From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Brunswicker Infantry & Austrian Command (260 points)

From John:

Well here is my 15th and final submission to the Painting Challenge. These figures just push me over my personal goal of 1700 pts and I have to say that I am done with the brush for a bit. Rather then finishing with the 18 figures I need for my Romano-British force or the 16 figures left in the Hobbit box set I decided to finish off some Napoleonics.

Here are the final 2 units needed for the Brunswick Light Brigade at Waterloo. The 1st Light have yellow facings and the 2nd have tan facings. They join the 3rd with orange facings as well as the Avant Garde and the Lieb battalion in the Light Brigade.

All I have to do now to finish off the Brunswick Corps are the 3 Line battalions, they will be next up as I they really have great looking flags, which were not available for the light troops. I just received some amazing flags from Flagdude. so maybe I will be unable to rest the brush for too long.

The final two figures to get over the 1700 mark are 2 Austrian commanders. A couple of years ago I started an Austrian unit, I am not sure if I will ever finish it, but I have 2 battalions of line, 1 battalion of grenzers and 4 companies of jaegers done as well as some artillery and a regiment of cavalry. A nice brigade sized force, but no brigade commander. So here we have an Austrian Major General with his ADC. These are Front Rank figures and are just very nice to paint. As you could see from the close up of the face I could have easily painted some eyes, which I have not been keen to do, but thankfully I have still resisted.

Anyway I would like to thank Curt, his annual contest has really grown over the last 3 years and he has done a great job. The next time I see him, I will certainly buy a drink for all the great work he has done. And congratulations to all for the amazing submissions that I have got to enjoy over the last 3 months.

Thanks for the kudos, John, much appreciated (and I will hold you to that drink!). I've been a big fan of your Brunswickers since you first debuted them. Also, those Austrian officers look brilliant (I have a thing for bicornes) and I really like the use of the oval base-shape for your ADCs - quite elegant that.

These two battalions of black Brunswickers plus the two Austrian officers will give John 260 points, just enough to pip him past his Challenge target. Congratulations friend, and well done!

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Brunswick Command (50 points)

From John:

Back to Napoleonics. Here are the command stands for my Brunswick Corps. Couple of new basing ideas here. First up is the my new divisional stand: A 80x60mm oval. I realized the number of figures I would need for my Napoleonic command stands was just too many, and I also felt the 120x80 mm stands were too big for this level of command. I will stay with this rectangular stand for the Corps and Army command bases ie commands of 12-20k men. For under 12k men, ie. 2-4 brigades, I thought this oval stand looked a lot better and was more appropriate in size for the table.

There is also a 50 mm round brigade stand in this collection as well as another new addition, an ADC stand. These 40x20mm ovals will be used for my functional ADC's, ie chaps who have to move about the terrain. FoG Napoleonic ruleset has this as a function and Curt's upcoming ruleset Food for Powder uses them as well. I have always thought that having ADC's running about the terrain would be cool. 

So anyway here we have the Duke of Brunswick with his Adjutant General Col Olfermann as well as an ADC bringing a message from the front. The Duke was killed at Quatre Bras, and Col Olfermann had to assume command. We also have another ADC on an independent stand as well as Lt Col von Specht commanding the 2nd Line Infantry Brigade. You see that the ADC's have sky blue trousers. I was not sure what colour stripe to put on these trousers, any suggestions?

I am hoping to be able to submit the first part of my Cunning Secret Project done soon, as well as some Romano-British and my first Andalusians.

Lovely work John. I really like these chunky bases you're using and that oblong base-shape for the ADC gives a nice visual reminder of its function during games.

These five horsemen will give John 50 points. I'm very much looking forward to seeing your upcoming Cunning Secret Project!

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Hanoverian Jagers & Brunkswick Avantgarde (120 points)

From John:

Back to Napoleonics. Part of this submission marks a milestone to me. About a year ago, I decided to plan and paint my Napoleonics at the command level. Rather than painting battalions, I wanted to expand to painting a complete command, meaning a large brigade, a division or a small corps. This nomenclature of course varies across different armies, but really I was probably looking at 6-10 tactical units in each command. These units would be chosen of course from historical OB's and selected for their interesting or varied uniforms. Before I made this decision, I had already painted many French, British and Prussian units as well as some Portuguese. I will add units to these armies as time goes by in order complete these command groups. 

First up was the 1st Hanoverian Brigade at Waterloo followed by the Brunswick Corps. Holding up completion of the Hanoverian Brigade was the arrival of some Kielmansegge's Jagers from Westfalia Miniatures. Well they were well worth waiting. To date, these are the nicest miniatures I have painted. Just superb.

These are individually based (still thinking about this, but they are on 20 mm 1.5 mm bases, so they can be easily glued to a larger base if I chose to do so, I want to try them in a couple of games before I make my final decision). I have also decided to paint skirmishers in units of 4 to represent a company. This looks and feels right to me.

I also submit the Brunswick Avantgarde, there were 4 companies of these in the Brunswick Corps at Waterloo, 2 companies of Jagers and 2 companies of lights with muskets. These are Perry figures, I had painted 6 of the Jaegers before as Tyroleans, but these had to be completely repainted as the colours were completely wrong, so I believe them to be a fair submission for points. 

Finally, I have to apologise for the quality of the photos, I dropped my camera 2 days ago and broke it. These were taken with my iPhone. I am not sure what is up next as I only have 13 primed figures on the table, and I am still not sure if I want to do them next.

Very nice John! Those Westfalia castings are brilliant and from looking at Kawe's site it looks like there are many nice models soon to come off their workbench.

These 24 models will give John 120 points. 

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Brunswick Hussars & Uhlans (160 points)

John sends us another addition to his Napoleonic Brunswick collection, this time its the light cavalry: Hussars and Uhlans.

From John:

So here we have the Brunswick cavalry at Waterloo. This unit represents 3 squadrons of Hussars and a squadron of Uhlans (I actually should have one more squadron of Hussars......happy to trade 2 Uhlans (and money of course) for 4 Hussars). I represent each squadron with 4 figures. 

I am not sure if they saw action or not, but certainly they are going to look good on the gaming table. These were primed white, airbrushed with black ink and then heavily dry brushed with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. A final light dry brush Vallejo London Grey was used to bring out pelises, fur and straps. I believe I will go with this method for the rest of my Brunswickers. 

This is the largest cavalry unit I have painted with 16 figures, previously my max was 12. These are Perry figures and were quite nice to paint. I do like the horses, but they were a little fragile though, I believe I snapped off at least an half dozen legs. I should have another unit to submit in the next day or two, they will not be black!

John, these look fabulous. I really like the method you've come up with to do your 'black' - I'm definitely going to give that a try.

These sixteen horsemen will give John 160 points.

From JohnM: 28mm Napoleonic Brunswick Artillery (150 points)

John has unlimbered his guns and entered the fray with this entry of two batteries of Napoleonic Brunswick artillery ('The Black Brunswickers').

From John:

Here is my first submission, the Brunswick Artillery at the Battle of Waterloo. The Brunswick Corps had 2 Artillery batteries, one Foot Artillery unit under Major von Moll and one Horse Artillery unit under Captain von Heinemann. Both units were comprised of six 6 pd cannon, I use a ratio of 1 base for 2 actual cannon, so here we have 6 bases. My research indicates that the equipment were captured French or Westphalian cannon, so I have gone with an olive green colour for the woodwork. I am not sure how much action they saw that day, but I am sure that they will see action on the wargaming table.

I must say the submissions to the Challenge have been impressive so far in both quantity and quality, I almost feel like a British Infantryman at Badajoz, trying to surmount the breach!

Beautiful work John and your excellent terrain really flatters them as well. They are Perry models, correct?

This veritable artillery park of guns will give John 150 points to mark his entry into this year's Challenge. Well done, mon ami!