More wip

Apologies again - I've hit one of those occasional basing back-logs. I currently have 54 finished figures going through the basing process, including the completed first musketeer battalion of the Prussian 10th Infantry Regiment, more AWI French chasseurs and the Dutch 2nd Line Infantry for 1815. All these are rather large units and that has created a squeeze on basing and finishing the units off. I had intended to blog about the 6 volunteer jaeger figures that come in the Perry Prussian infantry box, but the pictures I took the other day are pretty rubbish (see left) so I need to take some more. I decided in the end to paint all the Prussian figures and so the battalion is 40-figures strong. As that means 10 figures for each company I have had to buy larger bases, which haven't arrived yet. The Dutch infantry battalion is something I have been meaning to do for ages. I painted 6 figures a few years ago and then moved on without painting any more. Whilst sorting stuff out in advance of my impending house move I found the rest of the unit and thought it was high time I finished it off. As it happens, I have now decided not to use the original 6 figures and so I am building the 24-figure unit from scratch; I'll explain why in due course. Hopefully the Dutch will be finished in a week or so and then the French chasseurs will be finished. After that I suspect there will be more Eureka AWI dragoons, as it's high time I returned to those.

Now I've finished the Perry Prussians box I don't intend to paint any more Prussians any time soon. I think my 1815 cravings will be met by concentration on Bachelu's division, the Middle Guard, the Dutch-Belgians and (as yet a mere twinkle) the KGL.

French chasseurs (2)

Here are the further Eureka Miniatures figures that I mentioned a short while back. These are from the Revolutionary French range. I am not sure what codes they are exactly, as I picked them out at Eureka HQ in Melbourne (with help from John Baxter and Mark Spackman - hi guys!), but they are all actually "grenadiers" rather than "chasseurs". I have no idea how the 1790's uniforms of the two flank companies differed, but the uniform on these figures is certainly very close to that of the Perry Miniatures chasseurs. Leaving aside the headgear for a moment, these Eureka figures have the standard flank company accoutrements of moustaches, epaulettes and swords. The coat tails are long, but that is in keeping with the 1779 regulations and the Chartrand Osprey refers to some units having tails that were even longer than the regulations required. So it's only really the hats that are a problem, in that they are clearly proper bicornes and much larger than their Perry equivalents. I decided not to remove the pompoms, because some of the illustrations in the Chartrand and Mollo books show these on flank company soldiers. I did, however, file off the grenade emblems on the catridge boxes.


I like these Eureka figures. They have style and when painted up in white I think they do pass muster as AWI figures. As I said before, I think it is unlikely that the Perry French range will include skirmishers (but you never know). The Eureka figures are larger than the Perry ones, about 30mm from toe to top of head; the hats then add anything up to another 4mm in height. The two regiments represented here are the Soissonnais (in the crimson facings) and Touraine (in pink). I chose these regiments simply because I liked the facing colours! The way I paint the white coats is as follows. I undercoat with Army Painter "Uniform Grey" spray, an almost exact match with Coat d'arms "Uniform Grey 525" which I use for touching up. This undercoat acts as the base coat. The highlights are then Foundry "Arctic Grey 33A", Coat d'arms "Light Grey 211", Coat d'arms "Tank Light Grey 526" and then finally pure white (any brand will do).


I would also like to mention that Christopher "Axebreaker" has posted a review of the new edition of the "British Grenadier!" rules that I use on his superb blog. He kindly mentions the large number of photos of my AWI collection that illustrate the book (which is why I haven't blogged on it myself!) and then comments on the book and the mechanics of the rules. The new edition is pricey, and follows the current trend of new rules being glossy, highly-polished hardback books. Personally I didn't hesitate in buying this new edition because "British Grenadier!" are the only AWI rules I will ever use. Those who find the game slow or frustrating for an attacking player will find new rules in this edition that speed up movement and make charges a tad more likely to succeed - so anyone who has dropped the rules on either count may like to give them another try. And with Perry Miniatures releasing plastic AWI infantry at some stage (perhaps in time for Salute next year?) and a remake of "The Patriot" in the works it's a great time to get into the period!


(Ok, I made up that bit about "The Patriot"...)


8 figures. Painted June 2011.

Current wip

I have some AWI French skirmishers to post about in a couple of days, but in the meantime I thought I'd post a couple of photos of the other large unit I am currently working on (i.e. in addition to the 24-figure AWI French chasseur unit, which is now three quarters finished). I bought a box of Perry plastic Napoleonic Prussian infantry at Salute and, having painted a couple of test figures back in April, decided last month to push on with the rest of the box. I will provide a proper review when I have the regiment finished, but my overall reaction is very favourably - the figures are dead easy to paint (like the plastic French infantry) and easy to put together. My only concern is how the backpack fits onto the figures, which doesn't quite seem to work as neatly as on the plastic French infantry.

The unit I am building is the 1st musketeer battalion of the 10th Regiment ("1st Silesian"), in Hacke's 13th Brigade. I chose this regiment simply because I liked the yellow facings and the 1st battalion's flag comes with the box. I think the regiment was involved in the fight at Plancenoit, but my research is ingoing. However, one issue I need to consider now is the number of figures. The Waterloo orbat on the "General de Brigade" website has Prussian infantry battalions at 32 figures mostly, with a few at 24 figures. I know that at full strength a battalion would be close to 800 men, or 40 figures at 1:20 (which is what you get in the Perry box, plus 6 jaeger). I'm assuming that the GdB orbat takes account of casualties incurred in the various battles preceding 18th June itself. However, I don't think Hack's 13th Brigade was present at Ligny and therefore I wonder whether the units in this force should not be closer to 40 figures rather than 32. I note comments on the GdB forum that whilst the 32-figure Prussian battalion is pretty standard in wargaming it may also be something of a "received wisdom", and that units at the beginning of a campaign or which have not yet seen action (like the 10th) would probably be close to full strength.

Like any sensible wargamer, I prefer smaller units (and so less painting) whenever possible and when tackling something like Waterloo a certain amount of "shrinkage" is required for space reasons anyway; but any thoughts from readers more versed than I in the Prussian army of 1815 would be welcome!

Regiment Gatinais

In addition to the Regiment Dillon, the Savannah scenario (in the second "British Grenadier!" scenario book) requires composite fusilier battalions of 16 and 18 figures respectively. This reflects the way in which elements from various regiments were formed together into ad hoc detachments. The notes to the Savannah scenario state that these detachments contained troops from the Cambresis, Champagne, Agenois, Gatinais and Auxerrois regiments. Therefore, when modelling these units you could paint up 1 or more stands from each of these regiments to recreate what happened in practice, or ignore that and field units of identically uniformed figures. I decided that for various reasons I wanted my collection to have several full regiments of French fusiliers, essentially to keep a large degree of flexibility in how I could field them. I intend to paint up 3-4 of the regiments mentioned above and then use various bases from those to form the composite untis required for Savannah (and other scenarios). I can then use the full regiments for "what if" games or larger scenarios.


So here is a battalion from the Gatinais regiment. The flag is the more colourful second battalion flag. I understand that the regiment had been stationed in the Caribbean since 1775 and a detachment went to America in 1779 with d'Estaing. The chasseur company in particular distinguished itself at Savannah, with most of its officers becoming casualties. The remainder of the regiment arrived in 1781 with Saint-Simon. The regiment again distinguished itself in the attack on Redoubt 9 at Yorktown, which the regiment's grenadiers captured with men from the Royal Deux-Points regiment. Apparently, Washington expressed his admiration of and gratitude to the French units by presenting the two regiments with the cannon which they had captured from the redoubt.


The flag is from GMB. I have seen references to the Gatinais flag being black and violet rather than the black and blue as shown here. I gather that Richardson in his Standards and Colors of the American Revolution states that the colours were black and marine blue, and presumably GMB followed this source. The figures are in the 1779 ordonnance uniforms, which is certainly wrong for Savannah and probably still wrong for Yorktown. However, Perry Miniatures only offer standing figures in the 1776 dress and I wanted more active poses for Savannah and Yorktown.


18 figures. Painted February-May 2011. Flag from GMB.

French chasseurs (1)

I promise to make more of an effort with this blog, which I have neglected of late. As an hors d'oeuvre to some more substantial posts on AWI French units I offer this trio of figures from Eureka Miniatures' Revolutionary Wars range. I think this range is useful to the 25mm AWI gamer, although there are issues with the uniforms, principally the shape of the hats and the absence of water bottles. The coats of the figures are long, but that suits the 1779 ordinance and Chartrand in his Osprey refers to the "ample and generous" cut of the 1779 coats; so this point isn't too much of a worry. The hats are another thing, although I think the hats here are ok and I will shortly post about some chasseur skirmishers which really do require a leap of faith re their headgear.

The two officer figures here are listed in the Eureka range as "officer encouraging skirmishers" (the chap brandishing the sword) and "artillery officer" (the chap with the brace of pistols). I think they are very characterful sculpts and look pretty good in AWI white rather than 1790s blue. I am working on a 24-figure unit of chasseurs which will have 4 bases of 6 figures, all of which will be rank and file (for reasons I'll explain when I do a post on the unit itself). The purpose of the two Eureka officer figures is to provide some visual command for this 24-figure unit, which otherwise will lack any command figures. I expect I'll place them in front of the unit or one figure at each end. They can also act as command for the 8-figure chasseur skirmish unit I've just finished. The chap waving the sword is from the Armagnac regiment and the other is from the Viennois regiment (in 1779 dress).

The looter vignette took some time to plan. My original idea was to have a Hessian plundering a Frenchman - as the plunderer has a moustache I couldn't paint him as a British soldier or an American. But then it occured to me that the uniform was wrong and it wouldn't make sense for a Hessian to be outside the lines (of, say, Savannah or Yorktown) nicking stuff off a dead Frenchman. But is also seemed odd that a French soldier, probably recently arrived, would be as badly dressed as the looter is here. In the end, I decided that the looter was a deserter in search of extra provisions, who is still wearing his uniform coat (from the Auxerrois regiment) but has found local trousers and is in search of other items. The dead grenadier is from the Armagnac regiment again. I filed off the grenade on the ammunition box but left the chain on the bearskin, simply not painting it black.

4 figures. Painted June 2011.

A street in New England...

...or is it? Actually, this is the street around the corner from the house which we are hoping to buy. On Saturday we accepted an offer on our place in Wapping, east London, and had an offer accepted on the house we want to buy in Chelmsford (further east, about 1.25 hours' drive from London). This domestic hooray wouldn't merit a post if it wasn't for the fact that the house we are buying (if all goes well) has been built in the "New England style". When I first saw the area I thought "this looks a bit familiar" and I asked the estate agent whether it was just me or had the houses been built with a New England vibe in mind. He replied that indeed this part of the development was supposed to have a New England, clapboard look and that the house we are now buying was built "to the Stockbridge design". I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds pretty American to me.

British readers won't be surprised by anything that happens in Essex, but I like to think that we've managed to buy a house that's almost an AWI house. Even better, my new painting room looks large enough to accommodate a gaming table (as per photos below), which will mean that for the first time I will be able to have a permanent set-up. The road from offer to completion is fraught with difficulties, but we are slowly moving along it and I'll have to ensure I maximise painting time before the move.

Apologies...

...for the lack of posts recently. I've been hit by the joint effect of a very busy period at work and the need to empty the house prior to it being put on the market. That has now happened and each weekend is now spent travelling around Essex looking at houses, so eroding further on painting and posting time. Tidying-up the house led to the decision about what to do with all my painting stuff: do I put it away completely, or have the essentials only, or stand proud and keep everything out? I realised that I could empty the drawers of my desk and stick most of my paints in them - no longer are they standing on the floor and window-sills in a variety of grubby boxes and I'm much happier for it. Most of the lead-pile is now in storage, and much else besides. Sorting through heaps of boxes filled with figures and various bits and bobs was also wuite cathartic. I have found figures that have been half or part-painted for years and I'm going to finish these off over the next few weeks. I once tried to include at least one such figure in each painting batch but that plan didn't survive more than a week or so. This time I will try harder. Anyway, viewers of the house can't mind my residual painting stuff too much since we had out first offer today, and the house only went on the market last Thursday.


Above is a wip shot of the AWI French chasseur unit I am slowly working on. I'm exactly half-way through, with 12 figures completed. This week I'm painting 8 Eureka Revolutionary Wars French figures as chasseur skirmishers. The Gatinois regiment has now been photographed and I'll try to post on that later this week, together with the 15mm stuff. Below are "before and after" photos of my painting desk!


Finally - a big "Happy 4th of July" to all my American friends, followers and readers!