In an ideal world it would be nice to refight the battles of the Napoleonic era with all the correct forces on a wargames table that accurately reflected the terrain and conditions on the battlefield. However, the majority of my gaming takes the form of club gaming with my wargaming buddies at the White Hart pub. We turn up with fairly evenly matched armies every Thursday night and battle across a gaming cloth with a bit of scenery on it and to be honest, I’m quite happy with this state of affairs. It means that I am wargaming at least once a week and enjoying the company of like minded people.

However, there’s been talk of organising a campaign. To be fair, I’ve been edging towards producing a set of campaign rules that would allow us to link our battles together in an informal way to provide a narrative to the battles that we fight. Well, things are very slowly moving in the right direction and I have a few ideas as to how we can achieve this without it becoming a major chore as some campaigns can be. I will get to publishing some of these ideas but the first requirement is for each army to have a named commander.

Private James Riddle shows his defiance to the French!

I did have a commander for my army but it wasn’t an inspiring model and I wanted something that would perhaps reflect my personality on the wargames table. So an idea came to mind when I saw a model of a British Infantry man giving the ‘victory sign’ – I’m not even sure which manufacturer produces the model – it was actually given to me. All I needed was a officer to go with the soldier and I would have my command base. When I saw the Front rank model of Rowland -Hill, I thought that he was just the sort of commander that I was looking for. The model is a superb sculpt and doesn’t immediately look like some of the other big personalities of the time. So I chose Sir Rowland -Hill as the commander. Of course, as far as the campaign goes, he will be known as Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond!

Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond

I thought that the base needed another model to balance it off, so what could be better than a British Bulldog! Fortunately, I have a great looking Bulldog in my very own DeeZee range, so there was no problem in acquiring this model!

Oh Yes! Its Churchill!

So with each model painted it was then a simple matter to assemble them all together on a 60mm MDF base. I followed my usual basing techniques although I have added a little something special. The rocks and detail on the base are actually some earth straight from the Battlefield at Waterloo, so I don’t want any complaints about accuracy here! I also added a few tufts and flowers and hey presto! My new army commander, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond and his faithful companions, Private James Riddle and dog Churchill are ready to take to the field!

Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond watches on as Private James Riddles rebukes the French!

There will be some battle reports to follow, so keep a check on my blog to see how Sir Sydney and his companions fair on the field of battle at the White Hart!

It’s been two weeks since my last blog. My modelling schedule has been somewhat disrupted by the long Easter break, which coincided with two very important family birthdays and the clock going forwards, which has prompted me to do a bit more out in the garden. Despite this, I have made some progress with my painting and the 32nd Cornwall Regiment is all but ready to take to the field. The command group has been completed with the exception of the flags, which I need to order, and the basing is complete apart from adding a few tufts.

Command group for the 32nd Regiment

I did take a few short cuts with the painting and decided to opt for the usual block coat, quick shade, re- highlight method that I used on the troops. I’ve used a richer red for the officers coats but otherwise, everything else followed my usual colour scheme and painting routine. So the unit is now ready for the table and you can see them parading before ‘Little Bingham’, ready to march off to the wargames table!

First Battalion 32nd Regiment ‘Cornwall’ ready for duty!

You might notice there appears to be a new commander in the background. He is none other than Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond, my new army commander.  Sir Sydney distinguished himself on the field of Waterloo, leading the charge to the Gin cart and ensuring that his brigade had full rations throughout and after the battle. Of course his namesake and  Grandson was also a hero in the later campaigns in Afghanistan and India. There will be more to come on Sir Sydney’s illustrious career in future blog articles but for now he is still a work in progress.

Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond

As befits the Commander of my army, I am trying to paint him without taking shortcuts and using quick shade, so painting has been a slower than usual. The model just needs a bit more work on the horse and some of the highlights need looking at. I may have been too harsh with the grey on his boots. It would help if I had a better picture so I may give him the lightbox treatment just to help pick out the areas that need a bit of work.

Sir Sydney will be the commander of my Campaign army and when based will be the inspirational focal point for my troops. So it’s important that he reflects the true character of both my army and my approach to the hobby…Watch this space!

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

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!

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.