All Buttoned Up

The 2nd Light Infantry Battalion, King's German Legion, are ready to make their debut.

They've been finished for a week now, in fact, but I was too busy chopping wood in the back garden to set them up for their photo shoot before now. It really was a massive tree that fell down.

They are to be the skirmish element for Wallmoden's Corps. In reality, only about half the 2nd KGL Light Infantry was sent to join the Anglo-Hanoverian forces in Germany in 1813, but I thought I ought to paint up a full battalion so they would also be ready to occupy a certain farmhouse in Belgium.

Major Georg Baring's men filter through the woods ...

... and form up in line

 Major General Wilhelm von Arentschildt takes temporary command.

The battalion faces to the rear, showing off their dinky little havresacs. I'm not 100% sure that this is what those weird little bulges on their left hips are supposed to be, but they look OK.

Wallmoden's Corps forms up.

The figures are:

Alberken:

BN 4: Rifleman Officer x 1 (converted);

BN 3: Rifleman on Guard:x 22; and

Hinton Hunt:

BN 20 British Rifles bugler x 1.

I cannot thank Aly Morrison and Mark Dudley enough for providing me with these charming figures. As soon as I saw them I knew they'd be exactly right for Wallmoden's forces.

One of the things that made them so appealing for me was that, unlike much of the rest of the Alberken range, they do not look like Hinton Hunts. The big question then was: what were they?

I was starting to think they might be Jacklex conversions. Rob G then sent me a picture of a Jacklex ACW gunner, which looks to me as if it may very well have been the base figure. 

Exhibit A:

Jacklex ACWs were certainly of the right vintage for this, but it's his legs, wee pinched face and oddly sloping upper arms that clinched it for me.

I've been given a few other delightful presents recently. Here are two of them below, with a KGL light infantryman for scale.

The cottages were given to me by the Armchair General, who thinks he bought them in the 80s but can't remember the manufacturer. They're really nicely sculpted and seem to be made of rubber, as they're a little bit squishy. If anyone knows what they are, please do say so in the comments. I'd love to find out what else was in the range.

The 2nd KGL Light Infantry are the last of the Phase 2 Coalition infantry. I think it'll be some artillery next.

Best wishes

WM

KGL Catch Up

 Just a wee post about where I've got to with these.

There's not all that much to add to them, apart from their haversacks. This is a bit of challenge as the sculpting for these, if that is indeed what the odd looking bulges on their left hips are supposed to represent, is a bit vague to say the least - they may or may not, for example, have canteens moulded on to them. It's very hard to tell and will take a bit of creative painting. Other than that it's just their muskets, greatcoat rolls and innumerable buttons. 

We'll see how we go. The enormous sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden fell down last week, so I now have rather a lot of wood splitting and stacking to do! Thank goodeness I had the good sense to produce a couple of strapping sons. I knew they'd be useful eventually.

Happy New Year!

WM

Edit: below is a recap of the test Rifleman I completed, next to an original, which gives an idea at least of the haversack/canteen area issue. I acually carved this area back and flattened it a bit for my test figures, but decided to leave as is for the rest of them in the hope that how to paint it would be resolved by experimentation. It's very hard indeed to see what Mr Gilder was intending here. The bayonet belt and scabbard amost look as if they're passing over the top of the haversack, which would look extremely awkward.

War Stories

I'm very pleased to report that the Wellington Warlords' Call to Arms 2024 event was a smashing success!

I decided to dress the part, naturally (photo courtesy of CT, the husband of the delightful DT and her son J who stopped by to have a look)..

While I was channeling Brigadier (Rtd) Terry Grantstone-Bath, c. 1964, His Dastardlyness had opted for the prog rock WRG wunderkind look, c.1973:

In the main hall the competition and other games were something to behold (photos courtesy of the Baron von Driberg).

Our section was pretty much given over to the Old Schoolers, who were all playing ancients of one sort or another:

So what were we up to? Well, the plan was to play through yet another of Charles Grant's iconic Table Top Teasers, this one being TTT No.3: "The Advance Guard Action", which appeared in the June and July 1978 editions of Battle Magazine. These have been digitised by Steve the Wargamer and are viewable on his splendid Random Musings Blog here: The Teasers.

This promised to be an exciting affair involving two small infantry forces with sizeable cavalry support, with the potential for substantial reinforcements halfway through the game. Grant himself thought it was one of his most successful scenarios.

The objective for the French (played by yours truly), seen here on the left, was to seize and secure the village before launching an offensive to take the river crossing. Driberg's Prussian objectives, unsurprisingly, were the opposite: secure the bridge and then capture the village.

Much to my consternation, The Garde zu Fuss and the Lutzow Lancers immediately made moves towards the village.

While on the Prussian Left, the 10th Infantry Regiment and 9th Reserve Infantry marched resolutely across the fields towards the bridge, with the 2nd Dragoons in support.

The French response was to make a dash for the village with the 45e de Ligne, while the 4e Chasseurs made a vaguely threatening advance on the extreme Left.

Meanwhile, the 61e de Ligne and the Irish Legion made a two-pronged advance towards the centre and the bridge, with the 8e Cuirassiers trotting along behind.

A turn or two later, and things were definitely starting to look interesting.

Heavy artillery fire was doing nothing good at all for von Driberg's Silesian Schutzen in the small copse in the centre, and was also causing problems for the Lutzowers ...

... while the Irish had beaten the Prussians into the wooded slopes above the bridge. The 10th and 9th Reserve formed line, but were starting to get picked off by the French voltigeurs.

Things only really started to fall apart, however, when the 9th Reserve became disordered. Nansouty immediately charged with the 8e Cuirassiers.

It was all up for the 9th, of course, but the 8e were then immediately countercharged in flank by the 2nd Dragoons.

This did not go well for the 8e, but there was further trouble in store for the Prussians as the French reinforcements, in the form of Empress's Dragoons, came galloping onto the field.

Driberg's reinforcements, the 52nd Foot, could only look on in horror. Not only only were the 2nd Dragoons being crushed, but the 10th Infantry Regiment were then suddenly attacked and routed by the Irish Legion charging out of the forrest.

And the same incident again as seen from from von Driberg's telescope!

With the Prussian left collapsing, things hadn't been going all that well on the right either when the Lutzowers were pounced by the 4th Chasseurs and sent fleeing from the field. In the excitement I failed to get a picture of this, but you can probably more or less guess how this unfolded from the picture below:

We decided to call it a day at this point as we were exhausted, not least because so many people had popped over to have a gander and a bit of a chinwag. There were quite a lot of Hinton Hunts in New Zealand back in the day, I was told. I wonder where they all are now.

Day two was a replay of the scenario, but with me playing the Prussians and a very nice chap who was a friend of Driberg's taking on the role of Davout in command of the French.

Things went much as they had on day one, except that I went all out to seize the woods next to the bridge, and even managed to kick the Irish Legion out this time.

This seems to have annoyed Davout a bit as he responded with a desperate charge by the 4e Chasseurs, but as the sun of Rossbach rose over the table, it was clear this was not going to end well. This was very unlucky for Davout as he was not to know that this was moment when two battalions of Allied reinforcements were due to arrive.

As the RGL artillery (acting as horse artillery) scuttled out of the way, it all went a bit Charge of the Light Brigade.

I think the game could still have gone either way as there were a lot of reinforcements coming onto the table, but as we'd had even more people coming over to talk to us, and had to pack up a bit earlier than the day before, that was about it I'm sorry to say.

This was all gloriously good fun and wouldn't have happened at all without my good friend DF (aka von Driberg) encouraging me to do it. It was an absolutley brilliant way to meet some of NZ's wargaming pioneers and stalwarts and to get the word out about the Hinton Spieler. I gave away dozens of flyers over the two days. A fair few of my friends and colleagues from work came out to have a look too, which was extremely pleasing. It was great to see you JC, AS, NB and family, SH, and DT and family.

As a final shot, herewith von Driberg's photo of some of the vintage packaging that I use to carry about my Merit trees and hedges.

The trees, I should point out, were specially reinforced with green-painted metal washers so that they wouldn't fall over on the green hessian cloth I was using on the table top. This was Rob G's idea and worked brilliantly.

Yours truly,

WM

Preparing for War

If you've been wondering why the 2nd King's German Light Infantry Battalion seems to have disappeared, it's because I've been preparing for the Wellington Warlords annual "Call to Arms" wargames convention this weekend. Yes it's true, I'm finally coming out of the closet and will be wargaming in public.

The troops all packed up and ready to go:

The Army has been magnestised!

This has taken weeks of preparation, but this evening we're all set up and ready to go tomorrow morning:

I even ran up a poster in the faint hope that it might drum up a bit of interest:

You never know, a passing graphic designer may take pity on me and help me to do a slightly better job next time.

We're booked in for two days, so there'll be lots of battle pictures. My nemesis, the Dastardly Freiherr Von Driberg, is to be my opponent.

Wish me luck,

WM

Albert and Ken again

When I was a lad growing up in the 70s, the wargaming books of that era were full of wonderful photographs of little soldiers that I didn't have a clue how to identify.

Depicted below are some I found to be particuarly mysterious. They were clearly British light infantry of some description, seen here guarding Hougoumont in the amazing Waterloo layout created by Peter Gilder for David Chandler's The Art of Warfare on Land (London: Hamlyn, 1974), but I had no idea who made them or where I could find any of them.

Fast forward to 2023, and a parcel of these wee treasures arrived in the post, courtesy of Aly Morrison:

And in 2024 arrived a few more, courtesy of Mark Dudley:

Mark identifies them as Alberken/early Minifigs British Riflemen, and I haven't the slightest doubt that he is correct.

In my view, however, it is to be Hanoverian riflemen, and the 2nd Light Battalion of the King's German Legion in particular, that is their true destiny. I had a bit of time off this week, so I thought I'd test this hypothesis by painting a few of them.

First up is an Alberken BN 3: Rifleman on Guard:

He's been cleaned up a bit and has had some some buttons added and the belt plate removed, but is otherwise unchanged.

Next up is my conversion of an Alberken BN 4: Rifleman Officer to make him look a wee bit more Hanoverian:

The head was donated by a Hinton Hunt BN 15 British Rifles Officer, which I'm fairly certain was a pirate, so no harm done. He's also got some new buttons and a new bandolier made with flattened soldering wire. This was bent round his chest and soldered at the back, with the resulting blob of solder carved into the shape of a cartidge box.

Although 2nd KGL LI officers are usually depicted in light grey trousers, credible sources suggest that they may very well have worn black, so I decided to go with that. I reckoned he'd look a bit gnarlier that way.

A Hinton Hunt BN 20 British Rifles bugler completes the command group:

Definitely meant to be KGL, I'd say.

Only 21 more to go, although a farmhouse might also be in order.

Cheers,

WM