Marching Socks

From my Darling Wellington Girl.

She got a 1955 NZ Army battledress blouse from me. Starts high school next year, you see.

Merry Christmas

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

The Gilded Age

I've been hard at it painting Chasseurs this weekend, but they're complex wee beasties and after every few steps I have to stop to let everything to dry.

During one such episode late this afternoon I decided to dig out a regiment which has been sitting in a box at the back of a cupboard, more or less forgotten, ever since I bought it several years ago. I'm going to need some more redcoats at some point, so I thought I'd get them out to have a closer look at them. They are, I believe, Alberkens with a sprinkling of Hinton Hunt command figures, painted to represent the 42nd Highlanders.

Alberken 42nd Highlanders

I bought them because they looked so charmingly Gilderesque. When I saw them in the lead my heart almost sank a bit because the quality of the painting was so high that the only thing I could really do with them was a little gentle retouching and perhaps remounting with a few bayonet repairs. I may have a go at this over Christmas if I can get the Chasseurs and Lammings finished.

Vintage painting at it's best

Having got them out again, and with Gilder in mind, I hunted through some of my old wargaming books to see if I could spot something similar. Sure enough, on page 13 of Charles Grant's Napoleonic Wargaming (King's Langley: Argus Books, 1974), I found the following photo of Peter Gilder's collection:

The 42nd leading the right flank of Picton's Division at Waterloo in 1974.

Also featured is a very pretty regiment of Lammings on the left.

Do you know, I think it's the very same regiment.

Yours, in some amazement.

WM

Looking at Lammings

My painting target this week was to finish the first half of the 73rd. I managed to achieve this and  also had a bit of time do a few basing experiments.

In the picture below you can see my test company of the 73rd on a 1.5mm plasticard base lined up next to a company of Hinton Hunts on a 2mm base. They seem to work together really well like this.

I also dug out a few of the other Lammings I've picked up to show how incompatible the 20mm range is with 25mm range which replaced it in 1974-75. The height difference is not all that great in some instances, but the head and hat sizes are very different, as are the torsos, limbs and hands. They all still look like Lammings, however, which is what makes them so damned difficult to collect!

That'll be it for the Lammings for a wee while. I've told myself that I'm not allowed to do any more of them until the Chasseurs are complete. It's a desperate measure, I know, but it's the only way I could think of to force myself back to the cavalry. It should do the trick as I really want to see what a whole regiment of Lammings is going to look like.

Chasseurs next, I promise…

WM

P.S. I've just uploaded a fizzy-can flag page for those who want to know a bit more about how I make them. A horses page is also in preparation.

Colour Supplement

I've been working on my Lammings this week, and the result is a colour party.

The figures are all vintage 20mm Lamming Miniatures from the Napoleonic 1815, British Foot range:

BI/1: Line infantry advancing x 1;
BI/2: Line infantry officer with drawn sword x1;
BI/2: Line infantry officer with drawn sword x 2, converted to colour bearers; and
BI/5: Line infantry drummer x 1

The baldrics for the colours were made by flattening out a length of soldering wire, cutting it into even strips and then bending them around and gluing them to the figures. Both ensigns were also in need of a bit of arm, hands and sword repair, which I achieved with some gentle soldering and a couple of flattened pins. I tried to keep the classic Lamming machete look for the sword blades.

My sincere thanks to M S Foy for the Regimental Colour ensign - it's very pleasing indeed to have this regiment led by a full compliment of proper Lamming officers. They were in severe danger of getting a Minifig, which would not have been the done thing!

Toodle Pip.

WM

Lamming Season

It's Labour Day Weekend here in Welly, which means we get Monday off, so I have a little bit more painting time. The plan is to devote this to the Chasseurs a Cheval. I've made a start, but while I was about it I couldn't resist having a go at a test figure for my new British 73rd Regiment:

He is a Lamming Miniatures figure from the 20mm 1815 Napoleonic range, which was launched in 1970. The specific code is BI/1: British Line Infantry Advancing. I'm very pleased to say that I have twenty of them, with four command figures to lead them, almost all courtesy of Mr Lewis Gunner, who gave them to me as a gift about three years ago. I've been itching to have a go at them for all this time. They seem to be fantastically rare these days.

He and his comrades are beautifully clean and simple castings, and he was an absolute joy to paint. There is now a distinct danger that the rest of them will usurp the Chasseurs in the painting queue. I want to see what those flags will look like with a regiment behind them.


Have a great weekend
WM