Not so Portug-Easy!

Hello everyone!

 

Thanksgiving Break has arrived! I had my last class before the holidays today, which means I had a night to work on hobbies without stress from homework and whatnot. I spent that time painting up the guys I mentioned in my last post: the beginnings of a Portuguese line infantry regiment! Tonight I present the Coronel stand of the 21^o Regimento de Valencia of the Exército Português. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

I'll tell you all the truth about this stand of figures: none of them were sold to me as "Portuguese." These six figures represent three different miniature manufacturers and two different nationalities, neither of which, like I said, were Portuguese. Keen observers will notice that the colonel (or coronel in Portuguese) and the drummer were pictured earlier on this blog in the white for the Salamanca Summer Painting Challenge 2012 as part of my British command stand (that I failed to start, let alone complete) for the Battle of New Orleans. They are British figures in Belgic shakos made by Eureka, and they are wonderful sculpts, very similar in size and style to AB figures. The two standard bearers are American figures made by Blue Moon Manufacturing, and the two rankers in the back row are British line infantry in Belgic shakos that I'm pretty sure are Minifigs.

I can already hear the gripes: Hey Chuck, how could you use these varied models to represent Portuguese? Won't there be inaccuracies? Good questions! One thing I've learned through painting 15mm figures is that the most important things that differentitate units on the tabletop at this scale are hats and equipment. Minor differences in arms and uniforms can generally be disguised by paint, but if the hats and equipage is wrong then they are a no-go. In this case, the Belgic shakos of the British figures and the leather shakos of the Americans--both of which had false fronts--are pretty close proxies of the Barretina shakos that were introduced by the Portuguese Army in 1806. Add in the fact that officer uniforms at the time were pretty much standard between most armies (to cover the colonel and standard bearers) and that Portugal accepted lots of donated equipment from Britain (to cover the rankers) and this mix of figures works pretty well together as Portuguese on the tabletop. I will be using more Minifigs British in Belgic shakos to represent the rest of the regiment. Inaccurate? Yes, but one would have to be a die-hard button-counter to be able to tell at this scale.

I've painted these lads in the dark blue tunics and white trousers that are seen in most illustrations of Portuguese infantry at this time. Portugal during the Peninsular Campaign was divided into three military divisions: the North, the Center and the South. Regiments from the Northern Division were presecribed to wear uniforms faced in yellow and carry yellow regimental colors, and I've reflected that here. Individual regiments were differentiated via differing piping and button colors. I've painted this stand as having both the King's color (the red and blue checked one) and the Regimental color together on the same stand. Both are made from glue-stiffened paper and hand-painted by myself--these flags proved a challenge in their complexity! Nominally Portuguese infantry regiments were divided into two battalions, with the first battalion carrying the King's color and the second battalion carrying the Regimental color. However, most of the evidence that I found indicated that for most of the Peninsular Campaign the 21^o did not posess enough soldiers to flesh out two full battalions and instead the regiment formed a single battalion, hence both flags being in the same battalion. The 21^o's sister regiment, the 9^a Regimento de Viana, which served with the 21^o in General Manley Power's (great name!) Portuguese Brigade in the British 3rd Division, was much larger and fought with two separate battalions for most if not all of the Peninsular War.

Whew! That's a lot of text!

Coming up: Those darn 3e Hussars. I've even included a workbench photo of them just to prove that I am in fact working on them:

These guys should get finished off tomorrow, then we'll see what else I get done. Maybe some more Portuguese... the rankers were really quick to paint up.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

5/60th Royal American Rifles

Hello everyone!

 

I was able to get these British Riflemen painted up quickly this afternoon (only having to paint four men for a stand makes them quick to complete). This one is a company from the 5th Battalion of the 60th Regiment of Foot, also called the "Royal Americans" from its formation during the aftermath of the American War of Independence, even though by the time of the Napoleonic Wars there were more Germans and other Europeans serving in the 60th than there were Royalist Americans. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

These figures are all wonderful AB sculpts that I purchased a long time ago with the rest of the figures that will represent the three companies of Riflemen from the 5/60th that was attached to Mackinnon's brigade of the 3rd Division. I've got them wearing the dark green jackets of the rifles faced in red, along with blue trousers piped in red. I've seen others paint the 5/60th with green trousers, but I've based these guys on a popular print that shows blue trousers:

 

One more stand of these guys and this unit will be complete. They will be considered a "tiny" unit in Black Powder.

 

Coming up: I've got the horses of a stand of 3e Hussars almost done; once they're knocked out then I've broken the backs of them and it won't take long to finish them. I've also dug out a motley collection from the lead pile to represent a stand of Portuguese infantry: more on them at a later date. I'm going to be pretty busy during school this week so it may be next Thursday or Friday before I can get any more painting done, but if anything comes along that is easy to write about then I'll do so.

 

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

 

-Chuck

19e: Halfway Done!

Hello everyone!

 

Another quick update. Tonight I was able to finish up another French fusilier stand for the 19e. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

Like the voltigeur company, this stand has Heritage figures in the rear rank while the front rank is made up of modified and painted RISK boargame pieces from the 1998 version of that game. They are painted up as wearing the quickly discontinued model 1806 white uniforms. By finishing this stand I've brought the 19e up to half strength!

19e firing line ready for action!

Coming up: I'm currently working on both the elite company from the 3e Hussars (wearing colpacks) and a stand of British Riflemen from the 5th Battalion of the 60th (Royal American) Regiment of Foot; long-time followers of this blog may remember the first stand of these guys I painted in May of 2012.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Beginnings of the Vistula Legion

Hello everyone!

 

Over the past couple of days I've been working on some of the new 1/72 Poles that I recieved over the last week. Since I'm a sucker for painting new stuff, I finished up the command stand of the 1e Régiment de la Légion de la Vistule, the start of my first foreign regiment of Napoleon's Army. The Grande Armee included 95,000 Poles, the highest number of foreign troops in French service during the Napoleonic Wars, behind the troops from countries that had been directly annexed by France.

 

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

These are a mix of 1/72 figures by Strelets-R and Waterloo 1815, with the standard bearer and the drummer being from Waterloo 1815 and the rest from Strelets-R. One of my favorite things about this stand (and something that I did not plan at all when I chose the figures for this base) is the man with his rifle resting on his shoulder in the back rank. His pose, with his left hand outstreched and looking to his left, suggests that he is checking the alignment of the regiment and keeping the musicians in line, an important task for NCOs during the Napoleonic Wars. While I didn't paint rank on him, his pose struck me as being indicitive of the qualities of a good NCO, and I have therefore made him an honorary sergeant.

The flag was made using standard paper fixed and hardened with super glue and then painted free-hand. This was made more difficult because this standard-bearer, from Waterloo 1815, originally came with a cast flag, which I had to carefully remove from the pole with an X-acto knife. I was able to keep the finial, which is a Polish Eagle, not the standard French Eagle. Little details like this really bring out the authenticity of wargame units.

Here's a detail of the flag; compare to the picture in my last post.

These men are wearing the distinctive uniforms of the Poles that served in the Vistula Legion and other Polish units in Napoleon's Grande Armee. The distinctive qualities of Polish dress included the czapska headdress with the squared top and the kurtka, or square-lappelled jacket. The kurtkas of the 1e Régiment were blue with yellow facings, cuffs and turnbacks, and a dark blue collar piped in yellow. I was confronted with a little bit of a conundrum when it came to painting the musicians (there are two, a drummer and a fifer) as I saw many different variations on the Internet. There were reversed colors, regular jackets with yellow chevrons up the sleeves in typical drummer style, and, the pattern I eventually went with, white chevrons piped in red up both sleeves. They also are the only two that have cords on their czapskas, which I found appropriate as the musicians were "ceremonial" positions. The czapskas of the others do not have cords, though there is a difference in the badges on the two different manufacturer's figures; Strelets-R has the "sunburst" plate known to be worn by the Vistula Legion, while the Waterloo 1815 figs have different plate and a Polish Eagle badge.

Even though these lads are more than a head taller than my other 15mm battalions, I based them on thin plasticard so that they would stand shorter on the table; in fact, the tops of their heads are at the same height as the tops of the shako plumes of my AB grenadiers. Also, I was relieved that I was able to fit all six figures on the standard infantry base (4cm by 4cm) without a hitch.

Coming up: I am right now working on another stand of the 19e. They will probably be the next stand I complete. Probably...

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

1/72 Napoleonic Miniatures Review, Part III

Hello everyone!

The other box of 1/72 plastic Polish infantry arrived yesterday. Here are my thoughts.

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

Waterloo 1815 Set No. AP 008 Polish Infantry, 1812/14

Initial Impressions:

I really liked the box art on this set from the moment I saw the listing on eBay. In fact, had it not gotten my attention I would have never even considered getting Poles for my French forces at all. When I first got the figs themselves out of the box (knowing from the Plastic Soldier Review site that each sprue was identical), I was quite pleased to discover that the figs were cast in hard plastic, which I really like. This was a big plus for me, as I believe that the softer plastics make it easier for paint to chip off figures.

Front of the box: more cool box art.

Scaleability:

These guys are a hair shorter than their Strelets-R counterparts, though I don't think it would stand out too much when put together in a unit. They are also slimmer, not nearly as beefy as Strelets-R, Italeri or Revell, but not as anorexic as the Hat Russian artillerymen. They really look like overgrown AB figures, which is not a bad thing at all.



 



Back of the box

Quality:

The quailty on these figures is top notch. As I said before these are cast in hard plastic, meaning that detail is very fine on the figures. They look awesome in the flesh, about as good as metal figures. They really look like oversize AB figures. As far as overall quality goes these are probably the best that I've purchased so far, even surpassing that of Italeri. Uniform details are good, but there are a few nit-picky things, including pretty much all of the figures being armed with sabre-briquet when these should technically be reserved for the Light and Grenadier companies, as well as the fact that the drummer's drum is too small, though overall they are excellent figures.



Sprue with nine poses (there are four of the same sprues in this set).

 

Price:

 

I bought these figures off of eBay, paying $9.95 plus $3.92 shipping and handling, totalling $13.87. Divided amongst the 36 figures taht you get in the box, you end up paying about $0.38 per figure, which is on par with what I paid for the Strelets-R figures from my last review. Not a bad deal considering the quality of the product you're getting.

 

Overall Impression:

 

I really like these figures. My two biggest gripes are that you get far too many of poses that you really need only one of (standard bearer, drummer and officer poses, I'm looking at you) and the fact that the standards are cast onto the figures. This wouldn't be so bad if they were plain, but they had a big cast Polish eagle on it, which doesn't do me any good since I wanted to paint the banner of the Vistula Legion, which does not have an eagle.

 

Combat Rooster for the win. Gotta love the Poles.

 

As you can see, it in fact has a rooster (which is awesome in its own right), not a big eagle. But really these are both rather minor gripes. The figures themselves are excellent, made of the hard plastic that I really like in plastic figures with sharp details, and they fit in well size wise with the Strelets-R figures that flesh out the rest of the battalion. Simply put, this is an excellent set.

 

Coming up: I'm still painting all of the things I've been painting now for the last two weeks, as well as starting on the 1e Régiment de la Légion de la Vistule. All I can truly promise anymore is that something will get done.

 

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

 

-Chuck

French Siege Engineers

Hello everyone!

 

The Vallejo matt Varnish that I ordered arrived today so I was able to base up the stand of French Engineers from the Stretlet-R set I reviewed in my last post. Here I present for your viewing pleasure a compagnie of Sapeurs du Génie (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions).

 

These are 1/72 plastic miniatures from Strelets-R, included in a set containing Polish Infantry. These lads are sappers of Napoleon's military engineers, also known as the Génie. Their uniforms consited of dark blue coats faced in black and piped red and with dark blue small clothes underneath. The majority of this stand is wearing siege armor, which consisted of a cuirass and helmet. These items were worn when they were working within musket range of the enemy, usually when digging counterscarps, mines and trenches during the siege of cities. To diminish their reflections to the enemy, these pieces of armor were painted black, though I chose to paint them in the metallic Boltgun Metal for greater contrast. This was also my first foray with using Matte varnish, and I was rather pleased with the results, especially for a unit that did its utmost not to attract attenion to itself.

These minis carry a number of different tools that would have been useful in a siege. The first man on the front row carries a heavy wooden sledge hammer, the second man a fascine, and the last man is carrying a shovel as he holds aloft a lantern. The engineer officer on the back row carries a telescope for observation, the middle man an axe as well as resting his foot on another fascine, and the last man is hard at work digging with a shovel.

For a base, I've chosen a rectangle 6cm wide by 4cm deep, with its corners clipped. This should make the unit readily identifiable as a specialty unit. These men will be used in-game as a kind of catch-all for engnieer troops, with objectives that could include demolishing structures, blowing up bridges, building/repairing bridges, etc. I've even gone as far as to come up with some preliminary stats for use with the Black Powder rules:

Unit	Type	Armament	Hand-to-Hand	Shooting	Morale	Stamina	Special
Engineers	Special	Smoothbore Carbines (12”)	1	1	3+	1	?

I've given this unit Smoothbore Carbines to represent the musketoons that were often issued to engineer and artillery units at this time, though none of the above figures are so armed. I've given them the rather high morale of 3+ to reflect these sappers' coolness under fire, being used to working under these stressful conditions. I am, however, unsure of any special rules to give them. I was trying to come up with some kind of engineering related rule that could be used to accomplish tasks on the battlefield or whatnot, but have been unable to come up with anything.

Are there any suggestions out there? I would love to hear your comments on special rules and/or how to make them work on the table-top.

Coming up: probably another stand from the 19e. I'll also slowly but surely continue work on the 3e Hussars.

Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

1/72 Napoleonic Miniatures Review, Part II

Hello everyone!

 

One of my 1/72 plastic miniature orders came in yesterday so I've written up a little review for them. As i said in my last post, my 1/72 plastic miniature review from last year has been the most popular post on the blog by far, and I hope that this will be just as useful. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

Strelets-R Set No. 0003 Napoleonic Polish Infantry and French Engineers

 

Initial Impressions:

 

These figures are produced by the Ukrainian company Strelets-R. The box artwork is awesome and the description on the back is pretty informative. I was first made aware of this set from the awesome Plastic Soldier Review website review of the set (the whole site is great, by the way, and anyone interested in 1/72 plastic minatures should check it out), and after a quick search I was able to pick the set up from Classic Toy Soldiers here in the U.S. for cheap. I really like the figures; there are 45 individual poses in the box, which includes Polish infantry, and French Siege Engineers along with General Poniatowski, Marshall Murat and and depiction of Napoleon on foot.

 

Front of the Box. Check out the sweet box art on this guy!

Back of the box.

Scaleability:

Scale wise the Strelets-R figs are somewhere in between Hat and Revell. The large czapska hats make the Poles seem to be much taller than they actually are, so they look to be in between the Revell and Italeri figs in the picture below, which compares most of the different figure manufacturers in my collection. Most of the figs are thin, so they shouldn't be hard to include a standard six man infantry stand in a normal 4cm by 4cm base.

From L to R: Heritage, Essex, AB, Hat, Revell, Strelets-R and Italeri.

Quality:

These figs had quite a bit of flash on them from the molding process, as well as a few miscasts (incomplete sword hilts, scabbards, bayonets, etc.), but nothing that would keep any figures from being used. The plastic is soft, about the same softness as Hat figures. These figures need to be cleaned well with soap and water before any kind of primer or paint is applied; I learned this the hard way when I tried to use brush-on primer on one and it refused to stick. Details on the figs themselves are good and the poses are dynamic.

Sprue 1: Polish Infantry

 

Sprue 2: Polish Infantry, stretcher party and General Poniatowski

Price:

I was able to get a good deal on this box of figures from Classic Toy Soldiers because they had them on sale to clear inventory. Instead of paying the regular price of $12 plus $6 shipping and handling i paid a little over $8, bringing the total to $14.35 for 45 individual poses, which comes out to $0.31 per figure. These were a little bit more expensive than the other 1/72 plastics, but that's because I was able to get a deal on those through eBay.

Sprue 3: French Siege Engineers

Sprue 4: Polish Infantry, Napoleon and Murat

Overall Impression:

Overall, I'm as impressed with these figures in the flesh as I was when I looked at them on Plastic Soldier Review. The real reason that I bought them was to flesh out a full battalion; I found out that the Waterloo 1815 figs that I had purchased on eBay wouldn't have enough infantrymen on them to have the required 36, so I needed more. When I discovered that the Strelets-R set included French Siege Engineers as well I knew I had to get them. I like them, and I think they will work fine on the tabletop, even with smaller manufacturers' minis in other battalions on the same table.

Coming up: I've been working on a stand of French Siege Engineers, but I won't be able to base them until I recieve the brush-on matte varnish that I ordered (I don't trust the durability of paint on plastic miniatures without varnish, even with primer underneath). 3e Hussars are still on the bench, as is a stand from the 19e. We'll see what gets done over the week.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

A Little Bit of Everything

Hello everyone!

 Okay, so there's going to be a lot of broken promises in this blog post. Remember when I said that I would be painting more French? Nope. And that my days of buying more 1/72 plastic miniatures were over? Nope. So now it's time to air my gaming deceit and lies! :)

Not-French

The Not-French figures that I have painted for your viewing pleasure are those in the command stand for the 1st Battalion of the 74th (Highland) Regiment of Foot, also known as Campbell's Highlanders. In my defense, at least they're not English...

(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions!)

 

This Scottish unit probably fought under the command of Wellington more than any other unit in the British Army. The 74th had fought in India under Wellington at the battles of Seringapatam and Assaye, the battle that Wellington is said to have considered his finest victory. In fact, both their King's and Regimental Colours have little elephants on them with the battle honor "Assaye," which I attempted to paint on these small flags (you can kind of see them in the third picture).

 

There are a lot of firsts in this group. These were the first figures that I ever primed using brush on primer (it's starting to get cold here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and spray primer is picky about temperature), and as a result my wintertime productivity should increase. This is the first time that I have ever included a mounted commander in an infantry battalion. This stand is also the first time I have ever attempted to paint tartan in 15mm; while it is difficult in 28mm, its a Pain in the A$$ in 15mm; the bagpiper almost drove me crazy and crosseyed at the same time.

 

The 74th had been de-kilted at the start of the Peninsular War, and I've reflected that here. The only kilted figure is the piper, because even though the rest of the battalion is kiltless I find it hard to believe that any self-respecting piper would go without his kilt, and what true Highland battalion would go without a Piper? The officers all have their grey overalls on, but the Sergeant in the second rank is wearing trews, or tartan trousers.

 

When I first started gathering figures for this regiment over a year ago (my, how time flies), I was troubled by how to represent a de-kilted Highland regiment. Trews are easy enough to paint, but what headgear would be good? Shakos would be out, because I wanted the 74th to instantly stand out as a Highland unit, and I lacked the ability or desire to cut feathered bonnet heads off of Highland figures and graft them on to other minatures as that would be a waste. I settled on cutting the shakos off of regular line figures and sculpting on tiny Balmoral bonnets (complete with tiny toories, or pom-poms).

 

The Sergeant and two ensigns are Old Glory figures that orignally came with Belgic shakos, which I trimmed down and added green stuff Balmorals to. The mounted colonel and piper are both fantastic AB figures.

 

1/72 Plastics Experiment

 

Ok, so I said that I probably wasn't going to buy any more of the 1/72 plastic miniatures because I found most of them to be grossly oversize compared to my 15mm figures. Well, I lied about that too. While they are larger, times have changed: I can no longer afford to have entire battalions made up of AB figures like I could when I had an expendable income working for the government.

 

Plus, the 1/72 plastics I just ordered are pretty awesome.

 



 

So here they are, two sets of 1/72 plastics that will form an infantry battalion of the Vistula Legion. The Vistula Legion was a battalion of Polish men that served under the French from the 1790s up to Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, with much of the years between 1808 and 1812 fighting in Spain.

 

The first set pictured above is Waterloo 1815's Polish Infantry (1812/14), set No. 008. The one below it is Strelets-R's Napoleonic Polish Infantry and French Engineers set No. 003, which includes not only Poles but also multiple poses of French Siege Engineers. All of the Poles are wearing the distinctive Polish czapka hats and uniforms, while the Engineers are wearing their armored cuirasses and helmets. I decided that I wanted a bit of color and foreign flavor for my French forces (as historically there were more foreigners fighting in Napoleon's armies than there were actual Frenchmen), and I'm looking forward to painting up both the Poles and the Engineers.

 

The single most popular post on my blog so far has been the review that I did last summer over the various 1/72 sets that I ordered off eBay. When these new 1/72 plastics arrive, I will review them as well.

 

Coming up: Frenchmen, I promise this time (for real)! They're right here on my desk, just waiting to be worked on... Also, depending on when those 1/72 Poles arrive, there will be reviews on these figures.

 

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcome and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

 

-Chuck

MOAR French Hussars!

Hello everyone!

 

I was able to finish up another stand of 3e Hussars today. These chaps represent one of the 3e's line companies. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

As with the command stand, two of these figures (the flanking models) are made by Heritage, while the center figure is made by Essex. The Essex horses are quite a bit chunkier than the Heritage ones, but they are about the same height once everything is glued to the based. The Essex mini actually has had a head-swap: He was originally cast with a colpack, which I am saving for the 3e's elite company, and, needing one more shako-headed mini, I cut the head off of a 1/72 plastic British Rifleman, trimmed it down and glued it on. I don't think it looks all that bad, either, if I do say so myself.

Coming up: probably more 3e Hussars. I've now completed two stands of the 3e Hussars, leaving only four more stands to go. However, I'm reminded of how much I hate painting horses, even in 15mm, so we'll see how many more stands I can soldier through before I break down and have to paint more infantry. :)

Questions, comments and critcisms are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

A Few More Spiffy, White-Uniformed Frenchmen

Hello everyone!

 

Another quick update for y'all. I painted up the command stand for the Chef de battalion of the 19e last night and finished up the base today (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions).

 

Again, for the first, kneeling rank I used the RISK board game pieces that I reviewed in my last post, and for the rear rank I used 15mm French command figures from Essex. The 1804 pattern flag is home-made, using a bit of printer paper folded over the flag staff, hardened and fixed in place with super glue, and then painted free-hand. I'm really starting to like the look of painted flags.

Like the stand of 19e voltiguers, these chaps are painted in the 1806 pattern white uniforms. I wasn't able to find any information on how the drummers were to be costumed under these regulations, so I chose reveresed colors of a red jacket with white facings based on the fact that foreign regiments in French service utilized similar reversed color schemes for their drummers and that historically military musicians wore reversed colors in all armies at the time. Historical or not, I like the reversed colors on this drummer and I won't be changing it.

Coming up: Probably more 3e Hussars, I'm priming up a bunch of them as I write.

Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcomed and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

I took a RISK on these Infantrymen…

 

Hello everyone!

I thought that I’d do some more infantry utilizing some new miniatures that I bought on a whim last week. These lads represent the Compagnie de Voltigeurs in the 19e Régiment d’Infanterie de Ligne. This regiment primarily fought in the eastern part of the French Empire against the Austrians, Prussians and Russians, but for a few years it fought in Spain. (Click on the pictures for larger versions.)



The kneeling figures are all the plastic RISK board game pieces I mentioned buying earlier. When I bought them, I had no idea whether or not they would even be usable with other 15mm figures, but I was lucky to discover that the infantry figures could be pressed into service without any difficulty; unfortunately, neither the cavalry pieces (which are way too small) nor the artillery pieces (which are silly looking anachronisms) could be used. The only modifications I really had to do to the infantry was to cut a bit of plastic from the bottom of each base and cut a space between the figures’ shako plumes and musket muzzles.

Before they arrived I also wasn’t sure what nationality I could use them for, but when they came in I immediately noticed that they had the distinctively French bell-topped shakos. The only real problem that I found with them historically is that all of them have the epaulettes and sabre-briquet of elite companies. Though there’s nothing I can do about the molded epaulettes, I did try carving off the sabre-briquet, without satisfactory results. So, when I start doing line companies I apologize to the hardcore button-counters out there as they will have short swords; as a historian I try to paint uniforms as accurately as possible, but sometimes you’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt.

These figures are quite small, almost too small for 15mm figures, but they are kneeling and overall they fit in pretty well with the Heritage figures that make up the back rank. At this scale the eye overlooks the fact that they are a hair on the small side, and besides they were dirt cheap. I got enough to flesh out the entire front rank of a 36 man battalion for less than $10 from eBay. With the whole front rank kneeling, my goal is to have a battalion that looks as if it has formed square. Moral: if you’re looking for cheap kneeling 15mm figures that fit in well with makers such as Heritage and Essex, try the infantry pieces from the 1998 version of the board game RISK.

I’ve painted this battalion in the white uniforms that Napoleon reintroduced in 1806. The 19e was one of only eleven regiments that ever received the unpopular uniforms before they were abandoned.  I think they are very different looking and quite snazzy; I can see why the Ogre tried to bring them back. They are also a snap to paint. The 19e will certainly stand out within a brigade on the tabletop.

Coming up: More French. I’m alternately working on the 19e and the 3e Hussars.

Comments, questions and criticisms are always welcome and appreciated! Thanks for looking!

-Chuck