Mars, des soldats de la 8e Ligne!

I hope that makes sense... I learned Spanish in school, and my French is for all practical purposes non-existant. It should translate to something like "March, soldiers of the 8th Line!" That's because I finished the last stand of grenadiers and the 8e Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne is complete!

(Click for bigger pictures)

The grenadier company in all of its glory.

The entire battalion together in line.

The battalion in attack column

The battalion in square.

It's good to finally have these done. I doubt I will get any more painting done in the next two days, so it will be well into June before I will be able to paint --and post-- again. Hopefully I can get another bunch done in that time.

Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Bare Lead

I took stock of all the bare lead that I have today. Here's what I've got:

France

• 1 understrength battalion (45e Ligne: it was actually understrength at Fuentes de Onoro)
• Demi-Brigade Commander (Colonel Chabert, 1st Demi-Brigade, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, IX Corps)
• 1 8 pounder gun (Artillerie a Pied)
• 2 6 pounder guns (Artillerie a Pied)
• 1 regiment of hussars (3rd Hussars)
• 1/2 regiment of cuirassiers (12e Cuirassiers, fought at Borodino)

Russia

• 1 full strength battalion (Moscow Regiment)
• Brigade commander (Colonel Dmitry Petrovich Lyapunov, 1st Brigade, 7th Division)

Portugal

• 1/2 of an infantry battalion (21st Line)

Britain

• 1 limber (Royal Horse Artillery)
• 2 Companies, 5th Battalion 60th Regiment of Foot (Royal American Rifles, attached to Mackinnon's Brigade)
• 1 company 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers)
• 1 full strength battalion in Belgic shakos, 4th Regiment of Foot (King's Own, fought at New Orleans)
• 1 full strength battalion (74th Regiment of Foot, all but commander and piper must have their shakos converted to Highland bonnets)

United States

• Baratarian Company, New Orleans Militia

Odds and Ends

• Cheering Frenchmen
• Russian militia
• "Imperial Guard"
• Leftover French artillerists and infantry
• Leftover British infantry
• Leftover Russian infantry

This should help me focus on what I currently have to work on as I paint over the summer. It's nice to have it all written out and in one place. It looks like I need to get busy...

-Chuck

A Weekend's Progress

Here's what I managed to paint up over the weekend:

A 5.5 inch howitzer, or "obusier de 5.5 pouces," of the French foot artillery (artillerie a pied). These are Heritage miniatures with an AB howitzer.

Scale wise, the AB gun is a little large for the Heritage gunners, but it isn't easily discernable from most angles.

I think they look pretty good myself. For as small as they are the Heritage minis have quite a bit of detail, save for the faces, which are a bit muddled.

An the last stand of fusiliers from the 8e Ligne. These are from AB.

The green of their pom poms is purposefully bright, as I wanted to easily differentiate them from the darker green of the voltiguers.

This leaves the battalion only one stand (the grenadier company) shy of being complete. I should have them done (hopefuly) before the week's out and I'm off to my summer training.

Two more orders came in yesterday; one was from Eureka USA with the AB guns, Portuguese line and Russian command figures, and the other was an eBay win of some Minifigs British in Belgic shakos. As such, they're destined to become part of the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot and will be slated to fight my Americans in New Orleans.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

The Promised Pictures

Enjoy. :)

(Remember to click on the picture for a bigger image)

All of the OOP Heritage minis from my eBay order.

The two newly completed stands of Marines.

Stand with the officer.

Regular stand.

Another fusilier company for the 8th French Line.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for looking!

-Chuck

New Naps, and a Review

My big shipment of 15mm Heritage minis came in today! Yay! Unfortunately they came in one big bundle, so I had to sort them out and put them in baggies based on my limited expertise. Here's what I got:

-36 Russian Infantry
-28 French Infantry
-22 French Artillerists
-11 French Hussars
-4 French Curassiers
-4 Landswehr/Militia
-2 Dismounted and 1 Mounted Mystery "Imperial Guard" (They have bearskins...)
-And 2 very lost Peninsular British Infantrymen

A total of 110 minis for less than $30!

First impressions:

Scaleability: These dudes are TINY, true 15mm figures. My AB Brits and French dwarf them, and so will the officers and guns that I bought from AB today to go with them. I will have to put them on slightly thicker bases to compensate for the height difference.

Quality: The casting quality varies from pretty good to just passable. I'll have trouble painting some of the figures, but overall it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Price: I can't beat the price, less than $0.28 a figure, including the cavalry. Especially considering these guys are out of production sculpts.

Overall: Not too bad, considering what I paid for them. They will make good fillers for units and won't look out of place if set by themselves. It will take a little bit of devious trickery on my part to get them to jive with the bigger AB figures, but I do enjoy a challenge. :)

I'll take pictures of them tonight, after my afternoon final.

More updates:

I finished the last two stands of U.S. Marines over the weekend, and I finished another stand of French on Tuesday. I'll post pictures of them tonight with those of my order.

Also, some more eBay victories: Battle Honours Portuguese Command and Minifigs British in March Attack pose. Currently I've got a bid up for 50 Old Glory British.

I purchased a few more AB figures today as well to go with my new minis, including some command figures for my new Russians, some cannons for my French artillerists and some Portugese infantry for my incoming Portuguese to command.

Well, that's it for now. Pics tonight after I slog through my engineering final. Ugh...

-Chuck

Just Bought New Minis!

So, my foray with Ebay was a success! Woot!

I now have 110 casting coming my way, a mix of French hussars, French Artillery and Russian infantry, or so the descriptions tells me. There may be more nationalities and troop types mixed in... it's sort of the risk when you buy a mixed bag like that. So we'll see! :D

Also, my classes end today, so I'm planning on getting some painting done this weekend before I buckle down to study for my finals next week. That means I will hopefully have some new pics of painted troops up soon, and I will definately post a picture of my new order when it arrives.

Long Overdue Pictures

Here they are, as promised! Enjoy!

(Remember to click for bigger pictures)

French Ligne:

Company from the 5th Battalion, 60th (Royal American) Rifles:

British Brigade Commander Colonel Henry MacKinnon:

Captain Bull's 'I' Battery, Royal Horse Artillery:

A Company of United States Marines:

I finished up a couple more Marines tonight, but not enough for a full stand. I also have a couple of Ebay bids out there... In the future we could see some Portugese, French Hussars and ... Russians? Oh dear, this project may get out of hand...

--Chuck