Retreat From Moscow - Deployment Markers or Command Stands

 

As if I haven't got enough to paint already??

Me and Lee are planning to use Sharpe Practice for our Retreat from Moscow shenanigans

We spoke about the Deployment Markers used in the rules, I had a few spare figures and said about using some of those instead of a counter as per the rules?

Lets just say I got a tad carried away and only used 2 of the spares I had and bought another 2 packs of Perry's to make them both.......

The standard bearer is one of the spares, he's from the plastic Guard figures from Victrix.

I must say, I'm pleased with how they both came out.

Lee hasn't posted any photo's on his blog of the 2 stands he made, he posted a video on You Tube BELOW, instead. Its only after I finished mine when I looked back to Lee's and realised he only painted 3 figures per base, Damn!!!!

I've gone for the full effect....5 figures per base!!!

We both bought our flags from Andy at Grubby Tanks

The spare I had for this base, is once again the standard bearer, but this time he's a Front Rank figure.

The figures are a mix of Perry's from packs, FN51 Support Staff and FN53 Hangers On High Ranking Officers, while the bases are from Warbases.

Which way, should we go?

Unfortunately most figures on the bases have no thick coats of scarves to keep them warm, but hey, they're the best of the best in French elitism, they're making the decisions, so they don't need to keep warm??? Do they??

So what are they Deployment Markers or Command Stands?

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow, 1st Portuguese regt

Yep! More Retreat from Moscow figures, and more French allies too. This time we're heading to south western Europe, to Portugal. In Ney's Third Army were two regiments of Portuguese, the 1st and 2nd regiments. This is my version of the 1st. who were in Brigadier Gengoult's brigade along with the 24th Light Infantry.

The Portuguese Legion were formed from Portuguese nationals in 1808, with a strength of 6 Infantry and 2 Cavalry regts. They were re-organized in 1811 into 3 Infantry and 1 Cavalry regt. The Legion lost so many me in Russia that they were disbanded in 1813. 

Once again no  company (that I've found anyway) sell the Portuguese Legion in greatcoats. Perry minis make 1 figure in pack FN171, so that's out. So I came up with the idea of buying some plastic Victrix Waterloo Brits wearing a Belgic shako and cutting and filing those down to kinda match what they wore. Its not a bad match if I say so myself. The next problem I came across was the heads were a little small to match the Foundry figures I was going to decapitate.......so Warlord French is was, but they still didn't fit because the heads had no collar. So once again, my trusty pack of Green Stuff came out, to make some scarves and collars. 

The Warlord figures are a little smaller than the Perry's, so I squirted some No More Nails from a tube onto each base, then gently pressed the figure onto the base, its hardly noticeable.

So onto the points, its a nice and easy one.......8 figures at 5 pts each makes 40 points, maybe a few extra for the conversion work, if Teemu's feeling generous??

Teemu was feeling generous and gave me an extra 2 points, giving me 42pts and a total of 1030, which as he reminded me was past my target of 1000 points!!

AHPC15 - Retreat from Moscow - French Cavalry Mixed unit no1

Perry Miniatures make a few packs of French and Allied Cavalry in various winter clothing, both uniform and non-uniform. I have bought these packs, which are still in the lead mountain of shame. So with my brain in overdrive I've searched every company I can think of who sell 25-28mm French Napoleonics Cavalry for figures with either greatcoats and or wet weather gear on.

There are NOT a lot, Front Rank to a few mounted command figures and that's about it really, So what to do????

Then I found these chaps, from Empress Miniatures Gwalior, Afghanistan, Punjaub and Scinde. range. Thinking " I might be able to uses these?", although they did break my heart and my wallet. £28.50 for 6 figures!!!

Originally I was going to use these figures as command models, but not now, although some may find their way into doing so????  Empress do sell more figures like these bad boys, that might have to join the collection at a later date???

As you know the Retreat from Moscow was a little haphazard. I've chosen not to have any formed units as such, I'm going for mixed adhoc units, made up from different regts. These figures can be mixed in with the Perry figures previously mentioned. The French cavalry lost many, many horses on the retreat, I expect most were slaughtered for their meat, or just died from the cold, so a lot of cavalry fought on foot, for this and many other reasons. Making them mixed units makes sense to me?

In the front row we have figures all from Empress representing the 2nd Cuirassiers, 4th Chasseurs and the 11th Hussars.

The two figures representing the 2nd Cuirassiers were originally going to be the Wuttemburg 1st Chevau Legere, as the helmet kind of match theirs, minus a plume, but after painting them, I found further info saying that the helmet changed to another kind in 1807, oh !!!!!!. So they became the 2nd Cuirassiers instead!

At the back we have figures from 10th Cuirassiers, the 4th Chasseurs and the 30th Dragoons. The two figures on the right are both the bravest of the brave, wearing no winter coats!! and are plastic figures from Victrix, (I think)

The Officer is a figure from Casting Room Miniatures, that I bought for my Haitian Revolution project that didn't get used,. Pack FN530

My favorite figure in the 11th Hussar, front row on the right, wearing a Father Christmas coat, firing his pistol over his shoulder.

Horses arse!

These poor souls all had their heads chopped off and replaced with a more suitable Napoleonic head apart from the commander on the left who's now wearing a nice warm and furry cloak.

As to the points...

9 x Mounted 25mm figures @ 10 pts each, gives me a total of 90, plus anything that Teemu gives me for the conversion work?