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.

Baden

These two units started of life as the first and second Battalion of the Leib-Infanterie-Regiment Großherzog (1st Regt) from Baden. They were an ex WHC centre pair, that were fairly beat up by the time I got hold of them (broken muskets etc). I repaired all the damage, then decided to make one of the battalions into the 2nd Regt (Linien-Infanterie-Regiment Erbgroßherzog). I also did some conversion work to make the flank companies by adding plumes to the helmets and epaulets. All the figures then got a refresh on the paintwork, including adding in the lapels, which didn't feature in the initial paint job they'd had.

Here they are now:

Leib-Infanterie-Regiment Großherzog 
 

Linien-Infanterie-Regiment Erbgroßherzog

Next time Neapolitans!

Different Tack

Although I've had quite a busy and productive period from a hobby perspective, I haven't been doing much sculpting, and as a result, I haven't been posting for a while.

The reason for this is that I've been focused on pulling together my 25mm Peninsula Collection and this has taken up all of my hobby time.

One of the reasons I really got into wargaming in the early 80's was those lovely shots of Peter Gilder / WHC Napoleonics which featured in Miniature Wargames and early copies of Wargames Illustrated. Truly inspirational stuff, and in many ways, I believe never bettered since. As a teenager I duly trotted off, bought my Hinchliffe peninsula napoleonic figures, painted them up, stood back, and then thought .... mmm! these aren't quite doing it!

Fast forward the best part of 25 years (ouch!) and I happened to pick up a couple of ex Gilder units, bit of an impulse buy, but too good not to get at the time. I then thought again about Napoleonics, something I hadn't touched during the intervening period. I wanted to go for it, but only if I could achieve that "look", and I wasn't interested in the more "modern" style. I also recognised that with my limited hobby time, I was never going to paint my way there by myself. I'm just too slow, realistically 3 - 4 units a year, and that it was going to be a long timeand that rate of progress before I got any sort of forces that were useable (and I needed both sides). I therefore took the conscious decision that whilst I would paint some units, I would buy figures, certainly till I'd got to a reasonable force. My rules would be that I would only buy old style figures and only top quality stuff, no "fillers" to make up the numbers, I wanted to be able to pick up any base from any unit during a game and just enjoy how lovely they looked. I've subsequently, over the last couple of years, been lucky enough to pick up quite a number of units, both directly from the WHC (before Mike sadly passed away) and on ebay and various others sources.

Anyway, whilst most of the figures I have picked up have been great, it's fair to say that many have seen quite a bit of "action", broken muskets, chipped paint etc. A wide variety of basing styles have also been evident!

I've therefore been working through the collection (slowly) gradually restoring things to their former glory, and in some cases improving them. All are also getting rebased into a consistant style. I've mixed this in with painting the odd new thing myself and it's been a pleasant way to move things forward.

I've now got to the stage where I feel I've made some progress, and can now take stock a bit.

Well, that's the background. Here are some picture, hopefully in a suitable WHC style!

I plan to post up images of the restored units and a few new creations as they come of the production line.

Here's the first two:

Neuchatel Battalion

This is an ex WHC unit, it's fair to say it had "seen some action" but deep down it was a lovely unit despite all the war wounds. It's all Connoisseur figures with a few simple conversions.

22nd Legere

Again ex WHC, although I don't think this particular one had been in action for a while. Hinchliffe figures, yes, they are very much forgotten these days, but there are still some gems in there if you look. Again, this unit needed a bit of "love" but it's back in A1 condition now.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures, more to come soon .....

Volunteers of Ireland

Been deathly silent hear for a long time. Not been sculpting anything for ages, so didn't have anything I thought was worth posting.I've been having a "painting phase" to my hobby time recently. Sculpting has been limited to the odd bit of conversion work on figures.

Finally finished unit of 30 Volunteers of Ireland figures, I sculpted the foot figure a long time ago, but haven't got round to finishing the unit till recently. Command figs are standard hinchliffe with head swops.