28mm Foot Dragoon, New Figures and Books!

Hello everyone!

Work progresses on the command figures for the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment; each currently has painted pants and boots! I'll continue work on them sporadically when I get opportunities. I did manage to finally finish up the dismounted French Dragoon that I started over my New Year's holiday back home.

He turned out rather well. I then spent an evening going through my lead pile (not an easy task, especially considering that it is packed behind the seat of my pickup) looking for the mounted Dragoon figure that came with the 25mm figures I bought on eBay last fall. When I finally dug him out, to my dismay I discovered that it was not, in fact, a Dragoon, but a Cuirassier. Sigh.

Naturally, my only recourse was to purchase some new figures! An order was placed with Brigade Games, an in addition to a 28mm Dismounted French Dragoon officer and trumpeter, I picked up a pair of mounted 28mm British officers to use as commanders for my 28mm brigades (this pack also came with a pioneer figures), and enough figures to build a unit of British naval infantry in 28mm (12 figures). Most if not all of these figs are Paul Hicks sculpts and I know sight-unseen that they will be wonderful minis.

Last week I went over to the bookstore again, and, as per usual, I found some more good books for sale, including a real gem!

British Military Uniforms and Equipment, 1788-1830: Volume 1, Researched by P.W. Kingsland, under direction of the National Army Museum (London) and illustrated by Peter Henville and Malcolm McGregor. I LOVE this book; it's huge! Probably 18 x 12 inches. It features huge, full color illustrations printed on high quality slick paper; I imagine these were originally intended to be removed and framed. Accompanying each print are researched articles on the uniforms and equipment employed by the soldiers in the print. Also, the frontispiece indicates that only 2500 copies of this edition were ever printed, so it's relatively rare. What a find! That's why I love second hand bookshops.

Osprey's Flags of the Napoleonic Wars (3) by Terence Wise and Guido Rosignoli. This one features flags (both in color and in black and white) of Anhalt, Kleve-Berg, Brunswick, Denmark, Finland, Hanover, Hesse, The Netherlands, Mecklenburg, Nassau, Portugal, Reuss, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Westphalia. I mainly got this because of my ongoing Nassau project, but it will be useful for my Spaniards and Portuguese as well.  

Another Osprey: Napoleon's Campaigns in Italy by Philip Haythorntwaite and Richard Hook. To be honest I bought this book as a source of reference for a writing project I've been kicking around.

And finally Hornblower and the Hotspur by C.S. Forester. Because Hornblower.

Coming soon: More work on the Nassauers.

Also, the long lost figures that I ordered last November finally made their way to me after being lost in the Navy's mail system for two months. It is a limber for my 15mm British rocket artillery. Additionally, I put together the first test figure for my KGL Hussars the other day. I'm pleased with how he came out; he certainly went together a lot easier than my Nassau drummer!

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

-Chuck

Nassauer Conversions

Hello everyone!

Short post tonight. Over the last couple of days I managed to put together four of the Perry plastic Austrians to form the command stand for the 2e Regiment d'Infanterie de Nassau. For most of them the process was relatively straight forward after getting over the initial learning curve (I don't have much experience with multi-part plastic figures), all but the frickin drummer. That little b@$tard had a bunch of little pieces to put together, and after dropping half of them and more swear words than I care to admit to saying I finally got him together.

Following that little fiasco was over and I had cooled down for a day, I set about modifying the existing plastic parts to make their uniforms correct for Nassauers wearing the older 1806 uniforms. The officer was easy--I simply carved away his sash to give him a French-style greatcoat. I plan on keeping his pistol as I've seen similar holsters on Frenchmen in my Funcken books.

The drummer (darn him), pioneer and standard bearer were even easier conversions, only requiring a greenstuff plume on the left side of their helmets. I didn't even have to change the flagpole; since the Nassau regiments didn't carry Eagles, the existing spear point from the Austrian mini was perfect the way it was.

Nassau Pioneer

Nassau Standard Bearer

Nassau Drummer... the git

I got them primed last night, and tonight I plan on getting started on them. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Hodge-Podge: New Figures, Books and Followers

Hello everyone!

A bit of a hodge-podge post today. My holiday break is over now, and I'm settled back into my work schedule again. Today I went to my local game store and came across these:

Forty-eight plastic Perry Miniatures Austrians... at 45% off! That was a deal-maker, and even though I don't collect Austrians I snapped them up in a heartbeat, making these chaps my first Napoleonic figure purchases for 2016.

With these lads safely in my grubby paws, the task then became to find a suitable use for them in the scope of my existing collections. This quest for knowledge naturally lead me to one place: the second-hand bookshop!

Per custom, I began looking for anything Napoleonic uniform related, and soon came across this little gem hiding on the shelf:

Not a very large book, but it covers all of the armies and their various units that fought at Waterloo, complete with black and white drawings and color plates. Only $5? Sold!

However, I still needed some use for my new Austrian miniatures, which lead me over to the small section of Osprey titles. Seeing as I was looking for a French-allied nation that ideally wore Austrian-inspired uniforms, this title caught my eye:

Within, I found several illustrations of Nassau infantry not just wearing Austrian/German style uniforms, but also wearing the snazzy leather helmets. I really like these leather helmets, and even though they were discontinued from use around 1809 (don't quote me on that), my Nassauers will be wearing them. They should look something like this:

Nassau Grenadier

To top it all off, Nassau infantry saw a lot of fighting in the Peninsula, which is perfect for my needs! So, 48 miniatures and two books added to the collection. Not a bad Saturday afternoon!

On the painting front, I managed to get the dismounted French dragoon 80% done while at home last weekend, all but his face and helmet. I'll remedy this this week; Monday is a national holiday here in the U.S. and I don't have to work. I'll also get started on a mounted French dragoon officer (one of the 25mm Minifigs I bought on eBay last September. This will form a French Dragoon command stand.

I would also like to welcome another follower to my blog: Doug. You can find his blog here: http://dougssoldiers.blogspot.com/ . Thanks for following, Doug!

Coming soon: French Dragoons, and maybe some Nassauers?

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

-Chuck