Sweet Child of Victory

We have a long weekend here in Wellington and as tradition demands the weather has been completely awful, so I've been hard at it again on the Grenadiers. They're not quite ready for their photoshoot, however, so as promised I have a new Marshal to show off instead.

Sharp-eyed readers of this blog will have noted, I'm sure, that my fusiliers were lacking a regular commander. At Dappol they had to make do with a hastily recruited Alberken Marshal Ney, still in his 1960s factory paintjob, which may account for their strange reluctance to become engaged. Moreover, a persistent rumour, despite furious denials by Imperial Headquarters, that they ran away from the Lützowers has left the Emperor with no choice but to find another marshal to command them. He is none other than André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling.

The terror of the Austrians in his prime, Masséna was well passed his "best before" date in 1813/14, which is the period around which I've rather loosely based my armies, but I couldn't leave such a splendid figure out of the order of battle. He's a really lovely David Clayton version of Hinton Hunt FN 356: Marshal Massena, in marshal's uniform. He's basically the same figure as FN 355: Marshal Davout, but with his hat on.

We'll see what the fusiliers make of him....

Next post: Grenadiers, I promise.

WM

On Guard

I've been hard at it on the Grenadiers à Pied this weekend, and have a command group to show for it:

They're a bit of a mixed bag of figures, being (from left to right):

Hinton Hunt FN 28: Grenadiers of the Old Guard 1804-15, Sergeant, marching;
Der Kriegspielers Set # 20: Guard Infantry 1809-1815, Infantry of the Guard command group, Eagle bearer;
Hinton Hunt FN 27: Grenadiers of the Old Guard 1804-15, Officer, marching; and
a David Clayton casting of a Hinton Hunt FN 25: Grenadiers of the Old Guard 1804-15,, Drummer, charging.

I'm particularly chuffed by the sergeant, who is an absolutely glorious little casting.

Only eight more grenadiers to go!

Yours,
WM

Cuirassier and Curiouser

As you know, while working on the Grenadiers, I've also been experimenting with a few test figures. Below is my first ever attempt at a French cuirassier. No French army would be complete without at least a regiment of these.

He is a vintage Hinton Hunt FN 102: Cuirassier Trooper (mounted) charging, painted to represent a trooper of the 8th Cuirassiers.

I had a number of false starts with this one as it was really difficult to work out exactly what it was that Marcus intended in some areas, so it took a bit of guesswork.

I'm reasonably satisfied with the results.  I'll get cracking on the rest of them as soon the Grenadiers à pied are finished, which shouldn't be toooo far off now.

Yours, as always

WM