1813-15 battles in 20mm and for AoE and V&F - (part 17) Imperial Guard artillery reserve (Napoleon´s "Beautiful Daughters")

 

These three batteries of the reserve Imperial Guard were big 12 pdr guns of terrifying power last time used at Waterloo but already with a deadly record at Wagram and Borodino, just as examples. In fact this group is intended for Waterloo but is a mixed bag: 

- the artillerymen are using the white gaiters, which were no longer used since 1813, just because they look nice;

-  General Drouot is here still a Major and this is how he was uniformed at Wagram;

-  the limber drivers are still using the uniform of 1812.

Drouot is the Airfix French officer with a Hat bicorne increased slightly in height with gel superglue. 

The limber is Zvezda and comes from one of the best boxes in the market, the French Foot Artillery, a box filled with marvellous miniature figures, 3 guns, a limber and one ammunition wagon. 

One of the artilleryman is in fact a Grenadier (Esci conversion) as the Imperial artillery had plenty of help from the Grenadiers and Chasseurs during many battles as these last ones didn´t like to stay iddle. 

The guns and crew are Esci with one of the 12 pdr barrels coming from the Zvezda set. 

Next: more French infantry

1813-15 battles in 20mm and for AoE and V&F - (part 14) Middle Guard Grenadiers

 

The French Middle Guard wasn´t very well dressed around Waterloo time. Apparently some items of the equipment were missing to equip the 3rd and 4th regiments of both Guard Grenadiers and Chasseurs, like bearskins, blue trousers and coats. Thus the white trousers and  greatcoats were common and even the guard bicorne was used as main headdress by some. 

These four regiments didn´t have eagles but 24 company fanions were distributed. Alexis Cabaret, the author of the absolutely amazing site MSJ 1815, shows them as similar to the ones of 1812-13 but I added a large "N" with some laurels just for the central white rectangle being happier. 

The figures are Esci, Revell, the pioneer is Zvezda and there are also three Hat figures in bicornes and greatcoats. Half of the Esci figures didn´t have a backpack and got theirs from old Airfix Grenadiers. 

Next: probably Nassauers or Dutch Militia. Eventually a go at the Papelotte farm.

1813-15 battles in 20mm and for AoE and V&F - (part 12) The Young Guard at Waterloo

 

When I made my first two Brigades of Young Guard in 28mm I used the Perry plastics for most of them, that is, mixing some greatcoated infantry with Bardin uniforms. The greatcoated Young Guard - something that afflicted many French infantry units- is many times portrayed like this and even Hat called Young Guard to a box exclusively with greatcoats. Also the fantastic site Mont-Saint-Jean also shows the Young Guard, at least partially, in greatcoats.

  Now in 20mm the Esci  models were used. One reason for this was this fantastic plate taken from the H&C Soldiers and Uniforms of Napoleonic Wars by Hourtoulle, Girbal and Courcelle: 

Here Jack Girbal portrays all Young Guard, both Tirailleurs and Voltigeurs, in standard uniform as it is said on the subtitle that the greatcoats were probably wet from the previous night and that they were placed as normal strapped on top of the backpacks. This painting looks quite believable as I´ve been on those streets and also want to believe in this version. 

Another reason is the Esci "French Line Infantry" figures themselves. When I was a teenager I remember talking to two wargaming friends - the only ones I knew - and one of them saying "they are only good for Young Guard". I guess he was right as in fact the Esci French infantry is a big mess, with lapels pre-1812 and  Bardin on the tails. In fact this kind of "mistakes" convinced me that Esci was making enough figures so we could mix and match them as, for instance, you could get full pre-1812 uniforms from the Grenadier box and place shakos on them, or simply paint over the front of the infantry and get Bardin uniforms as the short tails were already there. 

This was what I did with these Young Guard figures. In fact the Esci detail is quite nice but not very deep - which I think was made on purpose so you can convert them more easily - and new detail can simply be painted over. 

So all figures got new front lapels, cuffs and even epaulettes for these two groups. Also only was strap was painted on the rank and file with NCO´s with two straps and sabretache. The final coat of varnish helps erase all molded original details that you don´t want. 

The only additions to many of these figures were the backpacks which were taken from Esci Grenadiers old Airfix figures. 

So all figures came from the Esci "Line infantry" and only the sappers are from the Grenadier box. The Young Guard didn´t have Eagles so I placed some hand painted company fanions on four of the stands. 

Next: the 95th rifles 

1813-15 battles in 20mm and for AoE and V&F - (part 10) The Brunswick division at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo

   

These models were one of the reasons for the exchange I made recently between my 28mm armies and TC´s 20mm armies. This small group is some 40 years old and was kept dearly as my first Napoleonics. Then when I switched to 28mm I always felt sorry for leaving these ones behind in card boxes. When a late teenager I only had the rule book 'To the Sound of the Guns', some Napoleonics lists and the two volumes of Napoleonic Uniforms by the Funckens. Then, one day while in downtown I found in a local library my first Osprey book, Brunswick Troops. And fantastic it was as it portrayed excellent color plates an a very rich text as the unit is a relatively small one, so plenty of information was inside.

On those old days of the 80s there were already several Esci Napoleonic Boxes like the British, French and Russian. So all of them were used for this division: 

 The bodies of the Line and Light infantry had the British as base with carved tails and bedrolls; the Light infantry had French Shakoes while the Line had Russian kiwers. Some infantry is also based on Russian bodies without the bedroll on the torso for variety and getting some figures as NCO´s with the sabretache. The running figure was forced to cool down as it had his knees bent with some fire so both legs could touch the base. 

The blue/yellow shako tufts were made with a small pin enlarged with epoxy resin. 

The flags of the Line battalions (the Light battalions had no flags) were hand painted. They are bigger then they should but they were carefully painting in Enamel colors as typical of those pre-internet and pre-acrylic days. 

They are for sure some of the most beautiful flags of the period. 

The Avant Garde was made from Russian bodies with scratch-built Corsican hats made of EverGreen plastic card.

The artillery guns are Esci British with the Horse artillery made from British Esci due to the braiding and the Foot artillery made from Airfix French, all with new heads as for the Hussars.

The Hussars are Airfix with French Shakoes with tufts made from hardened cotton and pins with superglue. 

The lancers are direct Esci with needles instead of the small plastic lances. There was only one squadron of lancers so one base would be enough but three is better than one.

The duke of Brunswick is a Waterloo1815 figure painted straight from the box. 

 Today Hat Industries has with all these types made in several boxes - Avant Garde; Leib Infantry and Cavalry -  and StreletsR also has the Leib battalion, so all this converting/scratch build work is useless even if it was fun to make. 

Next: French Old  Guard Chasseurs

1813-15 battles in 20mm and for AoE and V&F - (part 6) "La Garde meurt mais ne se rend pas!"

 

I always wanted to put this title! In fact it sums pretty well the life and death of these fantastic soldiers, even if this sentence was said by Cambronne of the Guard Chasseurs.  The figures are all from the last batch of exchanged figures and were already painted. Even so I changed a number of details life the blue bedrolls, flags and golden details as these figures started their life as line grenadiers and now are Guard Grenadiers. 

The figures are Zvezda with two Kozak 3d printed. One of the drummers is Esci and one Officer is Hat from the 1805 range. 

A good thing about these figures is that you can use them without any relevant uniform change for most of the Napoleonic wars. 

Next: More British infantry. 

The 1812 Russian army for AOE/ V&F rules in 20mm size.

Sorry but I did something stupid and if you want to see this video you have to paste it on the bar or see it on my YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/NhOvhsYHMWc?si=z79kcseEVmnP13LF

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOvhsYHMWc

The Napoleonic French allies for the campaigns of 1809 and 1812 for AoE/V&F rules in 20mm size

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram was constituted by the 2nd Jägers, the 5th Chevau-Légers and an artillery battery. During the battle the brigade was involved in the fighting around Aderklaa, defending the place, then loosing it and later recapturing it.  

I placed some of the Jägers with the old Raupenhelm of 1805 which, I think (or hope), that was still used by some units. The skirmish bases are not intended for brigade size wargames with most of the line infantry in Age Of Eagles having the SK mark showing skirmishing ability. The problem, at least for me, comes when a brigade only has infantry made of Jägers, not being very logical to show these troops in rectangular bases with 6 figures or even less. So I like to use these smaller stands that can be spread a bit all over. Another advantage is using them in smaller scale actions using other rules. 

The majority of the Jägers were changed to have the newer Corsican hat. The figures used were Esci British and Russian figures without shako. The trumpet came from the Esci Prussian and the third figure from the left is Italeri with my last Hat Corsican hat from their Austrian Landwehr box.

The brim of the hats were made from small pieces of card glued on the head. Then on top a piece of Belgian shako (without the top part) was glued. All Jägers, including the ones with the Raupenhelm, got a backpack. The rifles were also cut down to show the Jägerstutzen short rifle 1795 model and the Jägerkarabiner 1807 model. 

Klenau´s Chevau-Léger Regiment is made from the Revell British Life Guards, less the plume, on top of Airfix Hussar horses, due to the rear pointy shabraque. 

The more I paint these old types of plastic figures the more I get convinced that the figure designers of Revell, Airfix, Esci (and Italeri to an extent) were thinking to provide the basic types of equipment used in the Napoleonic wars and then trusting in its soft plastic for the conversion of whatever necessary by modellers and wargamers. In fact they had their hands full was they were making figures for all possible periods of history and this choice seems totally logical. Then StreletsR and Hat changed all this by making everything you need. In fact the British Life Guards can be turned easily into Austrian Dragoons or Chevau-Légers simply by changing the horse, cutting the plume and ignoring a bag under the canteen. Almost all horse´s legs in the air were glued to the base in order to provide a sturdier stand. 

                                 

Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim was considered one of the best Austrian commanders of the 1809 war but he killed himself in 1811 at the age of 41 due to an unknown scandal while writing a book on that famous campaign. 

Next: French Cuirassiers

More 1809 Austrian infantry (IR 10 and Grenadier Battalion Brezjinsky) for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Austrian infantry is in fact never fully made. You need hundreds of stands for Wagram, (in AOE terms - even at 1 stand/360 figures you need 223 bases of line infantry) and I´m around a bit more than half of the total. Together with this IR 10, made of Esci and Italeri figures, I painted one more Grenadier Battalion and an artillery stand. 

Two of the infantry battalions are Austrian figures but the third battalion got a different treatment. The torsos on the 2nd and 3rd ranks are French "line" from Esci with Austrian heads taken from kneeling figures. There are simply too many in both Esci and Italeri boxes and making three ranks, two of them standing, doesn´t help.  Backpacks were placed in all figures that didn´t have them. The French uniform in both brands have short coat tails and suit an Austrian unit very well if appropriately painted.

Like this they don´t stand that bad and you can reduce the number of headless figures. A good number of kneeling Esci and Italeri Austrians was still kept as I intend to couple them with Hat or Strelets Austrians.

The kneeling figures have to be used due to their numbers in old boxes. In fact I`m not sure if the Austrian infantry kneeled  even when in square like the British did with its first rank. 

The Esci figure biting its cartridge was converted into a drummer and is now smoking its pipe. 

This one, originally a Prussian sprue, came by mistake inside a box of Wurttemberg artillery as both are blue. The coat was cut here and there and painted as Austrian.

Next: more Austrian cavalry. 

The Granary of Essling for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Granary of Essling is one of the essentials of the battle of Aspern-Essling, the other being the church of Aspern. This was a long time project that I wanted to get my hands on somehow. I thought about ordering one in 3d resin and 15mm but the easy shape of the building convinced me to scratchbuild it.

Even if Aspern-Essling was an Austrian victory the French Grenadiers of Lannes managed to keep the Granary up to the end of the battle after constant attacks by the reserve Austrian Grenadiers of Rosenberg on the 2nd day. 

The true building should be 50cm long in 1/72nd scale but this one is 16cm X 11cm. Only the height, 15cm, is close to the real 19cm. Card was used for the outer walls and roof. The windows are external and the small dormers are made in BlueBoard with card roofs.

The inside of the building was strenghtened with plywood which also serves to represent the 1 meter thickness of the walls that even resisted to cannon fire. 

The roof has this simple approach with the painting job -hopefully- doing the rest. 

The small side entrance is again in BlueBoard. This material is great for you to avoid lots of calculations as its a very easy material to work.

The roof fits nicely on the walls with the help of some plywood. 

The painting was simple: black priming; ochre walls with sand drybrush.The roof got dark grey on top of the black, followed by lighter greys for the the tiles with a brick red color at the end. 

A few pieces of card gave some details for the doors.

The front painting was copied from recent photos but in a slightly simplistic way. 

More details for the openings.

The back part of the building. The corners were made with many dozens of small card rectangles. A bit boring but the result is much better than simply painting them.

Archduke Charles is also an old desire of mine. Initially I thought about going Franznap which produces an amazing metal model of the man with one of the Nr. 15 regiment Zach  flags in its hands, something portrayed in many period paintings. In the end I opted for the cheaper and faster solution which was to convert the Austrian Italeri officer on horse and placing a Prussian head on top. 

The other models are also Italeri. The one with the telescope is a converted French officer from the staff box; the Hungarian officer is a conversion mixing the mounted Austrian officer with Hungarian legs (clearly a very conservative person keeping its old Raupenhelm as the Hungarian were the first to receive the shako around 1809) and the foot staff officer is Prussian with French head. 

The mounted generals are Esci and Italeri bodies from the Scots Grey boxes with  Prussian heads. 

The plume, coat tails and sashes are made from GreenStuff. The result is nice and the great thing about the numerous boxes of Napoleonic 1/72nd scale figure is the conversion possibility of having even the ones not made by the main brands. 

The Bissingen Grenadier battalion was also added and painted in the colors of the Nr 50 IR. The only figure to be converted was the flagbearer which began its life as a marching Grenadier before being promoted to a concentrated fire attraction situation which left the drummer in front also concerned.  

Next: more Napoleonics