Newcastle United

 It is the Spring of 1813, and the Emperor has called for his Chief of Staff.

Napoleon: Ah, Berthier, I've made you Prince of Neuchâtel!

                 Look, you get your own battalion.

Berthier: But Sire...I haven't led troops since 1778!

Napoleon: Don't worry. I've written instructions!

Berthier can barely decipher the Emperor's appalling handwriting.

Berthier:..Oh crumbs..er...Companies...Forward, Wheel Right!

Under the Emperor's watchful eye, Berthier scrambles to correct his mistakes.

Berthier: No, no, no!..um.. Halt! Face Front!

Berthier: MERDE!

Cambronne is scandalised.

Cambronne: My word!

The Emperor has seen enough.

Napoleon:...Nom de Dieu!

Today's vintage vignette was brought to you by:

Minfigs 25mm ('intermediate' range) FNX 12: Napoleon Standing;

Minifigs S-Range, NSF 1S: French Marshal Passing Orders; and

Minifigs S-Range, N 1S: Napoleon Seated at Table.

My special thanks to:

Aly Morrison, who sent me his wonderful Neuchâtel Battalion, which I 've finally got round to rebasing;
Rob G, who helped me get my grubby mitts on an FNX 12; and

The Archduke, who did the same for the N 1S.

Yours,
WM

Scruby Tuesday 2

I have a few more Scruby 25mm Napoleonic samples to show off.

Most clearly have the word 'Scruby' written on the underside of their bases. They also various hard-to-make-out numbers inscribed on them, but these seem to bear no relation whatsoever to the HistoriFigs Scruby 25mm Napoleonic catalogue, so I cannot confirm if these same figures are potentially available from HistoriFigs.

First up are what I believe to be a French light infantry voltigeur (although he might conceivably be a Nassauer), a Russian infantryman, and a French light infantry carabinier.

Second up are three French Guard or line grenadiers, being a drummer, an officer and a grenadier in a sort of 'at the ready' pose. Their coat skirts are all a little on the short side, but they are really nice figures in my opinion, and the officer in particular is a splendid figure.

That's it for Scrubys for the time being, but there will almost certainly be some more at some point!

Cheers

WM

Scruby Tuesday

Well it's Tuesday in New Zealand, although I suspect this hasn't yet happened for much of the rest of the planet.

My last post featuring Aly's wonderful Scrubys generated a fair bit of interest in things Scrubywise, so by special request I'm posting a few of the Scruby cavalry which I've picked up along the way.

These Polish Lancers are proper old campaigners:

As shown below, the horses have a faint trace of a bridle on their faces, but are otherwise completely nude. The lancer's portmanteau is simply moulded onto his bum!

I'm told there are other types of horse, however, which have reins moulded onto them, and that not every type of Scruby cavalry trooper is quite so lightly equipped. Scruby French dragoons, for example, are moulded with the troopers sitting  astride proper saddles and shabraques. 

I may even Scruby do these lancers some day, if I can find another pair of them.

WM

Bring Me Sunshine

I promised something really special a couple of weeks ago and so here it is. It's the absolutely stunning Neuchatel Battalion painted by Alastair Morrison. The figures are all from the iconic 25mm Napoleonic range produced by Jack Scruby in the early 1960s.

When Aly published these on his Aly's Toy Soldiers blog a wee while ago, he mentioned that he'd decided to replace them. As I've been hankering after some Scrubys for ages, I asked him if I could have them, and he gave them to me.

These particular figures are the remastered 25mm Scrubys available from Historifigs in the United States. They are the most beautifully hard, clear and crisp castings, unlike the very soft and 'leady' figures originally sold by Jack. You can spot vintage Scubys a mile away in wargaming blogs because of all the excessively bent muskets!

Jack's 25mm range was designed to be compatible with Hinton Hunts, which these last two pictures demonstrate very well. The Neuchatels and the 3rd Swiss will make a spectacularly attractive brigade, I think. I'll also need to paint a commander for them, of course, and I've got just the fellow, as it happens. He'll be making an appearance in a week or two, with a bit of luck.

As the last photo shows, however, to make them fully compatible with my army I'll need to rebase them, so right after these photos were taken. off they went into a shallow warm bath to soak them off their bases.

Judging from the Historifigs 'Classic 25mm Armies' of the Napoleonic Wars' catalogue, the figures are:

3053: French Fusilier, advancing to the attack, x 10;
3054: French Voltigeur, advancing to the attack, x 12; and

3064: French Officer, shako, leading, x 2, with one converted by Aly into a standard bearer.

Thank you Aly. They're like a gloriously golden ray of sunshine, and I will treasure them.

WM

Hintonstein's Monster

Er....there's been a slight delay to the Empress Dragoons due to the wrong kind of figures on the production line. Painting will resume with the arrival of yet more Hinton Hunt replacements. These are even now winging their way across the globe, courtesy of the Archduke!

This should have been the perfect opportunity to crack on with my final French battery, but what I ended up doing instead was obsessing about something else entirely. This was: what to you do when you're one figure short of a regiment of Chasseurs and all you've got is a ropy old Lamming French hussar officer, a spare Hinton Hunt horse and box full of unwanted Scruby, Hinchliffe and Minifigs bits and bobs?

And the answer, two very nervous weeks later, was:

an officer of the Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale. 

Mrs WM, on the other hand, refers to him as the "Essex Hussar", but then she's like that.

It was the horse, of course, which was the really nerve-wracking bit as I had to detach him from his base and reposition one of the hind legs in order to get him to rear up properly, as well as more or less completely reconstruct his left foreleg. I had to resort to a bit of Scruby assistance for the last part.

The hat is a Hinchliffe creation with the original Lamming French officer's plume grafted onto it.

He's not quite the Théodore Géricault masterpiece I had in my mind's eye, but he'll definitely fill the gap.

As this is likely to be the last Hintonspieler post for 2016, it only remains for me to say Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

WM

With sincere apologies to Géricault .
Note to self: don't try to get a job as a Photoshop artist.