Napoleonic French Infantry

I am a fair bit further back with my infantry arm, only 3 standard (36 figure) light infantry battalions and 3 small (24 figure) line battalions. The lights first featured on this blog almost 10 years ago (!!) in their first iteration as 24 man units. All I have managed to do is bring them up to strength. Not great progress in a decade. Ah well. Better late than never.

The 3 line battalions I decided to leave as 24s in order to get some units on the table - with my rate of progress, probably a good idea. I do at least have another couple of battalions of 36 painted, awaiting basing. Just about enough for a game. Figures are mainly Perry metal, with a few plastics thrown in.

At the moment I have no artillery or skirmishers done, so that is the next priority. I do however have some very nice Mark Allen command bases, which will feature in the next post.

The Napoleonic Collection Takes Shape - French Cavalry

Like many others I have been trying to assemble a useable Napoleonic collection for years, only realising, when it was too late, what a monumental task it is. Probably the biggest stumbling block was finding a set of rules that I liked well enough - we all know that feeling. Only relatively recently has that been resolved with the publication of General d'Armee. Finally settling on these rules has necessitated a certain amount of re-organising and re-basing, which has allowed me to put together the core of a collection and given me the renewed enthusiasm to continue the project.

This wretched Covid 19 business has had the unexpected side effect of keeping me indoors much more, especially at the weekends. Result: a greatly increased output. I have had many of the units for a while, but in different forms and have had to paint up reinforcements to bring units up to strength - most of my infantry battalions were in 24s and my cavalry in 8s. Whilst I am still a fair way off yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

To start, here is my French cavalry so far; mainly my own work, but with the odd foray into the transfer market to strengthen the squad!

First up, two standard sized regiments of Cuirassiers (18 figures)

Backing them up is a regiment of Carabiniers. These lads were part of a collection I bought a while back - beautifully painted by Mark Allen. All I did was repair, re-varnish and re-base. The chap I bought them from had them organised in regiments of 12 or 16. The former were just incorporated directly as "small" regiments, the others, like this particular regiment, have been "stretched" to fit the standard format of 3 "squadrons" of 6, by the simple expedient of putting just a couple of figures on two of the bases. I am not going to try and imitate the style of a master!!

A couple of shots of the heavy cavalry component so far.

Next is my only lancer regiment (at the moment). Another Mark Allen production. The sharp eyed among you will have noticed that there are only 11 figures in this unit. The 12th was a standard bearer that I decided not to use - he has been converted into something else - and the base featuring the tumbling horsemen was left with only 2 figures - which is enough I think.

Next is my hussar brigade. The first regiment was painted by me a while ago. There are only 12 figures, but have another 6 to do to bring it up to strength. Old Foundry figures, but still very nice.

This is another Mark Allen unit, again just repaired, varnished and re-based, The same Foundry figures. A nice light cavalry brigade.

Last but not least, the unsung heroes of the French mounted arm - chasseurs a cheval. Again these were consolidated from a load of 8 man regiments, with enough to make a standard and a small regiment.

So there we are, it's a decent start but still a long way to go. Have a couple of Saxon heavy regiments to do and then will need to put in an order with The Perrys for some Guards and some line dragoons.
Next up will be the French infantry.

Take care everyone.

A Normandy Village (Part 2)

Here are a couple of slightly larger modules - a house and small barn and a large farmhouse. I tend to have a fair amount of greenery climbing up the walls as it adds a nice bit of colour. I also find that the marshy brown coloured tufts adds a bit of contrast to the bases rather than the usual green.

I am on the way with a church and small war memorial to complete the village, but will try and add a few odds and ends (particularly trees) to make it looked more "lived in". All comments/suggestions welcome as usual.

A Normandy Village (Part 1)

After all those plastic late war German buildings, I thought it was about time to make a start on a Normandy village. The basic house modules were laser cut for me by Martin at Warbases. I did the roof, base, additional details and texturing, plus of course the painting. I decided that small was beautiful and tried to keep the footprint down as much as possible. That way I decent size village of 3-6 modules won't take up half the table.

Here are the first three, a double and two singles. Am probably looking at half a dozen modules including a church for the first village.

The roofing is Wills slate roofing - right scale and easy to do; I used to do individual tiles, but decided that life was too short! If properly coloured and dry brushed it does the job.

Will post the rest when I get them finished. Sorry about the quality of some of the pics - the overhead strip lights don't help and I am no photographer unfortunately. Even so, I hope you like them.

New 20mm WW2 Village Module

Most of my WW2 buildings have comprised a single building with a variety of add-on gardens. This time I have gone for something a little larger with an integral base. The main advantage with this system is that everything looks a bit more "together" and due to the larger base, you can do a bit more with it. The basic house is another of my plastic railway model purchases from EBAY, cleaned up, re-painted and detailed. The fencing is from the same model railway source, as is the shed.

To add a bit of extra interest, I have made a number of small orchard-type trees, that can be dropped in when needed to vary things.

I have a few more of these on the go at the moment and will post some details when I have them finished. When I can find the time, I am hoping to do a board or two to represent a more urban area and will add a load of larger 3 storey buildings that I have been sitting on for quite a while to represent a town, rather than village setting.

More AWI

After a bit of a break (!) since my last post, here are the latest additions to my AWI collection. First up is a fairly generic Loyalist militia unit. There are 24 figures in total, all from the Perry range. Usefully five of the bases can be used as rebel militia if required, as they are indistinguishable, being in civilian dress. The command base has three of its four figures in red coats, just to set them apart a little, whilst the flag (another lovely Mark Allen production), identifies them as unmistakably Loyalists. They are marching across the first of my newly re-vamped terrain boards - a project that is progressing slowly but steadily. Will do a post on them later when I have more done.

Secondly, a unit of a dozen rebel rifles to add a bit of long range sniping ability. My American force now stands at 1 x 36 Continentals, 2 x 24 militia, a light gun and a dozen skirmishers. The forces of the Crown are lagging behind somewhat, with a mere 24 man militia battalion, a dozen militia skirmishers (which can also double as rebels at need)  plus a dozen Hessian jaegers. I am currently working on a 40 man unit of 71st Highlanders to even things up a bit. When they are done, I will at least have enough for a game of Sharp Practice. Ultimately, I want to be able to play larger battles of 3-5 brigades a side, but that may take some time.