lights, camera, ACTION!

Well my new bulb turned up safe and sound, so now i can crack on with the next batch. In the interim i have had a major clear out of my wargaming area and made myself a new worktop which is 8' x3'. This will allow me to have a permanent set up for photography, so to test it i took a few pics of the jagers now sporting their freshly repainted chin scales.

During the clear up I have been harsh with my lead mountain and there will be lots of various stuff going to on eBay or the bring and buys soon.

I managed to get a few productive hours of painting in last night. 14 of the 2/2 NU now have skintones and green. Hopefully today i will be able to finish them off and start on the next batch of 14. Splitting them up in this way it wont feel like to much of a slog completing these large units. once they are all finished i will then base them all at the same time to make sure the basing colours match.

double disaster!

well slight setback at least...

My Daylight bulb has blown and it is surprising how much you begin to rely on things once you become accustomed to using them. I have had one on order from a chap on eBay for a few days now, so hopefully it will arrive without being damaged by my posty so i can crack on.
Talking of eBay it seems marshal Ney has been kidnapped by the mafia as he has disappeared in Italy somewhere ( i may wake up with a horses head in my bed just for saying this, but atleast it will make a change from the mrs). This is not the first time I have sent something to Italy and it has disappeared, maybe their posties are all wargamers? Anyway now i have to try and get compensation from royal mail which i have never successfully done in the past, like any insurance pay out they are always looking for an excuse not to pay. The money i made from selling this bought me the 2nd battalion of Nassau Usingen which are now undercoated awaiting the new bulb.
here's what a 43 man battalion looks like undercoated, this may take a while...

I have decided that i will base them on 6 60mmx45mm bases which will give them a nice chunky compact look. I ordered these bases from east riding miniatures on Monday and amazingly they turned up Tuesday along with some 45x45mm bases i will be using soon.

Also on the desk, you may be able to see in the pic a couple of Napoleons these will be on ebay and will go towards the coffers for SELWG in October. I also have a load of Sassanids and Normans to paint up for a friend, but thats a different story...

Nassau Volunteer Jagers

I finished my volunteer jager company last night. I bought them last Saturday at Britcon and now have them finished off, based and photographed in less than week. It may only be 9 figures strong but that is pretty good for me!

Here is a few photos of them skirmishing in the Bois de Bossu.


My idea for this project is to paint the units as they turned up on the front line. After reading The battle of Quatre Bras, i was sure they were part of the skirmish at Frasnes. After rereading the opening of hostilities it seems these chaps didnt turn up until the next evening at Quatre Bras itself.
So they have jumped the queue somewhat but that doesn't matter as it has given me a chance to test the choice of colour for the large Nassau contingent I will be painting.
I will list the colours here more as a reminder to myself more than anything.

coats and trousers = Foundry forest green 26A- 26A/B 26 A/BB 26B

skintone = citadel dwarf flesh, flesh wash, elf flesh

Belts = Foundry buff 7A i originally highlighted the belts but they looked better flat buff.

piping= Foundry Ochre 4B

bases = Vallejo chocolate brown, foundry base sand 10A, citadel kommando khaki. edged Vallejo earth brown

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Sir Winston Churchill

With that quote in mind I will prep up the 2nd battalion of the 2nd Nassau-Usingen regiment all 43 of them!!!

Back from Britcon

I had a successful shop at Britcon last weekend. Thanks to Dave T's stand i now have enough Nassau troops to see me through to Christmas. I also managed to sell off a shed load of GW plastics as well as offload a few chunks of my lead pile.

So to start with I am painting up the Nassau volunteer jaeger company, 9 figures in all. These will be my test figures for the rest of the Nassau contingent hopefully i will get a green i like. At the moment they seem a bit dark, but i guess as the green is listed as dark green then i am not to far off. They just look a bit dull. Hopefully the ochre coloured belts and yellow piping should brighten them up a little.


Once these are finished i may go off course and paint up a few Voltigeurs to try out the song of Drums and Shakos rules.

I hope to have these boys finished tomorrow and will post new, better pics then.

More French command stands

Here is my latest batch of French painted to finance the project. I found it hard to put these boys up for sale because i was really pleased with how they came out. I had to content myself with the knowledge that they are serving a higher purpose and when the time is right I will repaint them for my own collection. They are on Ebay if you press on the name it will link you to the auction.

I am currently refining my shopping list for Britcon. As well as a few pieces from Perrys I am thinking of buying some Hovels buildings. The only thing putting me off is Grand manner should be releasing his new Quatre Bras buildings next month. So maybe i should wait for them?

I have just downloaded "song of Drums and Shakos" by Ganesha games. I have their fantasy rules which are good fun, so hopefully these will be just as good for Napoleonics.
My plan is to use these rules for small skirmish games. For larger skirmish up to divisional level I will be using General de Brigade. These are the rules I first played Napoleonic wargaming with. Having had a long break from this period I have managed to buy and read quite a few different rules for the era. Some good some not so good.....
Anyway DB and I used to be running partners so it would be rude not to use his masterpiece.
I have never played it using 28mm, i just hope my table is big enough otherwise i will have to build a larger one!
If i ever paint enough figures and to play corp level games then I will probably switch to black powder. GdeB can become a little bogged down when the game gets to huge unless you have lots of players to help it run smoothly. Well that is enough thinking out loud for now, i best get back to the painting table.

Kellermann
GOC G de D Comte Francois Kellermann, leader of the III Reserve Cavalry Corps during the Waterloo campaign





Marshal Soult
GOS Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult, Duc de Dalmatia. Napoleons chief of staff during the Waterloo campaign.
Mounted along with his ADC C de B de Baudus




Milhaud
GOC G de D Comte Edouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud, leader of the IV Cavalry corps during the Waterloo campaign.


L'Hertier
GOC G de D Baron samuel Francois L'Hertier, leader of the 11th Cavalry division during the Waterloo campaign.

Back to the start

After last years full start I am back into Napoleonic wargaming in a big way. Enthused by my recent read of the magnificent "The Battle of Quatre Bras 1815" by Mike Robinson. I have declared my favourite colour is now orange and the Netherlands troops were not just a bunch of cowards who ran away. well, except maybe for the 5th Light Dragoons....
My plan now is to start painting forces for the start of the campaign. Then I will add them as they appeared on the battlefield of Quatre Bras.
So to start with I will be painting up the forces I need to play the opening skirmish at Frasnes.
To finance my new project I will be painting up more Napoleonic figures and selling these on Ebay. My first batch sold last week and include these pictured below from perry miniatures. Marshal Ney is my favourite Perry miniature so far. The Perry range just keeps growing and growing!









With the proceeds from these few I am off to Britcon this weekend with the hope that Dave Thomas's stand will be there and well stocked in the 2nd Nassau-Usingen troops. As i plan to paint up this battalion of nearly 900 all ranks in 1:20 it will be a whopping 45 figures strong. I hope this will not drain me of my recently fueled enthusiasm.