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!

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

Battle of Möckern AAR

The other week we finally got to give the Battle of Möckern another try. Before I start with the AAR I shall show you the force compositions, so know which forces faced one another:

French OOB
Battle of Möckern
Republic to Empire rules
[EDIT: Please note there is a typo in the name of Maréchal Marmont]

Prussian OOB
Battle of Möckern
Republic to Empire rules

Deployment was quiet straight forward. The French Troops under Lagrange were deployed inside the village of Möckern, with the Légère being deployed behind it as reserves. They could only be released after the first Prussian assault on the village itself. The troops under Buquet were deployed on the fields east of the village. The French artillery was positioned in between these two formations.

The Prussians under Klüx were deployed opposite the village, with the Leibgrenadierbattalion being kept back as reserves. They could only be released after the first unsuccessful assault on Möckern. The Second Detachment was deployed on the fields east of Möckern opposite the French lines. The Prussian 6pdr. batteries were deployed between the two formations with the cavalry behind them. Th horsemen would stay in reserve until von Yorck saw the moment fit to unleash them. At the earliest this could happen on the fourth round (they would be released on a roll of 6+ on a D10 with each previous attempt giving them a +1). The 12pdrs. were not deployed on table but off table and would start firing on the fourth round.

Möckern (French side)

The Prussians won the first initiative (they would actually did so each round) and began a general advance. On their right the Gardejäger had deployed the whole unit as skirmishers and it was behind them that the Landwehr advanced, with the Ostpreußisches Infanterieregiment to their left, both in line. On the fields Two regular and the reserve battalions were at the front deployed in Collums of Attack with the Landwehr battalions advanced behind them in line. The artillery opened up on the closest French infantry on the fields, without doing much damage.

Prussian Skirmishers advancing on Möckern

Initiative passed over to the French. While the troops inside Möckern naturally stayed put and those in the fields advanced slowly in line. The two French batteries split their fire between the Westpreußisches Grenadierbattalion on the fields and the Ostpreußen near Möckern. They too only inflicted moderate damage.

French Artillery firing at the Prussian lines

Now it was the Prussians turn once more. The troops opposite Möckern continued their advance with the Gardejäger opening fire at the defenders doing the first damage. On the fields there was a further advance with the 12te Reserveinfanterie preparing to charge. But before they could do so it was the artilleries turn. The left battery had to shift its fire to the French artillery on account that part of the Prussian lines now obscured the French and managed to put the crew for two of the French guns out of action, while their companions still created more damage for the infantry. Now the reservists charged the French to their front. The French fired a defensive volley at point blank range, but still they went on. Both sides already inflicted heavy casualties on the other, but not enough to send one running. But after continued heavy hand to hand combat the French broke and ran, never to return. But at a heavy price with the reservists having lost more than half their number. But still they stood fast.

First contact

On their next turn the French in Möckern still just held their ground. The troops on the fields contented with just firing at the Prussians to their front without doing much damage or with sending some infantry to re-crew the French guns. Only the French battalions from the second line (now front) opposite the 12th Reserveinfanterie charged them. The Prussians were still disordered from their own attack and while they managed to get some defensive fire off they were unable to break the French impetus and after short combat broke themselves. They would still be retiring at the end of the game. Again the French artillery fired at both the Grenadierbattalion on the fields and the Ostpreußen near Möckern inflicting more damage, having found their range.

Battle on the Fields near Möckern

Back to the Prussians the action went. Near Möckern they advanced further, but the Ostpreußen now decided to deploy as skirmishers to lessen the effects of the incoming artillery, which would work out, but at the same time meant they would be less effective assaulting the village.

On the fields the 14te Schlesische Landwehr got into position to charge the French who had just broken the reservists, but faild to get their morale up for the charge. Unfortunately the same happened to the Brandenburgisches Infanterieregiment. The Grenadierbattalion decided to fire at the regiment to their front, since the second artillery battery could now longer fire at the french infantry either. And their fire proved effective enough. With the second Prussin artillery battery now shifting its fire to the French artillery as well, they caused impressive damage, killing all the infantry replacements for the crew plus the crews for another 4 guns!

Landwehr vs. French Infantry

Now the French defender inside Möckern remembered that they could fire back, which they did causing minimal damage ion the Gardejäger.

On the fields most of the French proved happy firing at the Prussians with moderate effect and sending yet more infantry to help redrew the French guns. The French who had previously dispatched the reservists now decided to charge the Landwehr in position to charge them. Their superior numbers and quality proved decisive and after heavy losses of both sides the Landwehr pulled back.. The French artillery virtually did nothing this turn. One battery was in no state to cause much damage and the other failed to make an impression on the dispersed skirmishers of the Ostpreußen.

Advance on Möckern

On their next turn the Prussians did extremely well. Both the line Regiments on the fields charged their French opposites causing both to break and run. Together with the previous losses and those troops send to help the artillery this only left a nucleus of French on the fields. While the Gardejäger caused some further damage on the French defenders of Möckern the real star was the artillery. One of the Prussian batteries shifted their fire to the next French battery taking out the crew for one gun. But the other one annihilated the mauled French battery taking out the remaining crew and damaging the guns before the French infantry even got a chance to redrew them. To make matters worse for the French the next round would also see the Prussian cavalry released. At this point the French player decided to call it a day.

Opposing lines crash

All in all one very entreating game and we more than happy to pal it out this time without too much discussing of rules. Having read them again before the game really helped there! 😉

 

French Napoleonic Hussars pillow fight (Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge entry #2)

As mentioned in a previous post, these are the minis I painted first for Curts Analogue Painting Challenge. But this is the entry for the first fortnight theme (non-combatants) and Curt wanted to post all those at once, so these hit the internet as the second entry. As indicated before, the non-combatants theme was giving me headaches. At first I had thought that I should do one of the battery area markers for my Napoleonic batteries. Those are supposed to cover a huge area and convey lots of little scenes, which can include non-combatants. But then again a large area would have meant lots of figures and I simply did not have the time for that. While The Challenge started on the 15th, I had my last day at work on the 17th and could not start before that date. At the same time we left for my better halfs relatives on the 20th and I did not want to take paints, minis, basing materials and my camera equipment along, so things had to be finished before that date.

So something else had to come up. After Curt squashed my idea of British WWII soldiers having a cup of tea (Thanks Curt! ;-)) I came up with these. Essentially it is a command stand for some French Napoleonic Cavalry. Now I would never assume that two officers would count as non-combatants, but I really hope the two mistresses will count. Well I hope them having a pillow fight is not too combative. 😛

The officers are from Perry. One of them is a General de Brigade, the other his ADC. I looked at the colors of the different French Hussars regiments for some time and ended up with the 5th since I really wanted to work with some light blue and was intrigued by their blue shakos. Not sure if there ever was a Brigadier that wore a uniform from the 5th, but I simply wanted to do them this way. So far so good. In the end I think I should have gone with a different unit, at least for the ADC, since well… with all this light blue they look like a bunch of Smurfs! The two ladies are from Eureka Miniatures and are painted to match, except that they are wearing enlisted soldiers jackets (yellow piping) instead of officers jackets (gold lace). Depending on what source you look at, one could use different shades of blue. For example the Histroire & Collections book on French Hussars shows them in a darker medium blue. Rousselot depicts them in a light sky blue. I felt the later was possibly the more accurate source and I wanted to try out some of the light blues I had bought last year and still had not used.

5th Hussars officers
(Yes, while other men march into the meat grinder, the Hussars have all the fun!)

5th Hussars officers

5th Hussars officers

5th Hussars officers

Hope you all like this little vignette! For those of you wondering about the other FOURTY 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.

Now on to thinking about what to paint for the villain, which is the next theme and while the deadline for that is only the 5th of January, I have a similar problem with my private timetable, so I will have to tackle that first!

 

Some Napoleonic game shots

Late November we began our Möckern game. Due to vast amounts of chatting and calling an end early that day we only played one round and decided to pick it up last night. Well… while we played longer (real-time) we only got half a round done, due to rules discussions and discussing what would be historically correct. In the process we found that we had made a mistake during the resolution of close combat, moved the minis back, began the close combat anew, discussed what could be done differently as a house rule, tried that out and so on. Bottom line… we botched the evening up for good! So in the end we decided to reboot and start the game from the beginning either between Christmas and New Years or in early 2014. No matter what… I managed to take a couple of nice photos, that I want to share!

Möckern (Prussian side)

Möckern (French side)

Jäger approaching Möckern

Prussian and French lines closing in

Prussian artillery firing

Prussian left

So what is next? Well tomorrow Curt´s Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge starts. I already have a good amount of British Tanks and Infantry (all WWII), SS end a few Napoleonics cleaned up and primed ready to go. More will follow when we are off to visit my better halfs relatives over Christmas, so there should be plenty of stock to work from (plus I am expecting my Warzone minis any day now).

As I said in a previous post, the first fortnight theme (non-combatants) was giving me some headaches, but I think I shall have that sorted out with a nice Napoleonic entry. So stay tuned!

 

Some painted SS troopers and the birthday haul

Now that the big Möckern Project is over, I want to turn my attention a bit towards my WWII minis again (although not completely). As outlined in another post, I want to paint my WWII Brits and a good amount of my SS for this years Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. To get back into the mood I decided to paint some SS this week. And here are the results.

Some years ago I went and looked at all the different patterns used for camouflage uniforms by the SS and painted at least one sample each, both spring and autumn versions. I found that there were two I liked the most and those were Eichenlaub (the spring version) and Erbsenmuster. So while my forces will still have some odd other camo mixed in, the majority of the troops will now wear these two types of camo. And this also suits my needs quiet well, since most of the action these minis will see will be rather late war, when these types were already in use.

Up first are the troopers in Eichenlaub. All the minis are from Victory Force (as are the minis in Erbsenmuster), which are still my favorite minis when it comes to WWII Germans for the love for historical accuracy and detail. I only found that the faces were quiet different in style from the ones I have painted over the past 1 ½ years and that these were giving me some pain. Painting these was straight forward. Feldgraue trousers, jackets in a lighter Feldgrau to represent lighter fabrics for the jackets (you can only see the collars of course), Eichenlaub smocks and in one case helmet cover (mini on the far left). Otherwise it is just the utensils carried by the men and the camouflage painted helmets and they were done.

SS Eichenlaub (front)

SS Eichenlaub (back)

Now with the Erbsenmuster I went a bit further. Now the Erbsenmuster was no used for smocks, but for trousers and 1943 and 1944 type jackets. So I went and used Heer type minis for them and painted them accordingly. While the shades are virtually identical regardless of factory and age for Eichenlaub, there are huge differences in shades with Erbsenmuster. I guess this is due to the lower quality of dyes during the late war period. So I went and mixed and matched a bit here. Bold and bleak patterns in this group and even on one mini as well as a regular Feldgrau jacket mixed with camo trousers. I really love what you can do with these.

SS Erbsenmuster (front)

SS Erbsenmuster (back)

What else. Well this week saw my birthday (36th if anyone is asking). So what did I get? Well my better half was kind enough to grace me with a few vehicles from Warlord Games. Three Daimler MK I scout cars (one will be converted) and a Unic Halftrack with 3,7cm PaK (this will joined the three regular and one command variants still in my painting queue). Great stuff, which should allow me to round out my armored forces in due time. From my parents I got the Rousellot book on French Napoleonic uniforms. Leafing through it, this is one of the best and most comprehensive books on the subject I have seen so far and should make a great addition to my collection. Some of the first minis painted for the above mention Painting Challenge will be the Limited Edition minis from Martin K´s Befreiungskriege blog which contain a foot artillery drummer and two train soldiers. Looking at the drawings of those last night, I am sure this book will be extremely handy!

 

Generic French Ligne Regiment

So as promised in my last post here are two more units of French Napoleonic Infantry. As with the last unit shown, these will serve as stand-ins for the Marine Artillery at Leipzig and otherwise will see service as a generic French infantry unit for a number of battles. A purpose made so much easier by their covered flags and fannions.
As before these two unit are pretty small with 20 minis (which equates to roughly 400 men under the R2E rules). When all that Leipzig rush for Crisis in Antwerp is over these two and the previous one will all receive another company, which will bring them to strength for use as an average French unit of the time I want to depict.

After I painted the last battalion up von Peter pointed out to me that according to regulation it was not the first company of a battalion that was carry the eagle/flag or fannion (as I had arranged them with that unit) but the second company. That way it would always be in the centre of the unit, no matter the formation. Now I did not go back and change that with the previously depicted unit (simply too many men with sabres on the bases in question where the tassels could not be corrected once multibased), so that was one unit that did not follow regulations. But with these two, I heeded to vP’s advise and their command bases feature the colours of the second company.

What else? Well I am usually a big fan of Calpe, but I had a hard time getting around these minis when I returned from my holidays. Even though the first unit was about 1/3 finished when I got back, it took me ages to finish it. Now Peter from Calpe has done some extremely detailed minis here! Which is fine unless you are a stickler for details (like me) and working on a tight schedule. This got me somewhat frustrated and as a result working slow. But if ones worst complaint about a mini is that it is extremely detailed… well there could be worse. On the other hand it was good to paint the second unit right afterwards since I managed to finish it in one weekend plus about a week with roughly two to three hours painting time a night. When I did the work on the bases yesterday though, I was extremely happy I chose Calpe for these battalions. They just look so immensely beautiful in my humble opinion.

I am not going to do photos of individual stands this time, to make sure I do not bore you with tons of detailed photos of marching men in greatcoats. If you want to see more detail, just click on the photos, since they are linked to larger versions:

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[1st battalion, marching]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, in line]

Generic French regiment
[2nd battalion, marching]

And I could not resist, but also take a photo of all three battalions in formation:

Generic French regiment
[three battalion shot]

I have to admit, that this progress was badly needed. I still have two Prussian commander bases (which will be next), the Brandenburg Hussars, two batteries of Prussian artillery and one battery of French artillery, and the village of Möckern itself to do. All in just one month. If push comes to shove, the Prussians could do without the two additional batteries, since they could be simulated with off-board fire and I could use a 12pdr. stand-in for the French, but after 2 1/2 years of preparing for this, I would hate it if I stumbled on the finish line. I shall keep you posted on the further progress!

 

Generic French Ligne battalion

Well, so I finally managed to finish these after all.

What can I say about these. Well first of all I plan to use these as a stand in for a marine artillery battalion at Möckern. As I said before, there is very little use for these men (marine artillery that is) outside this battle. So the three battalions already painted will be the maximum for me and the other six battalions will be served by stand ins.
Which is just as well. With the standardisation of the French uniforms during the later parts of the Napoleonic wars, the only difference between one unit and he other are the inscriptions on their flags. So having a generic battalion of Frenchmen comes in handy.
These Calpe minis here are just perfect for a generic unit. First of all their greatcoats swollow up what little difference there might be in uniform. The other thing is, that they come with flags and fannions covered up in oilskin. This easily masks the last destinguishing mark of the unit. Usually I would have removed these and replaced them with proper GMB flags (after all Napoleonics are about splendor, right!), but in this case I was just fine with that and kept them this way.
What else is there to say about these? Well as usual I loved to paint these. The detail of the Calpe minis is just great, as is the quality which makes the a joy to paint. While I keep repeating myself in this regard, I really mean it and I have to say with the Calpe French range expanding, I already regret having so many I unpainted Perrys lying around. (Face it… The animation on the Perrys is great and they are almost as detailed, but the casting quality is abysmal.)

Anyway, on to the paintjob itself. As usual I went for a muddied “on campaign” look, with greatcoats and trousers of different colours to represent men that had been everywhere for Napoleon and had to take what they could get, to replace lost items.
I painted stands for the Voltigeurs, Grenadiers and first to third companies. Right now I only need small 400 men battalions as stand ins, so this is enough. When done with the Möckern preparations, I shall return to these and paint them another stand for the 4th company to bring them to the average strength for the period I am playing, but this is the existence they will need to lead right now. So on to the minis themselves:

Generic French Battalion (frontal view)

Voltigeurs

Command – 1st Company

2nd Company

3rd Company

Before anyone mentions it. Yes, I know the Pom Pom colour for 3rd Companies should be rather a pinkish red. Not sure why I went for yellow here. I will change that soon.

Grenadiers

Generic French Battalion (march collumn)

Now those remembering my last post will ask “what will we see next and when?”.
Well in recent days I felt like I have gotten over my painters block. But you will not see anything new from me till late August at the earliest. We will be off to a three week hiking and festival trip to Scotland and Wales soon. After all the stress of recent months, I really feel I can use it! So if you see someone who looks like a Wargamers happy to unwind on a Ben or Munro in Scotland, up on Mount Snowdon or at the 40th anniversary concert of one of my favourite bands (Runrig)… say hi! 😉 When I return, there will hopefully be pictures of the next French unit, those riverboards I have bee working on or even better… another game report!

Take care!