New Miniatures: French Dragoons, British Officers and Naval Infantry

Hello everyone!

So last week the buying bug bit me and I placed an order with Brigade Games. Earlier this week a parcel arrived in my mailbox from New Jersey, and I proceeded to tear into it with childish delight in anticipation of my new shiny soldiers! Here they are in all their wonderful, 28mm glory:

First up, the reason I placed the order in the first place: Dismounted French Dragoon command figures, both a trumpeter and an officer. These will form the basis for a dismounted Dragoon command stand.

Next, two Peninsular War British colonels, wearing bicornes and reminding all within earshot that they are in charge! Also included with this set is a British pioneer in full kit, featuring two head options: either the earlier stovepipe shako or the later 1812 pattern Belgic shako.

Finally, the bulk of my purchase: enough Jolly Jack Tars to form a full 'battalion' of men, i.e. six 4cm x 4cm bases with two figures each, like my American militia. The top row contains (from left to right) a Lieutenant, a Boatswain, and two Midshipmen, while the middle and bottom rows contain armed seamen with muskets, pistols, and various hand weapons. One of my favorite figures is the chap second from the left in the middle row, who is armed with only a cutlass... because he only has one arm! The empty sleeve is neatly pinned to his jacket, a detail that I very much appreciate and come to expect from figures sculpted by that maestro Paul Hicks.

In addition to these new figures, I managed to finally base the painted French Dragoon from my last post:

He's mounted on a 50mm diameter round wooded base from a package of wood shaped that I found at the local Michael's craft store for very cheap, less than $3 for the whole pack, which contains two different sizes of wood circles and several different oval shapes.

I think that there were ten of the 50mm circles that I use for brigade commander bases, but this is okay since I really don't need a whole bunch of brigade commanders at a given time.

Finally I added four more books to my Napoleonic library:

Die Hard! Dramatic Actions from the Napoleonic Wars by Philip J. Haythronthwaite. I bought this off of eBay for a song, mainly because I enjoy reading accounts of ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances.

I found this (slightly faded) copy of Osprey's Nile 1798: Nelson's First Great Victory by Gregory Fremont-Barnes and illustrated by H. Gerrard. I was on the fence about buying this one as it falls outside of my Napoleonic "niche," but then I saw an illustration within that showed one of the French captains who continued to fight his ship even though he lost both legs and an arm to British round shot. As a Navy man myself, this kind of bad-assery was not lost upon me, and I subsequently purchased the book.

These last two Osprey titles, Napoleon's German Allies (5): Hessen-Darmstadt and Hessen-Kassel by Otto Von Pivka and Bryan Fosten and Napoleon's Egyptian Campaigns 1798-1801 by Michael Barthorp and G. A. Embleton , were purchased from my favorite second hand book shop. Again, whilst not in my "niche" per se, they were cheap and were the last Napoleonic Osprey books the shop had.

This brings the total number of Napoleonic books I've acquired this year up to 11.

"These go to eleven."

Coming soon: Work continues (slowly) on my Nassauers... work's been busy as of late, but I will soldier on.

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

-Chuck

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

Goodbye 2015, Welcome 2016!

Hello everyone!

I hope that everyone has had a safe and happy New Year!

As I ring in the New Year here at Chuck's Napoleonic Wargames, I thought I'd take a look back at 2015 and everything I managed to accomplish. I also think that it would be good to set some goals for myself for the coming year. But first, I thought I'd show you a few Christmas gifts that I received.

Being in the Navy and living on west coast of the United States (over 2000 miles from where my family lives) I wasn't able to be home for Christmas Day. I was able to take leave for New Years, and as I sit here writing I can smell the hogjaw, cabbage and black-eyed peas cooking, traditional Appalachian food for New Year's Day, said to bring luck for the coming year. My Christmas festivities were over the past two days, and I was surprised with a few gifts.

New Gifts for the New Year

This is an antique comic book from my Aunt. She initially bought it just because it said "Navy" without realizing that its subject matter is the exploits of the US Navy from its foundation through the War of 1812! A happy coincidence! It dates from 1958, by Stokes Walesby and Theodore Roscoe, and does a fair job of summing up the Navy's first thirty-odd years of existence. It is, however, a product of its time, complete with some interesting adjective choices; I think the connotations of the word "lusty" have changed over the past fifty years!

This one was a surprise gift from my mother and sister: Patrick O'Brien's Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey's World, edited by Richard O'Neill. This book is lavishly illustrated and chock full of  information that explains the life and times of the characters from Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books, which I read in high school. A very, very nice book, and a great addition to my reference library.

And then there's this chap, a 28mm dismounted, skirmishing French dragoon. This is a Brigade Games figure, sculpted by Paul Hicks, which I added to my Black Friday purchase to meet the minimum price to use a coupon. He's destined to form part of a Dragoon Command stand/vignette.

2015 In Review

2015 marked the 200th Anniversaries of the Battle of New Orleans, the Battles of Quatre-Bras and Ligny, and of course the Battle of Waterloo. This year was also a very busy and exciting year for me. I started a new career, moved across the country, and there were times where I couldn't really do anything hobby-related. However, that all being said, I managed to get quite a bit of painting done, and even more purchasing done.

So here is the final totals from my blog for the year:

Painted
15mm Foot Painted: 61
15mm Horse Painted: 3
15mm Guns/Wagons Painted: 0
1/72 Foot Painted: 20
1/72 Horse Painted: 3
1/72 Guns/Wagons Painted: 0
28mm Foot Painted: 41
28mm Horse Painted: 0
28mm Guns/Wagons Painted: 1
Purchased
15mm Figures Purchased: 60
1/72 Figures Purchased: 179
28mm Figures Purchased: 174
Guns/Wagons Purchased: 5
-----------------------------------------
Total (Painted - Purchased): -288
Units Completed: 2
Command Stands Completed: 2
Casualty Markers Completed: 4

 

I managed to complete the 1/88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) and the 1st Battalion of the Pavlovsk Grenadiers, the command stands for Marechals de France Joachim-Napoleon Murat and Michel Ney, and three British and one Russian casualty markers.

 

This past year also marked my turning to the "dark side" and expanding my Napoleonics collection to include 28/25mm figures. Additionally, I expanded my Napoleonic library by 15 books over the past year and visited two museums, the San Diego Maritime Museum and the USS Midway Museum.

 

All in all, a pretty productive year for how busy I've been!

 

Goals for the New Year

1. Paint more figures than I purchase.
2. Finish 4 infantry regiments.
3. Finish 2 cavalry regiments.
4. Finish 2 artillery batteries.
5. Finish 3 command stands.
6. Finish 5 casualty markers.
7. Play a game with my figures.

This seems to be an achievable set of hobby goals for the year. We'll see how that goes...

 

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

 

-Chuck

Christmas, Lost Mojo, New Figures and Books

Merry Christmas everyone!

It's been a little while since my last post, and for that I apologize. I was waiting for some figures to arrive in the mail before making another post, but since the military's mail system is slow as molasses they haven't yet arrived and I wished to post at least once more before year's end.

Unfortunately, I seem to have lost a bit of my painting mojo as of late, ever since I arrived at my first command and have yet to move off the ship. Navy ships are not known for the vat amount of space they afford their crews, so I have not the space for painting. But this hasn't stopped me from picking up a few figures, here and there.

I discovered a new local game shop here in San Diego, and there I was pleased find some Perry Napoleonic figures. So I picked up a box of 28mm plastic British Hussars, which I more than likely will paint up as one of the KGL Hussar regiments.

They are very nice figures, and I look forward to putting them together as soon as I move into a bigger place.

Additionally, I found an Essex miniatures British Rocket Battery caisson on sale online, and picked it up to complement the Minifigs Rocket Battery figures I picked up on eBay a couple of years ago. This is what's currently bogged down in the military mail system.

Finally, I have picked up a couple more interesting books. While out shopping for my mother's Christmas present today, I found a nice little second-hand book shop where I picked up the following two books cheap:

 

The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships  by C. Nepean Longridge is an illustrated guide to all parts of Napoleonic Wars-era sailing ships. from deck plans, obscure bits of rigging, guns, ship's boats, you name it. I rather wish I had had this book handy whilst I was reading Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin books in high school.

1815: The Armies at Waterloo by Ugo Pericoli covers the history and tactics of the Battle of Waterloo in its first couple of sections, but the last two thirds of the book is devoted to beautifully illustrated, full-color uniform plates of the different belligerents. While I don't game Waterloo, I am a sucker for books with uniform plates, and so I had to add this to my collection.

Well, that's about it. I get to go home for the first two months of January, which will be nice. I hope to get some painting done, hopefully. I would also like to do a "Year in Review" post, to cover what all I accomplished over 2015. Until then, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Thanks for looking,

-Chuck

Museum Trip... and a New Book

Hello everyone!

Not much more in the way of painted figs, but I thought that y'all might enjoy some pictures that I took this past weekend when I was able to visit a couple of neat museums with my family. I was able to meet with my parents and younger sister on vacation in San Diego, and we took the time to enjoy the beautiful weather exploring the Maritime Museum of San Diego and the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. I mainly managed to take pictures of ship models (which I've always loved), though I did get a good picture of the Midway's island. A couple of the displays at the Maritime Museum were even Napoleonic themed: how about that?

Anyway, less talk, more pictures (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions):

A really cool model of the HMS Victory.

A really neat little diorama of the Battle of Trafalgar. Each ship is individually modelled with masts and rigging and labeled. The ships are approximately the size of the Sails of Glory miniatures.

"England expects..."

A ship-in-a-bottle of the USS Constitution, veteran of the War of 1812.

A very intricate ship model.

A model of the Star of India, the ship these pictures were taken aboard.

Another Star of India model.

The Star of India, the world's oldest working sailing ship, and one of if not the oldest iron ships.

A model of the Vasa.

A model of the Mary Rose.

A Dutch warship of the 17th Century.

 

My one picture of the Midway. A HUGE ship and a really cool museum.

(P.S. I took these pictures with my new smart phone, so some turned out better than others. However, I do see some significant potential for my phone and blogging.)

I was also very excited to find that the gift shop at the Maritime Museum had a BUNCH of Napoleonic Era naval books on hand, namely due to the fact that the museum is the berthing for the reconstructed HMS Surprise, which was used in the filming of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with Russell Crowe (sadly she was not there when I visited; I believe she was undergoing repairs at drydock). I was very thrilled (I "nerded out" according to my mother) when I discovered that they had the entire Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien and the entire Hornblower series of books for sale, something which I've never run across before. I also picked this up:

A very nice Osprey book with lots of pictures of uniforms, some awesome illustrations, and a bunch of good information on the officers of the Royal Navy during the early Napoleonic Wars.

All in all I had a wonderful time visiting these museums, and was blessed that I was able to do so with my family. So if you're ever in the San Diego area, be sure to check these museums out; there is a lot more to see and do besides look at ship models, with several ships you can get into and explore. Sadly no pictures of these, so you'll have to check them out for yourself!

Coming soon: I think I did a bad... it should be arriving in the next day or so.

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

-Chuck

Aboard Once More, In a Limited Capacity

Hello everyone!

It's been a long couple of months, but I'm finally done with the first stage of my Navy career! Boot camp was tough, but now that it's over I can relax just a bit before pouring myself into my new job. However, while I'm back online, I'm not quite back into The Hobby just yet. I'm currently attending some advanced schooling before heading out to the Fleet, so even though I have Internet access, I don't have access to any of my minis or paints. So don't expect anything new for the next few months at least.

In the meantime I can post on the things I do have access to: books. For graduation my mother (a college English professor) gave me a few of the books that I had asked for my birthday (coming up in June) early, as well as a few that she had found on sale and couldn't pass up. Both of us share a love for reading, as well as a weakness for buying books on the cheap, something which my father doesn't really understand but is a good sport about. In keeping with the Napoleonic theme of this blog, here are the three books that she gave me which may be of interest to my fellow fans of the Napoleonic Era:

Any Approaching Enemy by Jay Worrall

The second in Worrall's nautical Napoleonic series continues to follow the career of Captain Charles Edgemont, captain of the HMS Louisa, a frigate in the Royal Navy, during the last years of the Eighteenth Century. The novel begins where the previous one (which I reviewed here) left off, following Edgemont, his brother-in-law Lt. Winchester and his best friend Daniel Bevan into the Mediterranean on a critical mission to find the French. I've only just begun reading it, and I really like Worrall's style. Also, with my new career in the Navy I now have a greater appreciation for nautical books such as this, and I was pleasantly surprised to receive it as a graduation present.

A Sea Unto Itself by Jay Worrall

The third and latest book in the same series. I hope that Mr. Worrall will continue to write books in this series, as I really enjoy his writing style with his intriguing characters and dialogue.

The Emerald Storm by William Dietrich

My mother found this book (along with a bunch of others) in a bargain bin at Kroger for less than five dollars. This is the fifth in a series of historical adventure novels set in the Napoleonic Era which follows the main character Ethan Gage. Now, I normally like to start series from the beginning so I don't miss out on any backstories and other major character-development, but in this case beggars can't be choosers. This novel (according to the back of the jacket) is set in 1803 in the West Indies and involves agents of the French and the British, the makings of a slave rebellion, and a cache of Spanish gold hidden from the conquistadors by Montezuma himself. Sounds like fun! If this one is good, then I'll see about getting the rest of the series.

So I'll have a few fun books to keep me entertained when I'm not hard at work studying. Thanks Mom!

I've spent the last couple of days catching up on the backlog of blog posts which I missed while I was away, and I must say that there has been a lot of good work done! I am so glad that I have found such a good hobby that has allowed me to view others' wonderful work and meet so many good and supportive people online. Speaking of which, I've gained a couple of more followers; a warm welcome goes out to Edward Devine and Ariel El vikingo dark! I hope that my continued, humble efforts will remain worthy of following!

Coming soon: Not much as of yet, but perhaps there will be something of note to post about until I can get my paints and minis in hand once more. I will definitely be checking out everyone else's blogs and ogling their beautifully painted figures in the absence of my own!

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

-Chuck

Off to the Navy

Today I'm off to Navy boot camp. I'd like to thank everyone who enjoys reading my humble blog, and warn everyone in advance that I won't be posting here for the next several months. I look forward to reading everyone's blog posts when I return to the world of Internet access!

In the interim, I hope you'll enjoy a brief musical interlude from the conclusion of my favorite nautical Napoleonic movie, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Thank you all again, and I'll see you in a couple of months. Happy wargaming!

-Chuck

1st Battalion, 88th Regiment of Foot, and More!

Hello everyone!

It's been a little while since I've been able to get anything posted up the the blog, and my only excuses are that I haven't had the time and I've been under the weather. But, this means that now that I have the time, I've come with a vengence! Today I've completed the 1/88th Regiment of Foot (the Connaught Rangers) for the Peninsula, as well as a stand of the 5th West India Regiment for New Orleans. I've also bought a few more figures since my last post, as well as a few books that might be of interest. So without further ado, here we go!

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

Painted Figures

I painted up the remaining thirty figures that I needed to complete the Connaught Rangers, which I started way over a year ago (you can see the command stand in detail here). Unlike the command, which were all AB figures, the rank and file are a mix of Fantassin 18mm and Essex 15mm. The Fantassin figures are on par size and proportion wise with the AB figures, but they are cruder in their sculpting style. The Essex figures are nice and clean, but look a little dwarfish. Anyway, here are the figures that I finished up:

The Irishmen of the 1/88th that I completed most recently...

...and the entire Battalion drawn up into line. General Picton (who commanded the 3rd Division) apparently had a love-hate relationship with these Irish soldiers, probably because, in Oman's words, the 88th was "the most Irish of all Irish regiments." However, it is apparent that he came to admire their tenacity in a fight. Check out this link for a nice concise history of the Connaught Rangers during the Peninsular War.

With the 1/88th finished, this completes the British 3rd Division's 1st Brigade, commanded by Henry Mackinnon at Fuentes de Onoro. Here's the entire brigade together:

1st Brigade, Picton's 3rd Division. From front to rear: Henry Mackinnon, Brigade commander; 3 companies, 5/60th Regiment (Royal Americans)  1/88th Regiment (Connaught Rangers); 1/45th Regiment (Nottinghamshire); 1/74th Regiment (Highland).

Finally, I completed six Minifigs 15mm British in Belgic shako figures to represent a company of the 5th (Howe's) West India Regiment, which fought at the Battle of New Orleans. The unit was a 'colored' Regiment, consisting mostly of former slaves and freedmen and commanded by white officers. These units performed well and were mostly tollerant of the equatorial diseases which devestated European soldiers serving in the Carribean. This and the other West Indies Regiments had distinctive uniforms, especially after 1812, with Belgic shakos, jackets with rounded lapels of the facing color and piped shoulder straps, and light blue trouser-gaiters.

Purchased Figures

If you keep track of such things, you may have noticed that the "Purchased" columns of the 2015 Totals box have been crreping steadily upwards. Most of these figures were AB orders that I placed in order to flesh out the figures that I already have in order to complete several units, as well as the figures I wanted for a couple of command stands (Wellington and Marshal Ney). I also picked up nine mounted Russian general staff officers off of eBay, as well as another 1/72 Strelets set: French Foot Dragoons and Polish Grenadiers, Set 009. I got these mainly for the foot dragoons, of which I will eventually painted up a full Regiment, probably the 16th Dragoons, though the Poles will be useful for fleshing out the Vistula Legion.

With me leaving for boot camp next week, I doubt I'll get much more painted until well into the summer at the earliest, so I think that this year I'll probably be in the negative numbers for my "totals."

Books

I picked up three books which may or may not be interesting to y'all out there. The first is a new set of rules, the second is a non-fiction book, and the third is a Napoleonic fiction novel.

Recently I recieved in the mail a new set of rules: Field of Glory Napoleonics. I've spent the last couple of weeks looking them over, so I thought that I'd write down some initial impressions. That being said, of course, without playing a game with them it's impossible to get a full picture of the game's nuances. Basically, it's a Corps level game, with emphasis on grand tactical maneuvering. From what I can tell, the rules strive to be very period specific, with a plethora of charts and tables that represent the different troops of the Napoleonic Wars, as well as emphasizing the use of period-appropriate tactics in order to be successful. Since it's a corps level game I won't have enough figures painted to play it any time soon, but it will be nice to have for big battles in the future.

I picked up this non-fiction book on eBay because I was running out of things to read and it was cheap: The Frigates: An Account of the Lighter Warships of the Napoleonic Wars, by James Henderson, CBE. This is a historical monograph chronicling the majority of the frigate actions fought by the Royal Navy, begining in 1793 when Revolutionary France declared war on Great Britian and going through the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The frigate actions between the Royal Navy and my own United States Navy during the War of 1812 are also discussed. I've only just begun reading it, but it is well written and is very detailed.

Finally, I picked up Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars by Jay Worrall. This is a fiction book, written in the same spirit as Patrick O'Brien's Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin novels and  C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels. The novel opens in 1797 at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, and follows the early career of a lieutenant named Charles Edgemont as he is promoted to Commander, finds love, and goes to sea, fighting his own frigate for the first time. I read it in two days; I thought it was well written and quite the page-turner. If you like O'Brien or Forester, check this one out.

Coming soon: Currently I'm working on another command stand, Marshal Ney. When Ney first arrived from AB, he was slightly miscast, missing his right foot. A little bit of green stuff later and no one's the wiser. He and his two companions are primed and I've already started painting them.

Other than that, I don't have much more to say. I'll post Ney when he's done, then we'll see how much time I have left remaining here in Kentucky; I leave for US Navy boot camp a week from today.

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

-Chuck