From EdwardG - A quartet of 6mm redcoats (History Section - 130pts)

 Hej hej all, 

Having been languishing at the bottom of the table for a while now, I'm happy to finally be able to show what I've been working on! Due to family commitments my painting time is very limited. At best I get about 10min before work starts, and perhaps the odd dot of paint can be added during a particularly tedious meeting. So it has taken over a month to get these chaps done, compared to the couple of weeks that it might have done once! 

My main target for this challenge has been to work on my two main 6mm projects; the Allied forces at Quatre Bras (hopefully eventually Waterloo!), and the UK 3rd Armoured Division in 1985. The Allied forces have been shown in previous challenges, and I'm not far off now. Funnily, I've only got the British 3rd Division still to go. This also being my 3rd challenge, I'm hoping it's going to keep being lucky!

For the first formation of the 1815 project is the British 5th Brigade, commanded by Major-General Sir Colin Halkett K.C.B. Composed of Peninsula vetern battalions, the brigade contained the 2/30th, 1/33rd, 1/69th, 2/73rd battalions. These chaps had an unlucky time of it on the real day. Having arrived at the field about 5pm, they were caught in line by French cuirassier. The 69th having the ignominious loss of their King's Colour, to add to the substantial number of casualties. They were the only ones to ever suffer such a fate while under Wellington. 

To add to the submission I've also managed to paint up the Divisional Artillery (Lloyd's Battery RA and Cleeves' Battery KGLFA King's German Legion), some skirmishers and the Divisional command stand of Lieutenant-General Count Sir Charles Alten KCB and ADCs. 

In addition, I'm claiming the Historical section bonus, as 1815 is pretty historical.

Now for some photos. As before, sorry for the quality, I'm reduced to taking snaps on the phone at the painting desk (which is also the working desk!)

For points, I'd score the following:

Infantry: 160 x 6mm foot = 80pts

Skirmishers: 12 x 6mm foot = 6pts

Artillery: 6 x (1 gun + 4 crew) = 18pts

Commanders: 6 x 6mm mounted = 6pts

Section bonus - History section bonus = 20pts

Total = 130pts!!

Also entry into the Really Little Guys and Napoleonic duels! 

I'm on a business trip to Tokyo in a week, for a week. Rather whirlwind travel plans, but the hope is a few jetlag sleepless nights in a hotel and I'll have some more minis to show when I return!

Best,

Ed 😀

Ed, how the heck do you see these guys and get so much details on them! I struggle with the 8mm marines for Epic, but these are historical 6mm! Insane work here! And a great bomb of points to go with it all! Wonderful work here!

130 pts for you!
Kyle

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs at The Center of the Universe (140 points)

 

Challenge XII has taken me in a lot of different directions, distracting from my Quatres Bras project. For people that do not know the story of my 25mm Napoleonic Minifig collection - my Dad painted most of Wellington's Anglo Allied Army on a scale of 25:1 - around 2 or 3 thousand models - not yet counted. My brother and I had a few French units and my brother inherited the army. When he passed away it unexpectedly came to me and I've been adding to the French contingent (as well as starting on the Prussians) ever since. In Challenge XI I finished several units - leaving only a handful to complete to be able to host Quatres Bras.

These are classic Minifigs from the late 1970s and 1980s. I keep an eye on E-Bay and Facebook market place in case anyone is selling them cheap and top up units with orders from Calivers Books. For Quatres Bras all I need to buy are a few French Lancers - other than the Lancers all that is left to paint are three infantry battalions. The end is in sight. Sort of - after Quatres Bras I'll get started on D'Erlons Corps and add to the Imperial Guard!

The old school look of these sculpts speaks to me and reminds me of wargaming in my teens with my brother and best friend. It's always a pleasure to paint (or sometimes repaint) these warriors from a bygone age.

Even more fun will be getting them all together for a bloody big battle in the garage - or the barn.

My nephew is visiting from the UK this weekend. The downside is that this will be my last post of the Challenge and a little shy of my 1,000 point target. The upside is that he's bringing the last third of Wellington's army that has spent the COVID years in shoe boxes waiting for a chance to cross the herring pond.

24 x 25mm figures for 120 points + 20 points for the final challenge = 140 points

+1 Squirrel (Total 8 - with another 6 partially completed squirrel points, which feels like it's in the spirit of squirrel chasing)

+0 Skulz (Total 3 - Underperformed here - I have 2 walls of skulls and a regiment of skellies on the bench. Oh well - there's always Challenge XIII?)

_______________________________________

Ahhh, I was wondering when we'd see your return to this project, Pete. I'm glad that I get to shepherd this post through in our final hours of the Challenge. I've always had a soft spot for the project not only because that the figures, period and painting are wonderful, but also because I appreciate the history and sentiment behind the endeavour as well. I look forward to the day when you can treat us all to photos of the epic game, where all of the collection is arrayed for battle - it will be epic!

You shorted yourself a few points for reaching the Center of the Universe, and in fact, with the little-known 'Minifig Napoleonic Bonus' this post should just put you over your target. Congratulations, sir! :)

Until next year, Mr. Fry. 

- Curt

From PeteF: Napoleon's Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde for the Guard Room (140 points)

What better way to finish Challenge XI than with more Minifigs*? My dad started this unit in the mid 80s with 6 assorted Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde Imperiale including a Marmeluke. I intended to bring the unit up to a full strength of 30 figures (including 3 additional Marmelukes) by the end of the Challenge but unfortunately ran out of time - should have them all done by the end of this month.

These fine fellows have one of the most colourful uniforms of the Napoleonic wars - with the pizzazz of the scarlet pelisse, a furry hat and a lot of yellow/gold lace they must have been an impressive sight. They were also Napoleon's personal guard.

The Marmelukes rode with them - there were something between 26 and 135 (depending on which source you believe) of these Egyptian cavalry in the Waterloo campaign. The regiment was big with around 1,200 men in the Quatres Bras Order of Battle - although my understanding is that they didn't really see any action that day.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing pictures of the Minifigs as much as I have painting them. The Bloody Little Soldiers as my mum christened them are a family tradition and I finally have a nice big French army to face off against Old Nosey. I added 3 infantry battalions and 4 cavalry regiments so I don't have much more to paint for Quatres Bras - all I'll need then is a bit more terrain and some takers for a days long game in our barn.

The original plan was to visit every room in the dungeon and I did line up something for all of them - but the clock will run out* leaving five chambers unexplored - maybe next time.

12x25mm cavalry and a room bonus for 140 points.

*probably

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs French Napoleonic Light Infantry (120 points)

Life has recently got in the way of painting - these chaps have been painted for a week or so but I only just found the time to finish the bases and do a flag.

They will represent the 1st battalion of the 4th Light Infantry regiment for a Quatres Bras/100 Days Project. With 8 light battalions done - I have 2 to go. There are 8 units (4 infantry and 4 cavalry) to finish out of the total of 48  for the French side of the battle. Nearly there! Then all we need is an end to lock down and some willing volunteers to play the game.

Chasseurs

Light infantry had a similar uniform to line - but all blue and a little lighter than line French blue. The Grognards who follow these things don't like the Osprey book for the light infanty as it depicts them in a brighter bright blue than they probably had -  wargamers through the ages have presented them in a more vibrant shade than I went for here.

Voltigeurs

24 x 25mm infantry for 120 points.

From PeteF: Old School 15th Dragoons completed for The Gallery of Ancestors (105 points)

Way back in the mists of time, around the mid 1980s, my Dad painted 10 Minifigs French dragoons as the 15th regiment - nice pink facings & turnbacks. For some reason when he painted French cavalry units he would just do 6 or 10 figures - with his Anglo-Allied army he painted the units on a scale of 25:1 - which means I have a lot of British Light Dragoons and Kings German Legion Hussars. 

Bugler painted by my dad in the 1980s

For 100 Days Campaign/Quatres Bras project I'm doing cavalry units of 12 or 18 figures depending on how many were at the battle - the dragoon regiments were quite big so I'm doing 18 of them for this regiment. I added 8 men and 9 horses (extra horse so I could put the bugler my dad painted on a gray one) to complete the unit.

2nd Row painted by my dad

In a way all my Minifigs units could qualify for the Gallery of Ancestors since the Bloody Little Soldiers (as my mum called them) were part of my childhood and many of them lived in a giant cabinet in the dining room for 30+ years. The remaining soldiers were boxed up last year when new carpets went in. They will travel out here to the US whenever I can finally make it to the Old Country for a visit. Darned pandemic.

Minifigs are always fun to paint - although I use acrylics I can still smell the humbrol and oils that my dad used. I would have brought the humbrols out here but could never work out how to ship the tiny flammable tins across the pond.

9 horses and 8 riders plus a room bonus for a total of 105 points. 

From PeteF: Old School Minifigs 2nd 2nd French Line (120 points)

The Quatres Bras project continues with another battalion of line infantry. There were 22 line battalions at the battle. With the 2nd 2nd completed I have two left to paint. 

Although old school miniatures tend to be monopose - Minifigs did make quite a variety of French infantry sculpts, so at least there can be some variety between battalions. This one: covered shakos marching.

I use a website called centjours.com to do uniform research for this period - and found out that the 2nd was the queen's battalion with jackets piped a deeper shade of purply red and fewer (or no) crowned N's on their turnbacks and cartridge cases. I wasn't completely happy with how the white turned out - a final wash with really thinned down Nuln Oil was an improvement - maybe I'll try a softer tone wash on the next batch.

Nearly a third of the way through the challenge I'm falling off the pace a little - so many minis so little time!

24 x 25mm figures for 120 points.

I do enjoy seeing your smashing 25mm Minifigs Napoleonics. Cracking work as always, Pete!

TamsinP

From PeteF: Napoleon's Old School 7th Dragoons for Quatres Bras (180 points)

The next unit for the the Quatres Bras project is the 7th Dragoons - most of the figures for this project (and all of the 7th Dragoons) are 25mm Minifigs from the 1980s/early 1990s. The idea is to build up a big enough French army to take on the Anglo-Allied army that I inherited.

My dad followed a 25:1 ratio for the Anglo Allied army including the cavalry. Since I like to base them in 3s and think units of 12, 18, 24 and 30 work best on the table top I'm being a bit more flexible with the ratio - also, large cavalry units like this take me a long time to paint!

A lot of things didn't get done last week so that I could finish these guys before starting a new job next week - from the dogs being walked less to taking down the Christmas decorations. We may have eaten more fast food than usual. However, I'm mostly happy with the result. 

I found it quite tricky to get the shade of green I wanted - back in October I nearly sprung for a set of Napoleonic paints from Foundry before the Challenge.  Maybe later this year. The purpley red was a bit tricky too. With horses I made all the non bugler horses bays using a fairly simple recipe - I may change it up in one of the forthcoming regiments to have a bit more variation - my understanding is they tried for a degree of uniformity - at least on parade.

Anyone familiar with the N10 charging heavy cavalry horse may notice that I left one of the supports on the front legs. If you cut both of the supports then the front of horse slowly droops over time so a lot of my dad's cavalry has to be reset before each wargame. In some cases the hind legs eventually need repair.

Most of these figures are from a load that I scored for a great price this summer from a local wargamer selling off their French Napoleonic collection - since a horse, rider and postage comes to around $5.50 I was very lucky to find these. Calivers is great for filling gaps but even though I love Minifigs, the price for whole regiments is a bit tasty - even for the high nostalgia value.

18 x 25mm cavalry for a total of 180 points.