Friedland 1807 part1

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 . . .