More train

A couple of little vignettes while I work on painting up the next unit.

Both Connoisseur items, the french female sulter and the mule team.

Mule guy is a conversion, the head on the original figure is a real huge "pumkin head" effort, most un-gilder like! So I chopped it off and put on one of the heads I scuplted myself. It's still a little too big (it was made for 30mm figures) but it's better then the one that was on it!

Restoration Complete

I've spent a good chunk of the last year (and more!) progressively working through the various French and allied units that I picked up ex WHC. Each unit has been cleaned, repaired, and rebased and the work involved has varied from fairly minor repairs to some comprehensive restoration and repainting.

Anyway, I've just completed the last two units and here they are:


The 33rd Ligne

And the 9th Legere

At times this work has been a bit of a chore at times, not as enjoyable as painting "new" units from scratch, but in many ways it was worthwhile and rewarding for me in a different way.  Restoring these "old campaigners", every unit of which is real quality, felt like I was bringing back to life work that was worth maintaining, and with a little bit of TLC bringing them back to their full glory after so many years of hard action.

I now have a very solid core collection, consistanly based and of a very high standard. I'm delighted with them.

One thing I have been trying to do as I worked through these units, was to paint the odd "new" thing as I went along. In that regard, here is the latest command base addition. A French General of Division, with an escort of two elite company dragoons from the 24th regt. The General is a Willie figure, the dragoons, are old Hinchliffe figures, with heads swapped for a couple of bicorne ones that I had in the spares box.

Hessians

As I said in my last post, been trying to sort out various bits and bobs of things that have been kicking around on the workbench for a while half done. That, mixed in with some major DIY work at home, has slowed progress, but starting to get there now.

So just for interest, here are a couple of Minden Artillery crews painted up recently as Hessians for Doug and I's AWI adventures.

And there's enough Germans now that some command is required, so here's a Command base made up of a couple of Willie "gentlemen" types from "the hunt" set, tweaked a little with sashes etc. Mounted on a Foremost and Connoisseur horse respectively. Back to Napoleonics next.

Something Old, Something New

Been busy sorting out various "odds and ends" over the last month or so, some AWI "old school" hessian commanders and artillery for one, but a few Napoleonic items as well. So here we have another  ex WHC "restored" unit, its the French 39th Ligne

And also managed to complete a "new" French line Artillery battery of 8pdrs. All Connoisseur with a few head swaps and minor tweaks, except one of the officers who is a Bicorne with a head swap

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