Bavarians - Light Artillery

Thanks to some splendid paintwork, very kindly carried out by Count Goya, the first artillery presence in my Bavarian 3rd Division is now ready for action. This is a battery of Leichte Artillerie, commanded, I believe, by Hauptmann Tausch.

The figure castings are by Franznap, as are the guns, which are Manson pattern 6pdrs (the gun masters were produced by 3D printing, I understand).

Some foot artillery are also coming along - currently they're on the bottletops. After them, I have to complete a regiment of dragoons and add a few staff and that is the 3rd Division complete - limber teams and a Wurstwagen will follow on after a respectable interval.

A Fool and His Money - a Brush with Disaster

Since I was getting some hobby-type odds and ends from Amazon, it seemed a reasonable idea to get some cheapo brushes while I was at it. A lot of my brushes are coming to the end of their useful careers, so it does no harm to stock up a bit.

I've moaned about this before, but I have a very frustrating personal history with brushes. On occasions I have treated myself to something really expensive, and have usually been disappointed. Some of the best brushes I ever had were second-quality bin ends from Hobbycraft - very unpredictable. Eventually I get to a position where I have a jam jar full of scruffy wrecks, plus a couple of remaining brushes that will still form a decent point, and then one night I lose a bristle or two, and things start to get a bit tense!

I've been reading some forum or other where the dudes were discussing which budget-priced modelling brushes in the UK were good, reliable value for money. Based on this, I added a couple of packs of Humbrol Palpo brushes to my Amazon order. Sable hair, one each of sizes 000, 0, 2 and 4, about £8.50 or so for a pack of 4 brushes.

Old, scruffy brushes are always a nuisance, right? The joke is that these are the new, unused ones - admittedly before I tried to train and clean them a bit - but they were no better afterwards

Humbrol "Palpo" brushes, made in China - marketed by Hornby Hobbies (once of Binns Road, Liverpool). Unspeakable rubbish

A last look. It would be infantile to put them straight in the bucket, but this evening I have been painting with my old brushes. I can feel the donkey's ears growing out of my head

They arrived. I think the only relevant word I can think of is "crap". I've had a go with very hot water and the posh brush cleaner, and the only difference is they are probably slightly cleaner crap now.

Very uneven mixture of bristles, trimmed to length with a hatchet, apparently, lumps of dressing on the ends of the tufts. No likelihood of a passable point. I am disgusted.

Don't ever be tempted to buy any of these, chaps.

***** Late Edit *****

This follows on from some of the comments. Here are a couple of real veterans. When I was clearing out my parents' house, a few years ago, I came across a lot of my father's old painting equipment. Back in the 1970s he did a lot of hobby painting. He was a very fair watercolourist - a bit photographic for my taste, but pretty good in a draughtsman-like way. He also tried his hand at oils. I found masses of spoiled tubes of paint, and a lot of old brushes. Most of the brushes disintegrated when I checked them - the hair had perished and broken. Amazingly, though, some of them were OK.

I found quite a few of these - they had been used, but not much, so I acquired them for my soldier painting. These are Winsor & Newton, as you see (I've included one side of each brush in the picture - they were all marked like this on the two sides. They are also, I'm faintly embarrassed to observe, stamped by HM Stationery Office in 1966, so I guess my dad liberated them from the office stores when he worked for HM Government.  

The big fellow is worn down - evidence of my dry-brushing resin thatched roofs? The No.1 has probably slimmed down a bit, but is still one of my in-use brushes. Now, I'm not saying these have been used continuously since 1966 - clearly that's not so - but they have been used regularly by me in the last couple of years and there is no sign of degradation of the sable since manufacture 53 years ago.

Interesting?

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French Refurb Project - Getting Organised

The bewildering thing about a big refurb project is that every time I look in a known box of figures I find when I count them that the number is not what I thought it was last time. On occasions, this is because a new box has materialised somewhere else - one which I have forgotten about. It is possible for the effort of trying to keep track of what I'm doing to become so great that it leaves little time or energy for doing whatever it was I was supposed to be doing.

Enough.

The refurb figures which are painted and finished are now properly mounted on magnetised bases, and everything is logged on a proper spreadsheet. If I leave gaps on the bases where the figures are missing, or still being painted, then I can see at a glance where I'm up to. Another (cunning) advantage of this approach is that if on a short evening I decide to paint half-a-dozen figures, I can plan exactly where they will go, which is a considerable help with stuff like company pompom colours - not to mention motivation.

When a unit is actually complete, I finish off the bases, supply an official 110mm x 110 sabot, give 'em a flag, and they move from the box-files to The Cupboard, ready for warfare. Snapshots of this morning's state show two box-files in use - one for the Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegsspieler battalions and one for the Les Higgins battalions. The figures are not incompatible, but I keep them separate for historic reasons which are a bit dim and distant now.

Higginses on the left, HH/DK on the right. The big brown areas are where I've got masses of rank-&-file on bottletops in a big Really Useful Box, being worked on; the smaller brown areas are usually because I'm missing a command figure or a flanker (which may, of course, be on a bottletop as well) - there is a general shortage of drummers for the HH/DK units at present - I'm hoping to make use of some Schilling castings to plug the gaps.

And here are the boxes the other way up, so you can see I have nothing up my sleeve. A lot of the DK figures are ex-Steve Cooney. The furthest-away columns in the left hand box are ex-Eric Knowles Hinton Hunts - waiting only for drummers - I believe I have some proper HH drummers lined up for these. Nerds with exceptional eyesight may detect some HaT plastic eagle-bearers in the right-hand box. That's how desperate things have become in the world of 20mm French light infantry. It's OK. Everything is beautiful in its own way.

In addition to this lot, the recently-arrived Freitag Battalion flashed through to completion without loitering in the boxes, so that's already in The Cupboard. I have two further battalions away in foreign parts, being worked on, I have two battalions of Higgins figures on my own bottletops, being retouched in the evenings, I have three Higgins light infantry battalions waiting to be started (though they look pretty good to start with, so that might not be a big job - put your hand up if you've heard this song before), and a further Higgins battalion which is currently scheduled to be retouched as the 3eme Suisse, though I may have a change of heart and transfer them into the French army (which would involve stripping and repainting from scratch). Then there is a mass of DK figures - also on bottletops, which are in the current queue. I also have some (small) shipments of command figures coming from Art Miniaturen and Old John, plus a trial pack from Newline, to see if I can live with undersized drummer boys. And I have some command figures at a painter.

Yo.

After that, I am hoping to slow right down on the French army. I have Higgins figures for yet another light battalion (though no command at present) and also for a battalion of Young Guard voltigeurs (same situation). I am going to have to train myself to stop buying old figures I don't really need. What happens is that the planned army establishment gets a hike to accommodate the extra figures, and it all justifies itself. So all I have to do is stop.

Easy. What could go wrong?

Anyway, organisation is the key at the moment.

French Refurb Project - The Freitag Battalion

What better use for a new flag than to stick it on a new unit? I am delighted to welcome The Freitag Battalion - much travelled, and very kindly painted by Jonathan - a very big help indeed with shifting the backlog, and excellently done too.

These are the first battalion of the 26eme Ligne, who will form part of Ferey's 3rd Divn of the Armee de Portugal of 1812. For the casting nerds, the rank and file here are Les Higgins figures from the 1970s, all stripped and recycled, and probably very pleased to find they are back on duty. As always with Higgins figures, it's a challenge to find compatible command - the officer in the second row and the porte aigle are Qualiticast, the colonel and the drummer are from Art Miniaturen and the officer at the back is by NapoleoN.

Many thanks to Jon - this is really very much appreciated, and they will make a fine addition to my army.

Acting Up - Dressing Up?

A colonel - dressed as regulations

This is probably going to be rather a stupid post - which is not unusual in itself - but it comes from something which a friend told me years ago, which at the time I dismissed as probably incorrect, but I thought I would return to the topic again, in case anyone can offer some thoughts.

The context, all those years ago, was exactly the same as it is now. My long standing fascination with the Battle of Salamanca has been the great underlying theme for the building of my wargames armies. The first useful book I had on the subject, back in the 1970s, was Lawford and Young's Wellington's Masterpiece - much criticised subsequently, but still an excellent read if you can find a copy.

In the Appendix which gives the breakdown of the French army, a number of question marks appear as brigade commanders, since these brigades were commanded on the day by the senior colonel, the general being otherwise occupied - examples are:

(a) the 2nd Brigade of 7th Division - this would normally have been GdB Thomières' brigade, but Thomières was in temporary command of the Division, since GdD Souham was elsewhere. Thomières had an exceptionally trying day at Salamanca, and was mortally wounded. [Under the general heading of "what if?"- if Souham had been present he would have been by far the most senior of Marmont's division commanders, so he would have been the correct 2-i-C to take command when Marmont was wounded, which - of course - wouldn't have happened because Marmont would not have had to get on his horse to ride over to see where the blazes Thomières thought he was marching off to.]

Anyway, the point is that Lawford and Young's question mark in this case should have explained that the commander for the day was Col. d'Herbez-Latour of the 101eme Ligne.

(b) The 1st Brigade of Pierre Boyer's Dragoon Division - the question mark in this case is Colonel Piquet, of the 6eme Dragons - a right old firebrand.

The Appendix in the book should also have had a couple more question marks, to be pedantic about it:

(c) GdB Carrié [de Boissy] of the 2nd Brigade of this same Dragoon Division was not present - he had been seriously wounded four days before Salamanca, and was a prisoner - he spent the rest of the war in Bridgenorth, Shropshire, apparently. On 22nd July the Brigade Carrié was commanded by Col. Boudinhon-Valdec of 15eme Dragons.

(d) GdD Brenier (6th Division) was not present at Salamanca - his place at the head of the Division was taken by GdB Taupin, whose brigade was probably commanded by the colonel of the 65eme Ligne.

And so on - the point (which, predictably, I have made at excessive length) is that this was a commonplace event - regimental officers would regularly be found acting up to replace more senior officers who were absent.

Going back many years, a friend of mine once showed me a picture of a French Napoleonic colonel, who appeared to be wearing some kind of sash - my friend reckoned that if the colonel was required to take charge of a brigade he would be provided with a sash as a badge of office.

Personally, I find that unlikely - officers in the French army gained a general's sash by putting their lives on the line and distinguishing themselves in action for years - such things would not be handed out on loan, surely. What about the brigade staff, though? - if this was a temporary situation, one would expect the brigade staff to be available to support the colonel. Presumably the ADCs would just wear the armbands appropriate to the rank of their usual boss?

Not a matter of any importance, but in the near future I need to paint up a couple of colonels to take charge of brigades (round about the time of the Battle of Salamanca, as it happens). I can just paint up a vanilla colonel, of course, but if there should be some identifying tweak of uniform I'd be pleased to reproduce it.

French Refurb project - Fettling & Filing

I'm trying to speed up progress with getting my various heaps of French infantry refurbed. I'll use a painting service to help with this, since otherwise I am likely to be outfaced by the size of the task, and to hide in a corner somewhere and wait for it to go away.

Not suitable for children under 3 years old.

As a background job I work away on restoring the pre-painted rank and file, but progress has been disappointing lately - it would give me a big lift to get some of this stuff finished and in The Cupboard - it would also ease some of my storage problems.

Over the last few years I've accumulated yet another pile of pre-owned French infantry - mostly Les Higgins and Der Kriegsspieler, but some Hinton Hunts and other things too. I've now organised my ideas on this lot so that I'm aiming at a definite number of battalions - I have mentioned this number to friends, and the reaction is usually rather uneasy laughter, so I shan't mention it today. The big shortfall is in command figures and Higgins flank company chaps. For the HH and DK battalions I have some suitable command figures already in the spares box, but it's mostly going to be SHQ/Kennington to fill the gaps; for the Higgins battalions I have a decent number of the Higgins officers (all standing pointing, foot on a mole-hill), and will make up the shortfall with Art Miniaturen, Qualiticast and also Schilling, who make some very nice voltigeur/grenadier figures which are a nice match for Higgins.

I'm scratching away at a first shipment to go to the painter - command figures for light infantry and line infantry. As long as there's plenty of decent music and coffee, time spent grinding off spare metal and stabbing myself with needle files is not as bad as I think it's going to be - and it will be a relief to get stuff away to the painter. First package should go away at the end of this week - probably about 4 dozen castings, counting a mounted colonel as 2.

Hi ho! Ouch.

C&CN "Garrison" Markers - the Miniatures Version

One of the additional rules which came out of the Generals, Marshals & Tacticians Expansion #5 to the GMT base game of Commands & Colors: Napoleonics was the concept of "Garrison" markers.

I've started using these fairly recently - for battles here we call them "Detachments" which is maybe a more logical name for them, but for the purposes of this note I shall call them Garrisons, to conform to the original rules.

The original rules section from Expansion #5 - there were some extra rules and afterthoughts added later by Richard Borg, and I've added some house clarifications of my own

It's a useful idea - to restate the key features, an infantry unit which has at least 2 blocks/bases remaining can leave behind one of these markers when it is ordered to move out of a BUA hex. The unit does not have to reduce its strength to do so - the detachments left behind are very small, so a unit can in theory leave behind a series of these. The marker can be ordered to fire or melee (though it may not move to do so), it can defend itself if attacked in melee - it has an allocation of 1 battle die. The Garrison does not have any of the characteristics of the unit which generated it, so it can't be classified as Old Guard, and it will always have muskets. It cannot move, cannot be joined by a Leader, does not count as support for friendly units. Since it cannot move, a retreat eliminates it, as does a single hit in combat. It cannot ignore a retreat flag for any reason. If it is joined by a friendly unit, or dislodged/defeated by the enemy it is removed from the table - no Victory Banners are associated with a Garrison or its demise. In melee, in addition to infantry and flag symbols, a Garrison is eliminated by a crossed-sabres symbol, even if it is fighting some unit type which normally does not get to count sabres (British Rifles being an example, or militia).

It goes without saying that a Garrison cannot form square, does not exist outside BUAs or similar hexes, cannot be rallied, cannot take ground if it manages to win a melee - there is almost no limit to the things a Garrison cannot do, since it is a marker and not a proper unit, but it is a useful little chap. It is a good way of avoiding that situation which happens in a lot of games where one side has vacated a village (say) but the enemy has not entered it or captured it yet - if a Garrison marker is left behind then there is no doubt who owns the village, if only until the next thing happens, and it does have some combat capability. If a Garrison is left in a BUA, the enemy can't just walk into it unopposed. The markers can be re-used indefinitely, but to keep the game sensible I am restricting supply to 3 such counters for each nation, so you can only have a maximum of 3 in play at one time - I am going to produce miniatures versions of these for France, Britain, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Bavaria, but scheduling will probably be driven by upcoming battles. The current plan here is to refight Albuera the first weekend in March. This action involves BUAs (the village of Albuera) and those BUAs can change hands during the conflict, so it would be nice to have the French and British marker sets available - if the Spaniards or Portuguese need to leave a marker on that day, they can borrow the British ones.

The new French markers: ex-Eric Knowles voltigeurs on their special grey (BUA-coloured!) bases

I haven't been doing any painting for a couple of weeks, but I've now produced the French Garrison set. The British one should follow next week sometime. The figures in the picture may be of some interest - especially to older wargamers; these are Hinton Hunt French Elite Voltigeurs, in 3 different poses, and they were among some of the odds and ends from the collection of the late Eric Knowles. I only have a few of these, so it was pleasing to be able to give them a useful job. Eric had them rather nicely painted, so out of respect I've pretty much left them alone - a little touch-up on the worn bits and some fresh varnish and that's it. They may have quite a stressful future, but they look to be up for it!

You will not be surprised to learn that I have fitted the MDF bases with discs of magnetic sheet, so they can be stored and transported as necessary in the French artillery boxes. OCD never sleeps. I would worry about them if they were free to rattle about loose somewhere...

Bavarians - The First of the Cavalry

I'm very pleased to welcome the first cavalry unit for the 3rd Division of the VII (Bavarian) Corps of the Grande Armee of 1809. These are freshly painted by my friend Goya, for which kindness I am deeply grateful; he and I agree that painting Hinton Hunt figures is challenging because some of the detail on the old castings is implied rather than in your face - thus the exact location of the piping around the lapels on these chaps (for example) is partly a matter of guesswork.

We are also agreed, however, that the figures really do look very good if they are well painted. I bow to his efforts on this lot! Thank you again, Count G.

This is the 4th Regiment of Chevauxlegers Bubenhofen, all ready to fight on the Danube. This regiment also fought in Russia and in the 1813 unpleasantness, but by that time they had become the 6th Ch-Leg for reasons which are too fiddly to go into.

Anyway, here they are, and very welcome. The officer and trumpeter are both conversions, for which thanks are due to Wellington Man.

The number of new painted units here recently has finally outstripped my stock of bases and sabots, so I have had to order some more from Uncle Tony at ERM. In the meantime I am very pleased to have dug out some pre-used bases which were previously attached to a unit of Brunswick Hussars (now departed). Considering that wargames collections (well, mine, anyway) are a veritable hymn to self-indulgence and waste, I can't understand why re-cycling a few penceworth of old bases would give me any pleasure at all - very strange.

They'll be provided with a smart new sabot of the correct size as soon as Uncle Tony sends some along.

Bavarians - Where I'm at, and What's Next

The next thing to do is to get the 3rd Divn of Lefebvre's (Bavarian) VII Corps of 1809 finished off. I still need two infantry brigadiers, a brigade of cavalry (2 regts - one of dragoons, one of chevauxlegers - plus a brigadier) and two artillery batteries (including one of Light Artillery). That will be the main components - I can add sappers/engineers and limber teams as time permits.

I may have posted pictures of some of this stuff already. Here are the raw materials for the next steps. The cavalry will all be Hinton Hunt based, and the artillery equipment will be Franznap - for gunners I have a choice of SHQ or Franznap.

The cavalry figures set out here are (L to R) an original HH Chevauxlegers trooper, then conversions produced by Wellington Man of a Chevauxlegers officer and trumpeter, and a dragoon trooper (different-shaped shabraque). I am still doing some experimentation for the command figures for the dragoon unit, but the most likely solution at present is SHQ French line lancer command figures, with HH heads and with the uniform detail re-carved as necessary, mounted on 20mm Garrison horses - we'll see how that goes.

The artillery figures are (L to R) two SHQ figures and three Franznap. Though a good height match, you can see that the Franznap figures are slimmer, and I'll avoid mixing the two breeds in any one unit, though the different makes can co-exist on the table in separate units, I think.

Interestingly, Franznap only make gun crews for the Light Artillery, which brought me back with a bump to the small matter of how the Light and Heavy(?) artillery differed. I have not had a great deal of help on this from the better known modern sources, but in fact it's all OK. The Bavarians did eventually have horse artillery, in the French style, but in 1809 the Light Artillery was simply artillery who were equipped with - erm - lighter guns (6pdrs), and the gunners had a tendency to ride around on those splendid Wurstwagen things. Uniforms? - no real difference, as far as I can tell. So that simplifies matters a bit - I might think about getting a Franznap Wurstwagen - sounds like Phase 1(c) to me.

At risk of sounding like the Golden Globes, I thought I'd mention a few people without whose help I couldn't have made the progress I managed to date - not even close, in fact. Flipping back through this blog, I see a first mention of a possible Bavarian contingent in my State of the Union report in August 2017. By 2nd April last year I was experimenting with preparing some Der Kriegsspieler castings for the first infantry. This week I have 10 battalions ready to fight - I'm really pleased with that. For help with sourcing figures, painting, encouragement, consultancy, charitable donations of effort and castings I have to acknowledge sincere thanks to Evan, Stryker, Ian P, Aulus Grammaticus, Goya, David M, David Y, Old John, Matthew, Uwe and Andreas (die Spielzeugmacher, or Brothers Grimm) and to Chuck Gibke in the US for his knowledge of the old DK ranges. If I've forgotten to mention you, then you know I'm grateful anyway - in particular Jonathan, Lee, Peter A, Ray, Aly, Ross and those others who have egged me on by making encouraging comments as the troops appeared.

Thanks very much!

Bavarians - 3rd Divn Infantry now complete

Bavarian 10. LIR "Junker"

The infantry for the 3rd Divn of VII Corps of 1809 are now finished. Both battalions of the 10th line regiment were based and provided with flags and sabots this morning, and photos taken for the Catalogue.

1st Battalion - that'll be Oberstleutnant Von Poellnitz on the cuddy

2nd Battalion

The cavalry are still to be painted, as are the artillery, but I now have the figures in stock. I'll put some photos of the artillery castings up here in a day or so. I still need to paint some brigadiers, and some sappers would be nice. It's all gone rather well thus far - I'm not sure when (or if) the 2nd Divn is likely to get started, but I have figures ready for that as well. One project at a time, if you don't mind.

And because it seemed a suitable occasion, here's a picture of all the finished infantry - here you see General Deroy, with the 5th (Buttler) and 7th (Gunther) Light Bns, and the 9th (Ysenburg), 10th (Junker), 5th (Von Preysing) and 14th Line Regts, all the line units being of two battalions.

Deroy with the infantry of 3rd Divn, VII Corps, all ready for the Danube campaign

Same Old Painting Style, and a Brush(?) with Technology

Reports of my passing have been premature - I've been a bit preoccupied...

This afternoon I've finished off painting the mounted officers for my next Bavarian infantry regiment. These figures are new releases from Hagen, which turned out rather nicely, I think. They are uniformed as LIR 10, Junker.

Yesterday I visited the Stryker Estates, up in t'North, for a proper Old School style wargame, and very nice too. A new departure for us was live posting on Instagram - if I'd known I'd have arranged to take my make-up crew with me (my hairdressing people only work part-time now). The game was loosely based on Plancenoit, and finished as a draw, which surprised me since I had the impression all afternoon that my lot were getting thumped. Now that we have an international online audience available, it could be that a rematch will be almost as big a draw as the Fury vs Wilder refight. Stryker will have to get his advertising contracts dusted off.

General view early in the game

My French skirmishers were lethal

Stryker's splendid Old Guard - mine for the afternoon - pinned in square by Prussian uhlans - no-one came near them!

Excellent day, as ever - my thanks to Baron and Baroness S for their kind hospitality, and my compliments to Stryker and Goya for their company and the excellent toys. 

Ready for The Cupboard, with a Quick Flash of Nipple Pink

All based and flagged, the two battalions of the Grenadiers à Pied de la Garde are now finished and looking for a fight. The guardsmen are 1970s Les Higgins NF1, and the command figures are modern Art Miniaturen castings.

Also completed today are another 2-battalion Bavarian line infantry unit, this one the 5. LIR "Von Preysing", resplendent in pink facings (Nipple Pink paint, thank you Foundry...). Their command figures are a mixture of Hinton Hunt and Falcon (from Hagen), the other ranks are Der Kriegsspieler. Too late for Eggmühl, but I'm sure they'll be in action before long.

Old Guard Command Figures Finished

Here are the rest of the command figures for my two battalions of the Old Guard. Art Miniaturen figures, from the same set as the mounted colonels who were finished last week. I had some flags printed ready - unfortunately I can't find the beggars this evening, but I'll have a better look tomorrow.

When they are properly based, with flags, the two new battalions may take their place in The Cupboard, ready for action.

This has been rather a good week for painting - with luck, I should have some more Bavarians ready for finishing off in a few days. 

Refurb Work - First of the Old Guard Command Figures

A standard requirement for my refurbishment of bought-in figures is the addition of compatible command figures to suit style and scale, and to fit with the house rules for unit organisation. Ever since I was besotted with the photos in the Charles Grant Napoleonic book, back in the 1970s, I have included mounted colonels with my infantry (or chefs de bataillon, or whatever), and yesterday I painted the mounted officers to go with the two units of Old Guard I'm currently working on.

Classy little sculpts by Jorg Schmaeling at Art Miniaturen, to fit in with Les Higgins guardsmen.

I'm pleased with them. The drummers, officers on foot and eagle-bearers should appear during the next few days, and I'll post some proper photos once they are done and the units are complete with flags. Next in the refurb queue are some French light infantry, I think - I'll need to buy in some SHQ command figures - better get on with that...

***** Late Edit *****

In response to Wellington Man's comment (below), here's a picture of my existing battalion of Old Guard Chasseurs - one I prepared just a few years earlier! You can't find these castings now - very rare.

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Back in the Refurb Factory - Old Guard

I decided this week that I should have another bash at the refurb backlog. There's plenty to be cracking along with, to be sure. In theory, refurbs should be a time-efficient way of swelling the ranks, and the work is certainly useful for getting rid of some of the boxes of spare figures before they simply take over - or get out of control, and I just lose stuff. I recently was pleasantly surprised by my restoration of a division of old PMD/Higgins cuirassiers, so I am inspired to try more of the same.

All ready for the command figures to slot into the spaces. Les Higgins NF1s.

This week I've been back in the boxes of Les Higgins French figures which I mentioned a while ago in a post called Carlo's Army - I should get two decent battalions of Old Guard out of this instalment. The restoration of the line troops in Carlo's legacy has been stalled for a month or two, so if the Guard goes well it might rekindle my enthusiasm to get back to them.

To be honest, I have been a bit put off Carlo's guardsmen, because old Carlo pulled something of a fast one on me - when he sent me photos, there seems to have been some rather clever choreography, so that the proportion of broken bayonets in the photos was far less than the reality when they arrived. I have been sulking just a little, I admit it, but in the end it doesn't matter a lot - I have enough undamaged rank and file in the NF1 At the Ready pose to make up two battalions. [Experts will be nodding - the Higgins NF1 guardsman must have the most fragile bayonet in wargaming history - only the firing guardsman pose comes close...]

They were rather nicely painted. They certainly needed freshening up, and Carlo's painting style (back in the 1970s) was a little naive, in that he painted the bits very carefully, but sometimes there are glimpses of bare metal between the bits. Whatever, they have come up a treat - not a big job, and my faith in refurbishment is restored (as it were), which might be a dangerous precedent if I'm not careful. For the Guard, bless him, Carlo stuck to the dress regulations rather better than he did for the Line.

As is always necessary, I have counselled myself that these are not going to be as good as if I'd painted them from scratch myself (which is fair enough if you can get your head around it), but that they will be quite good enough, and will give a very fair return on the cost and the effort needed. Anyway - as of this afternoon they are based and ready for the command figures.

As with the cuirassiers, I have bought in some Art Miniaturen figures for the command - they should be splendid, and they are a very good size match, but another intake of breath is required, as I stare at the contents of the packs and try to work out which half-arm fastens on to which officer etc. I have a few more command figures than I need, in fact - for each battalion I'll add two officers on foot, one drummer, one porte-aigle and a mounted colonel - oh, and one of the units will get a sapeur, since I am one private short.

Today's photo is just to prove to myself that it went OK - I'll try to reproduce my successful effort with the cuirassiers, and get the command figures done before my attention starts wandering back to the Bavarians. I'll report on this lot when the command figures are done!

Bavarians - 3rd Division Commander

Needed for action on Saturday, here we have General Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy (on the nimble little horse...) and his General-Adjutant; the figures are both from the old Falcon range, now marketed by Hagen. The Adjutant has the Quick-Reference Sheet handy. The gentleman in the cloak is easily recognisable as the ubiquitous Minifigs FNX1, rescued from the spares box and repainted as an officer of cavalry attached to the Bavarian staff - he's obviously seen it all before. The white edging to the base allows quick location of a divisional general.

The mounted figure has a toy-like, Noggin the Nog air, which I find rather appealing. There is a joke here - one of the few stories about Deroy (who was an older officer, and a bit of a traditionalist) describes his fury when he found that his troops were growing all sorts of non-regulation facial hair on campaign - orders of the day appeared very quickly. This casting has a very luxuriant moustache, so poor old Deroy can hide behind a Full Groucho - maybe it's a move to gain the affection of his men?

Sorry the Arctic light has dimmed down the colours a bit - these Bavarian chappies are pretty vivid normally.

Deroy - no whiskers here

Deroy commanded the 3rd Bavarian Division in the VII Corps on the Danube. A well respected veteran and a good leader, he was mortally wounded at Polotsk in 1812.

French Cuirassier Division - finished at last

It's taken longer than expected, but what did I expect...?

Command figures all painted, flags and bases sorted out. As ever, cheerful does it every time.

I'd never thought of having a Cuirassier Division, but here it is. Stryker maintains he is going to chase them the length of the Danube. He and whose army, I ask...?

Next week I hope to get a Bavarian general ready for action. Fighting next Saturday. Busy, busy.

2e Cuirassiers

3e Cuirassiers

7e Cuirassiers

8e Cuirassiers

...and the compulsory group photo is faked by the 13e Cuirassiers getting involved in
the background; since they finally got a proper officer out of the figure swaps (after only
30 years waiting) they felt they deserved to be included, even if strictly speaking they
don't belong in the Division.

[I do hope that my old friend Wanko01 does not share this lot with his merry chums on that certain forum that I am not fit to mention, but in truth I don't care a lot.] 

Guest Appearance: ECW Hinton Hunt

Steve Cooney sent me an email, and was kind enough to include some photos, which are definitely worth a look, I think. Steve makes the point that, for devotees of Hinton Hunt, since tabletop Napoleonic battles normally feature large numbers of units, the small matter (literally) of keeping the footprint down, plus the limited availability of figures, mean that there has evolved a standard battalion size of two dozen or so figures. On the other hand, the smaller numbers of units needed for ECW actions have allowed Steve to experiment with larger regiment sizes, with greater emphasis on the look of the thing. His preferred unit size is 42-45 men for foot - you can see the effect in the pictures.

Nice, eh?

Thanks Steve - I for one am now crippled with envy, but I'll be all right...