Scots Guards finished

It has been a week since I last posted. Whoops! I meant to get more done, faster. But, it just didnt happen that way!

Anyway, here is what you really want! The 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (Scots Guards) in their completed glory! Together with the Coldstreamers, they made up the 2nd (British) Guards Brigade, under Major General Byng. At Waterloo they were tasked with defending the Hougoumont farm, which is a very long story that I can't be bothered going into here!

I got these guys done over the past 3 days, painting about 8 per day. Not the most industrious, but not bad.

Here is their officer, looking far better than he did last time I posted! Yikes, these photos are dark. I do need to look into my photographing.

So, in keeping with my random Napoleonic anecdotes that seem to be proliferating this blog; on the note of Curiassers. Now, after the battle at Quatre Bras the 92nd Highlanders, after a long hard day of suffering through repeated cavalry and infantry attacks finally got a respite. They also got some steaks to eat. So, the story goes that French prisoners were being marshalled past Highlanders cooking steaks on the curiass of fallen French cavalrymen! Apparently they worked very well, despite the musket holes. The prisoners thought the Highlanders cannibals, further adding to their fearsome reputation!

Well, with the Guards done, I actually don't have another unit ready to paint next, so there will have to be some assembling done, but there are still a few more normal sized infantry units to finish......

CP

3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (Scots Guards)

Well, progress has been somewhat slow of late; but I have managed to do some serious assembling over the past few days!

Here is what is going to be my 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (Scots Guards).

The regiment is made mostly of Perry plastics, but the front rank are the Victrix plastics. I have tried to give them the appearance that they are in square formation- or at least the resemblance of one. So the front rank are kneeling- the couple of chaps on the wings are taking cheeky pot-shots (possibly poor discipline...). There are plenty of Brown Bess muskets ready to fire behind, along with the officer dictating where the cavalry are coming from.

"Hey, guys, look! Look at that! Thats a horse that is! Shoot it!"

On that note, In my reading I came upon a pretty cool anecdote. The French heavy cavalry were known as Curiassers; due to the fact that they wore a metal Curiass (breastplate). Now, for those history buffs out there they know that Knights and armour fell out of favour and were superceded by the advent of Gunpowder (in the broadest terms). But, these Curiass equipped horsemen stayed! Now at Waterloo, these breastplates showed their worth, because what happened is yes, a musket ball DOES penetrate armour, but not if the ball is not shoved fully into the barrel of the gun. What happened at Waterloo (and I assume elsewhere) is that due to the need for such rapid fire, the British and German soldiers would only ram the ball halfway down, greatly reducing the muzzle velocity, meaning that the breastplate was highly effective!

Pity that the artillery still wreaked havoc amongst the cavalry and caused significant casualties.....

CP

Finally...

It seems like it has been ages since I have finished anything for my British army, one whole week in fact! My productivity circled the drain this week and I am not entirely sure why. I had a few days teaching (3) so that probably cuts down my painting time combined with hockey, but I just haven't felt like it lately; and really did have to force myself to finish this unit off!

Here is my first Highland regiment, in it's full scottish glory!

Click the picture for a larger view as always.

Now, I said that they were going to represent the 71st Highland Regiment, but I have instead changed them to being the 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment. This regiment was where the Duke got his first start (the Duke himself being an Irishman...) before Wellington headed into the 33rd (known as Wellington's Own). The regiment was prevented from wearing the kilt in 1809, the reason being (or one of?) that having no kilts would encourage more Englishmen to join the regiment. I kept the piper in a kilt, because he is cool, and the officer has the very classy tartan trousers! Those tartan pants really didn't last long on campaign, so hence only the officer has them!

As for the history,

The 2nd Battalion of the 73rd arrived at the battle of Quatre Bras 1815 at a crucial moment in the fight, in which they lost 53 men killed and wounded. Two days later at Waterloo whilst serving with Major General Halkett’s Brigade of Lieutenant General Sir Charles Alten’s 3rd Division, the Battalion was charged no less than 11 times by French Cavalry as it stood solidly in square and was then fired upon by French artillery.

This is the guy that everyone wanted to see I think, here is the piper in a very very simplified tartan kilt! I might look at it again when I work out a better way of painting tartan when I tackle the 42nd Black Watch...

Painting them was alright, I just find that the Victrix don't inspire me as much as the Perry figures, so definitly my next regiment will be made from Perry. I think my second Guards regiment will be on the painting table next. I had better get to assembling, hopefully will have something to show off in a day or two!


CP

Royal Artillery reporting!

Well, I finally managed to get some painting done, so without further adieu, here is my foot artillery battery.

The entire battery, 2 9 pdr guns and a 5.5 inch howitzer, along with their accompanying crew.

The howitzer crew, along with the battery officer. These guys have impressivly colourful uniforms, red, yellow blue and white. Yellow is my nemesis as a colour, but the yellow on these chaps was not too painful, perhaps I will be able to do the 88th with their yellow facings?

I am going to base the whole battery on one base, 150mm x 75mm; so I had to keep crew numbers down a bit, and they will be alot closer to their guns than would be safe operating practice for a normal gun crew! In Lasalle terms, the british artillery battery is underwhelming compared to other batteries. The standard French battery is 4 guns, where as the Russian is an impressive 5 guns! Now, size isn't everything, but when firing cannon balls, it really is. So, the british batteries are small, and frequently outgunned. I think that is a theme in the British army in the Napoleonic period. Why did I choose the army which requires solid tactical skill to use effectivly? That might teach me to choose armies based on my dubious understanding of history...

These are some of the Victrix artillery heads, the one on the extreme right is a good example of how some of them just look... weird... I am definilty more fond of Perry, simply because of the faces!

As for what is next on the painting table, here is what I have started...

Might even get them finished tommorow, since I am working the rest of the week. I really do need to look into my photography too, but not right now.

CP

Some Miscellaneous musings, things and majigs

First things first. Today is the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, and I have nothing to show for it! No, my artillery is not done. I am unsure if artillery is my achillies heel, but these guys just seem to be taking alot longer than they should. I have had next to no painting time of late, due to work then hockey commitments, so they are still not finished. I will try get some work done on them tonight, then tommorow. I need to keep up my painting momentum more than anything else!

So, the things and majigs. First, I am a reader of Wargames Illustrated (for better or worse, judge me now). I find it good because I come from a very World War 2 background of wargaming, so seeing other periods laid out I find really interesting. Now, to this months issue, number 284. There is an article in it about how someone has used wargaming to answer some of the mysteries of the battle of Waterloo. Now.... Call me a cynic but... Really?

The lessons learned from having toy soldiers on the table, are they really going to 'reinvent the wheel' per say? It seems like a nice premise, but to me feels like someone trying to justify the amount of toy soldiers that they have in the house! I appreciate that the reports and historical study of Waterloo are fantastically conflicting, argumentative and potentially wrong, but are toy soldiers the solution?

To me, wargaming is all about enjoyment. I fundamentally enjoy painting, I enjoy using my spare time to paint toy soldiers, and then push them around a table against another painted army, enjoying a game with another human being. If I didn't like painting, I would play a computer game. If I didn't like people, I would read a book. So, from that perspective, I wonder why people try to make it into something that (in my opinion) it is not?

Lastly, I did get something painted. This is for all of those people who headed down to Southcon to really enjoy, but everyone else needs to see the true might that is Wojtek the bear!

This guy is proof that real life is far sillier than fiction. He is a black bear that the Polish army captured in Romania in World War 2, adopted as a pet, then taught how to carry artillery shells. They fed him beer and cigarettes, and he lived a full and happy life. He survived the Italian Campaign; and went on to finish his days in a zoo, where the polish servicemen would sneak him in beer and cigarettes till his dying days.

CP

Objective

Well, I promised more pictures this time, so I will see what I can do!

Here is what will be my objective marker for Lasalle. I bought some 65mm bases, with the intention to use them for my Colonel bases. Unfortunatly, they are too large for that, so I came upon the idea when I had a spare officer (or two) from the Artillery boxed set, to have one of them observing the battle with his eye glass, standing next to an artillery limber (also from the boxed set). It is a Perry bicorne, story goes that this artillery officer has been fighting since the Peninsular and really didn't want to give it up! I will need an objective for Lasalle games, the base size for that is not really given, but I am happy with this one! In missions with no objectives, I could use this to represent my artillery being limbered I suppose.

I got a good bit of painting done on my artillery unit, but they aren't done yet! Here is where they are at.

And a closer shot of the gunners

So, hopefully will get these guys done in the next day or two, definitly by the end of the week I hope to have these chaps finished!

And, lastly, a Napoleonic story for the day. The final fall of the Napoleonic Dynasty came when Napoleon III's son (the prince regent) was killed fighting alongside the British against the Zulus in 1879. How did he die? The army was routed, and he was unable to mount his horse to escape. And the reason he was unable to mount his horse was that his pants were too tight. Just remember that when you start mocking Napoleonic era fashion!

CP

Victrix v Perry

Well, any blog about Napoleonic wargaming was always going to have to include a comparison between miniature companies, so I suppose this was a long time coming!

I managed to get some painting done today, not alot, just a few single miniatures. I then did a lot of assembling! Here is the comparison photo, on the left is a Perry skirmisher from the 29th company, and on the right is the freshly painted Highlander from the 71st Regiment of foot. Note that the Highlander has no kilt; because the 71st-75th lost their kilts in 1809; prior to the Peninsular campaign. They replaced them with tartan pants (classy!) which I will hopefully replicate on a couple of the soldiers (definitly the officer!). The story goes that the tartan pants didn't last long on campaign, hence the grey pants for this skirmisher! His headband should also be white/red checked, but I gave it a go, and it really didn't work. So, thats why you get the red! The highlander is wearing the traditional scottish bonnet, which may also not be historic but... meh, it looks cool! The head is from the Victrix Highlander Centre Company box, the bodies are from the Victrix Centre Company box. I copied the idea (shamelessly) from Dave Taylor, check it out if you want to see where my ideas came from!

Well, onto the comparison. I mentioned earlier how I thought the Victrix miniatures were a bit blocky. I thought my opinion might change when they were finished, but I am not convinced just yet! There is more detail on the Victrix models, but the execution is lacking- excess flash, flaky plastic.

It;s like... the Perry have less, but what they do, they do so much better. The poses and the faces are just so much more natural than the Victrix. Could you mix the two? I don't think I will. The Victrix will admirably do my Highland Regiments (there will be 3 of these!) and I will use some of the Victrix command units in combination with Perry. Victrix takes a lot of time to assemble too; especially given the excess flash....

Right, too many words, not enough pictures. Here are the fruits of my afternoon's assembling while I was painting the solo Highlander! I have these, in addition to the rest of the Highlanders to go along with the skirmisher!

The different heads come from the Victrix Centre Company box (plus one Perry head), because the ones that came with the artillery box are absolutely ridiculous! According to Victrix artillery crew spend all their time squirreling acorns into their cheeks, or at least thats how they were modelled!

In the background is another little extra for the army, not a unit per-se, but will be useful for game play!

Well done for reading that all, I suppose a good distraction from work? I promise more photos, less words next time.

CP