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

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

A New Book and On-The-Fly Painting Setup

Hello everyone!

While home for New Year's leave, my mother and I stopped by the local public library where they were having a book sale. As you may or may not know, it is very difficult for me to not take a look at books for sale, and I left there with some new books for very cheap. While I hadn't expected to find anything Napoleonic-related, I was pleasantly surprised to find this old paperback hiding amongst the others:

The Causes of the War of 1812: National Honor or National Interest? edited by Bradford Perkins, is a 1965 collection of excerpts from historians examining a number of possible causes for the War of 1812. I foresee this as being an interesting read, as well as an interesting piece of historiography regarding the War of 1812. Over to the left in my "2016 Totals" bar I've added a section to track purchased books as well as miniatures, and at $0.50, this one wasn't a bad deal at all.

On he painting front, I've  prepped the only Napoleonic figure in the house, the dismounted French Dragoon I ordered from Brigade Games on Black Friday, for painting. Since my real painting setup is in California and I'm sitting on the couch in Kentucky, I had to scrounge around for some of my old paints and brushes, but I managed to find a basic palette that will work for this chap. All that was left was for me to run by the local game store here, where I picked up some Citadel Skull White primer and a pot of Caliban Green for his jacket, and now I'm all set. I'll prime him tonight and begin work probably tomorrow; tonight my parents and I are going to see "The Revenant" at the movie theater in town. Stay tuned.

Coming soon: A painted French Dragoon.

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

-Chuck

More Brits, in Both 28 &15mm

Hello everyone!

It's been a minute since I've been on the blog, and for that I apologize. I just returned from two weeks of Rest and Rehabilitation visiting my parents back in Kentucky, and now that I am back I've finally had a chance to sit down an blog about what I was able to accomplish over the break.

I managed to get some painting done while I was at home, in addition to moving my entire Naps collection across the country so I can paint and game to my heart's content! Here's what I managed to get done: a center company stand for the 1/4th Regiment of Foot and another casualty marker, as well as some conversions (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions).

These are 28mm Knuckleduster minis, and were a joy to paint up as usual. The only things really differentiating these chaps as being in a center company is their red and white shako plumes, as all other uniform differences are hidden by their greatcoats. These lads are mounted on one of the wooden 40mm x 40mm bases I purchased last month. This brings the 1/4th up to four completed stands out of six.

It was hard to get good pictures of this casualty marker because of how small it is. This is a 15mm AB British casualty figure. As with all AB figures I've ever worked with, this one is sculpted perfectly and painted up really fast, even considering its small size. I painted him up with dark blue facings of a generic "Royal" regiment. The base is a strip of card approximately 40mm long by 20mm wide.

Finally, I managed to sort out the Brigade Games figures I'm using for Whyte's West Indies Regiment that arrived without their heads. I had thought about what might work to recreate the round hats required, and so I gathered the materials I thought I would need.

Here's what I (thought) I needed: two 28mm plastic heads from the Wargames Factory Zulus sprue and a pair of 1/72 Spanish militiamen in round hats. My original plan was to cut off the round hats and use them as is: in practice however, this looked like they were wearing one of the tiny top hats that were all the rage in Victorian ladies' fashion:

Not really the look I was going for...

So I fell back and punted, and turned to greenstuff. I cut down the Zulu heads to fix, then glued them to the figures. I then used a flat disc of greenstuff to form the brim of their round hats.

After this had set for 24 hours I added the crowns, made from carved pieces of a 1/4" wood dowel. I then sculpted on their plumes with a bit more greenstuff. In the end I think it came out rather well.

Coming soon: I actually ended up starting to paint on some other figures while I was at home, but didn't end up finishing them before I had to leave. As I'm currently living aboard ship for the time being until I can get a place of my own, I really don't have the space or time for painting, and I probably won't for a couple of months. I will work on stuff when and where I can I guess.

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

-Chuck

The 2/4th Foot Colour Party and New Old-School 25mm Figures

Hello everyone!

There have been several developments hobby-wise that have happened here recently, namely the arrival of a big lot of figures off of eBay. I also managed to get a little painted done yesterday, this time some more British: the start of the 2/4th Regiment of Foot (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions).

The drummer and both ensigns are old, true 25mm Minifigs that came in a large mixed lot of figures that I bought off of eBay (more pics of these below), and as such they are just a tad smaller than the larger 28mm Foundry and Knuckleduster figures I own. They are all wearing the post 1812 uniforms, with short coatees, grey trousers and Belgic shakoes. They are painted in the dark blue facings of the 4th (King's Own) Regiment of Foot; this will be the 2nd Battalion, as my greatcoated battalion is the 4th's 1st Battalion.

I really like the dashing Battalion commander figure; he looks like he's rallying his men to push on despite the storm of steel around him. He seems kind of old school, even compared to the Minifigs, like some Hinton Spieler or Der Kriegspieliers figs I've seen. I tried looking him up myself, but my Google-fu was weak. Does anybody have any idea who made him? The code on the bottom of the base was BN28.

The Colours are my usual hand painted creations, as per usual. I actually did two sets at once; these as well as the Colours for the 1st (Whyte's) West India Regiment.

I'm planning on finishing the command stand for Whyte's W.I. Regiment before the weekend is out, you'll be seeing these flags again shortly.

So I picked up another large lot of figures off of eBay, this time a mixed lot of seventy 25mm Minifigs (and others) miniatures. There are both British and French miniatures, with a mix of different troop types.

The entire lot of 70 figures, cleaned up after unpacking. Unfortunately, several bayonets didn't survive the journey through the US postal system.

The French: Clockwise from the rear, 13 Old Guard Grenadiers , 4 French Artillerymen, 1 mounted French Dragoon, and 11 Line Infantrymen.

The British: Clockwise from top left, 7 Scotsmen, 28 Line Infantry, and 6 Foot Artillerymen.

Again, these are true 25mm figures, and so are smaller than my other 28mm minis. They are still large enough however that only four figs will fit on a 40mm x 40mm base, meaning a regiment of these lads will be 24 strong, just like their large 28mm cousins. The bulk of the British Line Infantry above will form the 2/4th Foot, which I started last night. These guys are very old school, which I like, and, though they are not the most detailed or dynamic sculpts in the world, as you see they paint up very nicely.

Coming soon: The figures for the command stand for Whyte's W.I. Regiment and those of a stand of the 1/4th Foot are on painting bases right now, and I expect to finish them before the weekend is out.

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

28mm: New Figures, Caisson, and Whyte's Lights!

Hello everyone!

A lot has happened hobby-wise over the past few days, but I haven't had much opportunity to get it up on the blog until tonight. A couple of my orders came in, so I spent some time working on cleaning up some figures for the 1st West India Regiment, as well as putting together the MDF French Artillery Caisson from Blotz. I also managed to paint a stand of West Indies troops; so I've been pretty busy! Here are some pictures of my progress (remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions):

Two packs of Trent Miniatures "Chasseurs (Ste Dominigue)" received from Recreational Conflict. These are big, chunky figures with bold details. They are noticeably bigger than both Foundry and Knuckleduster.

My French Artillery Caisson from the British company Blotz. This is a very nice MDF kit. I took some pictures while I was putting it together, but I will post them when I finish painting it. This kit was a pleasure to put together and looks so good I'm (oddly) a little apprehensive about painting over it!

Cleanup of the Trent Miniatures begins. Out of all 16 figures, there was only one figure with any significant problems, namely the chap in front here who is missing the front half of his musket! The rear figure shows what he should look like.

And here's my fix. A few pieces of carefully carved styrene rod in three different sizes to represent the musket's fore end, barrel and ramrod. It looks pretty good, if I say so myself, despite this picture.

Everyone cleaned up and ready to go. In the background is a sneaky peek of the completed assembled caisson.

Finally, here we have the Light Company of the 1st (Whyte's) West Indies Regiment. The chap firing his musket is the figure I fixed with plastic rod. See? I told you it looks pretty good!

Uniform for these guys are long sleeved, red single-breasted jackets, with cuffs in the facing color, in this case white, and white loose trousers. Like many West Indies regiments in the field, these lads have gone barefoot and are wearing round hats, which support their green light company plumes. White crossbelts, black leather equipment and brown leather machete scabbards in addition to their India Pattern Brown Bess muskets complete their kit. 

The West Indies uniforms were inspired by a number of sources, namely descriptions of "West Indian tropical dress" found in Haythornthwaite's Uniforms of the French Revolutionary Wars, 1789-1802, plates 49 and 50. (This also marks the first time I've used this book, which I got for my birthday this year, as source material for some figures!) Even though these uniforms are from many years prior to the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, I find it hard to believe that, as remote a station as the West Indies was during the Napoleonic Wars and at the far end of a rather long supply chain, some elements of these uniforms would not still have seen use well into the 1810s. Also, the bare feet of the West Indies is well documented from the War of 1812, further strengthening the notion that the above uniform is far from implausible. Plus, these speculations have the added benefits of justifying the sculpting on the figures I bought and giving the entire unit round hats, which are awesome.

Coming soon: This weekend I plan on knocking out the artillery caisson, battery commander, and Brigadier General John Adair.

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

-Chuck