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

More 28mm Sash & Saber ACW Figures Converted to Napoleonic Casualties

Hello everyone!

Another quick post tonight. Based on the success of the last casualty figure I did based on a Sash & Saber ACW figure I had lying around, I took another look at the other minis I had. While I only have a small number of ACW casualty figs (which I will probably never use), most of them have very distinctively late 19th Century uniforms and equipment, that would not be conducive to conversion. I did, however, find two that, with a little carving, sculpting, creative painting, and a fair amount of research for one fellow in particular, would work, and I present them here now. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

The lad in green is meant to depict a dead Russian. The original ACW figure already had a blanket roll, so I decided to use him basically "as-is"--really the only conversion I had to do was some trimming and greenstuffing to turn his anachronistic kepi into a flat forage cap. The forage cap allows this guy to be used with any of my Russian units, to include my Pavlovs. I think it worked out rather well. The original Sash & Saber fig was wearing an open shell jacket, so I painted this as a coatee that had been opened by the victim to get at his wound: a nasty (an fatal) gutshot.

The gentleman in red is another dead Briton, this time in the dark green facings of the 51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding) Regiment of Foot, a regiment of light infantry, though he will represent any British unit that is in need of casualty markers. Why light infantry? Because of his curious choice of kit, namely his blanket/greatcoat blanket sling. When I first looked at this ACW figure, I wondered if I could use him as a Napoleonic casualty because of the figure's rolled blanket strapped across his back. Now I had never heard of such a practice being used in any of the armies I collect, nor had I read of this used in the Napoleonic Wars at all. So I fired up Google and went to work, and what I found surprised me. I actually found a blog post about a group of AWI reenactors who discussed blanket slings, and in fact had a number of pictures contemporary to the Napoleonic Wars of British soldiers using them both in 1800 and in 1808 at Corunna, as well as a picture of an extant British blanket sling dated 1804 (the blog post can be found here):

In use in 1800

 

At Corunna in 1808

An actual surviving blanket sling, dated 1804

During summer campaigning troops would often leave their knapsacks with the baggage to have less of a load to bear, and I would imagine that lightly equipped, fast moving and overall sneaky formations such as light infantry regiments (like the 51st) would have taken to such devices readily. I had never heard of blanket/greatcoat slings until I read about this, and I was pleased to have learned something new. When it boils down to it, isn't that why any of us really games, to learn new things about our favorite eras of history? Situations like this are the reason why I've stuck to this hobby over the years while others have fallen to the wayside.

Other than the research to justify my figure choice, really the only converting I had to do was to use greenstuff to make a shoulder strap for his cartridge box. Evertything else is just clever painting to bring this ACW fig back to the Napoleonic Wars.

Coming soon: probably some Brits, either West Indies Regiment or the King's Own, though I feel that my French could use some loving... Then again, getting the green out for my Russian casualty was satisfying too... we'll see.

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

-Chuck

Casualties

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since my last post here, but lots of real-life has prevented me from doing much painting, let alone blogging.

Today a long-awaited order from Brigade Games arrived, and inspiration struck me to do a very VERY simple conversion: a British casualty marker.

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

My new figures: British Command in Top Hats, two British flank company figures in round hats (these lads will "round out" my West Indies Regiment), and two French 8 pounder guns, which will complete my American battery. All are 28mm figures.

Here is my conversion fodder, a 28mm Sash & Saber American Civil War casualty figure. I saw this chap in my lead pile today as I was separating out my new figures and though, "with a little trimming that fellow could pass for a Napoleonic casualty." With that my interest was piqued.

Here's the final article, painted up and based. Really all I had to do was trim away the original figure's kepi and long beard (neither of which would become fashionable in Europe for another 50 years or so). A very quick and simple conversion.

A view from the other side. You can tell from this angle that his tunic isn't quite right for Naps, but I bet that if I hadn't pointed it out you wouldn't have noticed, now would you? The base is a 40mm x 30mm plywood Litko base that I had left over from another project; the perfect size for 28mm casualty figures, I found.

The Sash & Saber figure came from a large lot of mixed ACW figures that I purchased a while back for another project. By shoehorning him into my Napoleonic collection, I've added another painted figure to my totals, while getting to completely sidestep the purchase column! A coup! A coup d'état I tell you!

Now, the name of this post is "Casualties' in the plural, and so far I've only shown one casualty figure. Allow me to explain: two of my brand new figures are headless! Somehow, through malice or neglect (though I rather expect that Lon at Brigade was just extraordinarily busy and it slipped by him) neither my British sergeant nor drummer boy arrived with a top hat head, or any heads at all. This is a shame, but not necessarily a game changer. I will have to do some sculpting and modeling to get some new heads for these chaps, and as figure conversion is one of my favorite aspects of this hobby, I rather look forward to the challenge!

Coming soon: Some new heads for some British infantry. These new figures also give me a hankering to start on some more West Indies lads.

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

-Chuck

Brits in Greatcoats & Kentuckians--28mm

Hello everyone!

Spent the weekend working on a couple of stands' worth of figures; I'm rather pleased with how they came out. Here is the Light and Grenadier Companies of the 1/4th Regiment of Foot and LTC William Mitchusson, commander of Mitchusson's Kentucky Militia Regiment.

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

 

 

 

 

 

The 1/4th Foot miniatures are primarily Knuckleduster, though the sergeant standing in the rear rank of the Grenadier Company (with white pom poms) is from Foundry. The Grenadiers are based on a single 40mm x 40mm base like the rest of my infantry, while the Light company is split between two 20mm x 40mm bases; this is so the Lights can break off and skirmish in front of the rest of the battalion. I've done this with my 15mm British battalions, and I really like how they look with 28mm figures. Uniforms are pretty much regulation, though a few figs are wearing "beef boots" (akin to mukluks or some other kind of improvised hide boots) and fur shako covers. I like how these figures are sculpted to look like they are really cold, with uniform modifications that look functional in actual cold weather environments, be they in North America or in the Peninsula.

Lieutenant Colonel William Mitchusson and his companion form the command stand for Mitchusson's Kentucky Militia Regiment. This unit will have six stands of two figures each. Mitchusson, in the chapeau bras, sash and saber, is a Knuckleduster miniature, while his companion (whom I've dubbed "Polecat" Smith) is from Foundry. Both figures are painted up using a number of different sources as uniform guides, namely pictures of War of 1812 reenactors. "Polecat" was painted with a skunk fur cap (hence the nickname) and his facial hair is grey because the figure reminds me of my own grandfather, who has a similar beard. (I also gave him the name Smith in honor of Grandpa, who is a modern day Kentucky mountain man in his own right, very much the kind of man who would have fought the British 200 years ago.)

Coming soon: Well, I have the 1/4th Foot halfway done, so it won't take long to get them knocked out. Mitchusson's Kentuckians won't take long either, though I expect with lots of orders due to arrive soon that the "ooh shiny" monster will strike me first and I'll dash off on another painting tangent. we'll see what happens.

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

-Chuck

My Knuckleduster Miniatures Order

Hello everyone!

A quick post today, as I'm rather tired. So, getting right to it, my Knuckleduster Miniatures order arrived today, and I took the afternoon to clean them up.

The packs as they arrived. Top: three packs of British infantry in winter gear; bottom: pair of harnessed horses (for the American artillery limber), frontier militia NCOs pack, frontier militia officers pack.

And here they are all cleaned up. The British figs (including two Foundry British sergeants in greatcoats from the command pack) will flesh out the 1/4th Regiment of Foot, while the frontier militia officers and NCOs will flesh out Mitchusson's Kentucky Militia Regiment.

I really like these figures: nice, big chunky figures, yet with lots of details. They are a bit rougher and heftier than my Foundry figures, but they have their own particular charm; I think they'll be a joy to paint. These were also considerably cheaper than if I had purchased the Foundry figures at their regular prices, and since I think Foundry no longer produces their War of 1812 range, they have a much larger selection of appropriate figures.

I have ten figures on painting stands, primed and ready to go: two stands of the 1/4th Foot (these will be the Grenadier and Light companies) and the command stand for Lieutenant Colonel William Mitchusson's Kentucky Militia Regiment, which fought at New Orleans. I'm hoping to knock at least these guys out over the weekend.

Coming soon: British infantry and Kentuckians. I'm also still waiting for my other orders to arrive, so I'll post them when I get them.

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

-Chuck

4th (King's Own) Regimental Colour Party--28mm

Hello everyone!

As promised from yesterday, here are a few shots of my completed and based command for the 1st Battalion, 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

Note the tufts of grass at the feet of the colonel and just behind and to the left of the Ensign carrying the Regimental Colour. These are Citadel "Mordheim Turf" tufts; the color, I think, fits in with the color scheme of my bases quite well. These were quite easy to apply by placing a tiny drop of super glue where I wanted the tuft to go and gingerly maneuvering it into position with a pair of small tweezers.

The 4th Regiment of Foot saw service in both the Peninsular War and the War of 1812, seeing heavy fighting in both. The 1st Battalion also saw service at the Battle of Waterloo. These lads have the old Peninsula stovepipe shakos, so could theoretically serve in either Spain or the Americas. The 1/4th are wearing their grey greatcoats over white trousers, with white crossbelts. The colonel and the two ensigns are wearing their sashes and swords on the outside of their overcoats, as well as white gloves, while the poor drummer must deal with bare hands in the cold weather. I always feel kind of cheaty when I do greatcoated troops as they're so easy and quick to complete. The Colours are homemade: see my previous post.

For the bigger figures, I've decided to go with four figures to a base for regular troops on the same 4cm x 4cm bases that I usually use with my infantry. (My 15mm/1:72 regular infantry figures are six figures on the same size base.) I think this gives the base a nice look, being full but not too crammed, and should look quite nice with a full 24 figure battalion all together.


All in all I'm rather pleased with how they came out. I look forward to finishing up this battalion, as I think they will look fantastic! Speaking of which...

Coming soon: I placed a few orders last night for various things, the largest of which was an order for Knuckleduster Miniatures and their War of 1812 line. I bought enough British figures in greatcoats to flesh out the 1/4th Regiment of Foot, as well as enough miniatures to flesh out a unit of 28mm American militia. I also picked up a pair of draft horses from Knuckleduster to pull a MDF French artillery caisson that I ordered from a British company called Blotz. This will be painted in light blue for service with my American Regular Artillery.

Speaking of artillery, my French 12 pounder has yet to arrive from brigade; I got an email from them today saying they were quite backordered after having just got back from vacation following Historicon. It's no big deal; Brigade has done very well by me over the years, and I'm willing to patiently wait. But I didn't have to wait for these chaps:

These are 15/18mm Napoleon At War French Old Guard Chasseur figures, a battalion pack, with some Essex minis to flesh out a full battalion. I'll do a proper review of these lads sometime this weekend. So lots of exciting stuff coming soon!

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

-Chuck

28mm DIY British Regimental Colours Tutorial

Hello everyone!

This week I've been working steadily in my off hours on the greatcoat-wearing Peninsular British which will form the core of the 1st Battalion, 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot. I finished the figures themselves last night, but when it came to doing the flags I thought I'd try something different for my 28mm figures, which require much bigger colours.

Now, there are some lovely flags out there that can be purchased from various manufacturers, undoubtedly saving much time in getting regiments ready for the table top, but I've never been able to justify buying something that I can (and like to) make myself for free. Inspired by this post from Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog, I set about creating my own flags from scratch, and I documented the results in form of a little tutorial.

Making Flags from Scratch

First things first, I found some suitable references of the King's and Regimental Colours for the 4th via the Internet.

On a piece of regular computer printer paper, I sketched out a rough layout of the flags. Based on measuring the flag poles my Ensigns are carrying, I determined that a 1 1/8 inch square flag would be perfect. I left a 1/8 inch space between the two "faces" of the flags; this will fold around the flagpole and allow the flag's faces to match up evenly.

I then blocked out both flags in the base color, a dark blue. I made sure to paint just a little outside of the lines on each side to make sure I didn't leave any white edges showing.

Next the white saltires and crosses were added over the top of the blue. again, the paint extends beyond my pencil lines.

Here the red saltires and crosses have been added over the white. Also, the 1/8 inch gap that separates each face has been blocked in in red.

Finally the fiddly bits have been painted in using a variety of colors: the King's garter in the center of each flag, and the King's Lions on the corners of the Regimental Colour. I chose not to add in the battle honors "Corunna" and "Peninsula" that the example at the top of the page shows so that I could potentially use this battalion for any action in the Peninsular War.

Both flags are carefully cut out, following the pencil lines from the initial sketch.

The backs of the flags are slathered in regular Elmer's glue and the banners are carefully wrapped around the poles, giving them a few bends to make them "blow in the breeze." Not all of the edges line up perfectly, leaving white lines of paper showing along the edges, here especially evident in the Regimental Colour on the left.

These white edges are touched up with paint of an appropriate color, and left to dry. At this stage I've seen others coat their flags in a bit of varnish to enhance durability, but I opted not to. The banners are now complete!

I hope this little tutorial might be useful for someone. I personally like painting my own flags, so maybe someone else out there as crazy (and as cheap!) as I am may get some mileage out of this technique.

Coming soon: Right now I'm waiting for the Gorilla superglue holding the 4th's command stand figures to their base to dry, which means I'll probably finish basing them sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'll post them whenever they're done.

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

-Chuck

What Have I Done?

I really need to stop looking in the bargain bin... all I end up doing is getting myself into trouble!

Hello everyone!

Well, I have a bit of a confession to make. Yes, I was trawling through the discounted section again, looking for anything and everything that I could possibly make use of (this tactic yielded the Field of Glory expansion from two posts ago), when I came across these fellows at 75% off:

Four Foundry Miniatures blisters: Napoleonic American Volunteers, Napoleonic American Artillery Crew, Napoleonic British Command in Greatcoats and Napoleonic American Infantry Command

Three packs of Napoleonic Foundry figures at 75% off! These packs usually run about $25 apiece, so the opportunity to snatch up four for the price of one was just too great, and I bought them.

"But Chuck!" I hear the cry. "You don't game in 28mm! You're a small figure man, fighting battles in the One True Scale!" Yes, I know. But I couldn't resist such an offer, and if THAT isn't a wargamer truism then I don't know what is.

I have long loved Foundry figures, but their high prices here in the States have prevented me from buying very many over the years. As such, I doubt that I will be getting any more. However, the packs that I bought are not really complete and/or usable in any kind of gaming, with two eight figure command packs, an artillery crew and a bunch of American volunteers. Yes, I could get several of them based up singly for skirmish gaming, but that leaves figures like ensigns sort of useless, and the artillery crew has no gun to crew!

So here I am with a bit of a conundrum: do I base up the majority of these guys individually for skirmish games, or do I use the majority of them to form the core of a couple of wargaming units for my existing 15mm/20mm armies, bolstered by the purchase of additional 28mm figures? I know I'll be buying a cannon for sure, but will it be based for big games or skirmish? Will there be other figures? I'm leaning towards the affirmative, which is a very slippery slope indeed... what have I done to myself!?

Personally I'm inclined to do a mix of both skirmish and wargame units, but I'd like to hear readers' thoughts. Mixing scales doesn't bother me particularly, not anymore, as I've seem plenty of online evidence of some beautiful games run with mixed scales. Besides, these are lovely sculpts, and there are lots of other very nice figures out there for sale. Oh boy, here we go...

Coming soon: Probably some of these new, lovely figures. I'll also have a look around the internet to see what I can come up with in order to fill out the units. I'll probably end up going with Knuckleduster... but Brigade has some nice stuff too that would probably mix well. Decisions, decisions...

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

-Chuck

Back in the Saddle Again

Hello everyone!

This past weekend my parents came up to visit me, and with them came an abridged version of my painting setup and a few of my 1/72 plastic figures to paint. I will have to fit it all in around my school and work schedule, but I'm excited to get back into painting a little bit once again!

I also have the opportunity now to review the big 1/72 lot that I purchased right before I left for boot camp, since those are the majority of the figures that I had my parents bring down. (Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)

Here's my basic painting setup. A small selection of basic paint colors, some green stuff, super glue, hobby knife, brushes, base flocking materials and bottle tops to hold onto the figures whilst painting. Not pictured is my old Army t-shirt that I use as my brush-cleaning rag.

1/72 Review: Random eBay Lot

12 Strelets Russian mounted jagers. While not enough for a full unit of 18, they will get me well on my way to fielding a full Russian cavalry regiment.

Initial Impressions

The lot I found was unmarked as to what was in it (the descriptions only saying "American Revolution/Napoleonic?"), but thanks to Plastic Soldier Review I was able to determine that the lot consisted basically of the contents of Italeri #6066 French Infantry, Strelets #018 Russian Mounted Jagers, and Italeri #6060 American Infantry (from the American War of Independence), plus a mystery plastic mounted figure. The mystery figure turned out to be a mounted plastic medieval knight or similar and looked to be a board game piece of some kind, so pretty much useless to my needs. Also, the number of figures in the lot didn't match up to the number of figures listed on the boxes, meaning at some point there was some miniature attrition. I was also disappointed to see that some of the figs were incomplete, but more on that in a minute. Overall I was pleased that I got a good deal, and I can use the figures for a variety of projects: The French infantry will be French infantry, the AWI figures will mainly be painted as French in bicornes (not Portuguese as I originally speculated) with some of the figures augmenting my American militia and Native American forces for New Orleans 1812, and finally the Russian mounted jagers for my Russian forces.

29 Italeri American War of Independence figures. These are the only ones from the group that are ready to be painted as is.

Scaleability

All of these figures are the average size 1/72 figures; not the towering behemoths of some Italeri figures, and not the dwarfs of some other manufacturers. Since they will be placed in their own units there won't be any kind of disparity in height amongst the figures.

Here are 11 more Continentals, but all of these guys are missing arms, hands, drums etc. These would have normally been on the sprue, but unfortunately they didn't arrive with the figures in the big bag they came in. I will have to fix these with green stuff.

Quality

For the most part, other than the qualms that the folks over at Plastic Soldier Review have regarding the accuracy of the sculpts and whatnot, I like these figures. The sculpting on all of them (including the Strelets figs) is really good, save for the occasional miss-cast saber. I am rather disappointed that the eBayer I bought these from neglected to send all of the separate arms and drums that go with the AWI figures, which leaves almost a quarter of the entire group useless without some green stuff sculpting on my end. This is a pain.

46 Italeri French infantry in shako. All these chaps need are some cleaning up and then some paint to be table-ready.

Price

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the whole reason why I bought these figures was because of their price: 104 figures (not including the weird green knight game piece) for $5.50 shipped! That's $0.05 per figure, including twelve mounted figs. That's ridiculously cheap compared to what I've paid for 1/72 minis before. The deal was too good to pass up in that regard.

American militia. The three cream-colored figures at the lower right are from the AWI set; all are missing their right hands and muskets.

Native Americans. The figures holding their rifles at their hips are from the American War of Independence set.

The above two groups include the Native American and American militia figures that I salvaged from the Lewis and Clark set I bought at Hobby Lobby a good while back. There were three Native American figures that were included with the Revolutionary War figures, and they will fit in quite nicely with the others as is. There were also three ragged-looking figures in the same set, but unfortunately none of the hands with weapons were included with the figures, which is a shame. At the same time, though, since I will be making new hands and muskets out of green stuff, I will get a bit more variety out of the three poses than if they were all the same. Perhaps it's not much of a silver lining, but I have to work with what I have.

All in all the entire purchase was well worth the minimal price, and I should have plenty to keep me busy during my off times.

Coming soon: Well, I don't have many options. It could be French (either in shako or in bicorne), Russian mounted jagers, American militia for New Orleans, or American-allied Choctaws for New Orleans. Either something painted or some conversions made on those armless figures to get them paint-ready. Either way, I'm quite excited to get back in the hobby!

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

-Chuck