Today my wife is trekking along the coast, from just north of Berwick to St Abbs, with her walking group, so I'm busy doing some work sorting out The Cupboard. Nothing very exciting - just a delayed Spring clean, to shift the Anglo-Portuguese down one shelf, clear out some scenery pieces and odd junk, re-organise the French army to give more room to accommodate the new units coming from the Refurb, and smarten up the layout of the A4 boxfiles which hold the overflow.
It makes sense to empty the lot, and do a bit of cleaning and tidying. Since this involves laying the troops out so I can change the shelf order, a photograph or two seems appropriate - it's a while since I did a full army photo.
So today's presentation is the French army - the lighting and my photography could certainly be better, but I hope you enjoy the pics. I'm delighted that inspection reveals no damage, which is not really a surprise but is a bit of a relief anyway.
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| From this end, the columns are Confederation infantry, then Italians plus King Joseph's Spaniards, then 5 columns of French infantry, then the Imperial Guard (with the band at the head!), then dragoons (with various generals and marshals at the rear), then light cavalry, then cuirassiers; at the far (right) end, the field artillery is in front, behind them is the siege artillery, then the garrison artillery, at the back are the engineers, with some logistics stuff alongside |
As we used to joke, never mind the quality, feel the width!
Magnificent!
ReplyDeleteI hate to mention it, but, I'm not sure there is enough room on that table for them to all to deploy properly for battle. You may need to start thinking about a larger table. Is there an interior wall that could be knocked out to make room?
My thoughts exactly, Ross!
DeleteA wonderful collection of troops!
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
Good God, Man! Your French Army is monstrous! A beautiful and most impressive display, indeed!
ReplyDeleteOh my ! what a lot of figures ! , very impressive indeed .
ReplyDeleteThat's outstanding! Impressive line up. You could field an infantry brigade and a small cavalry regiment at 1 to 1 scale.
ReplyDeleteOh, now that is a thing of beauty! Well, lots of things, actually. And did I see pontoons in there, ref, your last post?
ReplyDeleteBloody good show, sir! Well done indeed!
An impressive looking collection.
ReplyDeleteAnd they say size doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteWell done sir ... I do like a parade.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Aly
Good Lord!!
ReplyDeleteWoooow! That's epic!
ReplyDeleteVery nice indeed Tony, I like the neatness of it all too and not a strand of static grass in sight.
ReplyDeleteGentlemen all - thank you for your kind comments. I'm glad you enjoyed (or were shaken by, or whatever) my photos. Laying out all the Napoleonic Frenchmen yesterday was a useful exercise for a number of reasons. It was fun, obviously, but it's also a useful sanity check - I'm not sure which way that bit turned out. I hardly ever see these guys all at once - I paint or re-base odd units, I choose some for a particular game scenario, I keep them tidily (tidally?) arranged in The Cupboard and the supporting boxfiles, I keep the catalogue and its photographs carefully up to date, and I'm fondly aware of what's in the collection, but they are like my grandchildren - I love them dearly, but I seldom get to see them all at the same time!
ReplyDeleteYesterday, the size of the collection did actually bother me a little - I mean, just how big starts to verge on unhealthy? I'm not being serious, of course, but it is a thought. There are still some French infantry in the painting and refurbing queue, so things will get rather worse before they calm down(!) - I have now, though, decided to be more circumspect about continued expansion. As I recall, I mentioned in a post here in about 2010 that my Peninsular Armies were almost complete, and so they were - it's just that more old figures became available, and the target OOB was upgraded about 6 or 7 times. I really will get this under control now. Promise.
Of course, odd bods like personality generals or ADCs or specialists, or nice vehicles, etc etc, will continue to be fair game. I mean, come on.
So...Russians then?
DeleteMagnifique!
ReplyDeleteMerci, Ray - bienvenue et bonne chance!
DeleteGreat collection! Wonderful to see it all!
ReplyDeleteThank you, M le Chasseur!
DeleteI was about to say that some serious continental opposition ought to be in the queue by now - it's the least you can do to match such a glorious array.
ReplyDeleteI love the band - have you done a feature post about them before?
Hi WM - in an ideal world, a great big Austrian army would be a nice idea. Problem now is that I do not have the time to do anything about that - unless I buy an existing one, I suppose.
DeleteMeant to say, the Guard band got a small write-up at
Deletehttps://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/2011/03/folderols-back-of-painting-queue.html
They are the S-Range band - I suspect that they are assembled from a couple of sets. They don't get out much! S-Range have a certain charm, certainly, but it irritates me that the Drum Major is carrying a caber, as in highland games. Did they have to be that crude?
What a great parade!
ReplyDelete