French Imperial Guard Cavalry - Warrior Miniatures

 As a bank holiday project I decided to reorganise and base the Guard cavalry.  I had an unpainted lancer regiment, so I painted these and added them to the organisation.  They were the 2nd Guard Lancer regiment, the Dutch lancers in red.

In all there are five regiments, The Chasseurs a Cheval, The Grenadiers a Cheval, The 1st and 2nd Lancer regiments and the Empress Dragoons.

The cavalry are providing an escort for the great man himself, with his staff.  the Chasseurs are the close escort.

Apart from the Red Lancers, all of the figures are the stunning work of Jeffers.

I also finished off the line artillery, adding one of my batteries.  I believe there are 3 or 4 more in a box somewhere.

The French army is almost finished, although I am painting six battalions of Guard grenadiers and the are four more line battalions which may turn out to be the Young Guard.

25mm Warrior Miniatures - French Line Infantry

 Bit of a mega project this one, but today I finished painting and basing the rest of Jef's French French line infantry.  There are a few more line grenadiers and voltigeurs to complete, but the bulk of the line infantry are now ready to take to the field.

Altogether there are 18 battalions.  I have set them up here as three, six battalion brigades, each with a commander and a division commander at the head. Or, it could be three divisions with a corps commander, depending upon the scenario.

I have still to do the Guard cavalry, again combining my figures with those from Jef's collection.  There are no Guard infantry, but there are plenty of unpainted figures in boxes and I am preparing a batch of five battalions of Old Guard. more on that as they develop. 

There are quite a few guns to base as well.

Les Higgins Project - British Household Cavalry

 Over the past year or so, I have been gradually accumulating Les Higgins napoleonic figures.  I have finally finished off the two Household Cavalry regiments, namely the Life Guards and Toyal Horse Guards.

In addition, when time permits I paint the odd infantry figure and last weekend I had done enough to deploy a brigade, consisting of two line battalions, a light battalion and some Rifles.  Some were eBay purchases that required a quick clean up and new bases.  Others were painted from scratch.

I am working on some Scots Greys, but I do not have enough yet to make up a 12 figure units.  Some French Dragoons are on their way too, so I should have enough of those for a regiment.  Finally, I have worked on some French infantry as well as some British Light Dragoons.

French Infantry

 I have started merging my Warrior army with that painted by Jeffers.  From my collection, rebased and reorganised, I have sorted out eight battalions, a battery and a general to command them all.  It makes up quite a nice division size formation, with a mix of line light and a grenadier battalion.

There are are four line fusiler, one grenadier, one voltigeur and two light battalions.

I know that my structure does not accurately reflect the real French organisation as I have pooled my voltigeurs and grenadiers into battalions.  In reality this would have been companies, which I don't think would work with 12 figure units:

The difference between my figures and those from Jef's collection are the flags.  I use the original cast flags on my figures, while Jef has replaced his with paper flags. You will see this on the next batch of infantry figures. Also Jef's figures are better painted than mine!

25mm Warrior Miniatures French Army - The Light Cavalry

 Another phase in the merging of two armies and rebasing is complete. This time it is the French light cavalry. Consisting of three light lancer regiments, two of chasseurs and two of hussars, they make a splendid sight on the table. Also, another horse artillery battery joins the army.

A closer look at the lancers:

One of the chasseur regiments:

The stunning hussars:

And, finally the horse artillery:

I have started on the infantry, which I hope will prove to be an easier task than rebasing the Austrians. I should mention that the majority of the excellent painting is by Jeffers and I am simply tinkering around edges.

And so it begins ... 25mm Warrior Miniatures French Army - The Heavy Cavalry

 Last week I started rebasing the French Army, having more or less completed work on the Austrians. However, in the case of the French, I am adding units from my existing French Army, suitably based to match the Jeffers collection figures.

The first batch consists of the French line heavy cavalry.  The combined total is, five regiments of Cuirassiers, one of Carabiniers and four of dragoons. There is also a horse battery.

Currently Marshal Ney is in command.  This was a clever conversion carried out by Jeffers, who is also responsible for most of the painting.

Mystery Figure

 Does anybody know what this figure represents?  It is almost certainly a Miniature Figurines S Range sculpt and is 25mm.  I am thinking Mongol?  There is no catalogue number either on top of or underneath the base.

Yet more Austrian Infantry

 The weekend saw me finishing off another batch of Warrior Austrians from the Jeffers collection. This time the units were one Jaeger battalion and four battalions of Landwehr.  I had to paint a couple of officers to make up the numbers. They make quite a colourful display:

I have now just about reached the end of this project.  There are quite a few odds and ends to sort out from the remains of downsized battalions.  In all there are about six further battalions of line infantry and grenadiers.  However, I will have to paint an equal number of command groups, of officers, standard bearers and drummers.

Ros Figures, 25mm French Imperial Guard Foot Artillery

 Seeking a change from the sea of Austrian white, I decided to finish off a project. Last night I completed a  some figures that have been sitting on the corner of the painting table for a long time.

Here they are, Ros Figures 25mm French Guard Foot Artillery, circa 1975.  They go off to join my Ros French forces. The castings are quite nice and they paint up well:

More Austrians

 The bank holiday provided the time to rebase more Warrior Miniatures Austrians.  On this occasion the batch consisted of six battalions.  Two are German line infantry, two, with the blue breeches are Hungarian line infantry, then there are two Reserve units.  One is Austrian Landwehr in campaign dress and the other (I believe) is the Salzburg Landwehr, the guys in green.

I also found two spare gunners, so I painted a commander and made up another battery.

A Hungarian battalion:

Landwehr:

Next will be another batch of Landwehr.  After that it will be a case of forming some more units from the odds and ends left from the reorganisation.  That should provide another 4 or 5 battalions.

Austrian Army Review, Grenadiers, Staff and Artillery

 The bank holiday presented the opportunity to finish off the next tranche of Warrior Austrians, originally painted by Jeffers. This time, I reorganised and based three combined grenadier battalions, another two line battalions, the staff officers and all of the artillery.

The combined grenadier battalions are those with white flags, with two more line battalions in the foreground.

A view from above gives a better impression of the grenadiers.  They are made up from the grenadier companies from the line battalions.

The complete Austrian staff.looking splendid as they survey the field.

And finally the artillery.  There are currently seven batteries, but I found some more gunners and will make up an 8th unit.

As I put these away I am soaking another load of infantry.  There are more line battalions plus some landwehr units to come.

25mm Portuguese Cavalry and Hittite Chariots

 This was a bit of a fun project.  I purchased a lot of eBay that consisted of around 20 Les Higgins/PMD British light cavalry horses and a similar number of early Lamming RHA outriders.  My initial plan was to keep the horses for future projects as and when the correct riders turned up.  However, it struck me that a simple bit of conversion work could turn the RHA chaps into Portuguese cavalry.  I had enough for three six figure units.  My research determined that Portuguese cavalry were constantly undermanned (short staffed PC) and usually could only muster around 200, due to corruption, desertion and inefficiency.

The Portuguese dragoons wore differing facing colours so the three units make quite a colourful display:

Also, Count Goya recently sent me two spare Atlantic Egyptian chariot parts.  Using some figures from the Caesar  Hittite infantry set, I converted the very small 20mm Atlantic chariot into a larger vehicle using card, that can just about hold a crew of three.  For horses, I used some examples from the Airfix Roman chariot.  Not brilliant, but a useful addition to my ancinet armies:

Austrian Army Review - The Infantry

 Over the weekend I completed reorganising the first tranche of the Austrian infantry.  

So far, I have rebased 10 battalions and they provide a colourful mix of shako and helmet line infantry, Grenzers and Jaegers.  All of the figures are by Warrior Miniatures and have been beautifully painted by Jeffers:

I have taken a look in the spares box and I have found sufficient command figures to provide the right structure for the odds and ends left from the rebasing exercise. There could be quite a few extra battalions.

My next tranche will be the combined grenadier battalions.

Austrian Army Review

 In what I think was a moment of madness, Jeffers handed over many box files of Austrian and French troops to me.  The deed took place in the carpark of the Warfare show a couple of years ago.  Since then the armies have made an appearance on the table, but there are probably too many to have them all deployed at once.  Whilst the bases are lovely, the units are a bit too big for my hex based games.  

After a lot of thought, I have decided to restructure the armies and,where necessary, rebase them to conform with my other armies and the terrain.

All of the figures are by Warrior Miniatures and the painting is exquisite. They really show how Warrior figures can be turned into little gems in skilled hands.

To start off with, I have sorted out the cavalry.  They are pretty much as Jef painted and based them.  I have just changed to colour of the base and organised them into two divisions, a heavy and a light.  They look splendid on the table:

There is a general figure and each division has a battery of horse artillery.  I plan to add two more commanders in due course, one for each division.  The light cavalry are nearest the camera.

Here is a view from the other side with the heavies nearest:

Here are some closer shots of these lovely little figures:

I have started on the infantry, but that is going to be a more lengthy process.  I will do a brigade at a time - there are a lot of brigades!

25mm Napoleonic Spanish Army

 I recently revamped my Spanish army, after acquiring a few more battalions off eBay.  The additional five units has increased my organisation to 10 battalions, four cavalry regiments and a couple of batteries.  

The new troops were credited to belong to the former collection of the late George Gush.  I purchased them as I could see that they were by Warrior and that Spanish troops are quite hard to find now. I must say they are lovely figures, which when given a coat of varnish, a bit of touching up and new bases, blend in well with my existing troops.  

The George Gush figures are the rear five infantry battalions.

All the figures are from Warrior Miniatures and I think they look quite business like when painted:

Blue vs Grey - Battle Report

 Phil paid a visit recently and we decided to have a go at an American Civil War game.  We used a set of home grown rules that smacked of Featherstone/Grant, but with a twist.  An idea borrowed from Perry's Travel battle, we increased the importance of brigade commanders, them having to be in close proximity to units for orders to be issued. This added a new dynamic and interest to the game as units carried out orders then stopped awaiting new direction, although they can engage enemy units that threaten when required.  Deploying the commanders forward increased the likelihood of their becoming casualties and complicating the command process.

I played blue, while Phil played grey.

An overview of the battlefield, with the grey forces on the left; blue to the right

The Federal commander deploys his forces on the right, with the idea of sweeping up the Confederate left flank.

Confederate cavalry, some skirmishers and the Alabama regiment hold their left, with two batteries of guns in the field towards the centre.

A whole Brigade of infantry in column begin to move forward on the Confederate right flank.

The Confederates quickly occupy a farm, which will later be supported by artillery and this position will become a thorn in the side of the Federal army.

Concerned about the Confederate build up on the left, federal reserves are called forward, while the guns fire into the Alabama Regiment and the Confederate artillery.

Phil pushed out the Alabama Regiment to threaten the Federal right, supported by his artillery:

However, I had deployed the Federal Sharpshooters into a wood and they picked off the grey troops, forcing them to halt and withdraw.  During this action one of the Confederate brigade commanders falls, causing some chaos:

The Sharpshooters were supported by a regiment of cavalry that trotted around the Confederate left.  For some reason the Confederate cavalry had moved off over to the other side of the field, giving the federal cavalry the freedom to move around the flank:

Seeing the Confederate brigade moving around to threaten the Federal left flank, the Pennsylvania Regiment is deployed up against the rail fence in support of the New York Zouaves, who by now had taken quite a few casualties from rifle and cannon fire.

Early on one of the federal batteries is destroyed and the unmanned gun can be seen on the left in the field.

Two regiments of Confederate infantry are now approaching from the the Federal left, moving through a wheat field.  In the far distance another federal regiment attempts to attack the Confederate guns, supported by Sharpshooters and cavalry.  However, the field is being swept by close range artillery and casualties mount.

The Federal cavalry sweep into the remnants of the Alabama Regiment and see off some Confederate skirmishers, but hindered by the rail fence and suffering casualties from the guns, their success is short lived; however, the Confederates lose another commander, leaving just one general to command the whole army.  Things slow down for the Confederates 

The Confederates emerge from the wheat field and are met by federal volleys causing some casualties amongst the Texas Regiment and the Kentucky Volunteers.

Without leaders, the Confederate advance comes to a halt and Phil decides to call it a day, which was a shame as the Confederates looked to be in a strong position.  

BUT

After a beer or two, we decided to return to the game, allowing the Confederate Army Commander to take tactical command of the units on the Confederate left. The one remaining brigade commander could now reengage around the wheat field.  Soon the Confederates gained the upper hand and the result of the game was reversed.

This was a most enjoyable game, played with my old Spencer Smith troops and simple but effective rules.