Naval Action off San Domingo, 1806 - 1:1200 GHQ by Sylvain

Allan's British squadron going into close action.

 Sylvain was kind enough to host a great game last night using his redux version of the 'Trafalgar' rules. The scenario was the 1806 naval action that was fought off the coast of San Domingo. Due to atrocious rolls on my part I spent a good portion of the game waiting in the wings with my squadron, spouting pithy (read: useless) advise, while Allan took it in the teeth for King and Country. That being said he did a very handsome job in not only tying-up the majority of the French squadron but by also gutting their flagship and mauling another 74-gun ship-of-the-line. By the time I leisurely cruised into the action, with pennants bravely waving, it was pretty much last call for the French (by saying this I do a great disservice to Stacy who actually played a very good game as the unfortunate Admiral Leissegues). 

The HMS Spencer bashing it out with two French 74s.

Please excuse the crap photos as they were snapped with my iphone as I tottered over the table. Nonetheless, it should give you a good idea of the beautiful models in Sylvain's collection. I especially like the wrecked vignettes he's done. Great stuff, Sylvain - Bravo!

'Keep rowing, Pierre, Haiti is only 200 miles away. Can someone please pass the bilge water...?'

New from Curt: 28mm Foundry, 2e Regiment de Ligne (2nd Battalion)

Here is another French battalion to add to the collection (and the Painting Challenge). This is the 2nd Battalion of the 2e Regiment de Ligne.

This regiment has the unique distinction of having served as ship-borne troops in the Battle of Trafalgar. In the 1809 campaign the first two battalions fought as part of Molitor's Division defending, against steep odds, the village of Aspern in the two-day battle of Aspern-Essling.  They were heavily engaged again during the Battle of Wagram less than two months later. The 3rd battalion lost it's colour standard, much to their shame, to Tyrolean rebels under Andreas Hofer (and is now on display in the Army Museum in Innsbruck). The regiment participated in most of the major engagements right up to the Hundred Days Campaign.

The core of this unit existed before as the beginnings of a 20-man battalion, but I have since brought it up to a more strapping 40-man-equivalent unit with some fresh recruits, a couple junior officers, a few casualties and a mounted commanding officer (by Victrix). All in all that makes it 42 figures with all the extra trimmings. The battalion standard is by Flag Dude. 

So, another 22 points to the pot! It does not bridge the gap with JohnM but at least I'm a bit closer...

Test Models from Greg: 28mm Foundry Austrian Dragoons

Greg's next unit for the Painting Challenge will be a regiment of Austrian dragoons, namely Dragoon Regiment No. 2 "Prinz Eugen von Savoyen" - a unit which recruited out of Moravia.  He's kindly forwarded a few shots of some finished models that he's used for testing colour composition. These are 28m Foundry castings.

Greg says he's still trying to find his sea legs with painting 28mm cavalry but I think these lads look great. I'm eager to see the entire regiment of twenty-four when its done!

Hmm, it looks like I'm going to have to rack up some Perry French cuirassiers or carabiniers to help sort these fellows out when we next meet for a game. The escalation continues...

New Side Project: 'Architects of War' Terrain

When I first saw some of the 'Architects of War' stuff online I was quite intrigued as it seemed like high quality, well thought-out terrain. Then I saw JohnM's review of the their brilliant Tree Bases on his blog and that sealed it - I wanted to get some of this for my own table. Over the Christmas season Barb and Bernie at Architects of War had a great 'North American Terrain' deal which I was quite keen on. As it turned out, in the chaos of the holiday season I completely missed the deadline for placing an order.  Nonetheless they were kind enough to fill it after the fact and even allowed me to fiddle around with swapping in substitutes. Thanks very much guys!

Behold, a crap-load of resin and white metal!

The shipping box was very well packed and packaged and the same can be said for the individual items. I haven't had time to go through each of the boxes yet but the ones I have examined look very good.  The resin is very clean, crisp in detail and most importantly, not warped. The white metal looks well-formed and the castings seem quite clean. 

The pig sty - very reminiscent of my bedroom as a teenager...

I think with this order I have a decent sampling of products from their General Purpose range. There's two sets of trees, a large plowed field, a turnip field, tobacco field, garden, family burial plot, dung heap, farm implements, a well and a pig sty.

An example of a finished piece from the website.

I'll post photos of each of the pieces as they come off the painting desk.

Entry from Greg: 28mm Foundry Austrian Jaegers

Here we have the second entry from Greg for the Painting Challenge: a batch of 12 Austrian Jaegers ready to put the 'volt' back in some voltigeurs. Heh heh, I kill myself sometimes... Anyway, these are 28mm Foundry castings.

As Greg mentions here these guys look like 'Central Casting' characters for a Ricola commercial - except with guns instead of horns.

Greg plans to do a few more Foundry boys based as singles, like these, for skirmishing but will use Alban Miniatures castings for a unit that is formed up into ranks for close order duties.

So this entry puts another dozen points on the scoreboard for Greg. He says he has a full unit of Austrian dragoons in the works so lets see if he can close the gap with JohnM with those boys, or will John beat him to the punch with some fresh stuff? Only time will tell.