Retreat from Moscow - French 129th Line

These poor frozen fellows were among the first figures I bought for my and Lee's Retreat from Moscow project, they're from North Stars, Muskets & Tomahawks army deal, but for some reason (normally "Oooo shiny") they've been pushed to the back of the pile!

 

They are painted up to represent the 129th line regt, who's 2 battalions were in Brigadier Bruny's brigade, which in turn was in Ledru's 10th Division, of Ney's Third Army.

My plan was to paint up units for the 10th Division, but its not falling into place just yet., I still need to paint up the 46th line and the 72nd line, but only one battalion of each though.

10th Div (Ledru)

Brig Gengoult: 24th Light Inf 4 batts, 1st Portuguese regt 2 batts

Brig Marion: 46th Line 4 batts

Brig Bruny: 72nd Line 4 Batts, 129th Line 2 Batts

An interesting snippet of info about the 129th, the were only formed in 1811 from mainly the Regiment d'Oldenbourg and a detachment of the Garde de Westphalians and various other French troops and there was me thinking I really need to paint up a French unit.........

To make them look a little different I painted the hat pom poms up in the 4th company colour of purple. And now looking at the photo as I'm typing, I can see I missed the red trim on the chap back row far rights fatigue cap.....sigh!!!

AHPC15 - A trip into the Abyss via the Retreat from Moscow 140pts

 

For this post I'm travelling down the Abyss on my way to Paradise, I've already completed some Wagons for  Limbo, so my next stop will be Lust!

Everyone starts at the First Circle in the Abyss ('Limbo'). The only way to get to Paradise is to traverse five (5) of the infernal locations first. Once in Paradise you will have another 5 circles to complete and are not be able to return to the Abyss.

Second Circle: Lust
Of course this could be something titillating but it could also be the miniature that you've always wanted for your collection but have denied yourself. One of the few times where I condone NSFW content. Young visitors may wish to avert their eyes.

I've had this col Bill's Vivandiere for some time, I bought her knowing one day she would fit into a bonus round in the Challenge, I still have at least 20 other similar figures waiting for their chance to fit in somewhere???

Marie Tete du Bois, followed the Grande Armee into Russia giving out bacon bagets and shots of brandy to warm up the weary soldiers, trouble was, that wasn't the only thing she gave out to warm the soldiers up!!!

A vivandière was a woman who sold food and drink to soldiers in the military. The term comes from the French word vivandier, which means "hospitable man".

From The Second Circle of Lust I shall now move down to the Third Circle Gluttony!!!

My first none Retreat from Moscow figure in Challenge 15.

Third Circle: Gluttony

Would you like your meal supersized? Show us a figure who has overindulged at the table. A little too much Holiday feasting perhaps?

Technically he's not got a big belly, but Hercules sure is a Glutton for punishment!

Having tried to kill Heracles ever since he was born, Hera induced a madness in him that made him kill his wife and children. Afterwards, Heracles went to the Oracle of Delphii to atone, where he prayed to the god Apollo for guidance. Heracles was told to serve Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, for ten years. During this time, he was sent to perform a series of difficult feats, called labours

1. Slaying the Nemean lion
2. Slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra
3. Capturing the Ceryneian Hind
4. Capturing the Erymanthian Boar
5. Cleaning the Augean stables in a single day
6. Slaying the Stymphalian birds
7. Capturing the Cretan Bull
8. Stealing the Mares of Diomedes
9. Obtaining the belt of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons
10. Obtaining the cattle of the three-bodied giant Geryon
11. Stealing three of the golden apples of the Hesperides
12. Capturing and bringing back Cerberus

Each year I pant a figure for my Dad at Christmas and for his birthday in January, Hercules was painted up for his birthday. The figure is from North Stars Of Gods and Mortals range of figures, and is a large 28mm figure, more like 35mm, we'll he was a giant of a man.

Next down the Abyss we come to the 4th Circle Greed.

Fourth Circle: Greed

As the depraved Emcee in the musical 'Cabaret' sang, 'Money makes the world go around...' Submit something illustrating an unbridled lust for filthy lucre.

And who better to paint up to represent Greed. Some say he was the greatest military commander ever, but Greed drove Napoleon to attack the Russians in 1812 and we all know how that ended up, don't we?

This is a very simple figure from Eureka, but what a great looking figure it is, he should make a great objective in a game of Sharpe Practice, "Capture the Emperor"

For my 5th and last entry for the Abyss bonus round I'm heading for the 7th Circle Violence, but before that I've got to beg the help of Succubus Sarah to help me get there, so as a sacrifice I offer up, Jeanette Morel.

Jenanette is one of the Grande Armee's camp followers.

She is following the column of bedraggled soldiers heading away from Moscow.

and the marauding Cossacks

Hence she is holding a pistol, pointing it menacingly.....I wonder if its loaded?

She is part of pack FN193 Camp Followers from the mighty Perry Twins

Thanks to Sarah and Jeanette, we now find ourselves at the last Abyss Circle.......Violence!

Seventh Circle: Violence
Hmm, as many of us are wargamers I don't think I need to elaborate on this one too much.

I'm sure you'll all agree, this was probably the easiest of the circles to paint. Any of my previous or forthcoming entries (yours too) could fit in here.

These 2 groups of figures are once again from Perry Miniatures, they are what was left from pack FN194 Scavengers!

Both show that violent horrible side of war.

Beating a fellow countryman for a blanket...

And robbing the dead of a pair of boots!!!

So ends my marathon and onto the points!

Lust - Marie Tete du Bois 5pts plus 20 bonus = 25pts

Gluttony - Hercules 5pts plus 20 bonus = 25pts

Greed - Napoleon 5pts plus 20 bonus = 25pts

Sarah Succubus - Jeanette Morel 5pts plus 20 bonus = 25pts

Violence - Scavengers 20pts plus 20 bonus = 40 pts

That make a grand total of 140 points!

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????

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow - Meets The Silver Bayonet

For my second entry of the day I've gone all silver Bayonet on ya! I've no real interest in the game Silver Bayonet, but I've been a long admirer of the figures produced for the rules, they're so full of character. So I took full advantage of the recent offer from North Star, where you could buy the figures individually, rather than the unit boxes they usually sell in.

I managed to get this unit finished in time to take some pics and post it up. Sitting them on a radiator to help them dry quicker did help!

I painted the figures at the back first, the chap back o the left was supposed to be for my Haitian project, but Haiti's too hot for him,

The figure on the left, has a greenstuff cloak added

as does the Cuirassier on the right, all the others are as they came in the post. Which is a shame, they're both really nice figures and I've hidden all that wonderful detail under a cloak!!

I'm not sure if these will become a unit of stragglers or command figures if I'm being honest, they'll probably be a bit of both in the end.

Points mean prizes and these bad boys will give me 40 points.

8 figures@ 5pts each.

Teemu gave me a bonus of 2 points taking my total to 42pts, pushing me up to 23rd with 247 pts in total.

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow - 24th Legere

Surprise Surprise! Here's more figures for my and Lee's  Retreat from Moscow project. 

These poor chilly souls are painted up to represent a detachment of the French 24th Legere, who fought in Ney's Third Army, 10th Division (Ledru), in Gengoult's Brigade. But in all honesty they could be from any French light infantry unit, or any other Grenadier or Voltigeur unit.

In Sharpe Practice, skirmish units are usually in 6 man units. The figures are from the great range of figures made by North Star for the Muskets & Tomahawks ruleset, and are sold as a 6 man unit, as seen here. I've included a commander, once again from North Star's range.

I hope more figures will be added to this great looking range........not that I actually need anymore figures???

But who am I kidding!

Once again I've included their very own base, which I painted up before the Challenge, when we found out no terrain items were allowed this time round.

Onto the points, nice and easy...

7 figures at 5pts each = 35 pts

These troops pushed me back up to 27th place with a total of 205 points.

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow - Chasseurs a Pied 40 points

 

The best laid plans of mice and men!!

I was supposed to be keeping the majority of my French army to Ney's Third Army, but.......

well you've gotta paint some Guard haven't you?

I've called these the Chasseurs a Pied, but they could be any of the Guard regiments that were in Marshal Bessiers' Imperial Guard Army of 1812.

The figures are from North Stars Muskets & Tomahawks range of figures, unfortunately they only sell 3 units. The 8 figure Guard as seen here, an 8 figure Fusiler unit and a 6 figure Voltigeur unit, all of which will be seen at a later date.

Both Lee and myself bought movement trays for our troops, we were going to add them in as an entry during the Challenge, but when Curt disallowed terrain, we both satisfied our painting urge, by painting up all our bases beforehand. So each unit you see will have its own tray, which is great for storage purposes too!

Onto the points.

8 x 25mm figures @ 5pts each = 40pts!

AHPC 14 - Children's Books - Hukuna Matata 25mm

 

Children’s Books: Something sweet for the kiddies, or perhaps something darker, maybe a little Edward Gorey?

Back in the late 90's my daughter Abi was obsessed with The Lion King, she was 3 at the time,  everyday after I picked her up from nursery school, I'd ask her what video she'd like to watch while I'd make her lunch, everyday for what seemed like years she would pick Disney's The Lion King.

This is the film that I've watched the most, honestly I don't know how many times I've seen it, but its got to run into the 300+ mark, easily!

Still to this day, I can resight the script and of course sing all the songs!

Abi wasn't just interested in the Disney film, she had plates, mugs, soft toys, bed covers, bags and everything imaginable, including this book.

Which of course I read and re-read several hundred times! The book came as part of a collection, every month, we'd get 2 different Disney books delivered to our house. The Lion King is the only book we have left from back then. I'll be giving this to Abi soon after I post this, she's 30 this year and I know she's gonna love it!

The figures are all from North Star's African animal's range and are all 25mm.

Link

Obviously they're not all the same size so I'd guess they're worth 10 point as a total?

Simba, Pumba & Timon

So 10 points for the figures

and 20 points for bonus round, making a total of 30 points.

AHPC12 - Donnybrook Femme Fatale's

 

Tamsin usually finds herself  blessed being my Minion each year during the Challenge, but it wasn't to be this year. So, as she's minioning today I thought I stick a small post on for her as a pressie. Here we have 2 x Femme Fatale's

I've had these figures for many moons and painted them up just incase I needed any more lifts on Sarah's Star Yacht. That ship has now sailed. So these luvvly ladies are going spare.

The lady on the left is the Governors Daughter and is a resin model, I can't for the life of me remember the manufacturer??? The hatted lady on the right is another of the civiies from North Star's 1672 range.

I still working on other figures, hopefully I'll have more posts to sneak in??

10 point please Tamsin? Unless you wanna give me any bonus points which I know you won't?

😏

AHPC12 Three in one - Aethelflaed, Achilles and the Whisperer.

 

For my visit to Xanth,(another planet that I had to look up) I'm using the tag, A Unique Talent.

During my 3rd spell with covid, when I was locked in my shed for a week, I re-watched The Last Kingdom on Netflix, amongst other things. 

I already had Col Bill's Aethelflaed figure, which I planned to paint as a gift for my Dad. So thought it'd be a good entry into the bonus round.

I used the colours in this stain glass window to paint her up, I was going to go for all white, but I think this colour scheme looks better?

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians (c. 870 – 12 June 918) ruled Mercia in the midlands from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter of Alfred the Great, king of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and his wife Ealhswith.

Æthelred her husband died in 911 and Æthelflæd then ruled Mercia as Lady of the Mercians. The accession of a female ruler in Mercia is described by the historian Ian Walker as "one of the most unique events in early medieval history". Hence the Unique Talent.

5pts for the figure

20 pts for the bonus

Figure 2 in this post and I've flown from Xanth to Mars, here I'll use the Tagline "Gods of War"

My original plan was to paint a figure of Ares, the Greek God of war, but Wargames Foundry had sold out of the pack. So I opted for a different Foundry pack and went with a Greek hero instead, Achilles.

Achilles was the son of Peleus, a Greek king, and Thetis, a sea nymph or goddess.

Zeus, the king of the gods and Poseidon, god of the sea, had both fallen in love with Thetis and were rivals for her hand in marriage. However, the gods were warned of a prophecy that Thetis would have a son who would grow up to be greater than his father. Worried by this, Zeus arranged for Thetis to marry a mortal man so that her child couldn’t challenge his power. In another version of the story, Thetis rejects Zeus’s advances and a furious Zeus decrees that she will never marry a god. Either way, Thetis ends up married to the mortal Peleus and Achilles is born.

5pts for the figure

20 pts for the bonus

My last figure in the post, I'm catching a lift on Sarah's Star Yacht from Mars to Krypton.

This figure comes from North Star's 1672 range and is one of their figures in pack GS43- Civilian Party

Lady Sarah will enter the giant Donnybrook civilian box, to sit amongst the other million figures I've already painted up, hoping that one day she will be used in a game........any game!!!

So I've only Krypton to go, then I can enter the Challenge XII  Sun.

5pts for the figure

20 pts for the bonus

So that's a total of  75pts

Not bad for 3 figures ah Greg?