Hussar!

Well, this happened on Monday

So, needless to say I had no work! Like any good wargamer, I thought I would get some painting done, and this is what I came up with.

My unit of Hussars! These chaps are more Hanoverians, representing the King's German Legion Hussars. The main difference between these and British Hussars is simply the colour of their Bearskins- British had black (like the guards outside Buckingham) whereas these chaps have a brown Bearskin. The models come from Front Rank, and are pretty reasonably priced, with some pretty good detail. It is actually a bit weird to be painting lead again after all the plastics!

Some close-ups

The regiment's bugler

And a standard Hussar.

I must say, it was nice to paint something not red for a change, but the horses seemed to have no inspiration for me! Luckily for me, that is all of the cavalry I have to paint for the army. Not sure how I would cope painting an entirely cavalry army, like some people are doing!

As for why I have KGL Hussars? Well, late in the day at Waterloo, Wellington placed his light cavalry (Hussars and Light Dragoons) behind the squares which were a bit more shaky, especially those of the Hanoverians and Brunswickers to give them a morale boost (and stop them clearing off!) and also to clear out any French cavalry that attempted to envelop the squares!

So with them done, that just leaves 3 infantry units and 1 artillery unit. All before the end of August. Plus all the bases. Oh and did I mention I have no idea how I am going to transport it?

CP

Do you have a flag?

So, in spite of the chill in temperature, I managed to get the start of some painting done, and got some flags attached.

Here are the Regimental and King's colours for the 73rd Regiment.

And here are the colours for the Kings German Legion Regiment.

My flags come from GMB Designs, which I ordered from here. I paid about $5 per flag, plus another $5 for total postage. Overall, I am pretty happy with them! They require a bit of cutting to make them fit properly onto the banner poles; but it is really no extra drama. So I ordered enough flags to cover my whole army (the Guards, the 5th British Brigade and the Hanoverians), but I will do another order, I really think I will use them for my next force (probably frenchies...) as well as when I add more regiments to the army to make sure I can use it as a standard Infantry core, as well as Guards.

So, in short, I highly recommend GMB. They are on the expensive side, but... I am alright paying the little bit extra for quality, especially when flags are such a notable part of the unit!

In case you didn't know the importance of the flag, here is comedian Eddie Izzard explaining why the flags were so important!

CP

KGL and a few other friends...

My goal was to complete my Kings German Legion unit (one of two probably) for my army by today; so I have succeeded as of this morning! Here they are in all of their glory..

Unfortunatly, it is overcast today so the lighting is a bit average; but you get the point, another unit completed! Here is a picture of one of the soldiers, striking a pose...

I was reading the army builder rules while I was working; only to find out that if I use Brunswick support, I needed two more skirmisher bases for a total of 4; so dutifully I whipped up a couple more troopers from the 60th, to bring my total up to 4.

And last but not least, my Warlord Games order came without Colonels; so I had to wait for a while, but they arrived on Tuesday, 2 Waterloo Colonels, and a sapper. In game terms, the sapper is an optional rule, who would tend to not be played, which is really unfortunate because he is a pretty cool model, and one that I am happiest with at the moment! He would add 2 combat dice to one unit; which if it was used with Guards would quickly become very ridiculous! That will teach the enemy to mess with a large ginger man with an axe! So, for now he is just a cool looking model, he might get put on an objective, or simply just be there as part of the army.

Whats next? I have a FOW tournament (Southcon) starting tommorow, so no painting for a couple of days. Then.... Well another small unit, perhaps those Colonels I think as well. Oh and maybe I might base something?

CP

Some Huns, Some Yanks and a Limey or two

Well, the painting over the last couple of days has gone well. Or more, the painting yesterday went very well, to make up for the fact that I was going to get very little done today! Might get a little more done before hockey training, but it is unlikely!

So, what did I get done? How about half a unit of KGL?

So there is 8 done, plus the skirmisher (he is hiding on the left); so 9 out of 17 germans completed! I have developed a pretty good system for painting my British now; the only change that I needed to sort out with these guys was to find a good way of painting the grey trousers (coldstreamers have white if you can't remember)

Herr Commandant, looking classy as ever!

So, not only did I manage to finish off half of the KGL; the Coldstreamers are also completed...

But wait, there is more! I got sick of painting red; so I painted up two skirmisher stands for the army, these represent the 60th Rifles (Royal Americans). I opted for these over the (far more popular) 95th rifles because the Royal Americans fought alot with the Guards; plus they have some sweet red cuffs!

I still don't really have a handle on the "painting faces" aspect of 28mm modelling; but I guess I have plenty more models to practice on! Overall, at this point I am pretty happy with how my guys look. Quality basing will bump them up as a force, and as of this morning I have a pretty good way to get 50mm bases I think, so watch this space, there might actually be some based troops sometime!

Also, the count for 28mm figures complelty painted so far this project? 36 so far....

CP

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