Roll Out the Big Guns!

Hello everyone!

It's been a few days since I've finished these, but tonight I finally got around to photographing the last Spanish Real Cuerpo de Artilleria gun and crew, along with a few group shots of the entire battery, now complete!

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

The captain oversees his guns.

The full battery in action.

The figures are the same 15mm AWI figures used in the other stands, as is the gun. The uniforms are the same official Real Cuerpo de Artilleria uniform described in previous posts.

That's all for today. I have a few other things I'm working on, including the 3e Hussars and a French supply wagon. I also have half a mind to finish up the French 19e that I have only half done... we'll see.

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

-Chuck

New Purchases...There was a Sale at Hobby Lobby!

Hello everyone!

Today I drove about an hour from where I live to Paducah on business. Its one of the largest cities in the region, and also happens to be the home of a Hobby Lobby. Of course, I had to drop by and check things out when I was done with my meeting. I managed to come home with a few things, and got a couple of deals to boot!

Terrain

Toob is a funny word.

 I found this "Toob" of trees while there and picked them up to use for terrain. There were 10 in the toob, 9 of which were usable (there aren't very many palm trees in Europe!) and they average about 2 1/2 inches in height, perfect for 15mm figures. Plus, they are already painted, and won't shed a bunch of flocking like Woodland Scenics trees do.

Trees, ready to go!

Figures

I also picked up two packs of 1/72 plastic figures, both of which were on clearance for $3.59 each! The price was too good to pass up, even if they weren't exactly right for Napoleonic wargaming. I will however be able to shoehorn a few of the figures into some of my existing projects.

Lewis & Clark

This set is the most closely related to the Napoleonic time frame, as the Lewis and Clark expedition lasted from 1804 to 1806. Unfortunately, even though both Lewis and Clark were soldiers, none of the figures in this set are wearing any type of military uniform, just 'frontier' garb: fringed shirts, broad brimmed hats, and one fellow is even wearing a coonskin cap!

The set comes with members of the Corps of Discovery, some boats, baggage, horses, two teepees and a bunch of Native Americans. Unfortunately, even though the set has a bunch of figures, only a few are usable as they are; I'm sure some of the others will find uses for conversions.

All of the figures from the Lewis and Clark set suitable 'as is.'

American soldiers/Corps of Discovery: I will use these guys as volunteer American riflemen from the Battle of New Orleans. There were three regiments of Tennessee volunteers and four regiments of Kentucky riflemen at New Orleans.

Native Americans: These will also be used for New Orleans. A force of friendly Choctaw riflemen anchored the American flank during the battle. Unfortunately most of the Native Americans in the set are wearing clothing associated with the Plains Indians, not the Eastern Woodlands like the Choctaws.

Extras: a string of pack horses and a campfire. The packhorses will probably serve in the British or Spanish baggage trains, and the campfire will be used in terrain.



American Western Settlers

This set I picked up mainly because the price was right. I bought this same set many many moons ago--in fact, I used part of it for my Spanish Artillery Limber--and while there really aren't a whole lot of figures appropriate for Napoleonic wargaming, there is a bunch of other useful stuff in the set which makes it handy.

The whole set.

Probably the most useful part of the whole set, the pair of Conestoga wagons. Even though they are quite clearly Conestogas, I think that it will be pretty easy to convert them into Napoleonic supply wagons. One will more than likely be French, because I already have some 1/72 French wagon drivers at hand.

The other sprue. The animals may or may not be useful for terrain pieces, while a few of the settlers themselves can probably be converted to resemble Spanish peasants by removing a few of the obvious late 19th Century clothing items.

 Well, that pretty much sums things up. I was really pleased that I was able to pick up the figures on sale; you don't come across stuff like that every day. I'm glad I dropped by Hobby Lobby while I was in town!

Coming soon:

The last Spanish field piece, and another stand of 3e Hussars. I will finish them one day, I promise!

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

Chuck

Spanish Field Gun

Hello everyone!

Today I have a completed gun and crew for your enjoyment. This is a light field gun of the Spanish Real Cuerpo de Artilleria.

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

These artillerymen are all wearing the same 1808 uniform that I described in my previous post. Here is the plate I was using as a guide:

 

1808 Spanish Artillery Uniform

Two of them you'll notice, however, are wearing brown trousers instead of the prescribed dark blue breeches; I did this one to add to the irregularity of the stand (the Spanish being woefully ill-equipped during the Napoleonic Wars and often utilizing local brown cloth to make replacement uniform items, especially trousers) and also because I saw someone else paint brown trousers on their Spanish artillerymen and I liked the look. Like on my artillery limber, I painted the gun a light blue, with a brass barrel and black iron fittings.

The figures are a mix, as usual. The officer, rammer and primer guy—sorry, I’m not sure what the real positions titles are—are  all from the AWI lot I got last year (manufacturer unknown), while the loader is a French artilleryman from the big lot of Heritage miniatures I got a couple of years ago. Of all of the assorted French artillerymen I got in that lot, he was the only one wearing the older bicorne instead of the shako, so he became a Spaniard.

This will be one of the two guns that will make up this Spanish battery; I currently have all of the other gun crewmen and their cannon primed and ready to paint. Expect the other gun soon, and some pictures of the complete battery.

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

Chuck

Spanish Captain of Artillery

Hello everyone!

Another quickie for y'all: a Spanish artillery officer (a capitán of the Real Cuerpo de Artilleria) to command a battery of guns which I started with my Spanish artillery limber last year.

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

"I don't care if the oxen are frightened, soldier; the guns go that way!"

This is one of the two mounted figures that came with the big lot of AWI figures I bought last year, mounted on a Naismith horse (taken from a French lancer, with the cantle bag removed).  I’m not sure on who makes the figure. The horse is rather ugly, with a long neck and slightly bowed back, but I think it’s perfect for a Spanish Artillery officer’s mount, as good horseflesh would have undoubtedly gone to someone of nobility: perhaps to one of those fools in the cavalry!

The uniform is the regulation 1808 artillery officer’s uniform: dark blue coat and breeches, with red collars, cuffs, and lapel piping, brass buttons and black boots. The cocked hat is laced in gold, with a red plume. I had to spitball on the horse furniture (I guess no one out there in all of the Internet is really all that interested in the proper colors of Spanish artillery officer’s saddle blankets –sigh-), so I approximated based on a picture of a French artillery officer. French and Spanish artillery uniforms are nearly identical, so I said "screw it, it's hereby justified."  I gave our gallant captain white hair, making him either a) old and seasoned or b) old-fashioned and wearing a white powdered wig. Either would do for a Don, I think.

I’m working on the rest of the Spanish battery right now. I’ve got one gun and crew 95% done, and I haven’t started on the other yet. It shouldn’t take too long to have the full battery complete.

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

All the best,

Chuck

And the Award goes to…

General Manley Power, for having the best name of the Napoleonic Wars!

Swag.

 Hello everyone!

Another small addition to my Napoleonic forces, the command stand for my Portuguese brigade, ably commanded by the brilliantly-christened Sir Manley Power.

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

 

Sir Manley (how cool is that!?!) is from AB miniatures, while his Portuguese second-in-command is a repurposed American from Blue Moon.  Power is wearing the uniform of a British general, while the Portuguese colonel is wearing the facings of his regiment. In the Peninsula Portuguese infantry brigades which were integrated into British divisions (such as Power’s Portuguese, which was fully integrated into the 3rd Division for the duration of the Peninsular War) were ordered by the overall Portuguese commander William Beresford to have a chain of command that comprised of both British and Portuguese officers.  For example, if a regiment was commanded by a Portuguese colonel, then his lieutenant colonel would be British, the major Portuguese, and so on down the line. As such, I’ve put a Portuguese officer on this stand with Sir Manley, in accordance to General Beresford’s directive.

If you haven’t noticed, I really like Manley Power, and not just because of his name. One in a long line of men serving in Britain’s armed forces, Power served in Canada, Holland and Minorca as a young officer before he was sent to Egypt to fight the French under Sir Ralph Abercromby, where he fought at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. During the Peninsular War Power was attached to Portuguese Army, where he led his brigade in the Battles of Salamanca, Vitoria, Fuentes de Onoro, Torres Vedras, and Nivelle. His actions both during and after the siege of Badajoz earned Power special recognition by Parliament, and in 1813 he was promoted to Lieutenant General. After the end of the Peninsular campaign Power was sent to America to fight in the War of 1812, where he helped remove the impotent General George Prevost from overall British command after Prevost’s failure at the Battle of Plattsburg. In January 1815 Power was part of the expedition under Sir Edward Pakenham sent to Louisiana which was repulsed by Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. His service during the War of 1812 meant Power was not present at Waterloo. In 1815 he rejoined the 3rd Division in France for occupation duty, and after the war was knighted, served as the Lieutenant Governor of Malta, and died in 1826 following illness. His legacy continues in the form of a march named after him, still used by the 4th Battalion of the Queen’s Regiment.

That’s all for now. I may have some more soon.

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

Chuck

Happy July!

Hello everyone!

Happy 4th of July Weekend! For those of us who live in the States, this last weekend held our Independence Day celebrations, complete with fireworks, parades and cookouts. It's a patriotic time of year that makes me feel proud to be an American. The coming of a new month also reminded me that I haven't updated the blog since May, and I felt that it was high time I did so.

Today I finished up a small command stand that has been languishing on the bench for a long time now. Here I present General de Division Auguste Etienne Lamotte, a French light cavalry division commander.

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

Lamotte will be the divisional commander over the 3e Hussars that I have half painted. I've been using the orders of battle from the back of Philip Haythornthwaite and Michael Chappell's Uniforms of the Peninsular Wars, 1807-1814 to flesh out divisions, brigades, commanders and whatnot. In the orbat for the Battle of Busaco, in Ney's IV Corps the 3e Hussars are brigaded with the 15e Chasseurs under the command of a "Lamotte." Naturally, I had no idea who Lamotte was when I first read this, and so I started doing a little Interweb research as I looked around for suitable minis in my plastic pile to represent him. I had already found a pair of nice looking hussar minis when I finally stumbed across Lamotte's full name and original regiment: General Auguste-Etienne-Marie Lamotte of the 4e Dragoons.

"Hold up there, Chuck," I says to myself, "Why in the world is a Dragoon officer commanding a division of light cavalry?"

A good question. As it turns out, Lamotte was a highly decorated Dragoon officer who had commanded the 4e as well as having been made a Baron of the Empire in 1808 before he was promoted to General de Brigade in 1809. I'm assuming that, in need of a command, he was given the cavalry divison under Ney in the Peninsula, where he fought at Busaco. In 1814 he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honor, and he survived the Napoleonic Wars, dying in 1836 at the age of 64. That's the sum of what I know about the man: if someone knows more about him I'd love to hear it!

However, all this great information didn't help the fact that I had already primed two hussar-uniformed figures. Desperate, I turned to my old standby as far as French 1/72 officers go: the Italeri French Imperial General Staff set No. 6016. Luckily, there is a single figure in the set wearing a dragoon uniform. Unluckily, he is dismounted and staring through a spyglass supported by only one hand, making him look like a dumba$$. But I think that in the end he came out looking alright: adding the grazing horse to the base made it all come together. The mounted figure standing behind Lamotte is an officer from the Italeri French Line/Guard Artillery set No. 6018 painted up as an officer in the 3e Hussars.

Coming up: who knows? Plans are so overrated. Though Manley Power keeps staring at me from the workbench, just daring me to paint him...

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

-Chuck

Skirmish Project: Sharpe and Harper

Hello everyone!

I'm not dead, but I am done with school, for good! Yay! Since graduation the job searching has begun in earnest, eating up a lot of my time. I have been able to do a little bit of painting, though, and I decided to get started on the little skirmish project I've been hinting at in previous posts.

I begin my little side project here with the two main characters from one of my favorite fiction book series[es?]: Major Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Patrick Harper.

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

The pictures turned out kind of dodgy tonight, making it a bit hard to make out details like Harper's sergeant's chevrons, but oh well. Both figures are 1/72 Revell British Riflemen, each heavily modified. Sharpe has had a head swap with a Italeri French marshal and a 1796 Heavy Cavalry sword and scabbard made from plasticard. Harper's head was turned 90 degrees to look forward, and his Baker rifle was converted into a seven-barrelled Nock gun with thin strips of sprue. Both are individually based on US pennies.

Harper I've had done for a while now, but this is the second Sharpe I've finished to date. The first I had completely painted earlier this week before I F-ed up the matte varnish and ruined it--coating him in big white, opaque blobs of dried varnish--which pissed me off considerably and kept me away from the painting bench for a day or two. I started over again with a completely new figure, but I'm still not 100% happy with the "round two" Sharpe. Oh well, I ain't doing another one!

I have a bunch more figures that I'm planning on basing up individually for my skirmish project. I'm planning on using Pulp Alley for my ruleset; not really designed for the Napoleonic era, but I really like the story-telling element that has been incorporated into the game play of Pulp Alley and I think that would be a good match for skirmishes between literary heroes and villains. Expect me to round out my British league first, then on to the dastardly French, then some Spanish civilians.

Coming soon: more of my skirmish project for right now, but I'm still pecking away at my big battalions too... I have a French command stand nearly done, and a few more ready to go as well. I've also got a few ideas for some terrain pieces.

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

-Chuck