Lutzen : The Prussian Charge

On 27th March 2016, Easter Sunday my nephew David and myself were lucky enough to be invited along to the Falkirk Wargames Club held in Grangemouth to take part in a day of Napoleonic gaming. There were 2 battles on the go at once, 2 tables of 1813 Napoleonic goodness.

Below is a short YouTube video from Table No.1

Or if your not keen on videos I've also included a good number of pictures below.

A view from the French positions at the start of the game.

The famous photographer Peter watching the initial Prussian advance.

Good to see my Silesians in action. Games like this are a great way to see what you still need to paint to complete your collection and surprisingly for my Prussians I'm not so very far off.

Also my recently finished Saxon terrain got a look in on both tables.

Alisdair and Karl the Prussian commanders discuss tactics.

My Old Glory 1st West Prussians getting in on the action. These are some of my earliest figures from when I picked up on Naps again a few years back and I'm still really fond of them.

Some French looking to be on their way out the back of a village.

Some of the Falkirk gang on Table No.1

Blucher leading the troops into battle, it's great to see him finally getting a proper run out!!!

Silesian hussars getting hit by a mystery enemy hussar unit?

Another mystery enemy unit???

The Prussians pushing on through.

An overview of the action as it unfolds.

The French under pressure.

A pretty impressive Prussian steamroller.

Is there anything more impressive than the Prussian army of 1813???

The guys looking over the end table.

At the end of the game everything had ground to a halt.

The final result, a very hard fought draw.

So that was game No.1 and hopefully over the next week or 2 I'll get a chance to put pictures up from game No.2 that I took part in.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures,
Happy Wargaming!!!

Von Rechten 2nd Battalion

As promised here is a little post on my latest Saxon battalion plus a few pictures of my army so far. I'm happy to say I now have a full brigade of infantry, if a bit confused with different facing colours. At least they will be able to fight as a brigade until I sort out more battalions!

Again I have made a little video above or if you would prefer to see the pics only please look below.

So this is my very small Saxon army at the moment, 5 battalions (4 line and 1 grenadier). plus a foot battery (minus guns) and a brigade command. I'm very happy with them so far.

My 3 newest battalions

So this is my latest battalion finished, 2nd battalion von Rechten regiment.

I have added a few figures in ticking material through the battalion and I'm really pleased how that turned out.

I also added in a good number (maybe to many?) with grey overalls.

The mounted officer for this battalion is from the new French line with a head swap from a Spanish ADC. It's good to have a new variation to the Saxon mounted officer (thanks to John B for helping me find alternatives!)

There area a couple of new poses in the Saxon line the chap in the ticking trousers is 1 and needed a little work on his neck but when done he is an interesting figure pose. 

I have 2 more yellow faced battalions to do for my 1813 brigades so I'm glad I'm comfortable with my colours for making the yellow.

With these guys finished off I have decided to move onto light cavalry.

I have cleaned up a regiment of von Polenz light cavalry and have started my test figures. Their clean up was tough going with a great deal of thick extra metal between the back of the legs, scabbard and saddle cloth and a thin vine of metal running down the back of some legs, most I've ever seen on AB figures. I have them sorted now and have them all undercoated.
It's such a pretty uniform I'm really looking forward to painting them!!!

Hope everyone has a lovely Easter and Happy Wargaming!!!

French in Greatcoat by Gav Booth

Sorry for the lack of posts through March, I haven't got a clue where this month has gone? I've been pretty busy with life however I have still been painting the troops and I received a package in the post from Gavin Booth of "Furphy's Brush with History". Gav like myself is a 15mm/18mm Napoleonic enthusiast and has very recently started commission painting. Anyway long story short Gav had a quiet spell so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get Gav to paint up some French for me.

I've made a wee video in Youtube if your into that kind of thing however if not I have also included pictures below:

So the commission was 3 battalions of French in greatcoat, 1 Gav had purchased himself and 2 of my own, I cleaned up my troops and drilled the flag men and sent them down to Gav. A couple of months later Gav sent them up all painted and lovely!!!

I painted the pompoms, added a little highlight to the musket metal and did a couple of figures to fill the ranks as we decided the lads with the small fanion should go into the grenadier (or voltigeur) company. I finished them off by basing them in my own style so they would fit in well with my own troops.

I have to say I'm really pleased with them, Gav has done a lovely Job using quite a few different colours on the greatcoats and shako covers. I have spread the different colours through the battalions to get a nice campaign look for the battalions. The little company fanions I have painted red and may add detail to them in the near future but for the moment they will do fine.

Gav put a lot of effort into the smaller detail around the backpacks and it's really nice to see.  I'm well chuffed with my commission and I would definitely commission Gav to do more although I cant see him having very many quiet spells again. Top painting Gav!!!

I'll put up a Saxon line battalion I finished recent soon.
Happy Easter and Happy Wargaming!!!

Saxon Von Rechten WIP2

It has been a slow few weeks hobby wise for me, I have been pulling some extra shifts plus we had a wee break away up north, however I feel I'm back on track with my latest Saxons, 2nd battalion von Rechten and hope to have it finished by the end of the week.

The yellow shades have been fun to do which is just as well as I have another 2 yellow faced battalions to paint up. I will apologies for the poor pictures up front! I need to get myself a better camera as our old pink 1 isn't catching the focus so well since the lense had jam smeared around it by my good lady.

So 28 down with just 4 to go, I may need to give my buttons on the troops a highlight of chainmail? I went for a darker white metal to help the buttons pop on the white/yellow background but to my eyes they maybe a touch dark?

I tried painting ticking material on a few trousers and I am pretty happy how that worked out. I will keep it to a minimum but it does add an extra little bit of detail to the battalion. I think it will work best with the light troops?

I dont have any of the new French NCO's left so I've kept this battalion quite simple. I plan to order some up for my following marching battalions but its not a great issue.

John B from Oz put me onto a few figures that could be handy for the Saxons and 1 was the mounted French line officer in Bardin uniform, I head swapped in a bicorne head and I think it worked pretty well (thanks John). I will hopefully do this on a couple more battalions and command base for a little variety in the units.

So this is the 4 I have still to do plus a little brigade command I am working on.

Off to work for a few days now so I hope everyone is enjoying their gaming and painting.

Happy Wargaming!!!