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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The End of the Line 2

I found a bit of time this weekend to finish my French line infantry battalion, and so here they are:

The figures are all vintage Hinton Hunts from the French Infantry of the Line 1812-15 (in shakos, short tailed coats and long trousers) part of the range:

FN 1: Officer (charging) x 1
FN 4: Colour Bearer (charging) x1
FN 6: Drummer (charging) x1
FN 5: Fusilier (charging) x 21

There is an option to replace two of the companies with grenadiers and voltigeurs at some point, but I have to admit that I'm rather pleased with the all-fusilier look.

It'll be back to the Chasseurs for me now I think. This is likely to be a rather long and fraught process, so to the fill the gap the next post will probably feature another episode in the adventures of the PEF.

In the meantime, I'm off to celebrate with a glass or two of Central Otago Pinot Noir. I've wanted a battalion of FN 5s for ages. I think they're some of the nicest figures I've ever handled.

WM

The End of the Line

Having belatedly finished the two centre companies of my new French line Infantry battalion, I have to decide what to put on the flanks.

There are three main options:

Option one is well-stocked grenadier and voltigeur companies à la Wellington Man. This has become something of a house standard, driven for the most part by the figures I happened to have lying about:

Option two is to represent the elites in their proper portions (i.e. as no more than a third of the battalion), as demonstrated by Mark Dudley:

Option three is fusiliers all the way, which is the speciality of Monsieur Stryker:

I can't make up my mind.

WM

Three Line WIP

With the three line in question all being Vintage Hinton Hunt French Infantry of the Line 1812-15:

FN 1: Officer (charging);
FN 4: Colour Bearer (charging); and
FN 6: Drummer (charging).

Forming up behind them are nine equally vintage FN 5: Fusilier (charging) in what will be an all-vintage Hinton Hunt battalion. This will be only my second battalion to achieve this feat. The other one is the Silesian Schützen battalion, which was the first battalion I painted.

I'm painting these now as a replacement is needed for the Swiss in my First Division, seeing that they've shuffled off to join their fellow 1807-1812 comrades in the Second Division. Strictly speaking I should be painting a DK battalion for this gig (I have an ambition to be a DK French 1812 infantry completist), but having finally got my mits on some HH originals I just couldn't resist them.

Also on the table this weekend was the penultimate part of commission I'm doing for Ian S. He is a conversion of an HH Prussian Hussar. This particular figure is a copy, rather than an original, but it's a jolly nice one.

All that's needed now to finish Ian's commission is a bit of flag pole bashing and shaping and then it will be off to the post office with the lot. Phew.

Have a good one,

WM

Prussian Percussion

Having decided to take a wee holiday from the Chasseurs, I spent my hobby time this weekend prepping a French infantry regiment and doing a few conversions. The results of the latter are shown below:

The two figures on the left are part of the commission I'm doing for Ian S. The two on the right are for my own army. They are conversions of my Prussian reserve infantry figures. By 1815 many of the Prussian Landwehr had started to receive short kollet jackets, so I thought these would do very well for a Silesian Landwehr regiment. The rank and file are going to need a lot of work on their bayonets, however, as most of them came back from the caster a little on the short side.

Although all the drums (from Musket Miniatures) are soldered to their drummers, I thought the guardsmen on the far left could do with a little superglue reinforcement. My neighbour mentioned that sprinkling a little bicarbonate of soda onto superglue helps to it set, so I decided to give it a go. It instantly set like concrete!

I've still got a couple more things to do for Ian, but it'll be French infantry all the way after that.

WM

Harps and Lions

I've been as sick as a dog over the last few days, so with nothing to do between coughs and splutters I sat down to finish something for my friend, Rob G. I've been heavily in debt to him for ages.

Rob has a magnificent collection of vintage Hinchliffe English Civil War figures, which also happen to have been what my first wargames army was based on, so I was delighted when he asked me for a flag to go with them.

It is the Royal Standard of Charles I. Back in the day I longed for a flag like this from the moment I saw the version being carried by the King's Lifeguard of Horse in the classic 1979 Asquith-Gilder Osprey Wargames volume, The Campaign of Naseby 1645.

Rob supplied the pike, which is a little thicker than the wire I normally use. The flag dimensions are 3cm x 7.5 cm for each side of the fly, plus 4mm added for the hoist. It's made of my usual fizzy-can metal, and the colours used were all Humbrols. The yellow parts were something new for me - Humbrol 99: Lemon Yellow, which has much better adhesion than the Humbrol 24: Trainer Yellow I've been painting with lately. It's also a lot brighter.

This is my second attempt at this flag. The first attempt turned to custard because I tried to hurry it. For the second attempt everything was tried out first on a piece of paper.

Conversions to follow in the next post. I would have done some of these today, but we had a city-wide power cut. Every now and then NZ likes to remind us that we're out on the frontier out here. The next stop is Mars.


Yours,
WM