French Horse Artillery

I always think what really makes a wargames table is the little extra equipment and details that people add like caissons and limbers

  

My brother David took the notion this year to get some of our old Minifigs eye candy finished up to accompany his horse artillery batteries.

  

This is my personal favourite, the caisson all based up ready and waiting that double 1 to be rolled.

  

I really like the limbers too. We have a soft spot for the old Minifigs range as you could get almost everything for the Napoleonic period. When they are done well, they really look the part on the table. David has based this limber on a hardwood base he cut himself and has magnetic strip underneath for storage.

Prussian Minifigs

At last a full regiment finished!!!

Well there has to be some sort of record for the length of time someone takes from buying figures to actually completing them and these guys must be in with a shout for that record?

(I bought these guys when I was 17 years of age and just finishing high school and I completed them this week, I am now 36!!!)


To give you a little bit of background my brother started collecting French Minifigs when I was a lad so as soon as I was able to paint half decent I decided that I would collect the Allies. We painted a good amount but after trying out some rules we got fed up and decided to knock it on the head (I think I managed 24 Prussians in total?)

So the figures sat up in my brothers loft with the occasional dusting off for a look until last year when we got introduced to Napoleonics again through some guys at the Motherwell Wargames Club and out they came again. We have been using the General de Brigade rules so I had to do some searching to make the figures up to 32 man battalions but I got there in the end.

I still have a stack of cavalry to work through but they are in smaller batches of 15-20 and since I have loads of Old Glory cavalry to paint I will just be making do with the numbers I have. This little force will be getting handed over to my nephew Ian when he is old enough to look after them (and hoping he still has an interest in wargaming!)

So that's my 11th/2nd Silesian infantry regiment finished. I had to do some head swaps and some conversion work but I am glad the way they turned out. I have to say I enjoyed doing these guys much more than any AB or Old Glory units I have painted and now that I have them finished I actually feel that I have achieved something! Must just be the nostalgia I guess? Thanks to Robert for helping get this little force together.

Dutch Minifigs

Well I must admit that I never thought these figures would ever see the light of day again so I am really glad to get them underway. I only have a couple of battalions (one just needs varnishing), artillery and cavalry to complete them.

You will have guessed the Waterloo battles were what we were building our armies towards. To be honest my brother isn't keen on the lesser allies so it was down to me to get them painted. For the command bases I converted some French and Dutch troops. I also took some inspiration from a really nice 28mm battle: http://generaldebrigade.13.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?t=3416

I have always liked the Nassau uniform and took a lot of enjoyment out of painting these wee guys. The only thing I didn't like was the light troops in advancing positions while the rest are in march attack it just doesn't look right to me? If I had spare march attack I would have converted them into the lights, unfortunately I didn't.





As with the rest of our Minifigs units I had to do a far bit of searching to make up the numbers. I filled the ranks out with officers and drummers with a couple of head swaps and even a newer range Minifigs drummer added in. The grenadiers are my personal favourite.
A big thanks to David C for somehow finding spares of this unit and again to Chris for the flag it really finishes the unit off.

British Minifigs

I had managed to paint up quite a few British all those years ago but again not as many as is required for the General de Brigade rules so I had to go scrounging around again.

For the officers I managed to raid our spares box and converted some Belgians and to finish them off I added some Revo flags.

The Scots Greys were all finished off if not low in numbers so it was just a case of getting them based up.

The 95th rifles here are a mix of Minifigs and also Lancashire Games (I think?)

The Highland Light Infantry was a unit I really enjoyed painting as a boy and it was nice to get it based up and onto the wargames table again. (I have the 2 flag poles being carried in the unit but I don't believe the HLI carried their flags into battle during the Napoleonic war. Unfortunately it is too late to change them now). Thanks again to Chris, David C and Robert for help fill out the ranks of our units.

French Guard Minifigs

The advancing French guard were the first Napoleonic troops my brother bought. I couldn't tell you exactly when that was but I was knee high to a grasshopper.

A couple of years later I bought 24 of the march attack ones, painted and based them up on beer mats (which was the basing material of choice back then!) then once we lost interest just like the rest of our Minifigs collection they were banished to my brothers loft for far to many years.

My brother and I maintained a soft spot for the old Minifigs range so when we started the Napoleonics again I felt I really had to do them justice and get them based up. Again with the General de Brigade rules we needed more figures so I had to go searching. Thanks to David C, Robert and Stephen for helping me get a hold of those missing figures, the mounted officers came from that stock I picked up at Macs Models all those years ago! Thanks again to Chris for the flags.

I have to say there is one downside to getting these guys finished, my Prussians will have to fight them!!!

Blucher Command Minifigs

A big thanks to Robert for passing these figures onto me. I was without a command for my little Minifigs Prussian force and these guys do the trick just fine.

Blucher and the figure in green (feldjager) are from the later Minifigs range but I am nor sure of the ADC? I believe Blucher should have a blue cap so I might alter that in the future.