Napoleonic Army – Page 8 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

32nd Foot ready for action!

Well, the drive to finish the troops in my latest battalion continues, although I do feel that I may be rushing things just to get the battalion finished. Continuing from where I left off last week, the next stage in the process was to paint the Belt plates, bayonet scabbard tip and musket plate in Brass, Vallejo 70801. I also added the buttons in steel and painted the waterbottle belt with Leather brown 70871.

Water bottle strap & belt plate added

At this stage I then turned my attention to finishing the back packs and equipment. This involved yet more white paint and the neutral grey 70992 for the blanket rolls. I also snipped them off of the sprue and tidied up the black and any other flaws caused by the cutting. A bit of a tricky operation but on balance , I do think that I have saved time by painting the back packs separately.

The quartermaster issues finished back packs!

The final stage of painting was then to tidy up any major paint overruns, touch up the grey trousers with neutral grey where necessary and add the white line to the bottom of the coats. I also painted the bases Vallejo chocolate brown, 70872 in preparation for basing the unit later and of course, attached the back packs using super glue. Polystyrene cement wont work too well because of the coat of paint- this is the only time that I would use super glue on a plastic figure!

back packs on & bases painted.

Now comes the tricky bit. I paint the troops with Army painter Quick shade. I prefer the dark tone although I know that some will say that the Strong tone, which is more of a brown colour, would work better with the red coats. You could also use an ink wash at this stage, it would give you a similar result but the Strong tone has a varnish element to it which makes the figures more durable when on the table top and it is my intention that this unit will see plenty of action!

Dark tone applied

The next step is then to matt varnish the figures with Army painter anti shine. This again, can be a tricky operation as varnish can be troublesome so I tend to use a light coat at first. I’ll then give them a second light coat after I have based them. That said, I may just resort to using Vallejo Matt varnish and brush it on carefully where required.

army painter anti shine first coat

At this stage they are just about table ready but there is a couple of things to do before the basing. I am going to re highlight some of the white to really make the cross belts stand out on the table and I’m going to paint the bayonets and buttons bright silver. This is also the time to have a last look at the figures and correct any obvious errors in painting. This may seem a step too far but it does help to tidy up the figures. It’s always a difficult decision to decide when a batch of figures are complete. Each time I look at them I can see something else that could be improved but at some point they have to move off of the painting desk and onto the gaming table! As you can see from the picture above, I wll base the figures in groups of four on 40mm x 4omm square renedra plastic bases. I like the renedra bases as they are not too thick and provided you are careful with the basing material, there will be no ‘warpage’. That said, If I was basing metal figures I do prefer thicker MDF bases. It’s all down to personal choice!

The 32nd foot on their bases!

You can see from the picture that I am nearly finished. I used the Vallejo Dark earth textured paste to mount the figures on their bases. There is no need to use glue. Just spread the paste all over the bases and then press the figures into the paste. I then used a cocktail stick to blend the paste over the bases. The textured paste is about the right colour but if you want to, you can paint it. I gave it a quick dry brush to bring out the texture using flat earth, Vallejo 70983 lightened with Iraqi Sand. The final touch was to add some green scatter and some tufts of Gamers grass to add some interest to the bases.

32nd Foot ready for action!

And so it is on to the next job, painting the command group. These are metal figures and are beautiful sculpts. I will take a bit more time with these, so it will be a week or so before the whole Battalion is really ready but for now, the troops are done! To be fair, not the best batch of troops that I have painted but for me, certainly the fastest. I think that I have spent about 12 hours in total on the 18 figures, which is about 40 minutes a figure.

Next up, the command group, primed and ready for painting!

Soap opera painting – The 32nd Regiment takes shape.

warlord figures, assembled & primed

Last week I started painting the 32nd ‘Cornwall’ Regiment. I am going to paint the rank and file of 18 troops in one batch – quite a large number for me – I usually paint in batches of 6 or 8. I’m going to use the blog as a means of keeping motivated whilst painting! I hope that the stage by stage pictures will be a help to any newcomers to the hobby and perhaps to anyone looking for ideas on painting in general. There are advantages and disadvantages to ‘batch’ painting. On the one hand, you do get a large number of figures finished in one go but this is off set by the time it takes to get to the final stage and see that the figures are table ready! A degree of patience is required to stick with the process. I think that there is also a drop in quality when painting a large batch as opposed to individual figures. However, as these will form the main bulk of the unit I don’t think that it will be quite so apparent and I will of course spend a bit more time on the officers.

My other name for ‘batch painting’ is ‘soap opera painting’… Basically, when Emmerdale or East Enders start on the TV it’s time for me to head out to the garage to do some painting. That is another advantage of this method. It is easy to paint in short bursts as you know exactly where you are in the process and it allows me to use any free time to keep things moving. I find it difficult to paint for long periods of time any way – my back seizes up and my eyes get tired, so batch painting is a good way for me to keep producing units.

Hair and black equipment painted.

After assembling and priming the figures I blutack them to temporary bases to make handling easier and then start the painting. I try to paint from the ‘inside to outside’ of a figure and I always start with the flesh. I mentioned previously that I had left the back packs off to see if this made the painting any easier and you can see from the picture above, that they were primed in black rather than grey to save a bit of time on painting. Once the flesh is done I paint the hair on the figures – usually I choose three or four shades of brown and mix this up randomly. If I am feeling particularly lazy, they all get dark brown hair! The next stage is Vallejo Black 70950 for the hats, Boots and Bayonet scabbards.

Iraqi sand for the linen food bags

The next colour is Iraqi Sand 70819, for the linen food bags. You could use a lighter colour or even a white but I think this looks about right and these bags were likely to be discoloured with use. You will notice that at this stage I am not too fussy about how accurately the paint is applied. My general rule is not to worry about over runs, particularly when another colour will be applied adjacent to this colour. I do try and be fairly tidy where I have already painted a colour though. I’ve also painted the wooden bits on the rifles in Flat brown 70984.

Red coats on!

The next colour is Flat red 70957. Now I know from the chatter on the forums that I could write a book on what colour red the coats really were. Any shade from brick red through to dark pink would do it. However, these are war gaming pieces and the coats need to be red, so no surprise, that’s the colour I’ve chosen. If you prefer something different, feel free to use which ever shade of red you think appropriate on your figures.

Work starts on the equipment.

Once the red was finished I moved onto the steel, 70864, for the musket barrels, bayonets and pans on the back packs. I also painted the water bottles 70901 in pastel blue. It is also worth mentioning at this stage that I will be using the army painter dark tone quick shade and I know from experience that this will alter the colours that I have used very slightly, as well as providing the shading and lining.

The 32nd battalion of foot starts to take shape!

The next colour is the white straps, facings, cuffs and lacing. I’ve changed brushes from a ‘1’ to a smaller ’00’ for this job. I’ve used Vallejo off white 70820 – I prefer this colour to the Vallejo pure white as it is a bit softer. The unit is beginning to take shape but still looks a bit rough around the edges! Just to give you an idea of how long it has taken me to get this far; the White takes about 10 minutes a figure. So 18 figures represents about 3 hours of painting! To be fair some of the other colours are much faster but I estimate that so far I have spent 7 to 8 hours on this batch and I am about halfway there before basing! This means that I have missed the wedding heartache on Emmerdale and will never find out if a family fallout will ruin Ashley and Laurels big day… But Hey! That’s the price you pay for having a hobby like ours!

If work, family and life in general permits, I should get on to the next stages in the coming week and I will have more to show in the next blog!

The 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot

My next project will be to complete the British 8th Brigade as it appeared at Waterloo. Just to get things into perspective, I wont be making an accurate scale model but a representation of the Brigade for gaming purposes. I’ve put that sentence in as I know from the chatter on facebook and other forums that some ‘hobbyists’ can get quite animated over the detail when it comes to painting Napoleonic’s, or for that matter any military subject. It often seems that most of the ‘chatter’ comes from people who rarely lift a brush themselves. It’s hardly surprising though, they are too busy critiquing other peoples models to get on with their own. But lets not go down that rant road! I hope that by publishing my progress with my army I may encourage others to have a go. If nothing else, publishing my blog helps to keep me on track with my army.

So the British 8th Brigade at Waterloo comprised of the 28th North Gloucesters, a Light regiment in stove pipe shakos, facings in yellow. The 32nd Cornwall, a standard line regiment, facings in white, the 79th Cameron Highlanders, dark green facings but Tartan kilts and finally 6 company’s of the 95th rifles. Also attached at Divisional level were two Foot Artillery Batteries, so I’ll probably add one of these in as well!

32nd Line Infantry (Centre Companies)

I think that it is an interesting Brigade to model as it contains a good variety of troops and it will also push me into finally taking up the challenge of painting tartan! However, I’m going to start with the easy option, the 32nd Cornwall, and see if I can churn these out fairly quickly using my batch painting technique, with a new twist for me!

As always, I do a bit of research before starting to paint and my three favourite references are the Waterloo Companion by Mark Adkin, British Napoleonic Uniforms by C.E. Franklin and the superb web site

Mont St Jean.

If you are new to Napoleonic’s, you really will find it hard to find three more accessible and useful sources. I will be using the Warlord Games Waterloo line infantry for the troops. I grabbed a box of these as soon as they were released, so the version shown still has 36 troops in it. This has now changed to a set of 24 – the usual number of models used in Black powder, so I will have a few spares for another project. The boxed set is a mixture of Plastic and metal models – plastic for the rank & file, metal for the officers & ensigns. Incidentally, there is a very good colour leaflet to help with painting included with the warlord boxed set.

The Warlord figures are nice sculpts, particularly the metal figures, which have plenty of character. The plastic infantry are in just three pieces, Body, head and back pack. You do just get a marching pose, with none of the figures firing but I am happy with this for wargaming purposes. If you prefer a firing line, the Perry Boxed set is for you. If you would like to mix it up, try Victrix! Assembly is quite straight forward, with little flash to remove. As I mentioned previously, I intend to build a unit of 24 models and so I assembled the 18 infantry men first.

Warlord WATERLOO BRITISH-LINE INFANTRY 28mm

This time I did not attach the back packs, I decided to test a technique used by others which involves priming the main body in grey but leaving the packs on the sprues and priming them in black.

Rear of Box

The theory being, that I will save time painting by not painting over the primer. So on the bodies, the trousers will be left in the neutral grey primer and on the equipment, I just have to paint the water bottles, blanket & straps. Batch painting 18 figures in one go is more than I would usually attempt but I am under no pressure to get these on the table for a game at the moment, so it will be interesting to see if I can keep to the plan. The other advantage in doing things in this way is that it is easy to paint in short bursts. So if I just have 5 minutes spare, I can paint say, a couple of the water bottles without having to figure out where I got to on my last session. Well, we’ll see how it works out. Here’s the progress so far, showing you the primed figures & separate equipment and the first colour painted on, Vallejo Flesh 70815. The picture will perhaps help to make sense of the above…

warlord figures, assembled & primed

One by One – Done, done, it’s on to the next one!

11th Light Dragoons – prepare to Charge!

I’m not sure the Foo Fighters are really relevant to Napoleonic war gaming but it was playing in the background as I came to write this blog post and it did seem appropriate. Another unit is completed and I’m on to the next one! A question that I am often asked is how many units are you going to paint? Well, I do have a vague idea and it revolves around completing some (not all) of the brigades that were present at Waterloo. The plan is to complete the first British Cavalry Brigade ( Household), The 2nd British Cavalry brigade ( Union), 4th British Cavalry Brigade (Light Dragoons) 6th British Cavalry Brigade (Hussars). As well as these cavalry brigades, I intend to have the 6th Infantry Division (I’ve completed this), The 1st infantry (Guards) division, the 8th British Brigade, The 2nd KGL brigade, and finally, a representation of both the Brunswick Contingent and the Nassau Reserve Contingent. Of course, I’ll also need the relevant Artillery, support and Command troops to go with these units. So it’s safe to say that I will be working on this project for a few years to come.

11th Light Dragoons

As you can see, the unit representing the 11th Dragoons is now complete and ready for battle. I was tempted to continue and paint the other two Regiments that would complete the Brigade. But a change is as good as a rest and so I have started the next Infantry Battalion in my grand plan. I think that mixing in it up a bit does help to keep me painting. I know that there are some hobbyists out there that are focused enough to start a brigade by buying all of the figures in one go, assembling them all and then paint them as one project. My butterfly mind wont allow this, so I like to chop and change things a bit. It also means that I can get on with other periods or subjects, so I may take a short break from Napoleonics and paint some Wars of The Roses figures, for example.

As well as mixing up the subjects a bit, I am also happy to mix up different manufacturers. I think that there is very little difference between Perry Miniatures, Warlord Games and Victrix – they all mix happily. I’m also happy to include Front Rank, their figures are generally excellent, albeit a bit bigger than the others. Of course, Foundry are also useful, although a bit on the small side – if you add a bit of height to the basing, no one will notice the difference. However, both these manufacturers can be used to create separate units that look fine on the war games table.

The final tip that keeps me painting, is to try new techniques. And so it will be with my next unit. I usually completely assemble my infantry figures before painting them but on the next unit I’m going to try something that one of my gaming buddies does, that is, painting the equipment whilst it is still on the sprue. However, I’ll show that in the next blog for now, The 11th Light Dragoons are finished and it’s on to the next one!

Regiment ready for battle!

Trouble with Cavalry

The Charge of the Scots greys… or not!

It’s strange how a narrative can develop over a series of otherwise unconnected games. I play Black powder regularly with a group of friends on a Thursday night and one of the themes that has developed has been the poor performance of my Cavalry regiments. Now they are subject to the same whims of fate inflicted on my dice throws for as for all my other units but time and again, it is the Cavalry that refuse to do as they are told!

The Blues are not for moving.

We tend to use a rather generous fixed leadership value of 8 and so you would expect the orders for these units to be passed more times than they are failed. Not with my beauties! I have lost count of the number of times that my nicely painted regiments of Scots Greys and ‘Blues’ have sat at the back of the table refusing to budge or even worse, blundering and withdrawing from the action, playing little or no part in the battle.

Charge to the rear Boys!

Things came to a head at last weeks club battle. To be fair, because we were a bit short of participants the mix of opponents was rather strange. A combined Austrian and British force was facing a combined British and French force – the French force being made up of a number of units of Lombardy Legion and Polish battalions. I suspect the purists out there will be reaching for their caps lock on the keyboard just at the thought… Anyway, I digress, back to the battle. My opponent, Pete, had rather misjudged his advance and had left his guns limbered within charge distance of my cavalry. I was about to order the charge when Wayne, who was spectating said “are you going to do a ‘follow me’ order?” Well, Pete wasn’t too impressed by this coaching from the side-lines but it was sound advice. By passing this order I would get three moves and the charge would be pressed home. And to my surprise, it was! A glorious victory for the British Cavalry right at the start of the game and the opposition Artillery routed and off the table, Huzzah!

Follow me boys!

So far, so good. Except that was the end of my good fortune. I proceeded to throw six blunders during the course of the game, constantly throwing away any advantage that had developed. On top of this, at one point in the game, my light Cavalry were presented with a flank to charge by a rather enthusiastic enemy infantry unit. Hah! I thought, I’ve got him now, I’ll do another follow me order and rip the centre out of his army. I rolled eleven… order failed. Despite this, my luck held. Even though Pete was now aware of the danger, his units failed their orders and were still vulnerable to a flank charge. Brilliant! ‘Follow me boys’ charge! Again, the dice roll was eleven. Good grief, my infantry units looked on in disbelief as the Cavalry just sat there and the game was gradually lost in the continuing blunderfest! Ah well, there’s always next week…

11th Light Dragoons on the workbench

Mind you, this poor performance on the Battlefield isn’t exactly inspiring me to get on and finish my 11th Light Dragoons. To be fair, I have been somewhat distracted in other ways, the arrival of a new Granddaughter, Eleanor, and a spot of decorating in the house have curtailed my painting time. Progress has been made though. The Horses are finished, with a grey for the trumpeter and the officer will have a nice Black mount. The main colours are now on the troopers with just the detail to do. It’s surprising how much difference a coat of Quick shade will make to how they look and of course once the basing is finished they will be ready for the table. Perhaps this Regiment will move when ordered to!

Trumpeter & officer of the 11th dragoons await the final details to be painted.

The Retreat from Bitteburg 1816

As I mentioned in my last blog, our gaming group, the White Hart Gamers, played another of our mega games two weeks ago. Once again the battle was based around the fictious town of Bitteburg and following the Allies defeat in the first battle of Bitteburg, we had decided that this would be the last in the series! The scenario was that the French, having driven the Allies from the field of battle at Bitteburg had caught them and would attempt to destroy the last allied army in a final set piece battle. The set up was very straight forward. There were three players per side, each player having his own Corps Commander as per normal Black Powder rules. In addition, the player in the centre was the overall army commander, who could give three additional orders with no distance penalty. The idea being that, the overall commander could use his influence to link the three ‘Corps’ together.

Set up and ready to go!

We held back at least two brigades each in the initial deployment. They could be deployed, a brigade at a time, on the Corps Commanders orders, but only within D6 of the centre of the players deployment zone.

Set up complete, the battle commenced. For the French, it was simply a matter of pushing the Allies from the table to win. The Allies were tasked with breaking the French Army. As with all of our previous games, once we were started, the game effectively broke into three separate ‘mini games’ with very little overlap. As the French forces in front of me quickly advanced, I became engrossed in the battle in my sector, paying little attention to what was happening elsewhere!

Joint Anglo Prussian Forces await the French onslaught

My immediate plans to form a defensive line between the woods and church was thwarted by the refusal of my infantry brigades to move! In fact, the light infantry and Artillery had moved into position only to find they had no support at all from the rest of the army. Even the capture of a French Spy was of no comfort.

A French spy is apprehended!

To make matters worse, two of my Artillery batteries blundered, limbering their guns and advancing straight into the waiting enemy!

Under Pressure from the French.

As the two Armies closed to engage, a relentless fire fight ensued but on this occasion the British were out fought. The forward British units were picked off and the rest of the army refused to move! Perhaps the previous battles were beginning to undermine morale! Fortunately, I had reinforcements to bolster the Allies and the Prussians deployed in an attempt to relieve the pressure.

Here come the Prussians

The French Brigades began to waver under the Allies numerical superiority and at last their central brigade broke, retreating in disorder. Well, almost… Despite this small success, the Allies were unable to capitalise on the break in the French line and through blunder and failure to move, found themselves again in trouble. Unable to rally the troops, it was now Allied brigades that began to break and create panic in the Army. Matters were brought to a head when a French Battalion blundered and charged the British defensive line. It should have been a bloodbath for the British but the French carried home the charge destroying the Battalion of Hanoverians facing them and causing the supporting battalions to rout as well. Even a late charge by the Scots Greys could not halt the French.

The Scots Greys prepare to charge

The British line was stabilised by the introduction of yet another reserve brigade. The French were pushed back but this temporary success was short lived as the French brought up their own reinforcements. As the battle came to a close, it was the French that remained in the ascendancy – the British had decided the day was not theirs and withdrew from battle.

Time to survey the battlefield and plan the final assault!

The French had edged a victory. If my battle on the left had not gone so well, things were even worse on the right where after some initial success, our Austrian allies had also been pushed back and badly mauled. The battle in the centre was not quite so decisive but overall it was clear that the French had won the day.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, this was the last battle in this series and a 3 -0 score overall for the French was a pretty emphatic victory. The next big day will be slightly different. Having experience of running these mega battles has given us food for thought as to whether we can run a campaign in a day with several smaller engagements taking place on different tables. Watch this space to see how this works out.

To Battle with the 11th Light Dragoons.

Perry Light Dragoons – the first 6 troopers are finished.

To be honest, the blog post title is a bit of a tease. As you can see, I have finished the first 6 troopers in the regiment and they did indeed see service on the wargames table this weekend. However, time constraints this week prevent me from writing up either a full battle report or a comprehensive guide to painting the troopers. Just to say that I followed my usual process for troops, of block painting the main colours onto the figures, painting them with Army Painter Strong tone ( the black) quick shade, and then once they were dry, spraying them with antishine matt varnish. The final stage is the most important though, I give all of the lighter colours and metallics, a highlight, particularly the white as this makes these areas really stand out. I also used a new trick to help me to get the lines on the troopers overalls. The main buff stripe was first painted and then I painted a grey line down the middle to separate the two stripes. However, rather than thin the paint with water, I used Vallejo thinning Medium, 70524 to thin the paint. It gives a slower drying time but more importantly, allows the paint to flow from the brush, making it easier to paint a long line. You still need a fairly steady hand ( No Jack Daniels for me when painting!) but there’s no doubt it makes a real difference when using a fine brush.

A detachment of the 11th Light Dragoons

The basing was done to my usual process, although I treated myself to a pot of Vallejo Dark Earth textured paste to speed things up. So with the first six troopers done, they were deployed in the latest of our war gaming groups’ mega Battles, the retreat from Bitteberg. As is often the case with new units, they attracted quite a lot of attention. In this case, most of it of the wrong sort. Their first task was to defend the flank of an errant foot battery that had advanced without support, the rest of the brigade refusing it’s orders. My opponent, Pete couldn’t believe his luck and proceeded to shoot the unit to bits! Fortunately, it was able to rally but played very little part in the rest of the battle.

The Light Dragoons are a bit exposed!

I’ll perhaps add a few more pictures to my next blog, along with an outline of the battle. That’s all for now though – time has run out!

British Light Dragoons – Perry Miniatures Plastic Boxed Set

The next project on my work bench is the fairly new set of British Light Dragoons, produced in plastic by the Perry Brothers. Those familiar with this blog will know that I am a bit of a fan boy when it comes to Perry products. I think that they produce some of the best figures available, and the breadth of their ranges are huge. Their plastics are routinely of a high standard and in this set they have surpassed themselves. It is not just the quality of the sculpts that I am impressed with. The value for money is unbeatable. The box says that you get 14 figures, which is technically correct. What it doesn’t tell you is that there are actually 28 figures, 14 horses and an additional 14 spare heads – all for just £20!

The reason for the extras is that the set allows you to build either the early version of the Light dragoons in Dolman and Tarleton helmet, covering the period 1808 – 1813 or you can choose to build the later version of the uniform, with the ‘French style’ coat and Shako used in the Waterloo campaign. The extra heads are to allow you to produce a third option of the type of uniform used in the tropics, where a light tin helmet was worn. So which ever version you choose to build, you will be left with plenty of spares for future projects. Of course, you could buy some extra horses and build all 28 riders, creating two regiments of Dragoons, albeit from slightly different periods.

As my army is based around the Waterloo period, I have gone for the later uniforms with the shakos. As I build my regiments of cavalry in 12’s I will have two spare models for the next regiment – the plan is to start with the 11th Dragoons but I will eventually build the full 4th British Cavalry Brigade as it was at Waterloo. The Brigade consisted of 3 regiments of Light Dragoons, the 11th, 12th and 16th Regiments and was commanded by Sir John Vandeleur, who went on to take command of all of the British cavalry at Waterloo after Uxbridge was wounded in the evening. The Brigade saw quite a bit of action during the battle and was used to cover the withdrawal of the remnants of the Union Brigade after their famous charge, and then later in the battle was busy against the French rearguard as they retreated. The brigade suffered 319 casualties through the day, some 23% of their strength.

Just a word on how I build my regiments and battalions for our Black powder games. I know that the question of unit size can be a vexing issue for many Napoleonic gamers and the subject can get quite heated, if comments on forums and facebook are anything to go by! My preferred method is to build Cavalry in regiments of 12 and infantry in battalions of 24. This allows me to split them easily for the more frequent club night battles that we fight, which invariably are on smaller tables. The smaller units of 6 Cavalry and 12 Infantry allow you to deploy more ‘brigades’ on the smaller table, making the battle more interesting. Purists will point out that a unit of 12 cavalry in a regiment doesn’t really do justice to the fact that the Regiment consisted of 3 squadrons and that 18 figures would be a better representation, as would 36 infantry figures give a 1:20 representation of the average battalion strength. It really is a matter of taste, practicality and of course dependant on the rule set that you choose to play and finally, of course, who you choose to play against.

So having decided which regiment I would start with I then did my usual research to check on uniforms. With the Perry Boxed set, you don’t have to look too far. There is a beautifully illustrated painting guide included in the set and this together with the box art is really all that you need. That said I always like to consult my favourite web site Mont St Jean and the book by Carl Franklin ‘ British Uniforms of the Napoleonic wars’. This allows me to absorb the colours of the uniform and equipment and plan my painting routine whilst dreaming of how they will look when finished!

Research completed, it was time to assemble the figures and horses. The parts all went together very nicely with the minimum of flash and moulding lines to clean up. Just two minor problems – the Shako’s had a bit of a sink hole in the tops – easily filled with a dab of Vallejo plastic putty. The horses seemed to go together better if you cut off one of the ‘retaining lugs’. I always use polystyrene glue when assembling plastics, the bonding process helps to fill any joints. I know that some modellers use super glue – heresy, as far as I am concerned! Don’t do it!

Light Dragoon assembled, ready for priming.

Models assembled, I primed the horse with Black primer and then painted them using a dry brush technique. This isn’t quite so effective as painting them carefully and highlighting them but it is quicker! I used three dry brush coats for the first six horses. The base was Vallejo Camouflage Black Brown, next a coat of flat brown and then a final highlight. I don’t worry too much about washing my brush out between coats, it allows the paints to blend and means that there is a bit of colour variation between the batch of horses that I am painting.

Colour palette for first batch of horses

The first horse in the batch will tend to be darker than the last one! This process also means that the paint will go over some of the straps and other parts of the horse but this is all corrected once the detail is painted. Once the basic colour is on the horses , I then add some white or black ‘socks’ to the horses legs, repaint the manes & tails in black where necessary and finish off by painting the equipment. So, Six horses finished so far!

Three of the first six horses done!

As always, I will revisit the models and add any further highlights that I feel will add to the finish. The process of photographing the models for the blog is a big help in this respect as it enables me to look again at the model with a different perspective. I think that a coat of ink on the leather strapping and the hooves, and a slight light grey highlight on the blankets will help to give these rather flat areas of paint a bit of life.

Napoleons Coach – Finished?

This project has certainly turned out to be even more of a challenge than I originally thought. It has been as much of a test of my patience as my modelling and painting skills. Indeed, I think that if it wasn’t for the fact that there is no other project that is really pressing, I would have shelved this one and moved on. However, I have found a bit of time through the Holiday season to work on the coach and I’ve made steady progress.

As often is the case with this sort of project, I have changed my mind somewhat in how it will be finished. I had originally envisaged the coach being captured by the Prussians after Waterloo. Two things changed my mind. One, being the amount of additional time and resource to complete this diorama ( I hadn’t even got any spare Prussians to add to the diorama) and two, the more I looked at the model of Napoleon, the more I wanted to include him in the piece. There was also the issue of the size of the base required. Just basing the carriage and figures was going to need a fairly big area. So, I decided to finish the model as shown in the Warlord box art, albeit with the door of the carriage open.

As regards the base, I decided to use a laser cut Movement tray measuring 9cms by 21cms. It’s actually designed for 4 x 10 20mm infantry bases but it looks about the right size. I glued on the frame and then lined the tray with cling film. I then filled in the tray with standard milliput. The reason for doing this is to produce a infill slab that will not warp the base when I start to ‘landscape’ it. It’s a trick that I learnt from the military modellers. So once the milliput had dried, I removed it from the tray, peeled off the cling film and then super glued the ‘slab’ back into the tray.

Milliput slab cast!

slab glued into tray

The next stage was to carefully drill into the back wheels of the coach and insert two pins that would secure the coach to the base. Now if I had thought about it, I should have done this before painting the coach but I managed to get the pins into place without causing any damage. Using these as a guide, I then drilled two holes through the milliput so that I could fix the carriage to the base. Before this was done, the whole base was coated liberally in Vallejo Sandy Paste. This allowed me to sculpt some wheel marks into the base as well as hoof prints and generally texture the ground work. I then pressed the coach into the base, using the pins to locate the carriage and carefully added the horses whilst the paste was still wet. There is enough adhesion in the paste to affix the horses but the slow drying time gave me the chance to adjust everything. Finally, I used the two figures of Napoleon and his guard to press out an indent for the bases. Again, the slow drying time gave me the chance to move things until I was happy with the layout.

Once that was dry, I gave the base a coat of Vallejo Chocolate brown and then turned my attention to finish painting the horses and figures. Incidentally, before I talk about the figures, I ought to mention that prior to fixing the coach down I had repainted the coach itself. I noticed that I had painted the top of the coach green where it should be black. I was also not happy with the various greens that I had managed to get. Just to add to my dissatisfaction, I tried to copy the style of shading shown on the warlord box art and that hadn’t worked for me either. So I repainted the black bits black & highlighted them with sea grey. The green was repainted with Vallejo Reflective green (70890), shaded with a light brown wash and then I decided that I wanted a slightly gloss finish to the paint work so I gave the panels a coat of satin varnish. The final touches were to add the gold lining and detail to the coach body, springs and the lamps and to paint the box on the back of the coach brown with brass details.

To finish off the coach, I used some thin clear plasticard to glaze the windows. I also painted the wheel rims with steel but then dulled this down with a black wash. The final thing was to add some light weathering to the wheels, springs and bottom of the coach itself using various shades of brown. I didn’t want to overdo this as I had left the horses in a near pristine finish but I felt a bit of mud would help the overall look!

Napoleons Berlin Coach gets a base!

The picture above shows the coach on it’s base before the weathering and with most of the figures in place. As far as painting the figures, I pretty much tried to copy the art work and the superb painting by Andres Amian Fernandez. A bit of a lazy approach as I didn’t do my own research as I would usually do. However, my excuse is that I am unlikely to be painting many French in the future…

Art work from the Warlord website

The coach outriders when finished looked a bit darker than I had intended and Napoleons coat a bit lighter but I was happy enough with the overall effect. I wont detail all the paints used for the figures but I used my basic technique of block painting the main colours, washing with a black ink and then re-highlighting. The other addition to my technique was to give the figures a couple of coats of anti shine varnish in between paint layers. It seems to help protect the paint as you are working and somehow adds depth.

Napoleon & his Guard

The final job was to complete the base. First of all I added some extra material around the bases of the figures and horse to blend them into the base. Everything was then painted chocolate brown and then highlighted with various mixes of Flat earth & Iraqui sand. Once dry, I added the green scatter, The static grass and my usual mix of grass tufts and flowers. So that’s it for now. I do like to contemplate my work before it is finally finished and I will go back and tweak a few bits. For example, I know that I need to repaint the sides of the base to tidy this up and I may add a few more details to the base – but for now the model is finished and it’s on to the next project!

Napoleon visits Little Bingham

‘Tis The Season To Be Jolly!

Unfortunately, being jolly and the serious work of painting miniatures don’t always go together. Now that doesn’t mean that I’m not cheerful or happy when I’m painting – far from it! It’s just that after a couple of Jack Daniels or a glass of beer, my concentration seems to go along with any ability to paint between the lines! So if the socialising at this time of year gets in the way, so does the logistics of getting ready for Christmas. It seems that we have been on the Christmas countdown since October and things are now reaching crisis point. ‘Oh my God, it’s the 10th of December and we haven’t got our tree yet’ is the latest distraction and it’s difficult to slide off to the garage to do some painting when quite clearly there are more important things to do. Personally, I’d prefer to fit this Christmas malarkey around my hobby rather than the other way around but being a wargaming Grinch isn’t really an option, especially when the wife plays the Granddaughter card!

Napoleons Coach – brass trim added

So the opening paragraph is really my apology for making very little progress with modelling and painting in general and Napoleons coach in particular. You can see from the shaky picture above that I have added the gold trim, painted the lights and the trunk at the rear of the coach. I’ve also repainted the green using Vallejo Reflective green although something has gone wrong with the wheels. Whether it is the different under coat or I’ve just picked up the wrong paint ( Jack Daniels effect), the rear wheels definitely look different to the rest of the coach.

Napoleons coach close up

So it’s back to the paint table and another coat of green. I’m also very tempted to paint the wooden Chassis green, just leaving the springs and metal work in black. Of course the real difference will come when I start the shading and highlighting. A dry brush over the main colours followed by a light ink wash will help. However, I think that what is really needed, is a good solid session of at least half a day working on the coach rather than the odd 15minutes here and there. On that basis, I cant see Napoleon in his coach this side of Christmas, so the good news is that it may be sometime before the next Coach blog article….

Slow Coach…

With all the time preparing and fighting the Battle of Bitteburg, my painting time has been somewhat curtailed. It’s also that time of year when the pressure is on to get ready for Christmas a month in advance of the actual event! To be fair, some of this is driven by family get togethers, when presents are exchanged early, whilst socialising and catching up. The net result is that very little progress has been made with my various modelling projects.

Horses for Napoleons Coach

I have made some progress, though. The horses are nearly finished and I’ve started to paint the coach itself. I’ve decided to paint pure white horses for the coach, rather than greys. Just to make life difficult for myself, I’ve been layering the paint on to build depth of colour and highlights rather than my usual technique of ‘paint & wash’. So the horses were undercoated in Black, painted Light Grey, then Sky Grey and then Off White. I have used a Vallejo Light Grey wash over the mane and tail to bring out the texture. I then touched up the horses tack in Black, painted their eyes and decided that I had enough of painting them for the time being!

Off Side Horses

There is still much to do though. The hooves are black at the moment and these need to be painted either in a light brown or beige. The metal parts of the tack need to be picked out and the tack will need highlighting with a black grey to show the detail. I also need to do some more work on the faces, to add detail to the muzzles, nostrils & ears. Finally, I might add a bright white highlight to the horses. I’m deliberately going for a very bright stark look to the horses. I realise that they would in reality have muddy hooves & legs and I may yet add this but I wanted the horses to look over exaggerated in their pristine appearance, as though they were specially chosen to pull the Emperors coach.

The coach itself

As for the coach itself, I’ve started to paint this but I’m not happy with the shade of green. I’m using Vallejo flat Green but it looks too bright. I think that I will go back and repaint it in the darker Reflective Green shade. I’ve picked out the interior seats with a Red Black and used Saddle brown for the coach mans seat. The wheels are also painted green although I’ve experimented with a darker green for the front wheels. All this messing around has meant that I’m still a long way from finishing this project. I think that given a good long painting session rather than the odd half hour here and there I could get this done but with even more commitments looming for the Festive season, it will be a couple of weeks before I can even think about basing this project.

The Battle of Bitteburg Part 2

In the last report, I explained the background and set up to our fictional game ‘The Battle of Bitteburg’ In this article, the focus is on the battle itself. As a player, it is quite difficult to write an entirely impartial view of a battle. Not only are you very involved with the battle as it unfolds around you, but it is easy to lose touch with the detail of what is happening elsewhere. In my case, I could see what was happening to my immediate left and right, but our far right wing was very much out of sight. I could only rely on the reports of the general commanding the Division there. Those reports tended to be somewhat vague. When asked how it was going, the standard reply appeared to be ‘OK’. There was very little detail to flesh out the situation and to be fair, once I had ascertained that things were OK, I was happy to focus on my own problems!

Now if I was having trouble working out what was happening on a large wargames table, goodness knows how they managed it in real life! So with that in mind, on with the battle report.

Turn 1. The armies advance

Turn 1. Having started the game with a blunder on the far left wing, the Allies seemed to hesitate as orders were failed all across the left wing and the two divisions involved simply stalled. On the French side, progress was much faster as the whole Army advanced in good order, taking up positions in the woods and buildings that occupied the centre of the table. On the Left, the French advanced in good order to the river, taking advantage of the confusion in the Austrian Division. The only firing was from a solitary British rocket battery. No casualties were inflicted but the French were rattled at the range and potential damage that could be caused.

Turn 2 French advance to the River

Turn 2 saw the Allied army making slow progress forward, with the first reinforcements arriving on the battlefield. On the left, the Austrians had started to sort themselves into some sort of battle line. The Prussians had occupied the village in the Austrian deployment zone and the rest of the Prussian brigade in this sector attempted to bolster the weaker wing of the Austrian Division. In the centre, the British and Hanoverians had successfully advanced and joined with the main Austrian force on their right. The French in reply, continued with their remorseless advance, their army looking the more cohesive of the two. The first Cavalry skirmish resulted in a minor victory for the British Hussars as they shook their French equivalents forcing two French Cavalry Regiments to retire shaken.

Turn 3 French cross the river

Turn 3 The battle for the centre

Turns 3 and 4. As the armies closed in the centre, the action really started and the game began to take shape. On the left an Austrian Cavalry charge ended disastrously, with the Austrians being soundly beaten both in the initial combat and the follow up move, resulting in the loss of a brigade of heavy cavalry. This allowed the French army to confidently cross the river, putting even more pressure on the Austrians. Left of Centre, the British and Prussians closed with the French, initially with some success as a French Battalion was broken by fire power and many casualties were inflicted. The French reply was equally devastating, with the Somersetshire Battalion broken and the Prussians occupying the village hammered by artillery fire and forced to evacuate. Frustratingly, the main body of Austrian troops in the centre, commanded by the Supreme Commander were struggling to move and make their numbers felt. The ‘Grand Battery’ of 5 guns that had been set up was largely ineffective and was becoming masked by Allied troops, limiting the targets available. On the far right things were going ‘OK’…

Turn 4 French are pushed back on the right.

Turn 4 things are getting hot in the center

Turn 5. The Austrians on the left were trying desperately to hold back the advancing French but refused all aid offered. They were convinced that the tide would turn and that Callans first rule of wargaming, ‘He who crosses the river first will lose’ would apply. The British and Prussians were ready to deliver a killing blow to the French Centre. Unfortunately, the firing was ineffective and the French weathered the storm, their morale intact. Once again, the Superior Austrian forces in the centre were unable to engineer a break through and the majority of their forces were snarled up in the rear of the battlefield. Meanwhile, on the right, the Austrian division had pushed forward and although four battalions were forced into square they had effectively bottled up the French on this wing.

Turn 5 The pressure mounts on the Austrian Right

Turn 6 The British are held – The French Cavalry plug the gap

Turn 6. Left of centre turned into a blood bath! A whole British brigade was broken and effectively wiped out. The French also lost a brigade but managed to retire in good order as replacements were on hand to cover them. The Prussians in the ‘hinge’ were also severely mauled and on the point of breaking. The Austrians on the left were now crumbling in the face of the French advance. The French had now secured all of the river crossings and were moving up the reserve artillery. In the centre, the main Austrian army remained deadlocked, unable to exploit the few small gaps that had opened up. At least over on the right things were ‘OK’…

Turn 6 The French cut the hinge

Turn 7. The French tighten the noose! Despite there being clear gaps and weaknesses in the French line, the Allies seemed unable to exploit them or break through. A clever redeployment of French Heavy cavalry plugged one gap and the continued arrival of reinforcements kept the allies on the back foot, penned to the edge of the Battlefield (table!). The Austrian Left flank had all but failed and was desperately holding on. The Prussians holding the ‘hinge’ between the Austrian and British divisions were now on the back foot, holding as best they could. The strong Austrian centre had pushed forward but was unable to relieve the pressure on the left. The only good news was that these Austrians were now in contact with French forces on the right and the Allies right wing was now secure and making progress.

Turn 6 at last the Austrian Centre is on the move

Turn7 the Austrians threaten the French Flank

Turn 8. There’s a certain look that winning players have as the game swings in their favour and I could see it across the table. The French confidence was high, their strategy had worked, the dice had not been too unkind and the end was in sight! On the left, the Austrian division was fading away and to make matters worse, they had been cut off from the rest of the army as the French had now secured the village guarding the ‘Hinge’. The British and Prussians had been badly mauled, losing two brigades of infantry and were effectively pinned with their left flank badly exposed. The main Austrian force in the centre was largely untouched but had been unable to fully deploy or break through any gaps that appeared in the French lines. The only good news for the allies was that things were ‘OK’ on the right… Well, to be fair they had steadily fought their way into a winning position but were unlikely to be able to influence the outcome of the battle.

Turn 8 The Austrian right pushes the French back

With the French winning in two sectors, drawing in one and only under pressure on the far right wing a victory was declared and once again, Napoleon had triumphed. The Allies were retreating in reasonable order although, it was possible that one wing of the army would be entirely lost in the retreat.

Turn 8 Napoleon watches the French advance

It was time to mull over the battle, the victors enthusiastically planning the next meeting, the losers holding a ‘post mortem’ to work out what had gone wrong!

We will be back again in the New Year!

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Category Archives: Napoleonic Army

32nd Foot ready for action!

Soap opera painting – The 32nd Regiment takes shape.

The 32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot

One by One – Done, done, it’s on to the next one!

Trouble with Cavalry

The Retreat from Bitteburg 1816

To Battle with the 11th Light Dragoons.

British Light Dragoons – Perry Miniatures Plastic Boxed Set

Napoleons Coach – Finished?

‘Tis The Season To Be Jolly!

Slow Coach…

The Battle of Bitteburg Part 2

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