From Greg: 28mm Perry Napoleonic French Infantry

Greg had originally done these Perry plastics around a year ago as two separate units for Shako. This was his first foray with painting French (being a dyed-in-the-wool Austrophile). This past weekend he basically combined the two to form the equivalent of a 32 man unit for Grand Manner style games.

I could be wrong, but from a close look at the colours it looks like this is the 3er Regiment de Ligne who, except for Jena-Auerstadt, was present for most of the major campaigns.

In rebasing this unit Greg has begun to experiment in using long grasses and other foliage to ornament the unit. Looks very nice indeed.

From the Lead Archive: Old Glory 1:2400 Napoleonic Ships-of-the-Line

Since Sylvain is running an Age of Sail scenario this week (Battle of Grand Port) using his modified 'Trafalgar' rules I thought I'd reacquaint myself with the period by touching-up some model ships that I had in the 'Lead Archive'.

These are 1:2400 Old Glory models. They are kinda grotty up close, but at an arms length away I think they give a nice impression of the ships of that time.

I particularly like that they are one-piece castings, with the seabase, masts and ratlines modeled as part of the same sculpt. I purposefully over-exaggerated the colours and highlighted heavily to give the models more 'punch' when seen on the tabletop. The pennants are just thin strips of paper dipped in a white glue and water emulsion, wrapped around the mainmast top and painted.

The models paint up quite fast and I'd recommend them to anyone who wants to first dip in a toe with Age of Sail gaming before investing in more complex, expensive and demanding castings from manufacturers such as Langton or GHQ.

Test Models: 28mm Perry Dismounted Dragoons

I assembled and painted these to get an idea of how they would look done-up as skirmishing models for both 'big battalion' games and the odd 'Sharpe Practice' dust-up. I think you get 8 in a box and I have about four boxes so I should be good for making a decent sized unit (assuming I don't go mad gluing my fingers together).

I used the same basic paint scheme as my mounted dragoon regiment so as to be able to depict them in their hybrid role as ground troops. I think I'm going to go back over these to dirty them up a little. They look a little too crisp and clean for my tastes.

Does anybody know of any good horse models that are 'at rest' that I could use for making up a horse holder stand? I thought such a stand would serve well as a rally position and a place where the regimental colours would be situated while the rest of the unit is dispersed to the front.

AND I get to chip in with another 3 points to the Challenge. Woo! (Cripes, talk about 'nickel and diming' to stay near the lead, eh?)

Product Review: 'Wings of War' Magnetic Gimbal Mounts

We've been playing a 'Wings of War' campaign lately and so I picked these magnetic gimbal mounts up from the Wings of War Aerodrome as I thought they were a brilliant little add-on for the game.

They're simply a ball bearing matched with a magnetic collar that fits between the existing stand and the aircraft model.

The assembly process is straightforward: first snip off the existing post at the bottom of the model and drill in a small hollow that will allow for the bearing to sit. Then put a drop of superglue in the hollow and place the bearing. Leave to cure.

Next assemble the stand and apply some superglue to the top of one of the posts. Then afix a magnetic collar to the post and allow to set-up.

So after about 5 minutes work you have a model that can depict it's tuns, climbs and dives (or, for me, impending crashes).

At $6.99 for a set of 10 these gimbal mounts provide a nice bit of added animation to the game - recommended!

From Tim: 28mm Front Rank British Command: William Carr Beresford

 

Back in February when I issued the Spring Thaw Napoleonic Painting Challenge my friend Tim said he would kick in as he was on the path to collecting a British force for 'Black Powder'. Well, Mr. Tim's a busy lad as you can see from his blog but he knew he had commited himself and so sends in this entry - probably the first of what will be a mad dash to the finish line.

Here we have a lovely British command stand made up of 28mm figures from Front Rank. I think the bald fellow is Carr Beresford who was basically Wellington's second-in-command for much of the Peninsular War. Beresford was instrumental in organizing and training the Portuguese army along British lines. In fact, by the end of the conflict in Spain almost a half of the 'British' army under Wellington was in fact Portuguese. The usually dour Wellington paid a rare compliment to the Portuguese in calling them 'The fighting cocks of the army' - they were very hard fighters and this combined with Beresford's administrative abilities made them a potent force.

Though they were painted just before the Challenge date I'm taking the liberty to poach some shots from Tim's blog to feature his excellent 42nd Highlanders.

Some poor wee jocks taking a 'dirt nap'.

... and another command stand.

I really like Tim's painting style. I actually reminds me of Paul's - very clean and distinct, with great choice of colour tones. Beautiful stuff, Tim! You're officially on the board!