Pole Position

The weather has been glorious in Wellington this week, so I've spent much of the last three days out in the front garden, stripping, repairing and repainting the front gate. However, I've also found a little time to do some painting indoors. As French light cavalry are on my official to-do list, I thought I'd make a start on some lancers.

Pink Poles!

Now some figures require a little more faith than others, and so it was when I came across these chappies. Decked out in a delightful pink, they certainly didn't look very promising. However, vintage Polish lancers are hard to come by, so I took the plunge.

The figures are Der Kriegspielers DK 39: French Line chevau-légers lanciers (Regiments 7-9). They are identical in almost every respect to the Hinton Hunt figure FN 43: French Guard Lancer, Charging, apart from one small detail: the lance pennants have been turned upside down!

Pictured is my first test figure, a trooper of the crack 7th Regiment, formerly the 1st Vistulan Lancers, fresh from the battlefields of Spain where they had virtually destroyed Colborne's Brigade at the Battle of Albuera in 1811.

He was not the simplest of figures, but I'm really pleased with the way he's turned out.


I should really be working on the rest of my Prussian cavalry, of course. However, a French squadron seemed like more fun, which is what the project is really all about!

 Happy New Year

WM

Plans and Schemes

As the Bavarians are now on their bases, I've taken a few more shots of them going through their paces.

General Qui-est-il (also now based, but still without a name) is in attendance. The windmill is by Dapol.

So, wither the Hinton Spieler in 2016? Well, things could be said to look either daunting or encouraging, depending on one's point of view.

On the encouraging side, I've painted nine battalions, four squadrons and two batteries since September 2014, which works out as just under a unit per month.

On the daunting side, I doubt I'll be able to keep producing units at this rate during 2016. Apart from anything else, I'll be travelling overseas for part of the year, and when I'm at home there's a certain amount of deferred household maintenance to attend to!

The key thing, of course, is not to worry too much about the rate at which I can churn out new regiments, but to come up with some sort of plan. In 2016 this is to complete (in no particular order):

1. one additional squadron each for the Prussian Garde du Corps and Leib Hussars;

2. two more batteries of artillery (one French and one Prussian);

3. a French skirmisher battalion;

4. a Prussian close-order battalion;

5. four squadrons (two light and two heavy) of French cavalry; and

6. a basic wargames table and terrain.

The result will be two evenly-matched starter armies of five battalions, four squadrons and two batteries each; and the completion of Phase One of this project.


I'm not really daring to think about Phase Two yet.

WM

The Boys from Bavaria

The 4th Line on Parade

It's nearly ten o'clock on Christmas Eve. Wellington Girl has gone to bed, the Christmas deserts and gratin dauphinois are in the fridge, and the 4th Line Infantry are all but complete! A very productive day all round.

Impossible Bavarian Flag Number Two was indeed rather tricky as it took me quite a while to work out how to offset the lozenges in a sufficiently psychedelic fashion. However, it was definitely worth the effort, not least because it helps to hide some of the imperfections of flag number one!

Merry Christmas to everyone from Wellington.

WM

Merry Christmas!

Wellington Girl demonstrates the proper way
 to create a regiment

After eight years in NZ I still haven't got used to Christmas in the Summer time. There's a lot to be said for it, however. For one thing, the most delightful and yummy things are just coming into season.

What a weird and wonderful year it's been. It's now exactly twelve months since I started this project, and I'm amazed I've managed to stay the course. It's been a bit of a shock to the family too. I don't think anyone expected Dad's occasional whimsical murmurings about playing with toy soldiers again to go quite this far.

The 17th Santas prepare to advance. I don't fancy their
chances somehow.

Wellington Girl decided to celebrate the occasion by making a regiment of her own. They fought valiantly at tea time, but the odds were overwhelming.

Merry Christmas and all the very best for the New Year to all those who have enjoyed this blog, and a special thanks to those who provided me with so many words of encouragement, and much else besides. There will be many more good things to come, I promise, in 2016!

WM

There just might be some Hinton Hunts in amongst that lot!

Bavarian Variations

Steve has sent me some wonderful photos of a Bavarian unit he completed a few years ago. Included among them were absolutely stunning drummer, standard bearer and (best of all!) pioneer conversions.

Steve's solution to the helmet-plumes-where-none-should-be problem was to remove them.

The main reason I haven't also removed the plumes on the Bavarian battalion I'm working on is that I was too afraid I'd make a mess of it!

I suspect there are several schools of thought on this issue of conversions. To what extent should figures be modified? Converting or modifying figures is a tradition as old as wargaming. However, in changing the figures we also lose some of their original meaning and all sorts of other information about the designer, manufacturer and the era in which they were made. On the other hand, information about the person who converted the figure is added. It's something I think about every time I do one of my own conversions.

Comments most welcome!

WM

Bavarian Blues 2

The 4th form up.

I really wasn't planning to do any more Bavarians at the moment, but having started them I just couldn't resist. The result is two companies of the 4th Line Infantry Regiment, with two more companies on the way.

The figures are:

1 x Hinton Hunt BVN 1: Bavarian infantry officer, charging;
8 x Hinton Hunt BVN 4: Bavarian infantry private, charging;
2 x Der Kriegspielers DK 174: Bavarian Infantry, at the ready (converted); and

last, but not least, a conversion of Der Kriegspielers DK 7: French Infantry Command 1809, drummer.

Drumming up the new recruits.

Er...a few too many sausages, perhaps?

Impossible Bavarian flag  number 2 is still in production.

An interesting feature of the BVN 4 figures is that a few of them are a bit ....er...wider than the others. Something went a bit wonky during casting, I suspect. However, they line up with their slimmer brethren well enough.

I'm a bit stumped about what colour to paint the helmet plumes. All of Marcus Hinton's Bavarian line infantry have them, despite the fact that it was only the the grenadier and chasseur companies that actually wore them. The plumes, therefore, should either be red or green. However, I wanted to represent fusilier companies in the centre of my battalion, so I painted them white. Transgressive, isn't it...!

The rest of the battalion should be appearing at some point during Christmas, I hope.

Auf wiedersehen,

WM

Prussian 10-Mile Snipers

My DK  French gunners positively demanded a Prussian response, and so here it is.

The figures are Hinton Hunt Prussian field artillery:

PN 33: Gunner, holding cannon ball;

PN 32: Gunner with rammer;
PN 31: Gunner with porte-fire; and
PN 30: Officer, looking through spy-glass. 

Having said that, I have a vague suspicion that the officer may actually be a Der Kriegspieler. Whatever the case, he's an absolutely corking figure. He really looks as if he's spotted something interesting!

The gun is completely mysterious, being devoid of markings and assembled from a box of various artillery bits that may or may not have originally belonged together. Although the barrel and the carriage appear to go together, I'm not at all sure about the wheels. Nevertheless, the final assemblage seems to work together quite well.

It's rather heftier than the French Warrior guns, so could possibly be fielded as a 12-pounder!

WM

A Standard for the 2nd Silesians

I present the standard of the 11th (2nd Silesian) Infantry Regiment.

It was painted as a thank-you to Roy. A lot of the things on this blog simply wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Roy's encouragement.

The flag is being born aloft, as is only fitting, by another of Roy's splendidly executed conversions. The original, in this case, was a Hinton Hunt PN 17: Prussian Landwehr Officer, charging.

My apologies to Roy for the delay. It took me three attempts to get it right! Is it just me, or is silver more difficult to paint with than other types of metallics?

WM