United Irishmen

It is the Spring of 1813 and the Irish Legion are marching to join a newly forming division in Southern Germany.

As they're a bit early for their rendezvous, Colonel Lawless decides to put them through their paces.

The Emperor and the rest of the division arrive. 

The figures are:

Der Kreigspielers Napoleoniques:

Set #19: Young Guard Voltigeurs, engaging, x 21;
Set #20: Young Guard Command, marching officer x 1, and eagle bearer x 1; and

Hinton Hunt:

FN 6: (French Infantry of the Line, 1812-15) Drummer (Recast and Converted), x 1

I think I'm going to have to call this the Traffic Light Division.

Have a great weekend everyone

WM

Irlande en Ligne

Just a quick post to show where I am with the Irish Legion.

This is not as far as I'd wished, but the centre company chasseurs are all done, plus a carabiner and a voltigeur. Although when I started these I was dimly aware that painting Der Kriegspielers is generally a bit harder than painting Hinton Hunts (its been a few years since I painted any), I definitely underestimated how much harder. The detail, where it exists at all, is absolutely miniscule.

Never mind. Only ten more to go.

Happy New Year everyone.

WM

Irish Update

The Irish Legion are going to be a fairly heavy-duty painting job, I fear, so to spur myself on I've completed most of the command group. I also have a mounted officer for them on the go but he's not quite ready for his photo shoot.

The Irish Legion seems to have had several flag designs over the course of its existence, but I think that this was the best one:

The officer and eagle bearer are Der Kriegspielers, with the officer being the DK version of a Hinton Hunt FN 74: Young Guard Officer, marching.

The drummer is a conversion of recast Hinton Hunt FN 6: (French Infantry of the Line, 1812-15) Drummer, charging. To convert him I soldered on a replacement DK 19 head and filed down his trouser bottoms to make it look like he's wearing gaters. I think he looks quite nifty.

Next up ought to be the rest of the Chasseurs. I thought I'd tackle them first as they're just a wee bit trickier than the carabiniers and voltigeurs.

Yours, as ever.

WM

Éirinn go Brách

I'm supposed to be catching up on my backlog of generals at the moment, but while I was aboout it I rediscovered the unopened Der Krieigspielers blister pack that I bought about nine years ago. The figures therein were 20mm Napoleoniques set #19: Young Guard Voltigeurs, engaging.

I remember being very excited about getting my mits on them, but was less than pleased when they arrived. As you can see below, Duke Siefried's idea of the YGV was to convert a Hinton Hunt FN 82: French Light Infantry Voltigeur, charging by sticking a YGV head onto it and then bending its legs in a really weird way.

I'd more or less decided they were a write off, but when I got them out to have another look at them I discovered that they're really rather maleable and all they needed was a firm thumb press to get them to stand up properly.

The obvious thing to do would've been to paint them as regular French light infantry, but I decided to go for something a bit more exotic. Presented below are my test carabinier, chasseur and voltigeur of the 1e Bataillon de La Légion Irlandaise, painted more or less as they're reputed to have appeared between about 1809 and 1812.

Why the Irish? There are lots of reasons, but I think the clincher was this picture of the Legion's 2nd Battalion by the late Richard Tennant, sent to me several years ago by Richard himself:

These exquisite soldiers live in the States these days with my good friend David C. I don't think I could ever match them, but I thought it'd be a fun way to round off the close-order infantry of my Phase 2 French Army.

More to come over the next few weeks.

WM

Edit [30/10/2023]

Following David's comment below, herewith are all the French Guard infantry according to the Der Kriegspielers/Custom Cast Napoleoniques catalogue of 1976:

This is a screenshot from the catalogue which was very kindly published by Chuck Gibke here: Custom Cast Catalog (1976) (vintagewargamingfigures.info)

The Fifty Seconds

As promised, I present the 52nd, led here by Sir John Colborne, later to become the 1st Baron Seaton. He's Seaton on his horse now.

A couple of vintage Hinton Hunts, I'm pained to admit, were harmed in the making of this regiment. One of these was a BN 20: British Rifles Bugler, to whom I added some shoulder wings to turn him into a light infantryman

The second was Sir John Colborne's horse, which started out as an FNH 10: French General's horse, converted into a British Infantry Officer's horse.

And to finish up, here's what they look like with my other two Anglo-Hanoverian regiments. Some British artillery to go with them is looking a bit overdue.

The figures used for the 52nd were:

Hinton Hunt:

BN 93: British Light Infantry charging x 20

BN 90: British Light Infantry Officer charging x 1

BN 20: British Rifles Bugler, converted into a British Light Infantry Bugler, x1

FNH 10: French general officer's horse, converted into a British infantry officer's horse

Der Kriegspielers Napoleonique:

#154: British Light Infantry Command Group regimental colour bearers x 2, with a few modifications

Alberken:

BN 35: British light infantry officer, converted into a British Light Infantry colonel x 1

For those who haven't spotted it yet, Colborne is my new avatar. He was a Wellington Man, after all.

Happy New Year everyone!

WM

Flag Packet

As promised in my last post, herewith is my slightly wobbly rendition of the colours the 1st Battalion  52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot, Light Infantry.

Leeke and Nettles Group

Unusually for a British light infantry battalion, the 1st/52nd famously carried their colours at Waterloo, with Ensign William Nettles carrying the King's Colour and Ensign William Leeke carrying the Regimental Colour. Poor Nettles was killed by a French round shot shortly before the battalion launched it's celebrated assault against the Imperial Guard. His body, along with the King's Colour pinned beneath it, wasn't recovered until the following day.

To command my version of the 52nd I have a very fine Hinton Hunt BN 90: British Light Infantry Officer charging; and two somewhat less than brilliant Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques standard bearers from Set 154: British Light Infantry Command Group.

Both the standard bearers needed soldering as the flags were on the verge of breaking off, and I had to inscribe the King's Colour as Der Kriegspielers only produced Regimental Colours! The overall effect is...well...it is what it is, shall we say. They were fun to do though, which is the main thing.

Only 20 more to go.....

WM

Lance Heads

Greetings from the 'other side', as they say in these parts.

I was supposed to be painting gunners this weekend but somehow got distracted and ended up doing French line lancer conversions instead.

The officer is a conversion of a Der Kriegspieler Napoleoniques #49: French Guard lancer, with a Hinton Hunt French line lancer's head, a new sword to replace his lance, some new epaulettes and various other minor changes. It was nearly all done with solder apart from the sword, which started life as a Minifigs bayonet.

The trumpeter is a somewhat simpler recrafting of a broken Hinton Hunt FN 118: Light Horse Lancer in crested helmet, charging. Both are for my friend Rob G., by way of a swap and as a thank you for all sorts of vintage 20mm assistance over the last few years years. I may do a couple more like them for myself eventually....

We have a long weekend here in Welly, so there's still another day left to work on the gunners, but as the weather is rather glorious I don't rate their chances too highly.

Yours

WM

Update:

Rob reminded me that the trumpeter really ought to have fringed epaulettes of his own, so I popped some on this afternoon. The gunners never did get a look in.

Lützowers Let Loose

The Lützow Lancers have been let loose behind enemy lines.

Leaving nothing but scorched earth in their wake....

…..the Lützowers  were ordered to show no mercy to isolated enemy detachments.

Napoleon: nous serons vengés!

The figures are:

Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques set # 139: Prussian Cavalry 1813-1815, Landwehr Lancers x 8

Recast Hinton Hunt Prussian Cavalry 1810-1815, PN 39: Landwehr Lancer, charging x 2, converted into an officer and a trumpeter.

These were supposed to be a quick and easy regiment, but to my dismay I see that I actually started painting them in February. Oh dear. I'll try to do better in future.

Next week: the Action at Blasthof Bridge.

WM

Edit: As Rob has pointed out, there are clearly Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques set # 139: Prussian Cavalry 1813-1815, Landwehr Lancers x 10.

Testing Times

Painting time has been a bit hard to come by lately, so there isn't a great deal to show apart from the test figure I finished this afternoon.

He's the first of my Lützow Lancers, which will complete the cavalry component of Wallmoden's Corps.

The figure is a Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques  from set no.139: Prussian Landwehr Lancers. The rest of the regiment will also be DKs, apart from the two command figures which will be conversions of Hinton Hunt recasts.

I'm hoping these won't take too long as I've just found out that I'm to be on my travels again before too long. I'd really like to get another infantry battalion under my belt before I set off. My work stress is mounting rapidly, however, which is usually quite good for my painting rate....We'll see how we go.


WM

Christmas Crackers

My Chasseurs are complete.

The Emperor has despatched his finest regiment
to reconnoitre the road to Berlin.

The Chasseurs deploy onto the far bank unopposed.

But at that very moment, the enemy appears.
 It is the dreaded Leib Hussars.

Without a moment's hesitation, Prince Eugene
wheels his squadrons to face the foe.

The Leib Hussars also prepare to attack.

Essex Hussar: Chasseurs, the eyes of the Emperor are upon us.

Pamela, Sound the charge!

In the blink of an eye, the charging squadrons are upon each other,

sabres flashing in the clear morning light...

...and in an instant the Leib Hussars are overthrown.

Napoleon: That's more like it!

The figures are:

Vintage Hinton Hunt:
FN 48: French Imperial Guard Cavalry, Chasseur a Cheval charging x 9;

Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques:
Set # 47: Guard Chasseurs a Cheval x 1;
Set # 47: Guard Chasseurs a Cheval x 1, converted into a trumpeter; and

The Essex Hussar.

Special thanks to Don W and MS Foy, without whom I could never have assembled this regiment. Please accept my apologies, chaps, for the ridiculous amount of time its taken me to complete them.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and the very best for the New Year.

WM

Premier Division

As promised, just a quick shot of the French First Division. I think I may just have got a way with my decision to go for an all-fusilier battalion.

From Left to Right: DK 9s, FN 5s and DK 8s

Needless to say, I couldn't resist finding out what a really big 36-figure battalion might look like:

The Big Battalion

As Peter Gilder might have done it 

It's probably just as well that it's virtually impossible to get enough figures to do whole armies this way...

WM

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