Front Rank French Napoleonic 1st Legere

Hello There! I recently heard that the stock market had crashed and that the Earth was threatening to spin out of its orbit. I can only put this down to the fact I recently finished painting some Napoleonic figures!

Unfortunately, in the recent house move, (well nearly a years ago now), the only damages were the newly completed battalion of French Leger, before I was able to photograph them. I have started to repair them and start a second battalion.

First up is the casualty marker. I saw this figure on the web page of Front Rank and thought he would make a suitable casualty marker. I have also made a point of including the white tape around the back pack. Some of the other figures in the unit also include white patches on the back packs as I have discovered that the back packs are made of goat skin and may be in  number of different shades and patches.

These photos are a little over exposed but there was not much light on the day, despite going out side and my make shift light box being attacked by the cat!

There are three more bases for the second battalion under way and two more bases being repaired. These will be done soon.

 

Mediterranean Church Part Two

Hello There! I have had some time to continue the various projects I have in progress and the latest is the Church from ,(formerly), Shellhole Scenics.

I had some resin walls, which I had kept, 'Just in case' and these were going to make a surrounding wall for the church. I had some 90 degree corners and plenty of straight sections. I have used just boiled water to bend resin items in the past and fortunately these items were made of a resin that allowed me to do that.

I needed a pan of just boiled water and a pan of cold water as I found that when I bent them to the shape I required they tried to return to their original shape. After a while I was able to obtain a manageable curve with an opening for a gate, which I will make from plasticard later.

The figure is for scale. I felt that the walls were a little small for 20mm figures which had been stuck to a one pence piece and had an added, thin piece of magnabase, for storage. I added a shim of 4mm thick plywood to raise the height. This will be hidden by scenic flock and plaster later. 

Moving onto the roof, this had two problems. The first was the release agent, used in any resin casting. It had left a residue of a fine, grit like finish on some of the surface. It appeared as a fine bead, like a shot blasting bead, adhering to the surface. This can be viewed on the left hand half of the roof here. It had to remover mechanically. While doing this you could see some air holes in the casting. These were filled with a suitable filler. In this case from Humbrol.

The other problem was the roof was a little lop sided. One long edge was 8mm thicker than the other. I rectified this by gluing a length of square plasticard to each end and cutting it into a wedge shape, in situ, to  level the roof up. 

The walls of the church also had this fine bead on the brickwork so this was also mechanically removed. This gave me the opportunity to spot any further air holes in the casting and fill them.

This was typically a case of you think you have found them all an then you spot some more.

The first part of this build is here. Next I will start with the first assembly, priming and first coats of paint.

Battle of Quatre Bras 16 June 1815

Hello there! I have forced myself to ne sociable recently and attended a game at the New Buckenham Historical wargames Club. 

They gamed the Battle of Quatre Bras, after recently gaming Waterloo earlier in the year.

I was unable to attend the start of the game on the Friday evening but was at the Saturday part up until 7pm on the evening of the battle. ere is an overall view of the battle field viewing from over the Bossu wood in the foreground and the crossroads in the distance on the left.

Here is a view of the cross roads from the Allied side of the field.

The buildings representing the farm building on the cross roads was a 3d print supplied by a club member.

Here are some of the Nassau troops defending the buildings.

French columns had a hard fought battle against, originally the Highlanders and then the Dutch Belgians, but the French finally took the out lying buildings and the cross roads. 

French chasseurs had some luck taking out an Allied artillery battery during the game.

Here are some wider photos to show the number of figures on display.

And some of the smaller vignettes present as well.

As mentioned earlier the farm building were a 3D print. While it looked impressive from a distance  on closed inspection the engrained lines typical of some printed items were very clear. Although I am no expert on 3D print, I know some are better than others. On saying that I am currently refurbishing some 3D print to try and 'lose' this grainy finish from them. 

After a very to and fro game the French started to overwhelm the Allied forces.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable game and was well worth attending. There was a very inspiring visual spectacle to be seen by all.

With further photos on the New Buckenham Facebook page here.

Battle of Gloucester Point 3rd October 1781

Hello There! I have managed a visit to my local wargames club and played a great game of AWI. This game was put on by Chris and was thoroughly enjoyable. 

The table was not massive and the game was a good way of showing gamers that you do not need to have a massive game with loads of figure to have an enjoyable and challenging game.

The scenario was a foraging party of British were retiring back to their lines and were discovered by a Franco American force which had almost caught them up. the wagons were under guard and a mixed Loyalist cavalry and British infantry force was hurrying the forage back to their lines.

The cavalry also comprised of a small unit of 17th Light Dragoons.

The baggage train was an eclectic mix and something that I would like to add to my own collection.

The British lines also had an artillery position which during the actual battle took no part in the action and so for the purposes of the game was 'Fluff' However during our refight the artillery played a prominent part.

The initial engagement consisted of a cavalry battle when the French Lazuns Legion caught up with Banastre Tarletons Loyalists. This ended when after a number of melee rounds, which saw the Loyalists pushed back, Tarleton was wounded and the French took the entire unit prisoner as they surrendered.

As the baggage train moved off the table the two Virginia Battalions moved to the centre of the table t engage the British. They put up a good attack, considering they were militia but eventually broke leaving the wagons to escape off the board.

The rules used were a club set which were modified from the Bruce Quarrie Napoleonic rules from the 1980's. These were written when some of the club members attended the Coltishall Cowards Wargames Club in the 1990's. 

Further photos of te game are on the Club Facebook page here.