WSS: Bring On More Shiny Horses

 

Two more new French regiments for the WSS, freshly based and flagged, and very nicely painted by Lee (thank you, sir). These are the regiments Mestre de Camp Général (red flag, yellow shabraques) and La Baume (green flag, green shabraques). As ever, castings are Les Higgins/PMD 20mm, though the command groups are Irregular on Higgins horses.

WSS: A General Smarten-Up (you can't get the staff, you know)

 Last night I did some more work on tidying up my small pool of WSS General Officers, so that I can manage to put on a decent-sized game when required,

These fellows come from various backgrounds - some were specially painted, others are survivors from other people's collections which I bought in, already painted.

Most of them, in fact, were odd officers liberated from Eric Knowles' armies - often Les Higgins generals who were serving as regimental colonels in the cavalry. Some of the charging officers are actually from Higgins's ECW range, but can happily carry on in service - what is 60 years among so many?

 

The coloured mini-dice are also useful for identifying which army a figure belongs to - in many cases, these fellows are up for grabs, and can (and will) serve for anyone who needs them. Paint quality ranges from beautifully professional to, well, pretty industrial. Some of these chaps have obvious affiliations - the guy in the yellow coat, back left, usually defaults to the role of Maffei, because that was the regiment he was liberated from...

I am hoping for a fresh supply of new generals within a few weeks - these chaps will not have cuirasses - my French and British commanders are not allowed cuirasses! In the meantime I spent a little time smartening the bases, touching-up damaged paintwork and so on.

This current collection of leaders is quite an odd bunch, really - few of the uniforms stand up to expert examination - in some ways they feel a bit like the "personality" leaders in Charge and The War Game. I am relying heavily on that well-worn phrase, the senior officers tended to wear what they liked - often civilian garments.

Good enough for me.

WSS: More French Infantry

 Been busy last couple of weeks - keeping my head down to avoid seeing the news. Five new battalions ready for duty. I'm pleased with them. As ever, figures are mostly Les Higgins (small) 20mm from long ago - flags are by David at the excellent Not By Appointment blog, laser-printed to scale by Malcolm at Lothian Printers.

At the front are two battalions of Régiment de Poitou (thank you very much, Lee), in the 2nd row are two battalions of Régiment du Dauphin, and at the rear the single battalion of Régiment de Saintonge.

WSS: Régiment de Navarre

 Another unit of 20mm French infantry ready for duty. This time very nicely (and generously) painted by Count Goya - thank you, sir - the army salutes you!

 

Navarre

As usual, figures are Les Higgins/PMD apart from the mounted officers, who are by Irregular on Higgins horses. The laser-printed flags are used by permission of David at Not by Appointment, for which thanks. I'm still working on a successful way of colouring the paper edges - my traditional use of felt-tips and whiteboard markers has been abandoned, because with modern pens and laser-print paper the ink will wick from the cut edges into the images and mess them up (as I have learned). The labs are on it as I write.

Next up for my WSS project is another refurb job - probably the Régiment du Dauphin; however, I think I'll put the painting desk to rights for a week or two and catch up on that Real Life stuff, though at present it doesn't look too attractive.

WSS: Régiment de Champagne

 These are (mostly) very old figures from Eric Knowles' collection, so this has been a return to my Refurb Factory desk. Eric used larger units than I do, so there are some extra command figures added to make up the numbers. I am pleased to say that I am happy with my new technique for painting musicians in the Kings Livery, which has removed an amount of stress from my current push to progress my French contingent.

I have tried to keep the appearance consistent with Eric's original, freshening everything up as necessary, and am pleased with the result. These are the two battalions of the Régiment de Champagne, all ready for the Duty Boxes. The flags are used by kind permission of David at Not by Appointment - no problems this time, with the flags laser-printed on thinner paper.

As always, these are Les Higgins figures - smallish 20mm - though the mounted officers are by Irregular, on Higgins horses.

There will be some more French units arriving over the next few weeks, so the barracks are getting swept out, ready.

WSS: Two New French Regiments of Horse

 I'm very pleased to welcome two new units for my French army, once again painted - and very nicely indeed - by Lee. Here (without and with flash - take your choice) are the Regiments of Tarnault (grey coats, in front) and Le Roi (in blue, at the back). Appropriately flagged and based, and ready for the duty boxes - thanks very much, Lee!

I had one rather amusing misadventure while basing these chaps up. The days of steel paper are long gone, alas, and the replacement for it is a very clever material which is described as Ferro Sheet, which is a little thicker than the old metallised paper but otherwise seems to work just as well. The only bad news is that it looks pretty much identical to the familiar self-adhesive Magnetic Sheet which I've been using for my soldiers for some years. I am, of course, careful not to mix these two types of sheet up, but it had to happen eventually. Having stayed up a bit late to finish off the application of Mag Sheet under the bases for these new units, and having made quite a nice job of it, though I say so myself, I was disappointed to find this morning that the new units were sliding about in their storage box - yes, that's right, I'd used the wrong stuff. So, this morning, before I fitted the flags, I had to peel off the Ferro Sheet and replace with Mag Sheet. No damage done, just a reminder that I'll have to be careful.

There is a quick safety check - the Mag Sheet will stick on the central heating radiators, while the Ferro Sheet doesn't. Fortunately, I always have a central heating radiator with me. Planning, or what?

Separate Topic - the Calm Before the Storm

Yes, there's another storm coming today - expected to arrive after 5pm. There was one on Friday, which was noisy but not too bad here, though it was pretty severe elsewhere. This one is expected to be rather worse in this area - unlike Storm Arwen, this one is coming from the South West, so it should at least be rather warmer if/when the power goes off. It is expected to be of short duration - probably finished by midnight. It puts an interesting background to the things which are supposed to be happening today:

(1) we are scheduled to do some testing of our broadband service around 7pm - this with the computer connected by Ethernet, so we don't include any delays caused by wi-fi issues. I've to take screenshots of the speedtest.com results and forward them to my service provider. I would say there is very little chance of our having both electricity and broadband by 7pm...

(2) Amazon tell me that their fine courier will deliver a package to me this evening, before 10pm. I don't think so. I think their local courier will be safely in his bed this evening, and quite right too. 

The sky seemed a bit on the red side this morning - not sure if it's enough to alarm shepherds, but I thought a photo might be a useful souvenir, just in case the garden has gone by tomorrow. [Think positive]

Whatever else happens, we'd better stow the garden chairs in the woodshed this morning. Either that, or else mark them with our name and address.

WSS: First French Unit

 I'm very pleased to welcome a refurbished battalion of French infantry - this is the Regt de Nettancourt, beautifully painted by Aly Morrison.

 

Nettancourt - 20mm Les Higgins castings, though the mounted officer is from Irregular, on a Higgins horse. Most of the figures are from the Eric Knowles collection

 

Interesting drummer - derived from an illustration in Mark Allen's book - Nettancourt, from the Lorraine region, earlier had green facings, and the livery reflects that history of green. Perfectly painted, it goes without saying!

I have attached laser printed flags - a new experiment for me. The flags are from the excellent Not By Appointment blog - with the author's approval, and certainly laser printing shows off the quality of the artwork, but I need to do some more research on this - I have some issues with this first trial batch. The paper, at 120g/sm, is a little too heavy, and the satin paper produces flags which are probably too glossy - I'll work on this. I think this is promising, but I need to discuss the matter with Malcolm the Printer to see what works best. Since I am gluing the flags with PVA, I can remove and replace them very easily.

WSS: A British General

 Today I received a parcel of soldiers, splendidly painted by Aly Morrison, which is a most welcome contribution.

There is a battalion of French infantry - these chaps are now drying on their new bases, and some nice laser-printed flags should arrive early next week, so I hope to show them off then.

Aly also painted up a classy little British senior officer for me. I'm very pleased with him - a real character. The rider is an Irregular casting, and I think the horse is a sample which Old John kindly sent me - can't remember the maker. Anyway, they've come up lovely, as my Grannie would have said. I'll get him into a little group stand.

Thanks again, Aly.

WSS: British Army - Phase I

 Today I received 2 further units of Horse, beautifully painted by Lee. I've based them and presented them with flags, and this completes my Phase I OOB for my British army. I also have (potentially) another unit of dragoons which I may refurb for this phase, or I might leave them until later.

 

Lumley's Horse in front, Cadogan's to the rear - thanks again, Lee

I'd like to thank Lee and Goya and everyone who has helped me to get this far - I'm really very pleased. Unlike most of my Bavarian and Imperialist Phase I troops, the British are not from the Eric Knowles collection - some have been refurbed from bought-in painted drafts I obtained from Soldiers of Rye, from Albannach and other sources, and a lot of them are painted from scratch using virgin castings. I believe that Eric had made some progress towards replacing his Les Higgins armies with Minifigs and Hinchliffe, and the British seem to be one of the armies which had crossed over.

The next big push will be the French - I have a lot of ex-Eric figures for them, which should scrub up satisfactorily - to balance the sides up a bit and avoid my Brits having to spend the rest of their days fighting the Bavarians.

I still have to work on the command for the Brits, so this group photo is a little premature, but it seemed a suitable project milestone to commemorate!

One British figure I did find in the ex-Eric boxes was this little mounted drummer. A conversion from assorted bits of Higgins castings, I think. He is battle-worn, but should paint up nicely. The logical thing to do with him would be to attach him to a regiment of British dragoons, of course, but this would simply draw attention to the fact that the rest of my dragoons have trumpeters (!), so I shall base him up with a general, as some Big-Wig's personal drummer.

WSS: Half a Pint of Cavalry

 "They will say what men say now, Sire: that you have extended the limits of refurbishment."

Almost two years ago, I bought the 20mm part of Eric Knowles' WSS collection, which gave me a flying start into a new project, a new period.

For about 18 months I have been working away to refurbish as much of that collection as made sense; since I had also acquired a veritable mountain of good unpainted castings, and as the number of finished units becomes sufficient to have a game, the pressures have changed. The last refurb job I did (last week) was enjoyable, and I'm pleased with the results, but if I'm honest I have to admit that it might have been easier and probably better to start again with fresh castings.

Also, I have to face up to the fact that under the couch in the attic room I have 3 large boxes of painted candidates for refurbishment, and I haven't really looked at them for about 9 months. Something has changed in the priorities; also, some of these remaining ex-Eric figures are pretty battered, and some of them have uniforms which do not fit with my project. Thus I've decided to draw a line, starting with the cavalry. As from yesterday, I have ice-cream tubs full of Eric's old figures, soaking the old bases off.

 

Massed footbath

I also have some ready de-based figures soaking in the Clean Spirit jar, let's get them back to bare metal and check the castings are nice and clean. Once the ice-cream-tub footbath has done its work, I'll remove the rest of the figures from their bases and put them in the Clean Spirit.

 

Half a pint of cavalry

I have no shortage of soldiers to paint, so there's no point in hanging on to the scruffier end of Eric's painted armies if I'm not going to do anything useful with them.

This also calls to mind the possibility that some of my early restoration work for the WSS was not quite up to the standard I would be aiming for now. That's OK - I'm not worried about that - my earliest refurbs used the very best of Eric's troops, so I'm happy with them.

If I'm going to re-use old figures, let's make it sensible and productive!

WSS: Webb's Foot

 

 

Webb's Foot. Yes, it is a very childish joke, but I've had good mileage out of this one; I've managed to exasperate most of my friends with it over the last week or two, and it's still quacking me up. Oh be still, my aching sides...

The final British battalion for this first phase of my WSS project has now been refurbished and is ready for the Duty Boxes. This has been a rather more challenging refurb job - the figures were from various sources - some were excellently painted, but in a style different from my own, and rather a long time ago; some were fairly roughly painted, and some were unpainted castings drafted in to fill gaps in command and provide grenadiers. Quite a bit of thought went into how to aim for a compromise style which would not clash with the rest of the armies!

Job done, anyway. These gentlemen are Webb's Regt of Foot, also known (for historic reasons) as the Queen's Regt.

A couple of units of Horse are being worked on as I write, and I have to do something about General Officers, and then that's it for now for the Brits. A group photo will be forthcoming, but not for a few weeks, I think. 

WSS: British Artillery Finished

 These chaps had been hanging around unpainted for a while, but my British Artillery is now complete (for Phase One, that is). I always find artillery slow and fiddly to paint up - lots of odd pieces of equipment and inconvenient poses - but I took a couple of late sessions over these and here they are. Last night, respecting the lateness of the hour, my painting music was an album of harp concertos performed by Marisa Robles, so I may always associate these fellows with some delicate and tinkly noises - maybe a little incongruous for the Ordnance Men? Suitable Artillery Music suggestions welcome...

The figures and the guns are by Irregular. I find their 20mm products useful, since they are about the only Marlburian range which will mix at all well with my Les Higgins armies, they provide a useful touch of variety, and often they are the only source of certain things. From a compatibility point of view, I wish their horses were just a little bigger, but a number of their horses will soon come into their own for mounting my French dragoons - at last the differential horse sizes will come in useful!

My new gunners are appropriately bright, shiny and toy-like - such are the rules for this project! I have to say that sometimes the Irregular chaps look a bit sketchy at the outset, but they invariably paint up well. Very useful, anyway. I can also use Lancer's artillery pieces and carts, which are very nice, but definitely not their 20mm figures.

Still on the bottle-tops are Webb's Regt of Foot, a refurb batch - they should be ready Saturday or Sunday; no particular hurry, I tell myself. Getting there. By Jove - getting there.

WSS: More Brits - The Earl of Orkney's Foot

 Another new unit ready for the Duty Boxes. This one very nicely painted for me by Count Goya, the famous international polymath and part-time owner of warships. This regiment contains a number of pre-owned figures which needed an amount of refurbishment, while the command and the grenadiers are all unused castings which required painting from scratch.

Normally I regard refurb work as the dirty end of my wargame projects, so I do it myself, but Goya is a top-class refurbisher in his own right, and he has done a lovely job here.

These chaps, then, are the Earl of Orkney's Foot, ready for service in 1703-4. As is customary with the British army at this time, one of the problems is who they are and what we might call them. This lot could also be the Royal Regiment, or (informally) they might be referred to as the Royal Scots, but definitely not the 1st Foot until nearly 50 years later (though it probably helps to identify which regiment we are talking about).

So why (I hear you asking, as I did myself) does a Royal regiment not wear dark blue facings, in proper Royal style? It seems that Royal regiments only had blue facings at this time if they were part of the English establishment, and in 1703 these fellows were definitely Scottish, so blue facings were not a consideration until after the Act of Union in 1707.

That's quite enough about that. 

The weather was better today, though we did go through a brief charade here during which the sun went behind a cloud each time I emerged from my front door. That's not a problem - I simply sighed patiently, and waited for it to come out again. You have to demonstrate that you are not distressed, and the weather gets bored quickly.

Figures, as ever, are Les Higgins 20mm, and the mounted officer (though not his horse) is from Irregular.

WSS: Some New Brits

 Four new units based and flagged yesterday.

First of all, some lovely paintwork by Lee; I am very pleased to welcome these two units:

 

1st Foot Guards

 

Schomberg's Horse

At a much more mundane standard, there are two refurbished units of my own:

Royal Regt of Ireland (Hamilton's Foot)

 

The Buffs (Charles Churchill's Foot)

It is a gloomy sort of day today. Too damp to go outside, and the light in the attic isn't really adequate for indoor shots. I tried a few flash photos, but the gloss varnish makes it hard to get any sense out of these. I am reminded that a light box is one of the numerous projects with which I have made no progress this year!

As always, the figures are mostly Les Higgins/PMD. The mounted command figures are Irregular, but the remainder, and all the horses, are Higgins. More British troops in the pipeline, so I'll make an attempt at a decent group photo when they arrive. The lighting people have been warned.

WSS - The Attic Room

 After a few months off, to leave space for some heavy Real Life stuff and also to avoid some oppressive heat up there, I've got back to some soldier painting in the Attic Room.

 

Up in the roof - very quiet up here, except when it's stormy. Tea and biscuits and I'm up for it.

I'm working pretty slowly, restricting myself to sessions of about two and a half hours, but it's pleasing to be back at it. I'm sort of getting myself comfortable with what I hope will be a useful Winter of hobby work. I'm attempting to establish some kind of default routine, so that it feels as though I know what I'm doing!

 

Lots of bright lights, and during daylight hours I keep the blind shut for painting, since my poor old eyes don't like overhead light.

Some suitable radio programme on in the background (if there's no football on it's usually BBC Radio 3 these days, not least because they have minimal news coverage, and I may now have retired from listening to the news...), a flask of black tea and some Abernethy or Digestive biscuits and I'm very peaceful up there!

I have some excellent painting work going on elsewhere, contracted out to guys who paint much better than I do, which will appear here before long, but I've resumed some of my ongoing WSS refurb work. As ever, this refurb stuff is an industry with traditions all of its own. The original figures are never as good as I thought they were, I spend a lot of time fiddling around improving things that I had planned to leave alone, I keep being reminded that these are never going to look as good or as crisp as work on fresh castings would, but they will be fine when they are finished!

 

Not yet ready to be looked at - I'm currently half-way through the belting and leatherwork; these chaps will take a big step forward when they get their hats painted!

I'm currently working on a batch of pre-owned figures I bought from the Rye Soldier Shop before it was closed by Covid; the figures on the bottletops at present will, by the weekend, be The Buffs (Holland Regiment, Charles Churchill's Foot, whatever) and the [Royal] Irish Regt (Fred Hamilton's Foot). After that I have some more refurb work to do on some rather better figures, these acquired from the legendary Albannach last year - I am still pondering who they'll be after a wash and brush-up.

British army is shaping up - still some more Horse required, and I'm short of a couple of guns and most of the Staff, but definitely getting there. Next after that will be a belated assault on the French - there are hordes of them waiting to be painted! After that there should be some Dutch, the odd German principality and what not. However, at the moment, my immediate objective is to get settled into my Winter studio, and get used once again to painting regularly and in sensible amounts. Looking forward to it, actually.

WSS: More Cuddies for Corporal John

 Another welcome addition to my British forces, this unit very nicely painted for me by Goya, for which my grateful thanks. Here are the boys of Hay's Dragoons, aka Scots Greys.

Being a dragoon outfit, they also have a dismounted function - just replace two of the mounted stands - the remaining mounted stand serves as horse-holders and all that, and carries the regimental Status minidice. Important work. Here they are showing off their dismounted set-up - just looking for a wood to stand in.

The men on the command stand and those on foot are Irregular castings, the mounted dragoons are all by Les Higgins, and all the horses are Higgins. According to what I've been reading, these fellows were able to fight against regular units of heavy horse, so they will probably be excused the usual "-1" for dragoons vs horse in mounted combat.

Plus one for being British? That has a familiar ring about it. 

And let us not speak of soft penalty kick awards.

WSS: Queen Dowager's Regt of Horse

 This unit has taken a while to finish - the hot weather has been a problem for painting, and also the football has been a very enjoyable distraction. Anyway - here they are. They still have to have their flag fitted, and I'll see to that in the morning when the varnish is properly cured.

Problems with the heat? Well, mostly these are to do with my own tendency to snooze in hot weather, but I did have some issues with paint going off too quickly, and also some concerns about my varnish. Normally, I apply gloss varnish with a fairly large brush - it floods on well, and the fact that it goes on a little frothy is OK, because the bubbles disappear before the varnish dries. However, this can be tricky if the ambient temperature is high - it's possible for the varnish to start to set with the bubbles still present. I was prepared for this, so I've been careful to use the varnish in a cooler room, and everything is fine.

If the flag goes on nicely in the morning I hope to add another photo, and I may line up the growing British contingent for a group photo. 

 ***** Late Edit *****

Righto - good morning - the flag is now in place, and here are the extra pictures:

 This little British army is still to receive 2 more regiments of horse, 1 of dragoons, 3 (possibly 4) of foot, 2 more field guns and some staff - probably a commander and a couple of brigadiers. After that I have to finish some bits and pieces for the Imperial and Bavarian forces, and then start on the French. There are plans beyond that, but let's keep it sensible for the time being!

I am prepared to bet that you probably know who the Queen Dowager was, but I certainly didn't (being an ignopotamus), so I did a bit of reading, and I now have at least some basic facts:

She was the widow of Charles II - Caterina de Bragança. She seems to have had a fairly poor time of it when Charlie Boy was still alive (having to accept Charles's mistress into the Royal Household, among other outrages), and she famously had no children, as a consequence of which there were quite a few British monarchs in a short time. Partly because she was trying to secure her inheritance, she hung around in Britain for some years after she was widowed, and her regiment of horse was still in evidence in 1703 (though known as Wyndham's Horse by this date). She returned to Portugal before she died in 1705.

 

Here is a portrait of Queen Caterina, dressed as a shepherdess. You probably recognised her outfit immediately, since all shepherdesses dress like this - certainly in Scotland they do. The cherub seems dubious. 

*********************

WSS: And Some British Horse

 Slight change of plan - the aforementioned cavalry unit is finished, but their identity has changed at the last minute! I have a (short) list of Blenheim period units to paint up, and as progress with this one has continued I've become increasingly uncomfortable with the facing colour for this unit of horse. When I eventually managed to print out the intended flag for them, the problem was clear, so I've gone back to my original intention, and they are now (once again) the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment (that's Cornelius Wood's Horse in the Blenheim Campaign).

 

Earl of Plymouth's Regiment of Horse

 

The previously-billed Queen Dowager's Regiment will follow as soon as I have some "sea green" paint for more authentic facings! At least this change of heart will have confused the life out of the enemy... 

Never let it be said that I can't make decisions - I make a lot of decisions, more than most people!

The troopers are Les Higgins figures, though the command chaps are from the Irregular "Marlborough" range - the horses are all by Les Higgins, to iron out any scale issues. 

Having convinced myself that a single unit is a comfortable sort of project, I'll be looking to paint some more British cavalry next.

Or some more artillery...

Or some French horse would be nice...

WSS: Some British Guns

 I've been working away at a mixed batch of WSS painting - British artillery and horse, all new figures. I picked this because it made a nice-sized piece of work, and made a welcome change from my last job, which was a big Napoleonic refurb batch. On that job, at one stage, I had two days of white paint, followed by a day of black, so I promised myself a mixed batch next. Seemed a good idea.

And so it was - except that the sequence of paint colours is different for the artillery and the horse, which makes the work a bit fiddly, and - more seriously! - I ran out of space on my wet palette because of the number of colours. Accordingly, yesterday, when I was very nearly finished the whole lot, I put the cavalry in a box of their own, and set about finishing off the artillery bases.

They still need their magnetic sheet for the bases, but here they are.

 

Three battalion guns - the gunners are by Les Higgins (circa 1970), the galloper guns by Irregular Miniatures. Under my rules, battalion guns are attached to those infantry units which have them, so these little bases are really markers rather than units in their own right

 

A field gun and crew - this time, all castings are by Irregular. There will be another two of these to accompany Marlborough's lads in action. Coming along soon. [The Irregular gunners are very slightly shorter and chunkier than the Higgins, but they are fine - I may choose to keep them in separate units as a house standard. In the mounted arm I mix Irregular command with Higgins troopers rather more freely, but my use of Higgins horses throughout helps a lot with the scale compatibility.]

 All being well, I should get the unit of horse finished by tomorrow, so they will be appearing shortly. One thing I have to sort out (now I think about it) is my printer - the cyan print-head appears to be playing up, so I'll get that fixed (i.e. I'll ask the printer to heal itself) so that I can print off a flag for them. The unit, when it appears, will be the Queen Dowager's Regiment (also known as Hugh Wyndham's Horse).

 

Slow and Steady Does It

 I have a number of refurb jobs on the go at the moment - quite a lot of them, in fact - and I find it satisfying when I complete one, but increasingly I find that the unfinished ones nag at me. It's not that I was better organised when I was younger, it's just that I seem to worry about it more now. Perhaps I have less confidence in there being plenty of time? - Let's not go there.

I'm spending a few weeks - during the start of the Spring temperate painting season - clearing off some of the Napoleonic backlog, to clear the mind and free up some boxes for re-use. One of these has been on the go for about 4 years - a pile of old, rather bashed figures I got very cheaply from the worthy Steve Cooney, which I lined up for one of my "cannonfodder" projects. This is not intended as any kind of a poke at Steve, I hasten to add - I knew exactly what I was getting into when I took them on! This batch consisted of old Der Kriegsspieler castings, and - Steve being Steve - he had taken his soldering iron to bayonets, gaiters, bases...

 

Five additional battalions; the rank and file are mostly tweaked Der Kriegsspielers, from many years ago. There are SHQ, Hinton Hunt and Schilling among the command figures. I was short of grenadiers, so recruited some Alberken Old Guard to make up the numbers - I had some misgivings about these, since the castings are relatively crude, but they came out all right, I think!

These chaps are never going to win any prizes for beauty, and have actually been quite a lot of work to paint up, but in the end they are pretty much what I was aiming for - hoping for the old Featherstone objective of "looking good in the mass".

During the intervening 4 years, I have had an occasional peep at their current state, noted that the Refurb Fairies had once again failed to come to help out, and I had rather quailed at the prospect of resuming work on them, but this has all been cowardice. Since I set my mind to finishing them, I've rather enjoyed the painting sessions, though I've listened to an awful lot of BBC Radio 3 and drunk a lot of black tea in the process.

So I have added 2 battalions of the 65e Ligne and 3 battalions of the 22e to Brennier's (Sixth) Divn of the Armée de Portugal, circa 1812. I already have one battalion of the 17e Léger and a solitary battalion of the Regiment de Prusse, so I only need the missing light battalion, a couple of groups of combined voltigeurs and some staff, and I need to allocate one of the spare foot artillery batteries to them, and the Division is done.

In the unlikely circumstance of anyone being interested, I must explain [to myself, really], that it has taken me about 3 months to break my new house rule of no 3rd battalions. The 22e really do need a 3rd battalion, or their brigade will be a runt. I have, however, stuck to my existing rule that 3rd battalions don't get flags [that'll teach them].

Finishing little projects is good - even sub-projects. Must nurture my enthusiasm... 

Thanks to Steve for supplying the figures back in 2017 - worked out fine, and his boys will fight on.