From RichardM - Wrap up for AHPC XVI - 6mm Peninsular Napoleonics

Well here they all are on display.

Before I get to the photos I would like to echo all of the recognition that has been paid to Curt for the continued offering of such a wonderful opportunity to display and celebrate our hobby.  Huge thanks also to all of the minions but for me particularly to Millsy and to Dave who covered for him on one posting period.  Also a nod to the wonderful group who meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays for a chat and paint - it adds massively to my enjoyment and output.

Now to the colour and stats.  Firstly a few 'grand' shots (which means you can see nothing closely).

Neatly packed in their boxes - don't look like much do they?

Bit more impressive :)

Over the course of the challenge I have painted the following units - these amount to 2951 infantry figures and 578 mounted figures.

And some closer shots of the various contingents.  Firstly the Portuguese with the Cacadores in front of the Line infantry and cavalry behind.

Then the Spanish Infantry (Guards in front) followed by their cavalry and the British Cavalry at the rear.

And lastly the varied colours of the Confederation of the Rhine units with the French Cavalry at the rear.

I loved Paul's idea of a video so have given it a go and think it gets closer to many of the units and the colour of the Confederation.

This has been my third challenge - although the first was many years ago and I didn't make much of an impact.  I've really enjoyed myself and have a real sense of achievement at getting these units painted - some of which have been in a box for close to 20 years.  I still have a lot of 6mm Napoleonics to paint and refurbish - but this has greatly motivated me to keep going.

I've also put a reminder in my calendar for late November to make sure I do not miss the chance to sign up for the next installment.

Thanks everyone!

 

From ByronM: Total Battle 6mm Villages (28 points)

 I didn't think I was going to get anything else this challenge, due to a surgery I had to have about a month ago, however I have been able to sit at a table for small periods of time the last few days, so got something more done!  

I wanted something fairly simple and quick to get done in short periods of time here and there.  So I decided it was time to get these two cute little villages that Curt actually picked up for me from Total Battle Miniatures several years back (I am thinking between 6 and 8 as I know for sure it was in the "Before Times" meaning pre-covid) and have sat since then. These are awesome little 6mm resin buildings that come with a silicon village mat that they slot into, for a great looking little setup.

 

 

I was not sure on scoring as they are close in size to a 28mm figure and some are complicated and some are simple.  Easy solution (since I am the terrain guy and wanted to be fair and not score my own) ask my son QuinnM his thoughts.  He thought the same, but that some are simpler than a 28mm figure so suggested 3 points per, which I am fine with and then 2 points per base for a total or 28 points.  

These were a blast to paint and have a ton of detail to them, if I could have sat for longer I could have easily doubled the paint time on them as there is so much there to pick out.  For anyone interested in them, check out the company they do 3mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, and 28mm versions of them and they are very nice.  Heck, in the larger scales they even sell pre-painted versions (pricey, but an option).

I should have at least one more entry before the end, but we will see.

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Sylvain: 6mm is my favorite scale so I am totally biased about your submission and totally agree with your proposed scoring. I find the slot in system pretty ingenious, so you can fit in your army just by removing a few buildings. You did a very nice job at painting this tiny village, it totally looks like what you would expect, without distracting the attention from the battle going on a few centimeters away. Brilliant! Bravissimo!

 

 

From RichardM: 6mm Peninsular Napoleonic British Cavalry, Spanish Infantry and Provincial Grenadiers and the 'Canaries' (224 points)

A bit of a mixture this week - Spanish infantry, British Cavalry and a unit that I have wanted to do for nearly 20 years.

We'll start this week's work with the Spanish Provincial Grenadiers.   

These took some work to gather information on.  I had seen an entry for Provincial Grenadier Regiments / Battalions in a few of the early OOBs.   While all Spanish Infantry Regiments had Grenadier companies (which on occasion seem to have been detached and converged), these were something different.  There were some references in books and online, although they were quite brief and did not provide much uniform information.  Specifically I was looking to see what colours they would have had for their facings and hence their 'flame' bearskin bags.  I had read a brief reference to red facings - but still believed that would have been for just one province.  Then I read elsewhere that as they had been detached from the Provincial Infantry Regiments, their uniforms were simpler and all had red facings.  Searching also took me to this blog where I found all the satisfaction I needed.   So I was off... and four battalions emerged after a day's work. 

I know zooming small figures is not a good idea - but I spent over an hour on these flames and I wanted a record of it.  Unfortunately it is still quite hot here in Sydney so I needed to thin the white quite a bit to keep it mobile enough - hence it is quite faint.

Then a rinse and repeat from an earlier post - four more battalions of later Spanish Line Infantry with the dark blue British supplied uniform.

Next up are some British Cavalry with their uniforms for the Peninsular.  While I will share British line infantry between my Peninsular and 100 Day campaigns with a mixture of stovepipe and Belgic shakos in both, the cavalry did look noticeably different with bicornes and Tarleton helmets - so I decided to do both early and late uniforms.  Here are the 'heavies' - 3rd Royal Dragoons and the 1st and 4th Dragoons with their bicornes. 

They are followed by the 14th and 16th Light Dragoons with their tarleton helmets.

And finally a unit that I have wanted to do for close to 20 years since I saw it in 28mm and was struck by how different it looked.  I later read about it in Guy Dempsey's excellent book Napoleon's Mercenaries.  I will be honest though - it's place in this week's painting was pure greediness.  I looked at how many points I was going to get and thought it would be nice to get over 200 in at least one week of the challenge - so I looked in the boxes for a single battalion and this popped up pretty quickly.

They were called the "Canaries" in reference to their yellow coat colour and with that colour on a French cut uniform they could only be the Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel.  They were absolutely in the Peninsular but are unlikely to appear on any of the OOBs for actual battles that I will fight.  They spent most of their time in the North of Spain in combat against guerrillas.  However, they were present at Wagram in 1809 (where it is believed they played a small part), in Russia at the Battle of Krasnoi and also in action on the last day of the Battle of Leipzig.  So hopefully they will get into action on my table in an historical refight at some stage. 

Points

Four btns of Provincial Grenadiers each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Four btns of Spanish Line Infantry each of 24 figures @ 0.5 pts per fig = 48 pts

Two regts of British Heavy Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 40 pts

Three regts of British Light Dragoons each of 20 figure @ 1 pt per fig - 60 pts

Bataillon du Prince de Neufchatel of 36 figures @ 0.5 pt per fig - 18 pts

Total = 214 points

From Millsy:

Thanks for taking the time to detail the background for the provincial grenadiers Richard, it was absolutely fascinating and I promptly followed that link and kept reading. I'm unsurprised about where you found the info, that blog is a treasure trove of cool stuff.

I'm still processing the fact you bothered to paint ALL the grenadier bearskin bags. 96 of them! I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or organisation some sort of intervention. Either way it's worth another 10 points for the effort.

Another massive pile of wee men done and your tally boosted by another 224 points. Great work mate.

Cheers,

Millsy

From Richard M - Peninsular War 6mm Confederation of the Rhine dump (162 points)

I've only got Confederation of the Rhine troops to show this week - all fought for the French in the Peninsular, albeit at different times in some cases.

All together 

Firstly there are four battalions of Nassau troops with their green uniforms and rich yellow colours.  These are the 1st and 2nd Battalions of both the 1st and 2nd Nassau Regiments.  In the main the units are uniformed identically, except for the Grenadiers.  In the 1st Regiment, they were meant to wear leather helmets with a caterpillar crest - but were only able to acquire enough for the 1st Battalion.  Consequently, the 2nd Battalion has been painted with shako and red plume and epaulettes.   Then in the 2nd Regiment the Grenadiers used brown colpacks with red bags.  The other neat thing with their uniforms is that they had buff straps - I've used a buff / yellow colour but given their size it is hard to see.

Leather helmets for the Grenadiers on the left of the photo

Colpacks for the Grenadiers on the left of the photo

Then we have the two battalions of the 4th Baden Infantry Regiment.  Nothing much to say about their uniforms but I do like their yellow focused colours.

These are followed by one half of the 5th Confederation Regiment.  These are the Anhalt Battalion with their colour that looks like a pineapple on a white field (from a distance).  These again have a pretty simple uniform but I think the pink facing and shako pompon set them apart.  The other half of the 5th Regiment is the Lippe Battalion but I have found conflicting information on their uniform and am questioning whether I have the correct figures.  I'll hopefully resolve that in the next week or two. 

Don't look at the colour bearer's superglue face

I have kept the white uniformed troops until last.  These are two battalions from Cleve-Berg.  My reading suggests that they did not take colours to the Peninsular - but mine did not get that instruction.

Keen readers of my entries will recall my comment last week after posting a number of white uniformed battalions, that I needed to find a way to add some depth to the white.  

I had some good suggestions from Iain and Tom regarding possible use of speed paints as a way to deal with this.  I did a test with some Citadel Contrast Colours and Washes as well as Army Painter Speed Paints and Washes.  I have decided to use Army Painter Blinding Light Speed Paint for when I want a colder white colour and I will use Army Painter Soft Tone Wash for warmer Austrians white uniform.  In all cases these are over an Off-white basecoat and then I use pure white for the straps.  I'm not sure this all comes out too well in the photos but it is sufficiently noticeable on the desk / table for me to persevere with the extra steps. 

The other liberty I have taken with my Confederation troops is with regard to state of uniform - it is all over the place.  All written accounts and also the wonderful plates from Bob Marrion show them as disheveled with whatever they could find to wear.  I have tried to replicate this in some instances with different coloured trousers and no shako cords on some units.  In other cases I have done them with shako cords and plumes.  Sometimes all mixed up.  Based on nothing more then the figures I am using (eg: I couldn't bring myself to cut off the plumes on the Nassauers) as well as whim.

Points

Pretty simple this week, 9 battalions each of 36 figures at 0.5 points per figure = 162 points

From Millsy:

More 6mm goodness Richard! Will it ever end? If our regular chats are anything to go buy not for a long time yet.

I think you've really nailed the look of troops who were treated with some disregard in terms of both their quality and equipment. Despite the fact so many fought for Napoleon he only ever really treated them like he was doing them a favour by letting them fight. Colpacks on infantry are something I love to see, they're just so different from more typical elite headgear for foot troops.

Really looking forward to seeing the massed ranks of all your 6mm stuff in late March. Great work mate as always.

Cheers,

Millsy

From RichardM- Peninsular War 6mm Spanish and Dutch (135 points)

This weeks offerings are a bit meagre compared to prior weeks - a late start to the week's painting is simply to blame.

First up I have two regiments of Spanish cavalry.  They are the 3rd Almansa Dragoons with the blue facings and the 5th Villaviciosa Dragoons with the green facings.  I wanted to start with the Dragoons considering their yellow coats - the Spanish heavy cavalry are boring blue again.

Then there are 4 battalions of Spanish infantry in late war uniforms supplied by Britain.  They were supplied in both a light/sky blue and a dark blue colour.  Each had red facings apparently, although I have seen some (modern) illustrations with black facings also.  I intend to do four in total in light blue and I think six in total in the darker blue.  They do not represent any particular battalions - just too hard considering how the units and uniforms came and went on the Spanish side during the war.

Then I have continued with the Confederation of the Rhine troops that Napoleon used in the Peninsular.  This time it is the two Dutch battalions - one from the 2nd Regiment and one from the 4th Regiment.

With a lot of white uniforms to come - both Spanish but later and more significantly Westphalians and Austrians, I need to find a suitable wash or some other method to get some depth into the white uniforms.  

Points

Spanish infantry- 4 battalions of 24 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 48 points

Spanish Cavalry - 2 regiments of 24 mounted figures @ 1 point per figure - 48 points

Dutch Regiment - 2 battalions of 36 figures @ 0.5 points = 36 points

Total = 132 points

From DaveD. Great to see more focus on this project . It’s always good to see people’s projects build up through the challenge period .Naps in small scale really allow that creation of armies and yours is looking mighty fine . I’m giving it 135 .

From RichardM - Peninsular continues with Hessen-Darmstadt, more Swiss and last of the Portuguese Line (166 points)

My last of the Portuguese infantry, some more Swiss - but more importantly the start of the "German" Division allies for Napoleon.  As with my other posts, these are all Adler Miniatures 6mm Napoleonics.

We should start with the "Germans" from the Confederation of the Rhine as they are different from prior weeks.  

This unit is two battalions of the Gross-und Erbprinz Regiment.  They were present at some of the larger engagements such as Talavera, Ocana and Badajoz.  I did these in more of a campaign dress with blanket roll and a mixture of coloured trousers, mostly brown.   I think because of the figures that I have most of the other CotR troops will look more like on a parade ground.

For the Swiss, I have painted the 2nd Swiss Regiment with their dark blue facings.  They started in the Peninsula in 1807 with the 2nd Battalion racing to Lisbon in the hope of catching the Portuguese Royal Family.  The 1st and 3rd Battalions later entered the Peninsula.  While they were active in many smaller actions over subsequent years, they do not appear to have fought in any of the larger actions that I will refight on the tabletop.  However, as I said last week, I am also painting them for action in Russia in 1812 so I thought it better to do all the Swiss at once, before I forget the colours used.  

Lastly I have the end of the Portuguese Line Infantry - the 2nd, 9th and 14th Regiments - each of two battalions.  This brings the total for the Portuguese painted in this year's Challenge to 36 battalions of Line Infantry, 10 battalions of Cacadores and three cavalry regiments.   

I still need to do officers, artillery and skirmishers for the Portuguese which I think will be after the challenge.  

Next week should be more of the Confederation of the Rhine, the 3rd Swiss Regiment and the first of some Spanish.  

Points:

Swiss

- 3 battalions of 36 figures @ 0.5 points per figure = 56 points

- Regimental commander with 2 mounted figures @ 1 point per figure - 2 points

Hessen-Darmstadt - 2 battalions of 36 figures @ 0.5 points = 36 points

Line battalions - 6 battalions of 24 figures each @ 0.5 points per figures = 72 points

Total = 166 points

From Millsy:

Nice to see the Germans getting a look in this time Richard. Confederation troops are such a melting pot both of uniform variety and troop quality. It's hard to to find something to like about every unit. Stiffened up with the ever reliable Swiss I am sure they'll serve you well.

We focus a lot on points total but if ever we scored on actual bodies you'd come out in front by a county mile mate! Lovely work as ever and 166 well earned points it is.

Cheers,

Millsy

From EdwardG: Last sprint and a smattering of production [Overdue and Returns] (357.5pts)

Hej hej all,

Sadly it is finally here, Spring. I cannot believe how quickly this challenge has gone. Its been inspirational to see all of your minis and thank you all so much for the kind comments give posted on my few entries.  I've been rather poor at completing minis this challenge. I've had half painted minis sitting around the painting desk since December, and they're still there! 😀 Partly to blame is my disjointed painting time, but most of it stems from a rather terrible "oooh shiney" infection. 

So without further dithering and fluff, I present my final offering to the great 14th Challenge:

- A Spanish 15mm DBA army

- More 6mm Napoleonics

- A fraction of my Cold War British 6mm target

Starting from the bottom of the list, I present the Cold War 6mm British. I'd had high hopes of getting those project fully completed this year, but not to be. The project started before COVID and in the time to the start of the challenge I'd only managed to get one Regiment of Challenger tanks off the painting table.  The rest of the minis have sat in varying stages of primed and bare metal. Which means that the painted miniatures below don't look at all coherent! Hopefully it's not too obvious, and in the end I blame the British Army Paint procurement process ;)

The Orbat below is one I've been studying and tinkering with for a while. The basis is the British 3rd Armoured Division of the BAOR in 1985. There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information on this Division on the Web for this time period. The reason I picked the 3rd Division in 1985 is because it was the only moment when I could find the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars (QRIH) and a Guards battalion on the same Orbat in Germany. I've a family connection to the QRIH and the Guards. Both of my grandfathers (sadly both now passed) were officers on each one, respectively. My father's father was commissioned into the 4th Hussars (a pre-amalgamation Regiment of the QRIH) in 1948 and served until he shifted sideways onto the diplomatic scene in the 1960s [https://www.qrhmuseum.com/obituary-col-g-a-g-gilhead] My mother's father was a Guards officer in the Coldstream Guards leaving the battalion a Major to take up life in the city as an insurance underwriter at Lloyd's of London, specialising in aircraft. Famously, in the family,  being the lead for insuring Concord but being unable to take up his complimentary ticket on the inaugural flight because my grandmother didn't trust any infernal flying machine that didn't have a prop propeller! 

Hence the wish to remember them a little with this Orbat. That said their era was the 1950s and 1960s, but the other wargamers here in Hamburg have collections for the 1980s. Hence the shift forward 25yrs. 😀

First up I present the hypothetical Recce Regiment the 9th/12th Lancers. The only Divisional orbat I could find does not give a recce Regiment. But with the rules we play, it's a necessary force to have, hence why I've added them in.  They're equipped with a mixture of Scimitar and Sabre CVR(T)s, with one squadron parading in Striker anti-tank guided weapon vehicles.  

Next to parade is the second heavy tank Regiment of the Division. The 17th/21st Lancers. They're equipped with older Cheiftan tanks. The 1980s was the big tank transition period for the BAOR. From the older Cheiftan to the new Challenger 1. I've equipped the QRIH (painted pre COVID!!) with Challenger, so I decided to give the Lancers the older kit to depict the discrepancies in British Army equipment issuing :) 

And finally for my Cold War British, I present the Coldstream Guards. This version of the Regiment is also slightly hypothetical, as they weren't in the 3rd Division at the time (it was the Iriah Guards) and the battalion didn’t change over to being an Armoured infantry battalion for a few years. But I didn't want to let real history get in the way! 

I'm really happy with my progress, even if there are two more Brigades to complete for the whole Division. A target for next year! As this project was started prior to COVID, I'd like to claim the Overdue Section Bonus :)

Next onto the parade ground I have the 1st Hannoverian Brigade from the 1815 version of the British 3rd Divison. Accompanied by the Brigade commander and the associated skirmisher stands for the rules we use. Again, all made up with the brilliant Baccus miniatures. 

This Brigade was made up of the field battalions of the Hannoverian army. Most of the soldiers were professionals who had been fighting in either one of the armies for a lot of the war. The Hannoverian army was also strengthened, in 1814, by a cadre of officers and NCOs transferred over from the KGL as it returned from the Peninsula.  All in all, this meant that this Brigade was in the thick of the fighting for most of the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, giving a very good account of themselves throughout. 

I had also hoped to get the final KGL Brigade painted in the last week. But they're still sitting in the painting queue, undercoated and ready to go for another week! 

Last, but not least, I present the 15mm DBA army that I've been working through this year. Painting a DBA army has become one of my challenge staples. And I think it'll continue for a long time as there are many more in the purple bible yet unrepresented on my shelves.

This year it was the turn of the Ancient Spanish. An army based on the Spanish who fought against Carthage and Rome from the 250BCs onwards. The hope is that I'll be able to play them in one of our local themed DBA days later in the summer. The figures are all from Forged in Battle, and I have had them in the lead pile for a while now, so I'm happy to have gotten some paint on them eventually 😀

For points of this submission I've calculated the following, please correct me if I have erred! 😀

52 x 6mm Vehicles @ 2pts = 104pts

54 x 6mm foot with the vehicles @ 0.5pts = 27pts

10 x 6mm prone foot with the vehicles @ 0.25pts = 2.5pts

Overdue Section Bonus = 20pts

252 x 6mm Napoleonic foot @ 0.5pts = 126pts

2 x 6mm Napoleonic mounted @ 1pt = 2pts

28 x 15mm Ancient Spanish foot @ 2pts = 56pts

5 x 15mm Ancient Spanish mounted @ 4pts = 20pts

Total = 357.5pts!

I'd like to thank Curt and Sarah for running another sublimely fun Challenge! I cannot wait for winter again and the start of Challenge XV!! Perhaps next year I'll have a painting streak and be able to best my personal goal of achieving a top 10 finish 😀

Also thanks again to all my fellow Challengers. It has been great to tune in and be inspired by your painting and thank you all again for the comments on my entries. It's super motivational to read them all.  

TTFN, and see you for the round ups! 

Ed 😀

Some fine sprinting here I'd say Ed! Nice to see the Cold War vehicles and figures (well done on the camo btw!) contrasted to your very colourful Spanish 15mm. Good to hear that good old DBA is still getting some love also. I am very impressed by your Hanoverian troops though, it is really a great sight to see them all lined up together, and I liked the little background history as well. I think your calculations are spot on, although the spreadsheet says 358. We'll see how it shows up.   Meanwhile, I am sure we all very much appreciated what you produced during the Challenge and are looking forward to meeting again next winter (when I hope you will remember to add your labels too ;-)! 

Martijn