Murat

Been working on a few Command bases recently and here's the latest thats been completed, Joachim Murat, King of Naples, complete with an escort from his Gardes d'honneur. Connoisseur Figures mounted on Foremost horses.

Somebody has to!

Whenever you read accounts from any period of warfare, it's clear that every army has a huge "tail", yet for many of us gamers, this is something that at best tends to take a rather unrealistic back seat on the table.

So, in an attempt to reset the balance at least to some extent, here's a couple of French limber teams to help bring the firepower into action.

Berg and the rest of the Vistula

As promised, the other half of my German brigade, two battalions from the Grand Duchy of Berg. Both ex WHC and had taken a bit of a beating. A lot of paint off and broken bits. Particularly tricky to get a good match on the white given it had "mellowed" over the years. Now fully restored and ready for action once more.

Other unit I've now completed basing is the 2nd Regt of my Vistula Legion, painted for me by Dave Docherty

Collection now starting to build up nicely, next time, I think something of this armies "tail"

Sculpting Again

Got fed up painting the last week or so, so made a start again on some sculpting. Completed three heads, going for a "willie style" look, so a bit of character, fairly slim, and aiming for about 30mm fig, so the heads here are about 4-5mm.

They're fairly generic mid 18th Century in tricorne, mainly because at this point I don't really know what I'm sculpting them for! Anyway, here they are, might make some new 30mm dollies next to mount them on ....

Neapolitan Line and some Poles

Rounding of our trip to the South of Italy for the time being we have the 1st line Regt of the Neapolitan Line.

This unit of Connoisseur figures I had painted to a fairly basic but acceptable standard, then I reworked them a bit to enhance some of the detail (faces, lining etc). It was a relatively quick and cost effective way to get another nice unit on the ground.

The second unit featuring today is the the 1st Regt or the the Vistula legion. These Elite figures were painted for me by Dave Docherty of "One Man and his Brushes" fame. I've also more recently had Dave do the 2nd Regt to go as a pair with this one, and I'll feature these as well in due course once I've got them based up.

Next time, continuing the connection with Murat, the other half of my German Brigade, the boys from Berg.

Neapolitan Command

One thing I really enjoyed about the Gilder style layouts from days gone bye were the lovely command vignettes.

I've been keen that as I build this army up that I create suitable command bases which replicate this look.

So here are a couple which I've created for the Neapolitans:

First up a suitable dashing general who is my re-creation of General Guglielmo Pepe, and a suitable adc type to convey his orders in the uniform of the Velites a Cheval of Murat's Royal Guard.

Both figures are Willie with minor conversion work, mounted on Foremost Horses.

The second base is a Vignette of Foot guard command to go along with the Battalion I painted. The dismounted figure is a Bicorne with a head swap from a Hinchliffe foremost figure. The mounted officer started of life as a Willie Grenadier a Cheval, and was tweaked a little. Again horses are foremost.

Apologies for the slightly ropey photos. bright low winter sun not ideal for capturing these at their best.

Next .... some line

Neapolitans

So here is the first of my Neapolitan Units, and lets start with the main men, The Royal Guard Grenadiers.

For those familiar with such things, Murat had somewhat of a liking for light crimson, or what I like to call pink, and it features in some way with many of the napoleonic units assocaited with him.

This unit is one I painted myself, the castings are mainly hinchliffe foremost range chasseurs of the guard, and a splendid figure it is too. I've done some conversion work on these using a few firing line heads and other tweaks. The officers, standard bearer and drummer are mostly bicorne with head swaps back to hinchliffe to make them a better fit with the other figures and the sapper, and two other officers are hinchliffe, with a wee bit of tweaking.

Anyway, quite pleased with how they turned out.