Victrix Austrians

uh oh...

Victrix announce their Austrian plastics for 2011and damn they look good link

The 1809 campaign has got to be one of the best for us wargamers and I can see myself filling my shelves with these bad boys.
Lets hope they decide to box them up with the mounted officer and 48 foot. Then if you want 60 man battalions or 36 man you can just swap 12 out and everyones happy.

Right back to painting Nassau before it is to late.....

Man flu....

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been working hard on commissions and just when i think i am getting on top of it and can crack on with the Nassau, i am stricken down with the dreaded man flu.
Lemsips and lay ins should sort me out and i will hopefully be back on my painting table very soon.

the future....part 1

My "wargaming space" clear out continues at a steady pace. I have decided to be ruthless with my lead mountain and i have restricted myself to six draws of unpainted lead. Each draw will house a different project. This is a five year plan, but being as fickle as any other easily distracted wargamer, where the mood and my imagination takes me, i am sure to follow.

So here it is in order of importance

PROJECT 1. NAPOLEONIC 1815

This is where i am spending most of my hobby time right now. The 28mm Napoleonic wargamer is now truly spoilt for choice when it comes to figures and rules. Over the last few years Perry miniatures Napoleonics range has kept growing at a fantastic rate. With the new golden age of hard plastic figures upon us having huge armies is now something we can all reasonably budget for. This was one of the reasons I got back into Napoleonics in the first place. I have had a seven year break after selling off my massive Austrian and French 1809 campaign armies, which i created using AB figures 15mm range.

So with that in mind, how comes the regiments which I am starting my new collection with are all metal figures? it would of been much cheaper and simpler for me to buy and paint up half dozen British and French battalions using the box sets available and just add the plastic cavalry regiments. Especially now Perrys have announced their British hussars plastic box set.


But, no. That would be far to easy...
What really caught my imagination was reading "The Battle of Quatre Bras" by Mike Robinson. A fantastic book which I literally could not put down.
So I have plunged headlong into recreating the forces involved in this confusing, exciting and very messy battle. Luckily for me there were some very interesting and colourful regiments involved. being your typical Englishman and proud, I shamefully no next to nothing about our allies in the conflict, except that they were just there to make up the numbers......
So when I am not changing nappies or painting I am educating myself by researching the Dutch, Belgian and German armies of 1815.

PROJECT 2. DARK AGE ENGLAND

I already have an army of hairy Norwegians which I have gamed with regularly over the past few years, it is currently and slowly evolving into a Hiberno-Norse force with the addition of some Gripping beast and Crusader Irish.

I have recently bought WAB2 and look forward to my first game using the army under the new rules on the 23rd October. We are playing a what if? scenario. What if Hardrada had beat Godwinson at Stamford bridge and made his way south to face Billy the bastard.

I will write up a detailed battle report on my rather forgotten blog link

To be continued....

14 down 29 to go....

Well its taken me over a week, but i now have 14 green coated Germans finished.
I would like to say the next lot will be quicker now i have my new bulb. But sadly I need to concentrate on finishing some commissions over the next four weeks. That will then give me only one week to paint, varnish and base all 43 Nassauers plus 4 Dutch guns and their crews, if I am going to remain on schedule for SELWG. Here I will be treating myself to the next purchase on my list. Its a big one, again with two different languages. They will look stunning but may well be the Napoleonic wargamers equivalent of a King Tiger. Not that I am getting to excited thinking about it!
First I have work to do.

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.