Tuesday 31 May 2011

What does any good King need?

Germans! I have finished assembly of my King's German Legion (a small Lasalle Infantry unit) this morning, with the hopes to have it painted by Thursday. Dreams are free right?

The Kings German Legion (KGL) in the broadest, simplest terms were Hanoverian ex-pats who got kicked out of Germany by Napoleon's partition of Germany, who then headed off to Britain to resume the fight against Napoleon. They fought pretty darn well too; representing themselves with distinction in the Peninsular and also at Waterloo (plus a whole lot more). They were a pretty cool force, I am including them firstly because I am jealous of my friend Nick's awesome Prussians (I want germans too!) but also because the KGL had their own everything in effect, cavalry, artillery and infantry, so the KGL will represent the Brunswick support that my Guards will recieve at army list time. This means I will have 2 units of KGL infantry, 1 unit of Hussars, an artillery battery and 1 elite infantry (which might be more highlanders, in keeping with my highlander=elite policy.

To make my KGL, I have combined the Victrix Hanoverian heads (which Warlord sent to me by mistake in place of some Colonels) with the Perry bodies. It was tempting to have all of my KGL in the stovepipe shako; but given that I am trying to make an 1815 British force (which I am mildly regretting; given that the battle of Salamanca had everything I want!) I have opted to use the metal heads on the "command" models only. All the models use the metal backpack which came with the pack, contributing to the differences. 

Enough talk, more pictures!
The Commander for the unit, I am particulary happy
with how this guy looks!











The skirmisher for the unit











And the unit as a whole!

Off to the spray paint with these chaps, hopefully will get them finished in a couple of days!

CP

Saturday 28 May 2011

Coldstream Guards update

Painting has been going pretty well so far, I have finished 3/4 of my Coldstreamers; hopefully will get the last six done tommorow! No clue yet about what I will do with the bases, I need to sort myself out some Plasticard, then I have no idea what I will put on top of it. Ideally, I think I will try to base my guys for Waterloo (typical I know), so perhaps a muddy ground with a rough smattering of grass tufts? Not sure, we will see! I can't do anything with it until I get myself the bases themselves, which will be probably Monday of next week.

Here is a zoomed out shot of the whole lot, the back rank are just black at the moment, freshly sprayed this morning!
This is the unit's Sergant. One thing that entertains me is that upon recieving the rank of Sergant, they have promptly lost their musket to be replaced with a pike- sure you might stab a cavalryman, but surely you would want to keep the gun? Although, the stories of musket fire are less than complimentary to it's effect or accuracy, so maybe the pike would be good!
And finally the skirmish base for the unit. I will use them to represent the units with Skirmish value (plus they will look cool). As you can see he is already based on a coin (not stuck to the queen mind you) so it is likely he will be the first figure to be totally finished- likely as a test base!

So what is next? Finish those last six Coldstreamers, then I think I will make one of my small units of infantry. I will save my artillery and Highlanders until last (Artillery is a reward, and I am scared of the tartan!).

CP

Tuesday 24 May 2011

Quick little update

Well, first unit is assembled, and my first 4 Redcoats are painted. Unfortunatly, that basically took all day. It has been a really, really long time since I have painted anything in 28mm, so it took some time to remember what I wanted to do with them!



The first unit I am working on is the Coldstream Guards, which in Lasalle terms is a Large (+) infantry unit, or, 6 stands of infantry. I am going to be building a Guards list, not sure what my support will be for Call to Arms, it is likely to be Brunswicks, which will contribute more infantry, along with a small unit of Hussars.

I plan to use the Perry infantry to represent my Guards Infantry and my Infantry. A mix up with my order with Warlord Games means that I have some Hanoverian heads, so some of that Infantry will be King's German Legion, which have the same rules, just different hats. Barely different actually, just a different logo. My Elite Infantry will be the Victrix Highlanders. I am using them to make it as easy as possible for me to identify my Elite Infantry on the table; rather than because the Highlanders were so much superior to the standard Infantry (such as the KGL or standard units) because that would simply be not true, it is largely a product of wargamers and rosy-eyed historians with a fondness for kilts that has done that!

Hopefully will get another two stands painted tommorow. Now, my issue has become what exactly I am going to base them on; Plasticard could be tough to get in large quantities of the required thickness, Litko (http://www.litkoaero.com/) is another option, but that would be some pretty expensive wood. It could be a case of making my own out of MDF...

Hopefully will get my camera to do some close ups too...

CP

Monday 23 May 2011

And so it begins...

Well, this I suppose presents an introduction to what will be going on here.

I was recently up in Wellington, where I had a game of this 28mm Napoleonic game called Lasalle. Having never been really interested in Napoleonics, it completly blew me away, the miniatures were lovely, the ruleset was fun and the tactics were completly foreign to me (having been a WW2 player prior, turns out some stuff had changed between the Peninsula Wars and the Blitzkrieg...)

So, from that moment, I was sold. I am starting this blog because it seems like a pretty good idea to record what I have done, hopefully get some inspiration from some readers (hopefully get some of those too), then record my goings on as well.

Today a large order from the wonderful fellows at Warlord Games arrived (free shipping in May, ooh yes). It looked like this, contained within was the core force of my British Napoleonic Army!

Well, there it is, a first post. Expect some assembled brits, perhaps even one painted at some point?

Everything has to start somewhere.

Pooch