3rd Chasseurs, 2nd battalion

A couple of years ago, I painted the 4th Chasseurs of the French Imperial Guard and at the beginning of this year I had the urge to paint another battalion.  One of my aims for this year is to paint the complete chasseur division of the Guard for the Waterloo campaign.  The orbat provides for 6 battalions - 1 each of the 1st and 4th Regiments and two each from the 2nd and 3rd.  The Perries give you multiple options, with figures in greatcoats and in full dress, both in standing and advancing poses.  You then have the special figures in scruffy hats which are designed specifically for the 3rd and 4th Regiments.  In order to utilise all these figures, I decided to start off with a very scruffy 4th Regiment and work backwards with each battalion looking less scruffy than the last.  Therefore, this second battalion of the 3rd Regiment uses mostly the specific figures with varied hats but also incorporates some chasseurs in bearskins.  The first battalion of the 3rd Regiment will be completely in bearskins.  Readers will notice that it's the rank-and-file who have the bearskins, and not the command figures.  I expect that any bearskins that were going would have been nabbed by the officers, but never mind.

The 3rd Chasseurs appear in the "General de Brigade" scenario on the final attack of the Guard at Waterloo, where it consists of two battalions of 24 figures each.  For the greatcoats, I used the same recipe as with my French artillery and the 4th Chasseurs - the Foundry "French Blue 65" palette with a final light highlight of "Deep Blue 20B".  I gave more of the figures grey or greying (as with the sappeur) hair than I did with the 4th Chasseurs, as I wanted these chaps to look like grizzled old veterans.  The bases are the larger ones from the Perry plastic boxes, with the edges painted brown to match the rest of my collection. Not much more to say, really.  I don't know when I'll get around to the 1st battalion, but that will then be one "brigade" finished and all the chassuer battalions I'd need for the GdB scenario mentioned earlier.   I do like these figures.  There's something very satisfying about marching French infantry in dark blue overcoats - probably because they're quick to paint! 

24 figures. Painted January/February 2013.

George Washington's wheelbarrow

This is something I've wanted to paint for a while.  During my trip to Boston in April 2007 the Kiwi and I visited Christ Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  There was a small display inside which recounted the history of the church and it stated that George Washington and his wife Martha prayed there.  The display also referred to Washington leaving his famous wheelbarrow outside the church while he prayed.  I had hoped to paint this up but couldn't find a suitable model.  However, the Westphalia Miniatures wounded Frenchman set that I bought recently came with an extra wheelbarrow.  Thinking about how to use it, I recalled Washington's wheelbarrow and so tried to find out more.

Much is written about Washington's horses, Nelson and Blueskin, but not so much about his

wheelbarrow. Washington's wheelbarrow accompanied him throughout his campaigns.  It reminded him of his Virginia plantation home and became a symbol of the independent society that he hoped his armed struggle would bring about.  He used it to transport personal items that he didn't carry on his person, such as a spare telescope, extra pistols and ammunition and fodder for his horses.  The wheelbarrow often found itself in the think of battle.  At Long Island in 1776 is was almost left behind in the American fortifications as Washington retreated across and the sergeant in charge of the wheelbarrow's safety, Ebenezer Crouch of the 2nd New York regiment, was demoted to the ranks for his negligence.  On 9 October 1781, as Washington prepared to fire the first cannon shots against the besieged British inside Yorktown, in was in his wheelbarrow that the relevant shot was brought to him.  The wheelbarrow could also turn into an impromptu soapbox.  In May 1782, Washington's army was encamped along the Hudson River and the men, bored, underfed and with pay heavily in arrears, started thinking of mutiny.  A plot developed in the 1st Connecticut regiment, whereby the men would march to the nearest arsenal, seize the cannon and then descend on the Connecticut legislature to demand their pay.  The soldier in charge of the wheelbarrow at this time was a certain Ambrose Gaylord, of the 1st Connecticut.  He tipped off Washington about his unit's intentions. Washington calmly walked to the regiment's lines, upended his wheelbarrow to create a speaking platform and gave an inspirational speech that stopped the mutiny in its tracks. 

I wanted the wheelbarrow to look like it was made from Virginian wood and also as if it had seen action.  I quickly realised I had no idea how to do either of those things, and so painted it to my standard "wood" recipe. Still, I'm glad to be able to add this old campaigner to my American forces.  I might allow it to add a +1 on morale throws when attached to an American unit.

1 wheelbarrow. Painted 1 April 2013.

Perry Miniatures plastic AWI British infantry

A lack of painting time over the past couple of weeks means that I don't have a finished painted unit of the new Perry plastic AWI figures, but I thought I'd post some initial impressions now that I've finished painted 4 and have assembled a complete unit of 12.  Each box provides 30 hatmen, 2 NCOs, 1 drummer, 1 officer, 2 ensigns and 2 casualties.  Luckily the Perries are making the command sprue available separately, as this box provides about 2 battalions' worth of infantry at a 1:20 ratio.  The ensigns don't have gorgets, but otherwise are similar figures to the officer - i.e. no lace and no epaulettes; you could perhaps mix and match.  The ensigns don't have to carry the flags, as there are sufficient spare arms to give them swords or muskets. The key feature of this set for a collecting perspective is the different hats - tricornes, "Saratoga" hats and cut-down/uncocked hats.  This makes the figures usable across various campaigns and I very much hope that future AWI plastic sets will continue this theme, as that will increase the variety.

So, the positives: superb detailing and "casting" (I don't know what the equivalent plastic word is!); hardly any mould lines; excellent "Perry" faces; the variety offered by the command figures; ease of painting.  I also like the trail-arms pose (there is a "charging" option too).  This is a new pose in the Perry range and seems an apt one for troops moving quickly through rough and wooded terrain.  I've seen comments from some people who don't like it, but I do.  Marching and firing figures are already available in metal.  Another new feature on these figures are the "tumplines", i.e. rolled blankets in which the troops stored personal items.  These were slung across the back, but the figures are sculpted such that you can leave the tumplines off - all the other necessary straps are sculpted on to the back of the figures.  Finally, these figures are in the one-piece "gaiter-trowsers" (or "overalls" as the Americans called them), which again help on flexibility of use.

To my mind there are two negatives, although I suspect these will dissipate with practice at assembling the figures.  First, there's no obvious place where the tumplines should sit on the figures' backs.  Unlike the French and British Napoleonic infantry, for example, which have clear "bare" areas where the backpacks go, it's tricky getting the tumplines to sit naturally anywhere on the back of the figure. I was expecting there to be a flat bit on the tumplines to indicate the part that is fixed to the figures, but that isn't there either. The back of the figure itself doesn't give any indication, as it's sculpted to work without tumplines being attached. One solution is just to leave them off.  It may just be me, as Eclaireur finds that the tumplines sit well with the upper part across the ammo pouch and thinks a couple of the figures seem to be mildly recessed under the right shoulder to help the fit.  Perhaps I just need to experiment more.  Eclaireur also made the good point of having the folds of the tumplines facing upwards, as otherwise the bits of kit stored inside the blankets would fall out (I think the examples on the Perry website have the tumplines the other way around).  But as it is, I wonder whether the tumplines on the painted figures I've photographed here just look "stuck on".  Another suggestion was to dissolve or heat the bit of the tumpline which is attached to the figure, to bend it a little.  I might give that a go.  I also wondered about the straps for the tumplines, which don't appear to be sculpted on the figures - but apparently the blankets were attached to the canteen or breadbag straps.  (I also couldn't identify the bayonet scabbard belt, but perhaps that is "hidden" under something else.)    

The second issue I've had is that the different hats are very delicate and if you're not ultra careful it's easy to cut chunks out of them when you remove them from the sprue. The hardest ones to cut off are the un-cocked hats (i.e. the hats I'll use most frequently), as they are joined to the sprue by a triangle-shaped bit of plastic that needs to be carefully carved out of the hat.  Again, hopefully this will get easier in time, but it's going to be important to keep some of the leftover hats as spares, I think.

But those two points aside, I have no complaints whatever with the figures and the figures receive a hearty recommendation from Tarleton's Quarter.  The painting guide is right up there with the Napoleonic French hussars box's guide as a model of its kind (almost worth the price of the box in itself).  I had no idea that the troops' overalls came in different colours (white for summer, dark blue, brown or black for winter), and there is a helpful section on loyalist units that are thought to have worn lace on their coats, and so can be modelled with these figures (although, ironically, it seems that the officers of loyalist units often had lace, even if the hatmen didn't; so the command figures here need lace painted on).  And talking of painting, these paint up like a dream.  They are certainly easier to paint than the metal equivalents.  So they officially join the Perry plastic Napoleonic French infantry as being "figures that almost paint themselves".  

So what do I have planned?  Having started 25mm AWI back almost 10 years ago now, I pretty much have every British regiment in miniature.  I'm going to re-do a couple that require larger units for certain scenarios or which appear in "the South" and I only have them painted up in full warrant uniform, and some loyalist regiments as well (ignoring lace issues - I'm not going to bother scraping all the lace off the figures if it transpires that the King's Royal Virginia Rangers or whatever didn't have lace on their coats).  So here's the list:

- 17th Foot: 24 figures (for Princeton);
- 40th Foot: 32 figures (for Princeton);
- 57th Foot: 18 figures (for Hudson Forts);
- 63rd Foot: 30 figures (for Hudson Forts;)
- De Lancey's Regiment: 18 figures - red faced blue, which un-cocked hat;
- Royal North Carolina Volunteers: 8 figures - red faced blue; cocked hat;
- New Jersey Regiment: 12 figures - red faced blue, in-cocked hat (or I might go for the green 1777 uniform);
- Queen's Own Loyal Virginians: 12 figures (green faced red; cocked hat);
- Prince of Wales' Loyal American Volunteers: 20 figures - green faced blue, cocked hat;
- Loyal American Regiment: 16 figures - green 1777 uniform.

And the figures in the photos?  They are the King's Orange Rangers in green coats for the 1777 Hudson Forts scenario (in the third volume of AWI scenarios published by Caliver Books).

French line horse artillery (2)

Here are the two Perry French Napoleonic horse artillery packs which, together with the Foundry pack I painted last October gives me one complete battery.  According to Adkin, each French cavalry division at Waterloo had a horse artillery battery of four 6-pounders and two 5.5 inch howitzers.  I haven't really started on any cavalry from my French army as yet, with only one cuirassier regiment painted.  I suppose what puts me off rather is the length of time I know it will take - those cuirassiers took the best part of a month, I recall, and that was at a time when I had much more time than I do now.

There's not much more to say about these figures.  I have a few more Napoleonic things to post about but tomorrow I'll have some AWI.  If I can drag myself away from eating chocolate this afternoon I'll post a review of the new Perry plastic AWI British infantry. 

8 figures. Painted January 2013.

French line foot artillery (5)

This is the last French line artillery 6-pounder crew I painted recently, the Perry pack in greatcoats.  The Perry French range now gives you artillery crews in service dress, shirt-sleeve campaign dress and greatcoats.  I wonder the extent to which all 3 "uniforms" were worn in the same battery.  Anyway, these are nice figures, very easy to paint.  To recap on the greatcoat colours: for French Napoloenic light infantry and artillerymen, i.e. those who wear dark blue coats and trousers, I use the Foundry palette "French Blue 65" with a final highlight of Foundry "Deep Blue 25B".

I still have several more Napoleonic units to blog about, but I've called time on painting Naps and am returning to the AWI.  I had hoped to be able to post about the new Perry plastic AWI British infantry, but unfortunately I've been beasted at work recently and haven't had much time to paint the 4 trial figures I've assembled.  I should have 4 trial figures finished in a few days and will reserve written judgment until then. 

4 figures. Painted January 2013.

French line foot artillery (4)

This is just a short post on a little vignette that uses up the balance of the Perry "infantry hired help" figures.  I could have based these figures singly but I thought putting them together on a small stand with their muskets and packs would look better, and of course can be used outside of the "artillery zone".  The greatcoats are painted using the Foundry "Stone" palette, which is the colour I'm using for all my French Napoleonic line infantry greatcoats at the moment.  When I painted these and the other infantry figures that went on the artillery crew stands I painted the shako pompons in 2 different company colours, as I thought it would be unlikely for an entire company to be on artillery duty at one time (at 1:20 the 6 figures in the pack would represent an entire at-strength company).  I suppose if you added some epaulettes to these figures they would make quite nice extra artillerymen.

Two further things to say while I'm here.  First, I'm having Blogger problems again, in that I've noticed a lot of comments I've posted on other people's blogs aren't there.  Either the blog owners are not allowing them through (unlikely) or something goes wrong when I submit them.  It mainly seems to happen on blogs where you have to do that ghastly "captcha" word verification thing.  Secondly, while I have 8 posts' worth of finished Napoleonics to write about over the next couple of months, I'm going to spend much of the next few months on the AWI.  I'm waiting for my boxes of Perry plastic British infantry to arrive and I'm also re-visiting Eureka's cavalry figures.  Some cryptic statements on TMP also suggest that we'll see plenty more Perry AWI releases in due course (the last metal pack was AW175 and the plastic British are AW200, so I assume there are at least another 25 packs to come!).  Finally, I'm making progress with Bill Nevin's excellent King's Mountain highlander figures and when the first unit is finished I'll post some pics before I send them off to Bill in the USA.  I don't take on painting commissions (there's not enough time to paint everything I want for myself!), but Bill made me an offer I couldn't refuse and he's getting 50-odd painted highlanders in return!   

3 figures. Painted December 2012.

French line foot artillery (3)

Here are 2 further artillery pieces and crews that I put together with the additional figures contained in the Perry Miniatures packs, FN20 "infantry hired help" and FN21 "extra artillery crew".  I like mixing up the figures supplied in artillery packs, so long as the end result matches some kind of realistic activity.  When putting all the French Napoleonic artillery crews together I looked at a number of books for details on exactly who stood where and for what purpose.  Adkin's "The Waterloo Companion" has some good info on all this and also of use were the old Osprey "Napoleonic Artillery" MAA and the Almark "Nations in Arms" book on Napoleon's Artillery by Paddy Griffith. (Did Almark ever release any other titles in the "Nations in Arms" series?  I've only ever seen one other book on British cavalry.)  Painting all these Perry packs coincided with the release of the Befreiungskriege limited edition artillery-ish pack (which I painted the other week while on paternity leave) and some artillery-related goodies from Westfalia Miniatures which I am hoping to paint up soon.

Anyway, about these 2 pieces.  The story with the first is that the trained crew has largely been lost due to counter-battery fire (I'm ignoring Wellington's orders at Waterloo against this) and a wounded officer is explaining to two infantrymen "hired help" what needs to be done.  In the meantime, the remaining artilleryman examines the ammunition situation.  I gather than while the ammunition wagons were situated behind the batteries, each gun's little ammunition box (not sure about the correct phrase) was kept quite close.  In the second set, 2 artillerymen with trailspikes are positioning the gun while another gunner gives some orders to an infantryman helper carrying some drag-rope.  Asn I mentioned in my previous post, making up extra crews like this is good fun but you then need extra guns to go with them.  Perry Miniatures seem to have a policy of not selling artillery guns separately, so the options are either to buy them elsewhere (for example mega-expensive Foundry or Front Rank) or buy some of the Perry limber packs that come with guns.  It is an easy decision really, so I bought one Perry French 6-pounder foot artillery limber set, but I'm a still one gun down; I'll probably just wait a while and then buy some other limber packs.

A couple of readers asked about the buildings in the background of this sequence of Napoleonic artillery posts.  They are from Tablescape, from whom I've been buying a variety of stuff over the years.  As well as making buildings to order (like my AWI Ring House and Harvard Church) they do a lovely range of ready-to-go Mediterranean buildings that can be used for several different theatres and periods.  These buildings are very light and nicely painted, and blend in well with my other Touching History Spanish-style terrain.     

8 figures and 2 guns.  Painted January 2013.