Some French French and others.

Hello, it's me again. Just a few progress pictures this time. First up are two photo's of some figures I picked up at the Plastic Warrior Show a couple of years back, and have just got round to finishing them. They are Marins of the Garde. They are, I think quite attractive models and I was only able to get theses four marins, although I also obtained various others from the same manufacturer; mostly staff officer types and some dismounted Chasseurs a Cheval of the Garde. There were some really nice eagle bearers but I missed out on those - he who hesitates misses out (on those.) The bases are marked "BEVERLY" and I wonder if they are some sort of product related give-away? Whatever, they are a real bonus in depicting this unit in  plastic for the first time?

Next the first part of a squadron of Carabiniers. I really like this striking uniform and the pouch belts are great fun to paint...........

Finally some British Hussars comprising an officer and trooper - work in progress - and a completed trooper, another painting challenge for my poor old eyes.

Once again, if you are out there reading this stuff please feel free to say hello - or something.

More soon, thanks and stay safe.

Eric.

Some work in progress and other animals

A long delay since the last post, a number of factors contributed to this, but no excuses, better late than never?

I decided to post a couple of work in progress figures, Firstly are two household cavalrymen made mostly from Helmet parts, the arms however, are from Historex spares. As the owner of Helmet I feel that I should be honest with my views on the products, so here goes..... Most of the mounted figures once built and painted look good enough, some are excellent, the arms are, I think, a weak point as they are a bit short and weedy. The second potential downside is the sheer effort need to make the kits, each of these chaps took over 40 "glueings"to complete; and superglue seems to stick where not wanted and not stick where required. The belts are cut from the metal foil from red wine bottles, which can be fiddly to get right. The end results are I think worth the effort, see painted figure to the left, although slow to achieve...... I guess you take your choice.

The French Chasseur is a metal model on a horse made from some sort of resin, they are available in the UK from a chain called The Works at the crazy price of £1! Therefore I was unable to resist. The choice is limited and they need a bit of work - get it(?) hence the greenstuff and pipe cleaner additions, but at one pound each...... I'll post pictures once these have been painted.

Lastly are two pictures of completed models, the colonel and colour party from my one and only completed regiment, although this runs to nearly 150 figures.

If you do read these postings, please leave a message so we can start a conversation.

Thanks, more later.

Eric

A Place in the Country

The first part of this edition is for Bill W, you know who you are! It shows the construction, I use the term loosely of the farmhouse element of our model of La It'aint. As I said in an earlier posting we are not building an accurate representation of La Haye Sainte, it would be too big and need too many little plastic men to defend it.
Basically it is a large oblong made from foam board braced with balsa wood at the corners. The windows are intended for dolls houses and are obtainable at reasonable prices via Ebay. The doors and other wooden bits are from the stirrers used in Starbucks, other coffee retailers are available. The roof is thick card and balsa, "plastered" with household filler, and the "roof tiles" are from my old business cards, having recently retired this was a cathartic if long-winded exercise. There are around 2,500 on this roof, and the barn, which I have just started, will need even more, however my chequered career history means that I have plenty more to draw upon.

We feel it important that men are able to poke their rifles and firelocks through the windows so the first floor is just a couple of pieces of card glued to balsa supports which also allows access to the ground floor, as in the third picture.  The dormer window is a dummy.
Hope all this makes sense, there is nothing difficult or complex going on here, it just needs a lot of time...........

Finally two pictures showing a fusilier company from a French line regiment, getting ready to attack the building once complete. They are converted from a number of sources and I have chosen to depict this regiment in campaign dress with covered shakos and other paraphernalia.

If you do drop by and read this nonsense, please say hello and where you are from and perhaps leave a comment.

Thanks

Eric

Allies and French Cavalry

A company from the Brunswick 1st Infantry Regiment, a company of Hanoverian light troops and a nearly complete regiment (the 2nd) of French dragoons, The regiment is finished but I took the photo's this afternoon which was wet and windy and the last few kept falling off the roof of my car, which is where the pictures are taken.

Painting has slowed down of late as we a rebuilding a representation of La Haye Sainte. This will be a sort of look similar model rather than an accurate replica.

Thanks for looking and feel free to leave a comment - thanks Bill!

Eric  

1st squadron of the Iniskillings

Have just completed this unit, the first of two planned squadrons of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, and took advantage of some rare sunshine and to photograph them in the garden.

The plan for the Union Brigade is 5 squadrons covering all three regiments so roundabout 100 figures, currently about a third of the way there.

Allied Cavalry

A couple of pictures showing some progress with Allied Cavalry, Sgt. Ewart of the Scots Greys, as yet without his Eagle and a trooper of Brunswick Hussars.

Nearly 60 British, Brunswick and Kings German Legion complete now, but still some way to go before they match the French.

More later.

Eric

Allied Cavalry

So I have been creating Allied cavalry over the past few weeks to try and match the French horsemen I painted towards the end of the year. Progress has been slow, but now have completed, or very nearly, 60 figures.
They, like their opponents are planned to be in squadrons of 16 men, an officer and a trumpeter, although the French Guard units are at the moment limited to 12 men per squadron - not all are complete!
Picture shows a couple of Scots Greys, some Iniskilling Dragoons and a few Brunswick Hussars. All need their bases finishing, although I count them as completed.
Off to Edinburgh tomorrow for a short break and hopefully a meeting with the eagle of the 45th!

Thanks

Eric

Background to the project

So the 200th anniversary of the great Battle of Waterloo has come and gone and in typical style my project will be at least a year late.
The idea, inspired by a trip to the battlefield just after Easter last year, is to stage a 54mm Waterloo wargame in my front garden during the coming summer.
Now, I cannot accommodate the complete battlefield or a representation of all the participating units, indeed some toy solders will represent regiments that were not actually present, although others will be correct for the campaign. The plan is to have an area centered on the elm tree crossroads with a small La Haye Sainte and the main Brussels road laid out. I hope to have around 1,000 painted figures for Wellington's and Napoleon's armies, no Prussians as yet but perhaps they'll come along in 2017? Most of the figures will be plastic with a very few metal models (not literally) thrown in.

Our son will play the Corsican Ogre whilst I shall fulfil the role of The Peer.

Hopefully I'll post more soon with some information soon the emerging orders of battle and some more pictures.

Hope this is of interest,

Eric