and flat so I highlighted them with a lighter red and then a very soft highlight of Vallejo vermillion (I feel this worked much better).

The AB figures are great as usual with so much fine detail to paint (although you will see I have added a couple of bandages across eyes that had a little flash and I also decided to add trousers to the crew who had gaiters). The little buttons on the lapels are especially superb! To be honest I wasn't sure how these guys were going to turn out right until the very end. I felt the same when painting the Bavarian infantry too. I believe it is because of the Raupenhelm as I leave its metal work, plume and national symbol to last and it is only when this is done that you see the complete figure.

So in the end I am pleased with these guys. The blue looks pretty good and the figures are neat and tidy. And at last my Bavarian limber has a reason to exist!!!!

I also learned some good lessons for the future about buying job lots that are already painted. So next up it should be my Bavarian light infantry battalion . . . Famous last words!!!

Russian Position Battery

2011-02-01T01:48:00.001-08:00

It's funny I have always struggled painting artillery yet this is my 2nd Russian six gun battery within a couple of months! I think it is the different elements that put me off artillery as I kind of loose the rhythm when I think of switching to guns after painting figures.

I have always loved the look of the late war Russian foot artillery uniforms with kiwer. I remember visiting my brother in Hong Kong when he was posted there back in the early 90's. I was off on a walk around town myself when he was busy 1 day and I stumbled upon a little shop which to my surprise had a Russian artillery gun and crew all painted up and based in a little diorama (I think in 54mm?). It must have caught my imagination as I decided I definitely wanted 1 for myself. However soon after Napoleonic figure painting left my mind and I never did get 1 for myself.

Thankfully I have finally added some AB Russian foot guns to my collection. It's strange as I already painted an Old Glory Russian foot battery but it was only when painting the AB figures that my memory kicked in?

I have to say that I cut some corners when painting these guys to get them finished quicker. I usually do at least 2 shades on the coat but I only used Vallejo Russian green over a black undercoat this time. I had thought about using the foundry Russian greens for the coats but I have found they make the figures very dark in 15mm. I know they are the closest shades to the real uniforms but I was a little disappointed with how dark my horse artillery gunners turned out.

I used Formula P3 skorne red (brilliant colour) on the shako cords as it is the best match I have found to the picture of the Russian artillery man in the osprey Napoleonic artillery equipment book (Always like that colour). The shoulder straps are vermillion.

I recently realised I messed up on all my Russian guns and limbers. Originally I meant to do my gun carriages in a deeper green with a different hue that I had used before on a 25mm Russian limber however I forgot and cracked on adding a little lighter shade to the Vallejo Russian green. I won't be repainting them now but I think I will try it out on my next Russian artillery battery and limber.

Next up Bavarian light infantry

Lt. Hausmann Finished

2011-02-01T01:39:00.000-08:00

I was taking some pictures of my finished Russian artillery battery and thought I would get some snaps of my Bavarian brigade command with the grass added just to tick it off my list.

Nothing really to add about these guys as I have already shown them a couple of posts back with plenty of text on who they are.

Really chuffed with the cloak and the sash for 1st efforts.

Hougoumont in 15mm

2011-01-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

My brother David picked up a couple of the unpainted Hovel Hougoumont buildings in 15mm at the Falkirk show last year as a little side project to see how he got on painting it.

And he decided in amongst his main projects he would build the complete complex for our future battles and this is where he is at so far.

David picked up the last of the wall sections on Saturday so I would guess it will be finished pretty soon.

I'm well impressed with this as terrain is not my strong point. I have been trying to convince David to scratch build some buildings for our 1812-13 battles for a while now so fingers crossed.

On another note I managed to swap away a large part of my 28mm Napoleonic armies that had been lying around for almost 20 years and replaced them with more 15mm Napoleonic figures that I feel I will be able to finish.

I called my brother David to tell him about it at the start of the New Year for him to tell me that over the Christmas break my nephew David had painted up a Perry artillery crew and gun (left) and he had worked his way through a plastic Perry French battalion! (awaiting bases below)

To give you an idea if you have not already read in my older posts I had hoped that my brother and I would do the 28mm Naps together but David was not confident that he could paint the 28mm figures. Anyway with the army painter method he has been able to get a lot done, and has bought more.

20 years my 25mm/28mm Napoleonic figures lay in lofts, 20 years!!!! Thankfully I still have some Elite Prussians to fight their new found love of 28mm Perry plastic French figures!

Bavarian Workbench 3

2011-01-20T02:40:00.001-08:00

I thought it was about time I done a little brigade command for my Bavarians and I was needing a new avatar and since I have been reading "A soldier for Napoleon" written from the letters of Lieutenant Hausmann of the 7th infantry to his mother and father throughout the napoleonic period I decided to do Lt. Hausmann and Generalmajor Beckers. The base still needs grass added but it is pretty much compete.

So this is Franz, he's an AB Saxon mounted officer with a Bavarian head swap and sash added (I'm really happy with the sash) and epaulettes removed. General Becker was a bit more complicated with bicorne and details, cloak, fur on saddle and cuffs to his boots added with green stuff to hide he was once an Austrian mounted officer. I'm not sure on the greatcoat/jacket as it probably should be double breasted but I figured it could be a personal item for campaign?

I'm working my way through light infantry butler at the moment and have a Russian foot battery just needing a few hours to finish it but I fancied doing some Bavarians.

Books: I have a little question regarding a book, a friend in the US picked up "With Eagles to Glory" for me (cheers T) and I am really enjoying it and I was planning on buying "Thunder on the Danube" by John Gill also. Is "Thunder on the Danube" a series of 3 books? I see on Amazon there seems to be 3 parts. Any help would be most appreciated

Cheers

Paul

Napoleonic Wonderland

2011-01-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhh, what a day, WHAT A DAY!!!! It's been a long while since I last got a chance to have a game of Naps and today was just brilliant. DC and myself had talked last Saturday about having a 2nd battle of Polotsk 1812 type game with a joint Bavarian and French force attempting to hold back a superior Russian force. Just a few pics from the battle and the main report and more pictures will appear over on our club blog when I get the time: http://carlukewargamesclub.blogspot.com/

I got in contact with Robert earlier in the week and he decided to join us for the day, so the 3 of us were all set. As the week went on we managed to pick up my brother David and then JP text me late last night to see if he and the D-man (travelling from the highlands) could join us.

D tried to fool us into thinking that he was taking his wife down to visit her sister but we all knew he was just looking for an excuse to get down to the club!

It turned out we had much less Bavarians between us than was 1st thought so it was pretty much a French and Russian stand up fight with my single Bavarian battalion getting their 1st outing along side the French (Answers on a postcard if you can guess what happened next?).

Des, JP and David P (my bro) were playing the evil French and the glorious Russian forces fighting for all that is good and just in the world were being played my Robert, DC (I think playing Russians for the 1st time) and myself.

So both camps disappeared to sort out a plan for the battle. Knowing that David and JP are very aggressive players (west of Scotland mentality) we decided to have the 12pdr battery facing right at them both with the bulk of the army in support. I was out on the left with 2 Hussars regiments and an infantry brigade trying to pin down Desmondo.

True to form JP and David P went straight for the jugular with the main French force coming down the centre left and centre with Des also pressing myself hard with 2 large cuirassier regiments hoofing it towards my guns (shades of the light brigade at Balaclava?).

Our Russian foot battery soon began to make it's presence felt taking a heavy toll of the advancing French columns.

Some of my Russian battalions glad to get out of their box for the day.

Our Russian heavy cavalry, 2 cuirassier regiments.

My 2 Hussar regiments forced D's young guard into square but through the woods his Bavarians and old guard kept coming. It would appear that Des is an aggressive player too!

Des declared a charge on my horse battery and DC declared an opportunity charge with the the Russian cuirassiers to block them.

Meanwhile in the centre the French massed columns edged forward.

All across the battlefield things were getting tense. For reasons known only to himself the D man brought his Bavarians out of the wood and I managed to charge home (the Bavarians stood!) and I rolled an 11 in the melee and des rolled low and the Bavarians disappeared for the battlefield (a bitter sweet moment for me).

So in their 1st outing my Bavarians were the 1st to leave the table! I only hope that this is not the way it will be when they are under my control?

The cuirassier regiments continued to fight it out in the centre with Des getting the upper hand in 1 encounter destroying their opponent before returning to their own lines to regroup.

However the other Russian cuirassier regiment held its own giving the Russian centre time to knock the paint of the by now charging French columns. The French main attack faltered and disintegrated. (sorry no photo)

I managed to destroy another of Des's battalions and the brigade broke and retired 30cm and my hussars kept up the pursuit. In the end it was a victory for the glorious Russian army once again freeing our lands from the oppression of a foreign dictator.

It was a great game played in a really fun spirit. I was lucky enough to be playing against Des who has to be the most enthusiastic wargamer I have ever met. His passion for Napoleonic history and wargaming never fails to rub off on you! Win or loose Des is over the moon to be a part of the battle moving around all the painted figures. Cool!

Note to self for the day: I need to get more Russian cavalry and Bavarians painted.

Napoleonic trade anyone?

2011-01-02T12:32:00.000-08:00

So the new year has begun and over the holidays I have been having a think and have had a few idea's.

Over 2010 I have slowly been getting shot of bits from my lead mountain (through ebay) that I know I will definately never paint. However I was looking through my stash and I still have a very large amount of 25mm and 28mm (unpainted, painted and part painted) and the thought of photographing them all and sticking them on ebay is a little off putting.

Still the fact is I just don't have the space for them and I know of 2 people who live within 30miles who are into 28mm (but game in 15mm!), almost everyone I know prefers or only has the space to game in 15mm or smaller!

Anyway I came up with a possible idea: I will now only be gaming in 15mm naps and mostly I collect AB (and maybe also battle honours) so I was wondering if there was anyone out there going in the other direction jumping up to 28mm from 15mm? And if so would you be interested in a swap?

I have 28mm Essex, Elite (old and new) and Foundry figures. I have British (stove pipe and belgic), Prussians, French, Austrian and some Russians. Some are in full battalions, squadrons, batteries and also some are loose figures. I have infantry, artillery (limbers too) and cavalry (some of the figures are painted to a good wargames standard and others are undercoated, army paintered and highlighted). Most are late war.

If you would by any chance have 15mm AB's (or battle honours) of any nation that you would like to trade drop me an email: paulalba2004@yahoo.co.uk and tell me what nations and type you are interested in and maybe we can help each other out. If we have a possible trade I would be happy to take some pictures for you.

So I hope some of you guys in the Naps world are in the same position as myself and would like to make a swap. (Also if you are interested in buying any I have a paypal account so no probs there either).

Cheers
Paul

Well I am glad to say I managed to get 2 swaps for some of my big Naps. I was able to exchange my 28mm Elite French for a similar amount of 15mm AB Russian and French helping me tie up a few loose ends with my Russians and boost my own AB French troops as well as my brothers BH French and I believe the gentleman is very happy with the swap too (so a really good deal for us both). Also the D man was needing some more 25mm naps so I was able to pass some Essex French and British his way in exchange for some Xyston spartans (another future project, please don't ask).

20,000 visitors

2010-12-30T20:11:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just noticed there's been 20,000 visitors to my Napoleonic blog!!!

A huge thanks to eveyone who has found my blog interesting enough to visit!!!
I never expected 20,000 visitors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My warmest regards for the new year
best regards
Paul

See you all in 2011!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T08:23:00.001-08:00

That's us done with the Christmas rush for another year and my wee men and paints are packed away till after the New Year. Thankfully the weather has been fine (looks Christmasy but not too much snow).
Just wanted to sign off the year by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! See you all in 2011.

Best regards
Paul and Mai

Russian Cuirassiers

2010-12-21T17:11:00.000-08:00

Of all the AB cavalry I have seen I think these are my favourite. I know the French cuirassiers and dragoons charging look great too but I just love the contrast of the white uniforms and black cuirass and throw in an orange, yellow or pink facing and these guys become my favourite table top cavalry regiment without a doubt.
Again sorry for my murder pictures!

I should have had these guys posted a long while ago but I was trying to get their command base finished before posting them. Anyway I have scrapped the command base for the moment and so instead of waiting until I do another 1 I decided I better get them posted up. I have only completed 24 so I have 6 more to finish off for a full General de Brigade regiment of 30.

It's only been around 2 years since I starting painting Napoleonics again so I am having to learn a lot of stuff again like painting white coats. This is the 2nd trumpeter of this regiment I have done and the 1st I wasn't totally happy with as I left to much contrast with the white on a black undercoat so with this figure I blocked in the coat with Coat d Arms rohan horse colour before doing the white and orange and I feel it worked out much better.

If anyone is interested the orange is from Games Workshop foundation range and it's a cracker, it goes over black great.
I should mention these are the Ekaterinoslav cuirassiers.

The horse and rider in the centre of this little base have to be my favourite. How I wish I could sculpt figures like this. The horse rearing back with the rider going forward is just perfect. I managed to softly reposition some of the heads and arms so that all the figures seem to be in a different pose and I think it works quite well (for me anyway).

Can you spot the mistake? I was talking about this with my buddy Robert on Saturday. I don't know how many times I have looked over my reference material and yet I still managed to miss the number 1 for Alexander the 1st on the saddle covers! Daft and unimportant I know as I am very happy with the figures and I won't be changing it now but for some reason I thought the number was regimental or something? However not to worry as I'll catch it on my dragoons and hussars!

So I think that's me for the year now as I am pretty sure there won't be much time between all the celebrations to pick up a paint brush.

I've really enjoyed doing the blog this year and I am totally surprised that there are 50 people who want to see how my wee armies progress. A huge thanks to everyone who has helped me out with everything and to all the people who have posted comments and have exchanged emails.

I hope that everyone has a great Christmas and a happy New Year!!!!!!

Russian Foot Limber

2010-12-21T16:39:00.001-08:00

Following on from my Russian horse artillery limber here is their brother foot artillery limber. 1 more post to come after this before Christmas and the New Year.

I used exactly the same size of base as the horse artillery limber and the traces were made the same way too so not much different except I used Vallejo's Russian green instead of the Foundry Russian green highlight for the jackets just to make them look a little different.

The limber is again from AB and my aim is to have a limber for every battery in my armies.

You probably will have guessed by the huge gun sitting at the back of the limber that I am working on another artillery battery, and I am. Not sure if this is any use to anyone? I used Formula P3 skorne red for the shako cords (great colour!!!) and Vallejo vermillion red for the pipping and shoulder straps (another great colour!!!). Both of these reds cover a black undercoat really well.

Another 6 gun battery with some massive fire power. The figures are part of the large AB Russian army I bought off Stuart early last year and they had been given the JP machine gun painting treatment so I have cleaned and based them up and have blacked the area's that needed covered up and I am slowly getting them together.

I should have had this 1 finished but I jumped over to a 3 gun Bavarian battery thinking it would be easier to get that finished for the New Year. Not so! I bought the artillery figures from ebay and they had a thick layer of paint on them that I thought I could paint over. Well I got a little disappointed with them and into the magic "Simple Green" they went (base and all) and they are now back to a lovely bright silver colour!

Prussian Guard 2

2010-12-11T02:50:00.000-08:00

Probably there are quite a few wargamers trawling ebay and wargames shows bring and buy stands for those little bargains and these figures for the most part fit this bill. So when you get them all finished off ready to join your army then they mean a wee bit more to you than the figures you buy brand new. Somehow you feel justified in your bargain hunting?

When I started getting back into Napoleonics again I wasn't sure if I would stick to it so I went for the cheaper option in 15mm Prussians, Old Glory (little did I know that AB figures would be a good investment and their prices would go through the roof! 50p to 83p for a single figure in 2 years!).

So 2 years on and I have managed to maintain my interest with the help of the internet and wargaming friends.

Last year I picked up a good amount of AB figures from the various sources noted above, enough that with a few Old Glory figures thrown in I could fill a full guard regiment plus their jagers. With my main force being OG I decided that the AB figures would form my Prussian guard battalions.

I have been trying to find a blue I am happy with for the rest of my Prussians and I think I have finally found it. I started with a black undercoat then the Foundry Prussian blue light shade and for the highlight I added a little of the Foundry Bavarian blue shade. It gives a really rich and interesting tone of blue that I am very happy with.

Most of the figures had been painted, but thankfully not too heavily so it was no problem to repaint them to my own style. I managed to get the 2nd battalion finished off pretty fast but with the arrival of a mass of Russian figures I put the other battalions to the back of my list.

This guy is my favourite as I picked him up in a seperate lot quite unexpectedly on ebay and he fitted the bill of the 1st battalions mounted commander perfectly. I went a little light on the uniform so maybe it was cut from some captured French cloth?

And here is my jager element for the guard. 1 of the figures is OG but the rest are AB.

You will see that the jagers are wearing Hungarian style blue trousers as I read this somewhere and thought it would be a nice change from all the grey trousers. (I'm not sure how universal this was or at what point they were worn?).

So that's 2 battalions down and just the guard fusilier battalion to go (I recently picked up 3 AB guns so all I need is an AB howitzer and 4 crews and i'll have a guard artillery battery too!).

Bavarian Artillery Limber

2010-12-11T02:22:00.001-08:00

Nothing new with this 1 as I have shown it pretty much finished early in the blog but this is it all grassed up. I intend to add silfour grass at some point in the future to my bases but I bought 2 sets of the wrong colour and size and it put me off using it (expensive stuff).

My 1st Bavarian artillery limber converted from an Austrian limber team (thanks Steve!). I am not 100% on the manufacturer? I have a feeling that it is BH as the figures and horses are identical in size to BH horses I own myself and all my AB stuff towers above them but no matter as it fits in fine with my AB Bavarians.

As I mentioned before a Bavarian limber team (and Caisson for that matter) are on the Christmas lists of many wargamers but when it comes down to it you have to fashion 1 yourself. The next problem you face is getting information on the thing. A big thanks to RtL and the guys over on GdB forum who helped me out!

As the figures are so small I struggled to find AB heads to fit but eventually a poor drummer and flag man went under the knife for the glory of the fatherland. I left the Austrian collars in place and pin viced into them and also under the head. I then inserted wire and attached with liquid superglue (it has to be liquid or your figures will end up with a thick neck and I am not sure body building was in fashion back then?).

This was my 1st time out with green stuff and I now have proper tools to apply it but for this guy I used a scalpel. The collar was built up plus the shoulder scales and lapels were added (I chickened out on buttons this time out and used a pin to make holes instead, I know, I know I'm a big woos!)

So all that was left to do was add traces with flattened wire and reshape a water bottle and add an Austrian gun from the AB range and there you have it a Bavarian artillery limber quite rare on the ground. I will hopefully be doing a Bavarian caisson as well at some point.

Russian Horse Limber

2010-12-10T16:09:00.000-08:00

Due to my weird way of working through projects this will be me 1st of many posts in the next few weeks as I have managed to get a group of stuff all pretty much finished at the same time. Again thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in my blog and has helped me out with details of uniforms and equipment. Straight out sorry for the quality of the pics as I just don't have a place for photography or proper lights.

This is what my brother and I call our Napoleonic eye candy as it has no real use on the table top but does help make your army look finished. So in case you haven't guessed already this is a 15mm Russian horse artillery limber from AB. The set comes with a six horse team but I have decided to keep all my limbers and caissons to 4 horses for space and lack of bending of the base.
Bases are from Warbases in Dunfermline.

The uniform green is a black base coat with the Foundry Russian green light blocked in. I then mixed Vallejo Russian green through it for a highlight them used the Vallejo Russian green neat for the final highlight on the folds. I have been trying to get more of a contrast with my shading lately as I spent many years modelling WW2 figures and vehicles and keeping the shading as subtle as possible. Now I want to see the different shades from a reasonable distance on the gaming table.

I added little ropes to attach the limber to each harness. I used copper wire (8 strands per rope) and clamped it in a pin vice then twisted till it reasonably resembled rope. Each 1 was then carefully attached by twisting them around the places they should be on the limber and then glued into place on the horses. I drilled little horizontal holes where the end points would be glued to make life a little easier.

The finished battery and limber altogether.

Coming up pretty soon I will be posting my Russian foot artillery limber, Bavarian limber, a Prussian guard battalion plus jagers and my Russians cuirassiers.

Russian Workbench 1

2010-11-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

Well true to form I have once again jumped from 1 nationality to another to keep my painting interest going

I was going to wait until getting these guys finished up before posting them on the blog but I have hit a minor stumbling block.

I am working on a command base for my AB Russian cuirassiers. Anyone who has done an AB late Russian army will know that there are not so many command figures in the range and you either have to add in figures from other manufacturers or do a little bit of converting. I had a spare Bagration figure from last Christmas so I decided to make him into a cavalry general.

I gave him a haircut and a new bicorne hat, altered his open coat and added a collar and cross as well as giving him a new straight sword and scabbard. I remember someone telling me that the cavalry generals at times would wear the uniform of their parent unit so I want to depicted my lad in a white cuirassier uniform. My little problem is I am not sure if his facings and turn backs would be the colour of his regiment or red in the generals colour? Also for the officer in the background was it still possible for him to have epalettes and a helmet with white hair?

Also another puzzle for me:
How do these guys go together? I have never seen a picture of this caisson and my question is where does the rider sit in the centre or the left? Also should the 3 horses all be in line or does the centre horse sit forward of the others? Also what is the stuff at the back of the caisson, is it straw for the horses or ropes for dragging the guns?

And my final questions: How do the Russians attach their horse teams to the limbers/caissons? Is it with leather reins or ropes?

These guys have been sitting around like this for a good while and are now completely finished off with varnish and grass (24 of them anyway, I'll finish the other 6 later).

I'll post the finished product when the commanders are also finished.

Any help with my above questions would be very much appreciated.

Bavarian Workbench 2

2010-11-04T00:31:00.001-07:00

I've also been working on a Bavarian limber team converted from a Battle Honours (maybe AB?) Austrian limber team. Again thanks to RtL for help on uniforms and kit and also to Martin at Warbases in Dunfermline who was decent enough to cut up some special sized bases for my limbers and cassions.

A straight swap of heads pinned in place here. I also added the shoulder scales and lapels in green stuff as well as shaping the canteen to the Bavarian style. I know the horses are too dark and my nephew David will probably yet again point this out to me but what can I say the uniforms are bloody bright ;-)

The limber should be finished but I broke a couple of the attachments when varnishing so I put it to the side. This is 1 of a number of limber and cassion teams I am working on as I have none in my armies at present.

Note of appeal: I have a spare Austrian rider and 2 spare horses and have converted an Essex French cassion for my Bavarians but I am still short an AB/Battle Honours Austrian rider and 2 limber horses to finish it off (same as above). Does anyone have any spare? I am willing to trade for them to save me buying another from AB.

Wrede and staff: A lot of conversion work here with hats rotated to give a later style and since I took this photo I have added a cloak with upper cloak to the officer pointing and Wrede has received a sash diagonally plus the hats and saddle cloth details have been added. All are AB figures (Bavarian cavalry on guard, at the rear left, Bavarian officers are a converted British officer, a converted Austrian officer and 2 early Prussian officers) still with lots to do.

You will see the mounted Bavarian in helmet cropping up again (maybe he is Franz Hausmann?). I got a bunch of them in a job lot (cheers Steve) and decided to use them whenever I could.

The figures look much different now!

Bavarian 11th Kinkel

2010-11-03T04:02:00.001-07:00

Thankfully my new book gave me a bit of inspiration to pull my finger out and get some of my Bavarians finished. Straight out sorry about the pictures as I just don't have the proper light for it

So this is the 1st battalion of the 11th Regiment Kinkel for the period 1812-13 and the figures are from AB with a pioneer from Fantassin.

RtL these are especially for you as I know you were keen to see how they would turn out, thanks for all the help on the uniforms and I hope they don't disappoint!

There is a mix of painting styles in here with the figures at the back of the bases mostly earlier repaints of figures I bought on ebay so are a little rougher looking and also too light and the figures at the front of the bases were done after RtL gave me the low down on the correct shade of cornflower blue.

My grenadier base with the Fantassin figure added in. I am not a big fan of the Fantassin range but this guy fits in really well and I feel completes the unit (you can buy him in packs of 8 which is very helpful!).

To try and make my figures look a little different from each other I twisted a lot of their heads up/down/left/right and thankfully the Bavarians big hat made it pretty easy to do.

A little head swap here, the officer is from the AB Austrian range. In a lot of the pictures of the 1812 period the Bavarian officers have single breasted coats and this figure fitted perfectly. I probably should have added a gorget (if that's what you call it) to him but I totally forgot. I couldn't resist adding trousers with green stuff, they are a little rough on the repainted figures.

The drummer was pretty tricky with all the chevrons and I wasn't exactly sure how the edging went at 1st but I am happy how he turned out.

I was lucky to pick up some AB flags on ebay a while back. I drilled out the hands and used a straightened paperclip as the flag pole (cheers for the tip Robert).

I'm well chuffed I have my little Bavarian army on the go. I remember buying a couple of battalions of Foundry 25mm Bavarians many years ago and just didn't feel right with the shade of blue. I really think the 3 shades Foundry offer are excellent for the job. I blocked in the uniform with the cornflower blue shade and the mid cornflower blue is still deep and can be added to the shade to keep the uniform dark.

I decided to use the mid tone neat then added a little bit of the light to the mid tone for my final highlight and I feel it works pretty well.

It is darker than these pictures show

Next up unit wise will be the 5th Preysing, 1st battalion (pink facings Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!) before that I will post some pictures of my finished Bavarian limber and some in progress pics of my commands.

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has dropped by, left comments and sent emails about my wee blog. It's been great fun and very helpful. It's great to know there are loads of other people who share the same interest. My knowledge in the Napoleonic period is very limited so again thanks to everyone who have filled the many gaps for me!!!

Bavarians . . . Watch this space

2010-10-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

I've hit a little modelling/painting block at the moment.

1) I have my 1st Bavarian battalion (11th Kinkel) based needing varnished, grassed and a flag added.

2) I have my 1st artillery battery also pretty much finished with guns painted (bar 4 wheels needing done). Still needs varnished and grassed

3) I have converted a (Battle honours/AB?) Austrian artillery limber and have based and painted it. Needing wire attached then finished off, varnished and grassed. I am pretty happy with this 1 as it was very simple head swaps with some little details added and altered and I think it's looks the part.

However I've decided to have the weekend off as I kind of overdone it. I'd been preparing Russian horse and foot artillery limbers and also a 2nd Bavarian battalion for painting at the same time as doing the above and then my beloved tub of black paint I use for undercoating ran out!!!!! The wee shop I get it from no longer sells it and Chaos Black just doesn't cut it. Any suggestions?

On a brighter note I ordered a copy of "A soldier for Napoleon" telling the history of the Bavarian 7th regiment throughout the napoleonic wars. Interestingly seen through the letters sent home from an officer in the regiment. so hopefully it will arrive today and inspire me on.

Russian Horse Artillery

2010-10-05T08:22:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of my 15mm AB Russian horse artillery.

Ahhh there is nothing quite like a 6 gun horse artillery battery (especially when you have finished painting it!).

I am now addicted to the AB 15mm figures and especially the Russians. With my OG Prussians you could just about get away with them in the same battalion as their AB comrades but not a chance with the Russians.

My figures as usual are cleaned up and undercoated in black then I pick out the flesh. I painted the uniform with Foundry Russian green light then highlighted with Vallejo Russian Green.

A mix of greys on the trousers and a little highlight of dark grey on the leather then it was onto the white belts and metal work.

I drilled out the barrels of the guns with a pin vice and they were given a coat of Vallejo Russian green with a lighter green gradually put through it and the same green was used on the hand tools.

I've given them 2 coats of revell matt varnish and still they have a slight satin shine. This was my main fear when I started painting with the Foundry paints. I think eventually I will use a dull coat spray but for now they will do fine.

As always your comments are most welcome.

Prussian Landwehr Finished

2010-10-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

At last I finally spent a half hour finishing off my 1st battalion of Pommeranian landwehr.

They have sat in my "to finish" pile for a very long time, far to many months! (quite embarrassing to be honest). I have been very unfair on them as I jumped from battalion to battalion leaving them crying out to join in all the fun.

To be honest I believe the Old Glory landwehr to be up there with AB's landwehr and before you spill your pint with anger please hear me out on this 1. I believe the AB figures to be the best looking but for landwehr they just look too elegant to me (although I would be pretty happy to have all my landwehr ranks filled with AB figures!). When I look at the Old Glory figures they look to me how I imagine Prussian landwher would look (a mob) brave but prone to uncontrolled charges.

A wee note: I have the OG Prussian landwehr with shako's added through my battalions. I cut off the top of their shako's and added caps with miliput to give more variety to my units.

My 1st AB Russians

2010-10-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

I am still getting to grips with my newly returned camera so the images are a little different in shade, on a positive note I am able to finally take some pictures of my finished work!

So this is the 1st of many 15mm AB Russian battalions.

I have decided to do the 7th Division from 1812 and this is the 3rd battalion of Libau Infantry regiment.

The AB Russians are a pure joy to paint with the detail on a par with many 28mm figures.

I now wish I would have skipped my Old Glory Russians and started with my AB's! I have around 12 battalions to paint up with 3 already well on the way to being finished.

Again a huge thanks to James (Suvurov) from the USA who sent me the Russian flags that he designed himself. When printed from a good quality printer they are perfect. I drilled out the hands and attached paper clip flagpoles to make them stronger.

A wee question to anyone in the know: Does anyone have any idea what colour the pompom of the drummers be? I know the plume in full dress is red and so I made the pompom red too but I would guess this would only be reserved for drummers of the grenadier companies and battalions?

You can't make it out from the pictures but there are different shades in the trousers starting with Games Workshop foundation paint dhenb stone and progressively highlighted with white.

Next up: I'll post pictures of my Prussian Old Glory Landwher and then my AB Russian horse battery . . .

28mm West Prussians

2010-09-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

Well my wee camera came back in good shape from those nice Samsung people so hopefully it should last me for a good while now, however as I had no spotlight I wasn't sure what to do? I tried cleaning up as many 15mm naps as I could but the lack of a spotlight was straining my eyes something awful.

So I decided to fish out my 1st love, my old 28mm napoleonics.

My brother used to bring home wargaming magazines when I was a lad filled with the most amazing colour pictures of 28mm battles and figures so when I had money of my own I started buying them by the bucket load. The only problem was there wasn't a person I knew who shared the same passion.

Jump forward 20 years and I've decided to keep my Prussians and French and ebay the rest. Here is my 2nd West Prussians (Silesians originally but I lost my old yellow and I figured I'd stick with what I knew!) finished the other night. I was short a few figures in my 28mm battalions (I think it was 24 figure battalions I was aiming for before?) so I ordered up some extra's from Elite Miniatures (only to discover they had changed design!). No matter they'll do for me.

And here they are with their battle hardened little brothers.

With hindsight I should have dropped the flagman and made these guys the fusilier battalion with black belt as I don't know when I'll get round to buying flags?

So 20 years in the making and I finally got them based and varnished . . .

I hope the second battalion doesn't take as long!

Bavarian Workbench 1

2010-09-24T05:57:00.000-07:00

Well I'm still waiting for my camera to return but I managed to get a loan of my wife's friends camera when she dropped by a week or so ago so I knocked off some quick pics. Just for fun my painting light, that I also use for taking pictures decided to die!!! (Unfortunately not just a bulb as I have tried 2 others but the light itself). It was a very old light that I was given by my friend Tom down at Milicast and it will be sadly missed. However another is on it's way from ebay! So to save my eyes from torture I have been sanding and slashing and preparing instead of painting.

I picked a load of Bavarians up on ebay a while back from Dirk in Germany. I already had a stack of unpainted figures and another wee load is on its way to me right now as I type (cheers Steve) As they already have a coat of paint I will be giving them a quick paint into my own style and they will form the rear ranks of my battalions and the unpainted figures I will be starting from scratch will be at the front.

I have always fancied a Bavarian brigade or 2. The flags are probably the nicest of the Napoleonic wars plus the light blue uniform and unusual hat help make them stand out on the battlefield. I have been having a good discussion about their uniform over on the GdeB forum and I believe these guys are too light, unfortunately I had almost finished the 1st battalion before finding out. So this is roughly how they will be looking when they are finished. I have been trying out the foundry paint system on these and they were done with the Bavarian cornflower blue and highlight so for the next battalion I will try with the shade and Bavarian cornflower and see how it looks.

I rebased the artillery I got (a 3 gun battery thank goodness!!!). the guns are Old Glory and will get cleaned up and punted I think? I have 2 more AB batteries on the way all with lovely AB Austrian guns!!!!!

This was my test figure to see what blues I will be using. Some of the reference material I have seen show the uniform in very vibrant shades of blue but I have went for a duller hue.

My Prussian Guard jagers: I took the opportunity to get some sand o their base so as I can get them finished off. I read somewhere that some of them wore Hungarian style breeches so I thought it would be a nice talking point. I don't know the reason behind it? Maybe supply problems or a recognition of their allie? If you know the story behind it I would be interested to hear it!

And my Russian horse artillery battery: it's all finished now with varnish and grass (I have been struggling with the Foundry paints as I find it hard to visualise how they will look when finished because the paint is so satin) I'll post some pics of it when my camera returns. The green is very nice when varnished, I used the Russian green light shade as I felt the shade and middle colour were just too dark for 15mm.

Boy this was a job and a half and more so because I am not keen on painting artillery (I have no idea why?). 24 figures and 6 guns, well at least it's done now!!!

Wot No Carmera!

2010-09-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

It's a funny old life.

Lots of times I can't be bothered to take pics and put it off till later but since our wee pink camera broke down I have been itching to get snapping again!

I now have finished a Russian cuirassier regiment, a Russian horse battery and I am powering my way through a recently acquired load of AB Bavarians. Also there have been loads of exciting armies and games on show at our club too!!!!!!! Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!

The good news in those nice people at Samsung sent out a return envelope and packaging and promised to either repair or replace it. I hope to hell they run out of pink 1's and they send out a silver 1 instead (shhhhh, don't tell the wife)

So hopefully I will get her back soon but for now I'll just keep on painting.

NEWSFLASH . . .

2010-09-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Wife climbs her 1st Scottish hill!

Well I had planned to put some pictures up of my recently finished AB Russians but our little pink camera decided to take a funny turn mid way through our annual leave so until I get it fixed here are some pics of my wife scaling her 1st Scottish Hill "Tinto Hill" near Biggar in South Lanarkshire.

We have both been pretty concerned about our lack of exercise and the extra weight we have picked up over the past year and we decided to do something about it!

It has been a bit harder for Mai to keep healthy in Scotland as when you have lived most of your life in a hot country the thought of getting yourself out and doing exercise in a country that laughs in the face of sunshine must put shivers down your spine. However she is now getting used to the climate and is now keen to take on the world. Tinto is a hill that I have climbed up pretty much every year from childhood (school outings, Easter Sunday and family fun days have seen us meandering up it). When you live close by it becomes part of your mentality

I'm well proud of Mai as she really got into it in a big way. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to see so many people up on the old hill and it was great to see the sense of achievement (relief) on Mai's face when she made it to the top at last! What a class act, she took a little makeup bag and mirror in her backpack, I nearly died laughing.

And the best bit, snack time at the top. There is nothing quite like a garlic sausage sandwich, a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate after a long hill walk.

Tinto didn't fail to live up to its reputation of always being mega windy when you reach the top. In all the years I have been going up Tinto up top it's blowing a gale!

The best bit running down, We had some kids hot on our heels so we decide they "would not pass". All good fun (as the kids were totally oblivious to our little race!) and we really got a sweat up.

The next couple of days our legs were wasted, Brilliant!!!!!!!!

Friedland 1807 part2

2010-08-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

So down to part deux or dva if you are Russian

Some more lovely AB figures and guns.

It's great to see the earlier AB French figures getting a run out as all the figures in our collection have the shako.

A close up of the Russian weak left wing.

The Russian commander for the day was Robert

Robert has started using washes for speed when painting his Russians and they look the part. I tried it on some horses and just couldn't get it to work :-(

The French cavalry making their push to take the main Russian held village.

And the Russian CnC taking control of the defence.

I believe this is Bagration? (correct me if I am wrong guys) I will have to take a good look at the Fantassin Russian commanders I bought as these look really nice when painted up. I had them selected for punting on ebay!

The French objective for the day: This is what I need, some nice looking terrain for my battlefields.

I picked up a couple of buildings on Saturday and I will also try and make some myself since I now have the size and style to copy

The Russian centre: I have a couple of AB Pavlov battalions myself to paint up and hopefully they will look as good as these when finished.

I think everyone has a soft spot for the Pavlov's as their shiny gold mitre stands out really well amongst all the shakos.

Another future purchase for myself some artillery limbers but mine will be in the late war uniform.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to pick them up before VAT goes to 20%! 20 bloody per cent what is the country coming too?

Possibly the only Minifigs on the table? The more animated castings of the 3rd series I think? In the end the battle was fought to a draw!

Thought I would end with Lasalle, he was riding past just off shot in 1 of my pictures. Pretty hard to miss him!
I have got to get me some red trousers!

Figures:

French : Billy

Russians : Robert

Villages : RGary, Peter and Robert

Hex Terrain : Billy S (now I know what happens to indoor five-a-side footballs when they die, their soul may be gone but their bodies live on as battlefields across the land)

Friedland 1807 part1

2010-08-08T13:19:00.001-07:00

On Saturday my brother David, my young nephews David Jnr, Ian and myself headed over to Edinburgh for the annual Claymore show. It was the second year in their new venue and like last year it was a cracking event. I didn't intent to buy much as I am pretty much organised on what I would like to paint for say the next 200-250 years! however there was loads of great stuff on offer and I picked up some nice items.

The lads from Falkirk wargames club (Billy, Gary, Peter and Robert) were re-fighting a section of the Friedland battlefield from 1807 so I took the opportunity to take some pics of the action.

2 views across the battlefield from behind the French left wing

And it looked excellent!

Billy S was in control of the French left

With our club closed for the summer and the usual holiday distractions my painting ground to a halt and I needed a few volts of inspiration shot through me and this display did the trick!

The vast majority of the figures on show were 15mm AB's and the quality of painting was great.

(if the guys would have wondered off I could have quite happily sat for a couple of hours looking through all the figures on the table, yes I am that sad!).

Some French commands

I stumbled onto wargaming a couple of years ago and for a good while I wasn't sure if it was really my thing. To be honest I am happiest pouring through my reference material looking at all the colourful uniforms reading and re-reading the history of the Napoleonic period and at the same time painting away.

The guys at our club have encouraged me to take an interest in other periods and I have started a few (and have had some fun in doing them) however it's really only the Napoleonic period that catches my imagination.

A view from across the Russian's fragile looking left wing with what appears to be a powerful French army approaching.

Peter was in control of the French right wing

I really like the look of the French infantry in chapeau.

A French mounted officer and his wee dog supervising the french advance.

It's little details like this that gets my own brain working.

I'm lucky here in central Scotland as there are loads of people who share the same passion for Naps and a lot have been doing them for many years trying out most (if not all) of the rule systems available and thankfully they are happy to pass on their wealth of experience.

So when I came along all I had to do was start painting up my own wee men and base them to the rule system that most of the guys were playing.

My knowledge of the earlier Napoleonic period is very poor. From around the age of 15 to 20 I pretty much submerged myself readying everything I could about the Napoleonic period but I took a huge break for years when I decided to concentrate on rugby (and girls, for some reason painting little metal soldier somehow didn't seem to attract the fairer sex???). Anyway some how all the information I packed into my thick skull pretty much disappeared over the years.

Thankfully on Saturday Gary (umpire and designated history buff for the day) spent some time filling in the many gaps in my knowledge about the battle.

French light infantry advancing.

I was tempted to ask if I could take part in some way (maybe fire off some artillery) however Claymore comes but once a year and you really need to hunt down those bargains. I managed to pick up some Saxon Zastrow Cuirassiers from AB getting a chance to meet Ian and put a face to the emails!

to be continued . . .

Painting again at long last!!!

2010-07-28T12:52:00.001-07:00

Well it's been a busy old time with my wife and I deciding we really needed to get the house in order. We have spent every little piece of free time over the past couple of months trying to make the front and back gardens look a little bit less like the clampits and boy am I glad it's over with (for the moment).

I have been desperate to get my paints out for ages but with no painting area to call my own I managed to avoid it as the thought of having to pack them away again after 1 hour just didn't appeal to me.

Finally I got stuck into my 1st AB Russian battalion last night and it's coming along nicely.
The figures are an absolute dream to paint and I have the final figures all prepared to finish off over the next couple of nights. I plan to have a good sized army put together for 2012 so as to have some refights down the club and with my brother and nephew.

I started these Russian cuirassiers a good while back and after a great start put them to the side. The thought of painting thirty five of them knocked me off a bit and I have decided to space them in between my other units.

I think the Russian cuirassiers are my favourite AB figures I have seen so far.

And the horses are just perfect.

This wee guy was pretty tricky but I think he came out fine.

A big thank you to Suvoroff for the excellent Russian flags. I did a little bit of repainting to this 1 and there will be a white 1 in the unit as well.

1 thing about the AB Russians I find a problem is the lack of command figures compared to say the French. I will have to convert a few to make them all different. This is my 1st effort and was going to be part of my cuirassier command but I think he will probably be a dragoon commander?

Ahhh!!! my Old Glory landwher. I just can't seem to get these guys finished. All it would take is 2hrs work to get them ready to varnish and for some reason they are still lingering!!!

The weird thing is I really like them too?

I'll try to keep the updates coming along regularly now, happy figure painting and wargaming!!!!

East Coast Adventure

2010-06-28T00:27:00.001-07:00

Since the weather has been pretty great of late the wife and I decided on doing a little bit of sight seeing on Saturday.

We did a scan for events that might be of interest online on Friday night and spotted that there was going to be a highland games up in Ceres not far from St Andrews so we decided to make a day of it.

The Highland games in Ceres have apparently been on the go since 1314! It seems the town was granted the right to a Highland games by Robert the Bruce in gratitude for their contribution at the battle of Bannockburn.

2014 will be the 700th anniversary of the games in Ceres!!!

No Highland games would be complete without a traditional pipe band dressed in tartan.

And some Scottish Highland dancing.

After we had filled up with culture we made the short drive along to the coast to the beautiful town of St Andrews (home of world golf)

A nice bit of movie trickery here as these guns are actually solid plastic!!!

Next stop Crail. My parents brought me to Crail when I was but a lad and I still have fond memories of the place. It's a little gem of a town

And finally we stopped off in Anstruther for a nice meal and some chilling out before back home for a couple of glasses of red. A fine day indeed ;-)

ACW 10mm

2010-06-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a break from Napoleonics at the moment and have shocked myself by going smaller!

As you will see not all are finished off but as these are my 1st 10mm figures I just wanted to make a record of how they are coming along. The figures are all Pendraken and the guns in this lot (I already had sitting stuck together) came along in a big bag of 10mm ACW stuff my brother David picked up at Falkirk last year for £2 (bargain!) there are loads of casualties plus nice limbers and guns.

When John M and Jon B appeared at our local club last year with loads of wee armies in 10mm I could feel that urge to go out and buy something new coming on! However my brother David had already 2 very nice 15mm ACW armies built up and in the club 15mm was the scale the guys were using so there seemed no point.

Anyway JP has now put together a Union army in 10mm so I decided it was time to see if my eyes could manage the tiny detail. I picked up my little ACW order last Saturday at wappenshaw and got busy organising them into their units.

This is my unmounted cavalry with a little bit of conversion work (making wee alterations is where I get the most fun). I thinned down the guns to the cavalry style too.

I had some spare horses so decided to use them in the cavalry unit to add a little more interest.

I messed myself up by opening a new tub of black paint and it turned out glossy, So I had to matt varnish the figures before starting to detail this unit. killer

My 1st command base with dispatch rider holding his horse ready to bolt off carrying orders. He is a standard bearer from the command set.

All in all I am getting a lot of fun painting up this little army. Very nice figures from Pendraken with a lot more detail than I was expecting for such a small scale!

A couple of the pics are out of focus, sorry.

Something Completely Different

2010-06-05T00:51:00.000-07:00

Well my naps painting has ground to a total halt at the moment mainly because we haven't played it at the club for a good while.

Also I have been busy with a few distractions (gardening and the lovely weather) but my main distraction has been these little devils. I have had a small mountain of Subbuteo teams, goals and all kinds of accessories in my parents loft for many years.

I have been shifting my old toys through ebay (in order to give me some pocket money for more AB Napoleonic wee men) and it's been working out pretty well.

It appears that my stash of old Subbuteo teams an accessories is a real winner with the HW and LW collectors and I actually had 1 team go into 3 figures!

Crazy those collector types, you wouldn't catch me filling my house full of wee men. (kettle, black, pot, the, calling rearrange these words to finish off this well known phrase)

Anyway I sold off some painted spectators to a lad in Italy and next thing I know I am painting up a few hundred more for him in his teams colours (AS Roma).

I always wanted to fill up my Subbuteo stadium with painted supporters but never seemed to get the motivation as a lad. I must admit it has been a lot of fun (except for those enamel paints, I forgot how toxic they are). So I now have more pennies to spend on more wee men and the wife has a few nice new things too!!!!! Hopefully I'll get back into my naps soon.