French Hussars!

Hello everyone!

 

Wow, two posts in as many days, a new record for me! So, this time I actually kept my promise; here are some French Hussars! (Click the pictures for bigger versions.)

 

 

These dashing fellows are painted up as the command stand of the 3e Régiment de Hussards, with the Chef d'escadron in the center on the white horse, the bugler on his left and a trooper on his right. The 3e wore grey uniforms with red facings; to be honest I painted this unit because it is the unit Keith Carradine's character in "The Duellists" is in (if I do any more French hussars it will be the 7e Régiment, the unit Harvey Keitel's character portrays; I love that movie :D ). The bugler wears reversed colors i.e. red jacket and pelisse with grey cuffs.

 

The two flanking hussars are made by Herritage and are quite a bit smaller than the commander, who is an AB sculpt. The commander is actually not even French; he's AB's Stapleton-Cotton figure from one of AB's British command packs. Luckily hussar uniforms were pretty standard throughout the armies of the period, so only a little clever painting placed him in the right army. :)

 

Coming up: more hussars maybe? I'm not sure... we'll see what strikes my fancy.

 

Thanks for looking!

 

-Chuck

(Connaught) Rangers Lead the Way!

 

Hello everyone!

 

Another quick update. I finished these lads last night. They are the command stand for the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers). This Irish regiment was a veteran of almost every major British campaign of the Napoleonic Wars and was brigaded with the 45th for the majority of the Peninsular Campaign. They were known as ferocious fighters-it was their charge that secured the town of Fuentes de Onoro from the French during the eponymous battle. 

 

This stand will the only ones painted from this regiment for a while, since I don't have enough Peninsular British to flesh out a whole 36 man battalion. (Click on the pictures for bigger versions.)



 

All are the outstanding AB figures and include a drummer, sergeant and pioneer in addition to the battalion commander and two ensigns. This stand was the first time I ever painted a cast flag (the King's Color), but I think I did a decent job. I also hand-painted the Regimental Color as well; I used printed flags for the 45th. I think I like the look of the painted flags better.

I've got some figures coming in the mail that are a bit odd-they are game pieces from the 1998 version of the board game RISK. They were really cheap on eBay and they should be about the right scale. Plus, this version of the game utilized pieces that have shakos and Napoleonic uniforms instead of the distinctly 18th Century uniforms of the latest edition's pieces. We'll see how it works.

Up next: maybe some French hussars?

Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

The Ogre



Hello everyone!

 

So I decided that my French needed some reenforcements. Did I paint up another line battalion, a cavalry regiment, or artillery base, all of which are useful tactical units? Nope.

 

I painted up the Corsican Ogre himself: Napoleon I, Empereur des Francais.

(Remember to click on the photos for bigger versions)



 

All of these are Italeri 1/72 plastics from set 6016, French Imperial General Staff. In the group I've painted up Napoleon himself (on the white horse), General Count Bertrand, ADC to the Emperor (on the dapple gray in the back), a French Infantry Colonel reporting to the Emperor (on the black horse in front), and two members of Napoleon's personal bodyguard, the Chasseurs a Cheval (mounted on the brown horses). These are some of the snazziest uniforms I've painted so far, but it was a nice break from the many repetitive uniforms of foot soldiers.

I also tried my hand at doing a bit of battlefield scenery on the base. The little grey/black blob to the right of Napoleon is supposed to be a cannonball furrowed into the ground: however the plastic airsoft BB I cut up to make it is HUGE compared to the minis... I guess Napoleon's staff is the target of a Russian Unicorn battery or seige guns of some sort? It looks OK, and now that it's done I'm not going to change it.

As I stated in my earlier review of these plastics, the Italeri figs, while very detailed, are massive compared to pretty much all 15mm minis. However, I've decided that I don't care too much about the sizes, as long as they all look good on the tabletop. I'm the only one I have to please, afterall. :)

Coming up next? Who knows, whatever strikes my fancy, I guess. Maybe some British Riflemen, or French cavalry...

I would also like to welcome BibraX to the blog. I hope you enjoy all you see!

That's all for now. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

Aargh... Pirates!

Hello folks!

For those of you that follow this blog, I'm sorry at my infrequent postings. I'm still alive, I promise!

It is definately too late for it to be "tomorrow," but here are the promised pictures of the Baratarian Pirate Company for the American New Orleans Militia (remember to click on the pictures for a bigger version!):

Like they were supposedly in real life, these pirates are all wearing red. All of the miniatures are from the Spanish company Capitan Miniatures and they scale well with my AB figures, if a little rougher in finish. I still like them though.

I don't think I've even gotten my French Lancers out of their packages... real life has been laying it to me the past few months. We'll see what I can work on next...

Thanks for looking!
-Chuck

Update

Hello Everyone!

I thought I'd get a quick update in on what I've been up to. Currently I have a stand of New Orleans Militiaon the stand and drying (I told you more Americans would be up soon). These guys are the Baratarian company of the New Orleans militia, amde up of Jean Lafitte's river pirates, all decked out in red. I'll have pictures of them completed by tomorrow.

I also thought that I'd change things up a bit, so I bought some French lancers off of eBay. Unfortunately I didn't look carefully at their caps, so I have most of a battalion of French cheveau-leger lancers in the helmet and most of a battalion of Polish lancers. A few more figures apiece and they will both be full strength. I currently don't have many cavalry figures, and I thought these would be interesting to paint. I will paint them up as the lancer regiments used at Borodino.

Well, that's all for now. Pictures of the pirates up for tomorrow, then on to some lancers! (And maybe some Russians too...)

All the best,

-Chuck

A Ruskie Officer

Hello everyone!

Another quick update. I saw this chap sitting on my workbench and thought I'd finish him up real quick. Besides, my Russians were feeling neglected. I present to you Lieutenant Colonel Khristian Ditterix III, commander of the 7th Battery Company (click on the pictures for bigger versions):

LTC Ditterix is an AB figure. As you can see, he is the only figure on the base. I'm planning on having battery commanders be on their own bases for all of my artillery units of all nationalities. This is so the battery commander will always be with their unit, either with the deployed gun stands or with the moving battery stand.

That's all ofr tonight. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck

More Frenchmen

Hello everyone!

I finally found some free time to dust off my paints and brushes for the first time in a long time. I decided to finish up a stand I started a long time ago.

Here I present Colonel Chabert, commander of the 1ere Demi-Brigade, 2e Brigade, 2e Division, IX Corps:

 

All are AB figures. Remember to click on the pictures for larger versions!

I finished up the ADC back in July, but I hadn't found time to finish up the good colonel and his adoring fan until today. Oh well: it's another stand done and finally some French officers to lead the 8th Line's Demi-Brigade.

That's it for now... I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Next will probably be more Russians, but I've also lined up my American Infantry (which need priming) so look forward to them soon as well.

Thanks for looking!

--Chuck