AHPC15 - My Journey to Paradise via the Retreat from Moscow 160pts

 

Continuing my journey through Dante's Divine Comedy, I having completed The Abyss, find myself on my way to Paradise, so here are my 5 Sphere's.

First up we have the First Sphere The Inconstant, I had to look the word up.....just to make sure, of course...

First Sphere: The Inconstant
No Ray, not the Incontinent... :) Instead, think of something which may try its best but often falls a bit short.

Its nice how I still get the odd mention in the rules and regs of the Challenge, its usually something to do with Sandbags, Badgers or Budgie Smugglers, never usually about crappin' yourself!

Anyhoo, something that falls short.

It was the look on the first Mules face, he's not gonna budge, even if your'e waving some carrots in his face! But is it the Mule or the cloaked Vivandière who falls a bit short???

I was a little stuck on this one, then remembered these models. I bought them from Col Bill's sometime ago, again for my Haitian Revolution project. But decided, to use them for the Retreat instead.  

The figures are from Warlord Games, Napoleonic range, I added a cloak to the poor lady, I don't expect she's gonna get far though, with all those provisions on the 3 Mules.

These should earn me 20 points for the figures and another 20 for the bonus round.

Next up we have the Second Sphere - The Ambitious

Second Sphere: The Ambitious
A figure that is as keen as mustard, an overachiever (yes, so annoying, I know).

The first ever Napoleonic figure I ever painted was a figure from the Neuchatel Battalion, who unusually wore a yellow or mustard coloured coat, not a red coat like other Swiss regts or blue like every other French unit

So I thought I'd paint up a mustard coated, keen as mustard Officer, I may have to paint up some infantry as well, trouble is they'll probably be wearing a overcoat, so you won't see their mustard/yellow coat??

The Neuchatel Battalion had a bit of a rough time during the retreat, having joined the Grand Armee in March 1812, the regiment included, Infantry, Engineers, Artillery and the Artillery train, from an original 1,027 men, only 13 Officers and 7 men returned to camp at Besancon!!!

Points.... 5pts for the figure, plus another 20 for the Ambitious bonus

Next in line is the Third Sphere - The Lovers.

Third Sphere: The Lovers
This could be platonic love, romantic love, but not love based on lust - that's for the 'other place'.

This pair of lovebirds are once again from pack FN 193 Camp Followers

A wounded Cuirassier and his lady friend, struggle through the snow.

Hoping to make their way home???

The Lovers will give me 10 pts plus 20 pts for the bonus round.

Next we move onto the next Sphere, the 4th - The Wise

Fourth Sphere: The Wise
Something contemplative and sage. Essentially no figure having any kind of resemblance to me. :) Think that's me as well as Curt??

This fine looking chap's from Eureka and comes along with the Napoleon figure I painted up for the Greed bonus round.

This is Jean Baptiste Eblé, a French General, Engineer and Artilleryman. He is credited with saving Napoleon's Grand Armee from complete destruction in 1812.

In 1811, Eblé was put in command of the Dutch Pontoon bridge builders (pontonniers) for the Grande Armee which Napoleon was assembling for the invasion of Russia. Eblé discovered he had inherited a rag-tag collection of boatmen, yet in less than a year he had turned them into a disciplined, highly trained and skilled force who would soon prove indispensable. Besides training, Eblé also issued his pontonniers specialized tools and equipment, the most notable of which were the mobile wagon-mounted forges, that could quickly make any needed but unavailable metal parts or items.

During the disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812, Napoleon ordered Eblé to destroy the pontonniers' mobile forges, so that these valuable pieces of engineering technology would not fall into enemy hands. Eblé argued with his Emperor, that without the forges his men could not perform their duty and the greater danger to the Armée was to be caught between an uncrossable river and a vengeful, pursuing enemy. Napoleon insisted they be destroyed, but Eblé went against his orders and kept the vital equipment intact.

When the Armée arrived at the Berezina River it found itself trapped, with the Russians fast bearing down and no way to cross. Eblé's men worked feverishly in dangerously frigid water to complete the bridges in time for the Armée to escape. With the way across the Berezina opened, most of the surviving remnants successfully crossed. But the campaign had taken a heavy toll on General Eblé's men and his health. He died in Konigsberg shortly after returning from Russia.

This wise man will earn me 5pts and another 20 for the bonus round

Next I'll call on Sarah the Seraphim to take me along to my last Circle No 8

But instead of the usual female figure fee, I've overpaid and give you 3 female figures

Lula the dog, Cossette and Clementine

The pup is from Front Rank and Cossette and Clementine are from the same pack as the Lovers above.

These 3 will earn 15 points

So onto my final Circle.....

Eighth Sphere: The Fixed Stars of Faith, Hope and Love

Submit a figure depicting any of these laudable themes.

Well I'm going for Hope.....

Poor Nadine, has given up all Hope and cannot move another muscle.

Will she ever rise again?

Probably not.....

Nadine is my last figure from pack FN 193 Camp Followers from Perry Miniatures, she will earn me another 25 points!

So all in all we have....

1st Sphere - The Inconstant 40 points

2nd Sphere - The Ambitious - 25 points

3rd Sphere - The Lovers 30 points

4th Sphere - The Wise 25 points

Sarah's Seraphim 15 points

8th Sphere - Hope 25 points

So a grand total of  160 points!!

 PS
 My biggest post points wise in the Challenge so far in Challenge 15, pushed my way up to 13th place. My highest position so far!!! I'm hoping for a top 20 finish, so Its looking good. A top 10 place is probably not gonna happen, but never say never!!

Ray

Retreat from Moscow - 25mm Size Comparison

 Just a small and quick post for today....

Stephan, aka Duke of Baylen asked a question about figure scale in the comments of me last post. 

He asked, "How well do the Silver Bayonet figures fit with the Perries? I imagine the former are rather larger but I haven't any to compare. My interest is how well the Silver Bayonet figures would fit with the Deadloque range which really are big [though full of character]."

So here's a pic that will give you all and Stephen an idea of their scale.

From L to R Essex, Eureka, North Star (Muskets & Tomahawks), Perry and finally The Silver Bayonet.

They're all based up on Warbases 2mm round bases, wit Eureka being the smallest, but its quite difficult to decide on the tallest, but hopefully, you'll all agree that you can quite easily use all these figures together with no issues? 

So what do you think????

Haitian/St Domingue Revolution - Free Mulattoes

 

I should have sorted my game out for Broadside before the painting Challenge, but I never make things easy for myself. So after sorting out the terrain, (more on that later) I needed a few more figures painted up!

Here we have 2 units of 12 figures representing the Mulatto townsfolk of Croix-du-Bouquets

Nobody makes any Mulatto figures with muskets, so I had to de a bit of improvising.

The figures are a mixture of  Wargames Foundry Pirates Packs CU33 Kristos Raiders and CU34

Yellowboys Renegades

And some figures from several packs of Casting Room Miniatures Rebels & Rebels, Rioters or Civilians

My favorite figure is the chap waving the bicorne, who I'll be using as a standard bearer, he is actually from.Eureka Miniatures Paris Mob pack!

My Salute Loot 2024

 

Salute is well and truly over for another year and what a great show it was, thanks again to The Warlords and everyone involved in making the show a great experience.

So great infact, that my wallet was attacked by a bit of a spending spree, at the time I didn't think I bought too much, BUT now when I look at it..........well I'll let the pics do the talking.

My first purchase of the day wasn't planned at all, walking around I found Battlefield Accessories. Its not any wonder I'd not heard about them before as they're from Australia! The 3 buildings are made from MDF and were a fair price , between £16 and £24 each.

Next we have a set of rules BelloLudi, this time from the Netherlands!

I bought the complete set of rules, dice and cards. I saw these advertised somewhere recently, can't remember where? 

A pre order from those wonderful chaps at Warbases

Including some of their 2mm Strength & Honour figures.

Yes I'm going to do another 2mm period, even though I've not finished the last one and not had a game with the figures yet.

I phoned Casting Rooms Miniatures a few weeks ago, I wanted them to bring a few packs with them to the show so I could see how big or small they are, basically will they fit in with Trent Miniatures. For my Haitian Revolution game I plan to put on at Broadside Wargame Show in June, I need some Creole/Mulatto figures, so thought these might work. But the one thing I forgot to bring with me was a Trent mini so I had to guess, (never a good idea?) I picked out a few packs, but in the end just bought the bloody lot!!

Foudry Pirates...............no actually they're more Creole/Mulatto troops. I really only needed around 18 figures, I've now got a whole bloody army of them! Why do I do this to myself?

Re-designed Vallejo paints!

A little pressie from Steve at General Reeve blog

A sprue of French Napoleonics, these should come in handy, cheers Steve! 

What a great hobby community we have.

By the time I got to Debris of War, they'd sold out of a building I wanted!! No problem though, I've arranged to pick one up at Broadside in June.

A pack of French Revolutionary figures, Paris Mob from Eureka,  and my first ever purchase from 

Gringo 40's General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, he will make a perfect Haitian General.

Last but not least Basic Impetus rules along with Warbook 4.

It's all Jonathan Freitag's fault!

And that's the end of my Salute Loot!

AHPC 14 - Haitian Revolution - Farm workers

 

Well, what a few weeks that has been, being whisked off in an ambulance for a suspected heart attack, to be then told good news its not a heart attack, but you've pneumonia and 3 blood clots on your lung!

After 10 days recovery in hospital I'm back home on the road to recovery, thank gawd!

These 10 figures were finished a few weeks ago, but I never got the chance to take any photos, so here they are now. They are I believe Eureka figures, although I can't seem to find them on their website??

These 10 figures will be added to my Haitian Revolution collection, but could be used for any period from the 1650's up to the ACW.

I'll be claiming some bonus points for the post, I'll be visiting the Overdue & Returns room. Definitely been avoiding these figures, but very willing to come back to the period!

Overdue and Returns: Those things that you've been working on, or have been avoiding, but are willing to come back to.

So to the points...

There are 10 figures @ 5pts each = 50pts

plus 20pts for the Bonus round

Making a total of 70pts