17th Lancers

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Caton-Woodville

I've written before about how every wargamer as "the battle" one that has captured his imagination and never quite lets go.  I would say the Waterloo is "that battle" so far as I'm concerned, but failing that - Balaklava is a close second.  I, like most, came to it via Tennyson, but my interest was further piqued by Flashman, read at a too tender age in the public library and the Errol Flynn film. Though it took me a little while to realise the Mohammed Khan was not in fact an integral part of the story. 

The Crimea is a sometime thing for me and I will be building armies for it. I just intend not to hurry. In the meantime, these chaps will be serving on the sub continent.  

These are Strelets British Lancers, painted and sometimes converted by our man in Budapest. 

These look like a Caton Woodville come to live. Wonderful stuff.

The chap on the left is a bit of a puzzlement. The 17th didn't carry standards at the charge, so I was a bit mystified when I saw this figure. I eventually decided that a lancer waving a Russian flag is a fine victory point marker and I asked Kris to proceed accordingly. 

I like to think of him, snatching it from the remnants of a shattered Russian column and riding off, bullets whizzing around him.

Two lancers at the charge and a casualty. 

The last thing many Russian gunners ever see. 

Moving forward. 

I love the sense of movement in these figures - if I was in two minds about the Crimea before, I'm decided now. 

Group photo. 

You can almost hear the thunder of hooves. 

A forest of lance points. 

Clearly, the officer in the centre is a bit more enthusiastic than the other ranks. 

Looking very sharp indeed.

Charge!

Run away!

I usually use casualty figures to mark where a unit has been wiped out. It helps keep track of victory points and so forth. Now as it happened, this isn't the casualty figure from the Strelets set.

On the other hand, I really like the pose, it looks like a photograph that shows a stricken lancer who has been thrown clear. There is a casualty figure of a lancer being thrown over his horses head, but Kris has rather cleverly converted him into another charging lancer. Can you spot him in the pictures above?

Thomas Aktins Esq.

NOTE: I actually wrote this some time ago and only came across it in my drafts today. I was under the impression that I'd posted it in July, but it appears I was wrong. 

"Picture of Tommy Atkins, circa 1905"

One of the drawbacks of working alot at the moment has been that there hasn't been much wargaming. However, I tend to keep simple jobs like basing for when I want to unwind.  This means that if I have twenty minutes to spare or just want to decompress after work, there's something I can do to keep my hands busy and progress my projects. I find coming home after working nights is particularly good for this as I am fit for nothing, but I will be out of sorts if I go to bed immediately. 

Firing a trifle high I think. 

All figures painted by Krisztian Takacs

These are all figures from the Plastic Soldier Company's British Infantry box

An observer, a sniper and a Bren gun team

These are all uniformed appropriately for the Normandy campaign

One of the advantages of the PSC set is the collection of spare heads that be used to convert figures. These men are all painted with flashes for the 56th (London) Infantry Division.

A Radio team and a medic from the rear. 

And from the front. 

Note the use of the plug in extras, this figure can be equipped with a Bren gun or a Rifle.

Grenade throwing. 

These pictures were taken by Krisztian, These chaps currently in the basing queue and will be ready shortly. Then it will be time to get weaving on some British armour. 

Hinton Hunt Royal Horse Artillery

Hinton Hunt RHA rider with a horse of uncertain ancestry

I'm nearing the end of my project to complete British and French armies for the Peninsula. There are plenty of other projects beckoning (Cold War Force on Force, Memoir '44, Samurai, Spaniards, India and on and on and on), but one of the luxuries of nearing the end of at least one project is a filling in of gaps, indulgence in certain extravagances that would not otherwise be entertained except in the happy time when the main work is done. These fellows are one such extravagance, a gift from a chum, Jack Hixon, in old Virginny who saw my Newline Designs RHA and took such a dislike to them that he sent me these.

RHA gunner

I find it hard to look at this pose and not think of briefings in black and white war films, anything with Kenneth Moore or Jack Hawkins, where a moustachied Rupert would importantly jab a stick at map with the words, "Jerry is here, here and here." Though in the circumstances it should probably be, "Francois is here, here and here."

They are beautiful figures, though Krisztian was unimpressed by their tiny feet, but their upright posture and good carriage remind me of figures from a Hillingford painting. They've done good service too - they saw their first combat a few weeks ago at the Redinha and confounded the normal expectation of newly painted figure, by charging forward and blasting the French with grape at close range in the best Royal Horse Artillery tradition.  

Sergeant, pot that fellow would you? Hinton Hunt RHA officer

So these chaps have been replacing my Newlines on the field of Mars, though I can't quite find it in my heart to dispose of them. Krisztian did a lovely job on them, for all their tiny feet and I can see them giving good service for many years to come. God bless Jack Hixon and the Christian Brothers who taught him and left with such an affection for the Auld Sod.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

More camp followers

No, not you Kenneth...

One of the oddities of my collection, along with the shocking lack of Grenadiers of the Guard (sorry John), is that I'm very fond of camp followers, surgeons, vivandieres and all those other hanger on types. Admittedly, I have scaled that back somewhat as I have rather a lot of them at this stage.

The Drogheda Cossacks had a reputation for looting and pillaging, but lest we forget someone had to carry the loot, so allow me to present the official "hangers on" of the 18th Light Dragoons.

(click to embiggen)

A young chap leading some cows, stolen no doubt. I'm not au fait with the history of dairy farming in Spain, so I have no idea if the Freisian is appropriate for the Iberian peninsula. Figures from IMEX's American Pioneers set and painted by Mark Bevis and Graham Tormey.

(click to embiggen)

Another stolen piece of equipment, this time an Italeri French supply wagon accompanied by a metal figure that I think was made by Uwe Emke, but I'm not sure.

Civilians are often an interesting addition to the battlefield and often underused. Past uses have included -

1. As objectives, players have to attack/defend a wagon train, seize a particular person, etc. Seizing the French baggage train at Vittoria would be one example from the period.

2. As terrain, you can use civilians as a means of clogging up roads, complicating movement in urban areas and generally not doing what they are told.

3. As a source of intelligence. Players in my games have learned that I rarely place civilian figures on the table for no reason, they can be an invaluable source of information on local fords, where the enemy has been in the area, etc. Two examples of this sort of thing that I'm rather proud of.

a) A player observed that there was a hut on one side of the river and that there was a shepherd and some sheep on the other side. Divining correctly that a shepherd would be unlikely to traipse around to the bridge, he went looking for a ford between the shepherd and his house.

b) There were two built up areas on the board. One was populated with civilians and the other deserted. The player worked out that of the two built up areas, the ambush which he suspected had been set was most likely in or near the deserted town.

More camp followers

No, not you Kenneth...

One of the oddities of my collection, along with the shocking lack of Grenadiers of the Guard (sorry John), is that I'm very fond of camp followers, surgeons, vivandieres and all those other hanger on types. Admittedly, I have scaled that back somewhat as I have rather a lot of them at this stage.

The Drogheda Cossacks had a reputation for looting and pillaging, but lest we forget someone had to carry the loot, so allow me to present the official "hangers on" of the 18th Light Dragoons.

(click to embiggen)

A young chap leading some cows, stolen no doubt. I'm not au fait with the history of dairy farming in Spain, so I have no idea if the Freisian is appropriate for the Iberian peninsula. Figures from IMEX's American Pioneers set and painted by Mark Bevis and Graham Tormey.

(click to embiggen)

Another stolen piece of equipment, this time an Italeri French supply wagon accompanied by a metal figure that I think was made by Uwe Emke, but I'm not sure.

Civilians are often an interesting addition to the battlefield and often underused. Past uses have included -

1. As objectives, players have to attack/defend a wagon train, seize a particular person, etc. Seizing the French baggage train at Vittoria would be one example from the period.

2. As terrain, you can use civilians as a means of clogging up roads, complicating movement in urban areas and generally not doing what they are told.

3. As a source of intelligence. Players in my games have learned that I rarely place civilian figures on the table for no reason, they can be an invaluable source of information on local fords, where the enemy has been in the area, etc. Two examples of this sort of thing that I'm rather proud of.

a) A player observed that there was a hut on one side of the river and that there was a shepherd and some sheep on the other side. Divining correctly that a shepherd would be unlikely to traipse around to the bridge, he went looking for a ford between the shepherd and his house.

b) There were two built up areas on the board. One was populated with civilians and the other deserted. The player worked out that of the two built up areas, the ambush which he suspected had been set was most likely in or near the deserted town.

18th Hussars or "The Drogheda Cossacks"

The whole of the regiment, Colonel, Trumpeter and three squadrons at the gallop

(as always, click to embiggen)

The 18th Hussars was one of five regiments of light cavalry raised in 1759 and was known as the Drogheda Light Horse after their Colonel, Charles Moore, Earl of Drogheda. The regiments was clothed as hussars from 1807 and were bound for Portugal the following year. They fought with Moore in Spain and having been involved in several sharp skirmishes; they were to shoot their mounts at Corunna. Allan Mallinson describes their predicament with feeling in Rumours of War.

A squadron, traditionally in Charge! terms, eight men and an officer

Astute observers, however, will notice that this squadron is a man short. Some of my hussars have disappeared during the move or more likely have been misfiled in other boxes. At least that's what Mrs Kinch says - I presume they've gone in search of drink.

The slightly smaller squadron suits C&C: Napoleonics though as they fit more easily in a hex and on the five inch steel plates I use as bases.

More Hussars

Painting as always by Mark Bevis

(click to embiggen)

The figures I've used for the 18th are a mixture of Esci Lord Cardigan's 11th Hussars and Italeri British Light Dragoons, though the two sets are closely related. The 11th Hussars set is obviously for the Crimea, but one of the advantages of there being little change in British cavalry fashions between the Peninsula and the Crimea is well, there was very little change. They seemed to fit the pictures of the 18th that I'm familiar with, the only lapse that I can see is their lack of plumes. But they do have pelisses and as far as I'm concerned, the pelisse maketh the man.

Lt. Colonel Henry Murray

accompanied by his trusty bugler, O'Connor

The 18th cannot be described to have had a particularly good Peninsula, in fact they were known as "The Drogheda Cossacks" because of their devotion to looting. I feel that this is a little unfair as I do not believe that they were untypical in this. Their main mistake was breaking the 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not get caught."

They had done very creditable service at the battle of Vittoria and it was towards the end of the battle that several troopers of the 18th were caught by Lord Wellington drunk and looting in the streets of the town. A trooper of the 18th, Corporal Fox, took Marshall Jourdan's baton - but didn't care much for the shaft, just unscrewing the gold caps. It was later reassembled and presented to the Prince Regent. Wellington was scathing, "...the 18th Hussars are a disgrace to the name of soldier, in action as well as elsewhere.."

This was more than a little harsh, as the majority of the regiment were still engaged in the pursuit. They soldiered on until Napoleon's abdication, but they were to get only one battle honour for their service in Spain; Peninsula. They picked up another at Waterloo and Colonel Murray was later to be one of Sibornes correspondents.

The regiment in review

(click to embiggen)

...and in no kind of formation and the officers aren't at the right of the line. What was I thinking?

These fellows make up three British Light Cavalry units in my Command & Colours: Napoleonics army or one Charge! regiment. Now that they are photographed, I'll have to add them to metal bases. At the moment, I'm toying with the idea of adding name tags at the back, but that's a post for another day.

*All details shamelessly nicked from Mike Chappel's "Wellington's Peninsula Regiments: The Irish" from Osprey.

Staff Corps Dragoons

Cavalry Staff Corps 1813, from Costumes of the Army of the British Empire, according to the last regulations 1812, engraved by J.C. Stadler, published by Colnaghi and Co. 1812-15

Better men than I have reviewed Mark Urban's "The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes" - so I shall give but the briefest of summaries. Suffice to say that it's a splendid book, buy a copy and anything else by Mark Urban that you can find.

Essentially, there was a chap called George Scovell, who was a very talented officer - a gifted logistician and cloak and dagger expert who longed to be a dashing commander of cavalry. French couriers were routinely captured and their messages passed to the British during the Peninsular war, which led to the French making use of codes in order to conceal their communications. Scovell broke those codes and kept on breaking them, keeping Wellington informed of what his enemies were doing.

I regret to say that Wellington treated Scovell rather shabbily - not something that sits well with my admiration of the Duke, but there you are. However, Scovell did manage to accomplish his ambition of commanding cavalry and that is where the Cavalry Staff Dragoons come in.

He had nothing to do with the Scoville scale. Entirely differant Scovell, I assure you.

Some of the Staff Cavalry Corps,

as their founder would have liked them - charging into battle

(click to embiggen)

The Cavalry Staff Dragoons were raised in 1813 and they formed the first unit of formal military police in the British army. So far as I'm aware there were Provosts, but I haven't been able to dig up much information on them. As well as policing the army, the Cavalry Staff Dragoons escorted senior officers and carried messenges. I haven't had much luck finding nice ADC figures for my British army, so I decided that the Staff Cavalry Corps would fill the gap.

As regular readers will know, military police are a subject close to my heart.

The chaps, still charging, slightly different angle

- still working on "set dressing" adding woodland scenics and rocks the background

(click to embiggen)

The dragoons eventually reached a strength of four squadrons and apparently did some service in the line of battle, according to Wikipedia, though I've been able to find no reference to it elsewhere. I happened to have some Strelets Crimean era Light Dragoons knocking about the house, because I had bought the Strelets Balaklava set in a fit of madness a few years ago. I really like the figures, though I'm fonder of the lancers than I am of the Dragoons. I was at a loss as to what to do with them unless I wanted to raise a Russian army to face them*. Working on my usual "close enough for government work" rules of thumb, I decided that they would do for Staff Cavalry Dragoons on the grounds that the uniform hadn't changed that much and that the dragoons had been accoutred as light cavalry because that was the sort of thing that appealed to George Scovell.

A last desperate courier, mortally wounded, swaying in the saddle,

but determined to deliver his message

(click to embiggen)

I wrote to Richard Borg a few weeks ago to ask about the Grande Bataille expansion for Command & Colours: Napoleonics. He very kindly gave me some advice about the upcoming expansion and how he runs multi-player games on a single board. I was thinking that allowing Leaders to have an attacked ADC that they may use to order a unit might be interesting - replacing the "Taking the initiative" rules from Memoir '44. The Staff Cavalry Corps would seem perfectly suited to this sort of thing.

*Yes, I know it's the obvious answer - but really? Another horse and musket army?

60th Rifles - Royal Americans

One of the drawbacks of not having your own wargames room is that it is often quite hard to tell what is and isn't in your collection. Taking a leaf from my pal, Donoghs book, I've decided to start a series of muster posts; the idea being to take out and photograph all the troops I have at my disposal. My photographic skills mainly lie elsewhere than photographing miniatures, but hopefully like all things in life, they will improve with practice.

We'll start with the 60th Rifles (Royal Americans), specifically the 5th battalion. Originally raised in America during the Seven Years War, I haven't found any reference to them taking part in the American rebellion. These figures represent the regiment during its time in the Peninsula, where they regularly distinguished themselves, though by that time the number of American loyalists in their ranks was relatively small, with the majority of the men being Germans or other Europeans*.

These are mainly Revell figures with a few other manufacturers mixed in. They form the entirety of my Rifle corps and were painted by Mark Bevis of Micromark, they form the entirity of my Rifle corps.

A full Charge! battalion of Royal Americans, deployed in line

You'll see the Colonel, RSM and Colonel's bugler deployed behind the supernumerary rank. A camp follower on the left leads the regiments two baggage animals. I've been unable to find any reference to Rifle battalions having pioneers, so I left them out.

A slightly differant view

The three Charge! companies make up three Command & Colours Rifle units. This is probably rather more than I will ever need, but how can you have too much of something you didn't need in the first place?

The view from the business end

The rank and file are Revell British Riflemen with Italeri sergeants and officers. The Revell figures are slightly smaller, but there doesn't appear to be much difference once they're painted. The Italeri officers have pelisses, so far as I'm concerned this makes all the difference!

The Colonel

The Colonel is a Waterloo 1815 Prince Billy. I couldn't find any mounted Rifle officers that looked distinctive enough for my tastes and I like this figure. I like to think of him as a mad old German coot whose leadership style revolves around hat waving, shouting and schnapps drinking binges the likes of which are rarely seen outside the better class of Norse saga.

Judy O'Grady leading two pack animals

Judy O'Grady is a Uwe Emke figure, leading two 25mm Irregular Miniatures pack mules. I quite like both figures and as Uwe knows I have what my wife would call "...a strong weakness..." for Vivandiere and camp followers. The Irregular figures are probably a bit on the small side for 25mm, but work very well with 1/72 scale plastics. I like Irregular Miniatures, but their output can vary so much that I'm often reluctant to buy their larger figures unless there are pictures on the website.

The last thing many a 1/72 scale Frenchman will ever see...

And that marks the end of my first muster post, I hope there will be many more. I can only hope that my photographic skills will improve and the next few won't be quite so rushed.

The Rifles, hip hip hooray!**

*Though to be fair, the Germans and Swiss were always relatively heavily represented in their ranks.

**Strictly speaking I know its nothing to do with the Royal Americans, but it is a Rifles march and it is American and frankly, you can't beat Souza. Chap was a bloody genius with a rumty te tumpty tune.