House Hunters Russian Edition

While I have some houses set in rural Russia for the Napoleonics to WWII era, it seems there never were and never are enough. So some time ago I decided to beef this up. Buying the models had been the easy part, actually building and painting them took ages it seems. So in order of their purchase dates, here they are:

Up first is a Russian Orthodox Church. Now these days there are a number of extremely nice MDF kits out there and I would be hard pressed to decide which one to use, but back when I decided to beef the numbers up there were none. So I decided to take a different route and use the Perry’s ACW plastic Church kit. I scraped off the Christian cross above the entrance, which sounds easier as it was without damaging the wooden planks, and replaced it with one laser-cut from MDF. The cross is by a small UK company. Unfortunately I can not remember their name to give them credit. The regular roof on the bell tower was left off and the resulting square hole shut off using a piece of plastic card. The onion shaped dome is from Fenris Games. All that was left to do was paint it. In real life there is more contrast to the wooden planks and also some greenish stains, but it seems the natural light when so took the photos nearly soaked that up (same also applies to the other buildings in this post).

Russian church

Russian church

Up next is the windmill. In a way this is kind of a kitbash as well. The basic windmill is by Warbases. I replaced the original tool with coffee stirrers, since I wanted a real simple roof there. Since I wanted it to be raised and of a kind that was able to turn with the winds I constructed an under structure from wooden strips and Hirst Arts stones. To make it all accessible I added a ladder from the same company that provided me with the Orthodox cross. I know a set of stairs would probably have made more sense, but this is easier to store and there is a door up on the rear side for lifting goods into the mill anyway, so a ladder had to do.

Russian windmill

Russian windmill

Up Last are two razed buildings. These are extremely nice kits from Charlie Foxtrot (you are going to see a few more of their models over my next posts). I really love their chimney stacks. They really add something to the looks of these burned down buildings. I build these two sets pretty straight forward assembling the buildings and painting them. They come with lots of separate planks and so on to allow you to mimic rubble and I decided not to paint these. Since they were thin strips of MDF they already looked suitably scorched as it was. So these were just filed in after the painting. Now once it was I all glued together this proved to be a mistake, since they looked immensely different from the way I had painted the rest of the buildings. The original plan had been to give the edges of the buildings a quick black spray with the airbrush and give it all a light black dusting to back it blend, but I realised that this would not do the trick. Something else would be needed. So I treated it all with a candle, making sure it left soot marks over the building and rubble. I also noticed that the floors looked to clean and that there was too little debris there. Thank gods it is BBQ season right now so I took some coal dust from the bottom of a bag of coals, smashed up a small piece of charcoal to get some larger pieces of debris and files that over the floor and debris to enhance the looks. And I feel it worked. If you want to try this yourselves, please make sure you are working outside or in a well ventilated room (the heat from the candle combined with the paint could cause fumes) and that you have something on hand to extinguish the fire should you overdo it. Also, sealing it all with varnish afterwards is a must otherwise you will smear things and you and other players might get dirty using the buildings.

Razed russian house

Razed russian house

Razed russian house

 

Terrain and Star Wars Armada repaints

I know this blog has been a bit quiet (again) lately, but I have not been idle, just too busy taking to take photos. There is also a batch of three points of Normans and Mercenaries for SAGA and a Lord for Warzone finished, but I have not gotten around to take any photos of them.

So without much further ado, here we go:

Right after Crisis I wanted to start kicking with a few small terrain pieces. Up first was a Celtic Cross for the Dark Ages. The model is by Timeline Miniatures. I loved the very intricate and detailed carvings on the stone, so it was a must have for me, even though it looks a little tall next to 25mm minis. The only letdown was the basic block it rests upon, which looked too basic and too much like MDT for my taste, but a little structured paint did the trick there. Just a little paint and presto:

Celtic Cross

Celtic Cross

Up next was the Village Fountain by Sarrissa Precision. Now this one was a little more complicated. I had put this together last year, always with the intention of adding artificial water. I did not want the moisture from the artificial water to soften up the white glue, so I used two-part epoxy instead of white glue back then. So far so good. So I painted it up and started pouring the first layer of Vallejo Still Water into the fountain. Everything looked good. The next morning I inspected my work and it still looked good. I picked it up and all the MDT layers came apart and the artificial water which had not completely dried started seeping through the gaps. Seems the two-part epoxy reacted with the artificial water as well. 😦 I quickly clamped everything together and for the next couple of days I kept it clamped together while pouring the next layers. The idea being, that the clamps would push it together and prevent if from coming apart again and that the water inside the fountain (and between the layers) would keep it stable and in one piece. After all this was done, the piece spend a couple of days atop the radiator to make sure it dried completely. After I removed the clamps it all stayed in one piece. Now I had to repaint parts of the fountain to mask the gloss where the water had come through, the spots where one could see the gaps in the MDF and the clamp marks. Then I added ripples with Vallejos Water paste and it was done. More effort than I wanted for this small piece, but in the end, it looks good.

Village Fountain

Village Fountain

And last… Martin and I have started playing some Star Wars Armada lately. Now we have decided to concentrate on one faction each. Martin will play the Rebel scum and I the glorious Empire (which does not mean we will not swap sides from time to time). Anyway, right now we have three core sets between the two of us (Martin has two, the other is mine), plus an extra set of Imperial fighters and one each of the ships from the Wave 1 expansions. And while I play the Empire, I felt this was too many Corvettes and Frigates in the Rebel fleet for them all to look the same (lets face it… I am not that likely to field 3 Victory class Star Destroyers in one game anyway), so I decided to give mine a repaint. I gave both quick diluted black wash to make the details stand out more. The Corvette got highlighted in tan and sand colours while the Frigate was highlighted in Ivory and White. For the Frigate I decided to paint the red markings over completely and replaced them with blue chevrons that run over the whole forward hull to enhance the shape of the ship. The Corvette just got the red markings overpainted in blue. Added some engine glow to both of them that was it. Nothing special, but it took less than an hour, which is fine by me. I guess starting December I will start (re)painting the Imperial ships and fighters, but I guess that will be more work, since I do not completely like the base colors of the ships (they do not look like they do in the movies to me).

Star Wars Armada – Corellian Corvette

Star Wars Armada – Corellian Corvette

Star Wars Armada – Nebulon B Frigate

Star Wars Armada – Nebulon B Frigate

 

Marechal Michel Ney and ADCs

Reading through all the theme round topics offered for this year Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, I think the second round was the easiest for me to make a pick. When I started painting napoleonics a couple of years ago, it be pace apparent to me that the one thing that would never be missing there was a wide range of spectacular cavalry and officers. One of my favourite sets from the moment I saw it was Perry Miniatures rendition of Marechal Michel Ney based on the Waterloo panorama at Waterloo.

What I really love about this set is all the dynamic and drive in the miniatures. Most napoleonic higher command miniatures are quite regal, watching the action from afar, but these look like they are in the heat of it (like Ney and his ADCs were that day)! And the last thing that always appealed to me is, that they are French officers, so there are is lots of gold and silver fabric in their uniforms and saddlecloths and therefore lots of opportunities for NMM gold and silver, which I have really started to like since I started with Napoleonics!

Michel Ney and ADCs

Michel Ney and ADCs

On a general note: in the past I have often had mixed feelings when it came to the Perry Miniatures casting quality. In this case I was really happy. Except for a bad mould line running over chef d’escadron Levavaseurs face, these minis were really perfect!

Michel Ney and ADCs

But I felt there was something missing in the set. If you look at the painting itself, one can see, that there is not just Ney, Colonel Heymes and Levavasseur riding close together, but another officer, too (plus a Cuirassier being shot from his saddle, but there was not enough room on the base for him). It is hard to tell from the painting but his uniform looks lighter in colour, so I assumed it was not one of the other two Colonels acting as Neys ADCs that day, but possible someone of lower rank. So I chose a miniature from one of the Perry’s ADC sets and painted him up as an imperial orderly.

Michel Ney and ADCs

Michel Ney and ADCs

Michel Ney and ADCs

I decided to keep very close to the painting itself while painting the minis. There are only two exceptions. Heymes horse is depicted as a white with dark grey socks. I personally wanted it to rather be a dappled horse and painted it up that way. The other exception is that I painted the leatherwork on Neys horse a dark brown instead of the red leather on the painting. At first I had gone for red, but it did not really look good with the mini and looked far too dandy for Ney. looking at Rousellot (Christmas present from my parents last year) he has him with brown leather work as well, so that seemed fine with me.

Michel Ney and ADCs

Michel Ney and ADCs

Michel Ney and ADCs

Well, this is it. Hope you like the results of my work! This will be the last miniatures post for this year, but fear not, this is not the last you will hear from me this year!

 

 

 

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion

So at long last, they are done. Well the minis have actually been done since the beginning of the month, but until yesterday I was still waiting for the flag to go with them. Grahame from GMB shipped them almost exactly two weeks ago… how long can it take to ship something airmail from the UK to Germany… thanks Royal Mail and Deutsche Post! 😉

Anyway, they are now complete. I really enjoyed painting them… well as much as I ever enjoy painting the first unit for any nationality in a historic setting, given all the looking up of details and eventually getting one or two wrong after all it involves. But the minis themselves were just great. Nice clean castings and lots of character on every single one of them. Having just finished a lot of my WWII Brits last month, it is amazing how Paul Hicks skills, especially at sculpting faces, have evolved in the last decade (actually far shorter, looking at the metal Romans he did for Warlord about six years ago).

So what do we have here. As many of you know, my interests lie with the late Napoleonic Wars period. So essentially the 1812 invasion of Russia, the subsequent Befreiungskriege and the 100 Days. For the former two, Poles are a must have in my opinion and so it the Duchy or Warsaw I am painting now. The biggest decision is whether I want some for Borodio or Leipzig first. Since I want to paint a lot of Russians next, it is clear that it had to be Borodino, or more specifically the 16th Div.. Most amazing to me is, how small this formation actually was. As I discussed with von Peter in private a few weeks ago, a lot of people just see the heavy toll the winter took and the Grand Armee on the retreat from Moscow, but few see the toll heat had already taken on it one the way there. But back to the size of 16th Div.. For example the 3rd Line Regiment (of which we have the 1st Battalion here, entered battle with just 1275 men of all ranks, decided into three battalions, so just over 400 men each. Not a lot and this about the biggest regiment in a Division that only fielded a Regiment or two per Brigade. But this will also allow a fast build-up of a substantial subunit of the Grand Armee. The only mood point is, that the 3rd did not fight at Leipzig, so they will other have to act as stand-ins or will not see use for that at all.

Anyway… enough ramblings… here are the minis:

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion (Voltigeurs)

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion (1st Fusilier stand)

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion (command stand)

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion (2nd Fusilier stand)

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion (Grenadiers)

Duchy of Warsaw 3rd Line Infantry, 1st Battalion

Before anyone points this out… yes I know the Voltigeurs and Grenadiers are on the wrong side of the formation… simply botched that up during photography! 😉

 

Giveaway minis… they are done and ready to go in the post

I had originally planned to have these done by the end of last weekend. But last weekend it was too bleeping hot to paint (these minis required a lot of detail work and the paint kept on drying on the bris before I even got close to the minis with it) and this week lots of private matters intervened, so they are only done now. The good thing is, they are ready to go in the mail tomorrow, but I wanted to show you some pictures first. So in the order that they were painted (please excuse the crappy photos… these are just quick workbench shots under artificial light, so I hope unpacking these minis will come as a pleasant surprise to the winners):

The mini of Edward I “Longshanks” gave me some creeps for some reason, so I decided to start with him first. I the end this turned out unfounded and I quiet enjoyed painting him. Being from the dark ages where paintings and sculptures are essentially no good for details, I decided to take some artistic license with him, but also chose to be partly inspired by the movie Braveheart since I felt that the sculptor (eBob) did the same. I went for a dark red with the barding on the horse and the tonic of the king as opposed to the rather orange cloth used in the movie to depict some expensive, high pigment dyes.  This caused some problems, since I had decided to paint the Frisian he is riding as a chestnut (like the horse in the movie) which provided very little contrast. So I gave the horse white socks and  skin coloured mouth area which did the trick. Matt left me the option to either do the base myself of leave it plain so he can match it to his armies. I opted for the later. I always hate it when a base does not fit the army theme and I know my basing is a bit off the beaten track, so I just cleaned up the base here. I used a lipped style base as per the eBob Rebellion rules.

Up next was Napoleon. I was helped a lot by the fact that I already painted a Napoleon about two years back and could go back to my research here. All in all it was a straight and fun mini to paint and I was happy that it did not have a mould line running over his face like my Napoleon. There are different images of Napoleon out there. some with a green vest others with a white one. Just as with my mini I decided to go for green. With his white trousers and shirt as well as the grey coat he would just have been too boring without. Fran wanted no particular base since this mini will join his collection of minis painted by other bloggers, so I went for the rather more showcase´y lipped style base here and added some static grass and flower tuffs (unfortunately small ones on account of the base size).

Last is Uxbridge. Just like Napoleon he benefitted from he fact, that I had painted this mini about two years ago and did not have to look up things like horse colors or uniform specifics. This mini held me up somewhat. A couple of years back I had put him on a large base (not sure why) and during painting I found that there were a number of places that I could not reach. So I had to remove him from the base and mount him on a film container as I do with all my Napoleonic minis for painting. But unfortunately this meant another days wait while I waited for the glue to dry. All in all I can only say that I really enjoyed painting this mini (for the second time). I think it is one of the finest in the whole Perry Napoleonic range in all its dash and splendor. Monty will most likely use this mini as the nucleus for a Napoleonic force. Since the people he will be playing with are not entirely sure on the rules they will use and how to base the commanders, I left him unbased. This will give Monty the option to base him accordingly, plus I always feel that Napoleonic commanders of this rank should have another few minis on their base and this will keep the option open for Monty as well.

So now I will pack these up and tomorrow they will go to their new respective homes in the UK and USA. Hope you three will like them and i will see them on your blogs when put to game (or showcase) use.

 

 

Sale at Murawski Miniatures

OK, I guess everyone can see that I have taken a liking to them, with two post in just over a week about them. Well I do not mind it. I know that there is another reason for this sale and that is to create the funds to allow for a faster expansion of the line. And on the list for said expansion are goodies such as Polish hussars, chasseurs and cuirassiers. The later are especial interesting in my book, since they will finally allow us to re-create the Cavalrybrigade Thielmann at Borodino (together with those fine Saxon Cuirassiers from Eureka)! But I will pass the microphone on to Roger from Murawski Miniatures:

Hello everyone

I reach the big 50 this August and to help celebrate the occasion I have decided to hold my first ever sale!

To this end please see attached:

Price list July 14

July newsletter

In addition I will be able to offer deals on shipping based on order size etc.

If you’d like further information please email me at:

roger.murrow@mmc2100.co.uk

Look forward to hearing from you.

Roger

PS Vistula Legion battalion packs are available – same as GDW

 

New from Murawski Miniatures

Right now I am feeling the call of Napoleonics again. So once I done with those WWII Brits on my table right now, I shall tackle some Poles from Murawski Miniatures. I am currently cleaning those up (and am waiting for a few more in the mail to complete the numbers for this regiment) and they have given me quiet some joy just cleaning them up due to their level of detail and crisp animation. So in this mood of happiness I stumbled over their July newsletter and thought I should share it with you.Those firing line look ace, especially the command and I think they will make a great addition to my collection in the future!

These pictures here just show some of my favorites, but I think their July newsletter is well worth checking out!

 

Birthday / Milestone giveaway

So it is time for another giveaway on this blog.

So what are we celebrating? Well, a number things actually. For one this blog turned three in April. “Uh… what… April, you say! Why only now?” Because I wanted to wait for a number of other things to happen. One is that this blog reached 125 followers (actually this figure was actually breached in April, too). Some may remember, that we were higher already, but this is before I severed the connection via Facebook, which contained a number of people, who are not interested in Wargaming and therefore just muddied things up. So being back to that level was a huge milestone for me! Third we breached 250.000 hits, Oddly enough, it seems that Fran aka. the Angry Lurker was the visitor that pushed us over a milestone once more (this has happened twice in the past). Fourth, we breached 2000 comments earlier this month. Fifth… this is actually the 250th post! Oh and we have our first follower via Twitter… Fran again ;-)! All in all I feel this warrants another giveaway!

So what is up for grabs?

Well last year, I gave away some books on historical topics. I was thinking about doing the same once more, but honestly, all books went overseas last year and the shipping on them nearly killed me! Given my financial situation I decided  to go back to basics this year and offer you some painted miniatures and these are (in order of them being drawn):

1. Lord Uxbridge from Perry Miniatures
2. Edward I, King of England from eBob Miniatures
3. Napoleon (on foot) by Perry Miniatures

Giveaway miniatures

All of these come from my own stocks and were not donated. The minis will be painted over the next few weeks, but it might take until after the draw that they are actually finished. Depending on request I will either change the basing on these minis or send them un-based. To give you and idea of what the finial minis will look like… here is a photo of the Uxbridge mini I painted for myself two years ago:

Lord Uxbridge and ADC´s

Should you feel that you are not interested in any of these minis… well you can always have something else painted by me. Essentially send me a substitute (one 28mm mini or four 20mm or six 15mm minis or even a single 20mm or 15mm vehicle are fine, but talk to me… depending on the topic this can be expanded), tell me how you would like it painted and it will be done!

Now what do you have to do to get into the draw?

1. Comment on this post and if you prefer one of the above miniatures, mention it. If it is still available at the time your name gets drawn, it is yours.
2. Be a subscriber to this blog. There are essentially four ways to do this. (i) If you have a WordPress account you can follow this blogs, via WordPress. (ii) You can subscribe via eMail (third option from the top on the right). (iii) Or you can follow via Twitter (second option from the top on the right). (iv) The fourth option is to have this blog on your blogroll on your own blog (I know there are people who follow blogs that way). While you can follow this blog via RSS feed, there is unfortunately no way for me to know, so that is excluded. You need to be a subscriber at the time of the draw obviously, but I would be happy if you remained one after it, too!
3. You do not need to post about this give-away on your blog. But if you do with a link back to this post, you get a second ticket in the draw (please mention it in the comments here, as that makes it easier to check).

And this is it. The draw will be held on the 13th of this July 0800h CET, so make sure you toss your hat in the ring by that time! Good luck!

 

Napoleonic casualties (Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry #8)

So this is my entry for the next fortnight theme. I have long had these minis and for a long time I wanted to turn them into a casualty marker for my Napoleonic games. The minis are from Warlord Games small Napoleonic Prussian range. While the plastics are an absolute pain in the behind due to their soft detail and undercuts these casualties are just brilliant… characterful faces, crisp detail and great interaction between the minis. The only change I made was replacing the banner to be carried by the wounded soldier with a musket (from a Victrix French Guard set). Warlord means these minis to be used as part of the unit, where a banner would be fine, but I felt that on a casualty marker this would just draw too much attention, so I did without. The minis were painted up to act as a casualty marker for a unit of silesian Landwehr or more specifically the 3tes Battalion, 13te Schlesische Landwehr, as denoted by their yellow shoulder boards.

Prussian Landwehr casualties (front)

Prussian Landwehr casualties (back)

But there are also some more casualties. I initially planned to do these as part of the fortnight theme, but after not doing so well on the last two rounds and since it seems I am unable to take proper photos this year (even if my life depended on it), I decided to stick to just one base of minis for the theme round and here is the rest. I painted a awful lot of Napoleonic French and Prussian units over the past 2 ½ years and one thing that is missing are casualty markers for them. As as part of the Challenge I decided to paint a few more up, to beef up their meagre ranks. The French are from Perry Miniatures (metal). Virtully all my French are wearing greatcoats and to my knowledge these are the only two French casualties in greatcoats around, so I simply had to use these.

French casualty (front)
[Not sure where that green smudge on his nose comes from… it is not on the mini itself]

French casualty (back)

French casualty

The other is a Prussian Regular by Calpe Miniatures. The brick-red collar and cuffs denote him to hail from a Brandenburgian unit.

Prussian Regulars casualty counter

All of them are mounted on octagonal bases, each numbered through (by my better half… my hand writing is rubbish). While this is not really a fabulous new idea, I do not like the bases with the integrated casualty wheel (too thick for my taste). They are placed behind the unit that took casualties, with the side that matches the number of casualties facing front. They are placed left or right behind the unit depending on the moral state they are in. The clever bunnies amongst you will realise, that  some units may take more than eight casualties. In that case the counter os moved one base towards the centre of the unit, with each base it is being moved denoting a +8. But I already explained this in more detail in an earlier post for those interested.

And one more shot. When taking these photos, I did not realize, that the shutter was still still open on the camera when removing the mini. This created a somewhat ghostlike shot that I wanted to share with you.

French Ghost

And as usual… here is the link to the special page Curt set up for you to see (and cast your vote) on all the entries.

 

Napoleonic 95th Rifles (Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry #6)

Now even though the title says that these minis are my 6th entry into the Painting Challenge, this is only half-true. These are also my entry into the 3rd La Bricole Winter Painting Challenge with the fitting title “Deploy Skirmishers”. As the title suggests, this one is about light troops. I have to admit, that it caught me quiet of guard. Usually the La Bricole Challenges run for some time, but this one runs “only” for about a month and the first I heard about it, was when it started. With the time taken by private matters (like looking for a new job) and the Analogue Hobbies Challenge I was sure I did not have the time to get the minis for a unit of my choice from storage and clean them up. Luckily I had cleaned up and primed a bunch of 95th Rifles minis some years ago and had put them away, when I concentrated on my French and Prussians for Möckern. So I only had to glue them onto the film containers I use for painting and the party could begin.

I had hoped that these would paint up a little faster and that I could paint an entry for the next fortnight theme (Hero or Heroic group) on the Analogue Hobbies Challenge at the same time, but some time last week it became clear that this was not going to happen. At the same time I was in no mood to halt work on these for something else. Thinking about the exploits of the 95th I was sure, that that could be passed as heroes. And it even got me thinking some more. Is not every soldier a hero in a sense. I mean it takes a good amount of courage to march out into a field to face thousands of other men who are there with the intention of ending your life. I think to do that takes courage and heroism. And since Curt allowed them to be entered, I can not be that wrong!

2007 Royal mail stamp showing a rifleman form the 95th Rifles

Now on to the Rifles themselves. The unit was created in January 1800 as the “Experimental Corps of Riflemen” to provide sharpshooters, scouts and skirmishers. They were renamed the “95th Regiment of Foot (Rifles)” in 1803 (in between they were also renamed “The Rifle Corps”). In 1805 and 1806 they were sent to Germany to liberate Hannover from France. Five companies had a brief stint in South America where they were surrendered by their commanding officer, but after negotiations they were allowed to leave. At the same time the rest of the Regiment accompanied Athur Welsley (the later Duke Wellington) to Denmark. They were also send to Schweden, but never left their vessels.

Their real rise to fame began during the Peninsular Campaign. Here they fought in every major engagement and served right from the landings at Mondego Bay till the advance into France. As part of the Light Brigade they were always in the thick of battle. One of their most heroic feats (here we come full circle with the fortnight theme) was the battle of  Battle of San Marcial where a company under the command of Captain Daniel Cadoux held off an entire French division at Vera before withdrawing. They inflicted 231 casualties and suffering just 14 killed, unfortunately including Cadoux.

After Napoleons first abdication, they returned to England for R&R and indeed many men who saw their enlistments end, left the regiment. But with Napoleons return to power, many of them returned to the unit and the unit returned to Europe to fight again, seeing action at boy Quatre Bras and Waterloo.

For those who want to get some idea of their exploits during the Napoleonic era (and not only from a TV series starring Sean Bean [I like him as an actor and always did, but I simply do not believe in Bernhard Cornwell or Hollywood teaching history]) there is a very good book by Mark Urban simply called “Rifles”.

OK, enough of that and on to the minis, shall we! All of these minis are Perry Miniatures (two of them plastic, the other metal). There is twenty of them in total, which under the Republic to Empire rules (1:20 ratio) will allow me to field them at full strength for Quatre Bras or if I remove a few minis, for Waterloo as well. I did this with my Black Watch and I am going this with all my Napoleonic British, since I do not play the Peninsular and this will allow me to replay either battle.

I have to say, they are some of the Perrys best minis, since each and every one has lots of character (often you only find that with the command packs or special packs). None the less the casting quality still was bad, as usual. I simply cannot understand how they can sculpt such nice minis and be so horrible on quality control. I know these came from one of the first batches, so they should have been good, but even though I took great care to clean them up, I still found some flash or chimneys where I did not expect them and had to remove them during painting. All in all I went and did a fast job on these to be able to finish them in time (and still had to pull a night shift on the last night), so they might now look as nice as my other Napoleonic minis. But before anyone asks… yes the numbers on the backpacks are freehand!

95th Rifles (front view)

95th Rifles (rear view)

95th Rifles (command stand)

95th Rifles (officer and bugler)

95th Rifles (front view)

Again they were based on half bases (except for the command stand) to allow me to use them in full skirmish deployment as well, just like what I described with my other light troops.

95th Rifles (skirmish formation)

For those of you wondering about the other entries, here is the link to the special page Curt set up for the first fortnight theme and for people to cast their votes for favourites.

Up next we shall stay British, but this time we will be back in WWII.