French Middle Guard (24 pieces)

The whole Victrix plastics box contains approx 60 Miniatures. Due to my regimental sizing I did paint 24 first which leaves me another regiment and then 12 spares... lets see what comes out with them..

I have to tell you that even as the box is one of their more latest additions the sprues sometimes suck as hell. I have had less problems with their other boxes when it comes to cleaning up of the models from their sprues. Here we have a couple of things that seemingly went wrong.

Manufacturer: Victrix Miniatures
Plastic/Metal: Plastic
Scale : 28mm
Number in Unit: 24

Dutch Red Lancers (12 Pieces)

This is one of my most favourite Regiments by now. The dutch Red Lancers. I had quite a hard time finding out about the uniforms. Even Ospreys pictures depict them nearly black. Different blogs paint them quite blue and red...

I went for the Osprey variation. The "blue" is 1/3 intense blue by Vallejo mixed with 2/3 of Negro by Vallejo. This makes them seemingly black. If you hold them in the sun or would strip them off their colour it goes blue :)

Funny effect.

So here we go:

Manufacturer: Perry Miniatures
Plastic/Metal: Metal
Scale : 28mm
Number in Unit: 12 pieces

Spanish Napoleonic Line Infantry (24 Figures) plus Infantry General on horse with ADC Ensign on horse

Front Rank Miniatures provide really great miniatures and after my first 6 test miniatures I ordered the whole Line, a General and one which is normally a cavalry ensign. I loved the horses pose so much so that I adjusted the ensign to ADC of the general.

24 Line Infantry
2 Horses
1 General of the infantry
1 Ensign on horse

19th Regiment de Linie - French Napoleonic Infantry - 24 Figures

This one also finished over the weekend. Kid has been busy with the PS3 and I had time painting my stuff.

28mm / Perry Miniatures (Plastic) / French Napoleonic Infantry - 19th Regiment de Linie

(in case someone notices.. in some cases I simply put on the flank infantry sabers)

A couple of words on painting Napoleonic Miniatures

Nearly one year ago I started painting my own miniatures for playing wargames. Having done such a thing never before I used to learn painting by try and error and often find myself repainting my miniatures then I developed a new technic.


My miniature 28mm soldiers are mainly manufactured by the British companies Front Rank, Perry Miniatures and Victrix. I use Vallejo and Games Workshop paints for the figures and  for the horses.

Are my figures completely accurate? Well, although my philosophy is to get them as close to accurate as possible, there are limits imposed by the actual castings and the small amount of reference material I have available. But bear in mind that an infantry battalion of only 24 men is not accurate in itself, so other small errors pale into insignificance in comparison!
I don't actually get to use these figures in many wargames, but when I do, the rules I use are Black Powder.

My figures have not been specifically based for any set of rules, but instead use base-sizes that I find visually pleasing and leave room for any possibility arising. This means I do a one-to-one basing with 20mm x 20mm (single figure) for infantry and the fiting sizes for cavaly and artillery.

One last point - it is notoriously difficult to photograph the colour blue accurately. The colour of the uniform coats in the photographs on this site varies from picture to picture, and often looks much lighter than on the actual figures themselves. So please do not rush to email me to tell me my shade of blue is wrong!

French Napoleonic Old Guard Grenadiers in Campaign Dress 1805 (24 Miniatures)

As Victrix currently offers 30% off of each of their boxes I took hold of this bargain and ordered a couple of their miniatures.

Victrix provides them in plastic sprues which leaves room for variety.

After cross checking the boxes:

I

 I found out that I could build a bit more out of the two I ordered. So the Old Guard Grenadiers in Campaign Dress of 1805 are born. In case someone might notice... I take my uniform colours from the Osprey books..

So here we go:

British Napoleonic (45th Nottinghamshire) line infantry unit post-1812 (24 figures)

I got the idea for this action unit by a post by one of my favourite blogs. Thrillermiller is his nickname and I really liked the idea of this attacking unit...

Miniatures: Frontrank (metal)

French Napoleonic Gun

Of course its not all about the british... so french napoleonics got also their first gun. This one is a metal one by Frontrank Miniatures....

Colours used here are Vallejo... enjoy !

Victrix - Napoleonic british foot artillery box (12 pounders)

I  got a fantastic sending by Victrix which depicts a battery of english foot artillery. These are plastic miniatures with a high variety of choice. In case someone notices it.. the bare headed guy got a special hat which is not included in the box set, but which I found in some older victrix box for french of mine....

Enjoy the battery:

New time for building up Napoleonics - back to start -

After my more or less one year excurse into WW2 and Flames of War it is time to go back to Napoleonics.
What I have learned within one year of painting exceeds my own expectations. Compared to my first miniatures to what I am now capable of painting it is surely time to review myself or the minis that I considered "finished" nearly one year ago.

So what is up coming on this blog ?

As I tried out various different companies now I will truely stick to these:
- Front Rank Figures : 
  I love their metal minis even if a unit might look a bit the same of all over again as metal , without    conversions, makes quite a similar looking unit, but again.. the miniatures look great and I love painting them.

- Perry Miniatures:
 Their plastics as well as their metal ranges will also find their place in my units.Top notch castings. Along with the Front Rank Figures I will find some varitation within my units

- Victrix:
 Not too bad for Plastic only and a cheap way to stuff out more or less large numbers. The great things on plastic is that you simply can convert them without the need of cutting tooooooooooooo much (including myself).

- Warlord Games:
This is the fourth company included. As I also paint on some Bolt Action Miniatures I sometimes feel the urge to buy a box or two from their plastics. Again this is a matter of variation with the units.

What a week ! Achived the place of honor for painting

Wow.. that was quite impressive to me. After taking place in the irish "Preening Dandies" Competition I never ever thought on getting the first place, or place of honor for painting a miniature.

The Miniature I send along for the competition was a french infantry colonel by Perry Miniatures which I did paint in 3 evening sessions(including horse).

You will find the result here:

http://waraltar.onthestep.net/2012/11/preening-dandies-october-edition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheWarAltar+%28The+War+Altar%29

Starter Scenario - Republic to Empire

REPUBLIC TO EMPIRE is a Napoleonic rules set by Barry Hilton and partners. The general impression I've gotten from reading forums and blogs is that people think the rules are complicated. The game play is smooth and free flowing with minimal need to refer to the main text once concepts have been mastered. New players usually pick up the key mechanisms within three to four game turns.

 

As I do not own a copy of that I had to transfer everything to a rules set based on my Black Powder rules which I own. I simply love all the tips and hints in the bock about how to base or how many miniatures to base at once etc...

 

The difference is that Black Powder is scaleable to fit each scale. I own 28mm but could also use Black Powder on 20, 25, 15, 6 or whatever scale.

 

As not used to play napoleonic warfare I simply downloaded the scenario and adapted it to my needs. When you follow this blog you might have noticed that I only own british and french troops at present and so I had to leave out the spanish here... but hei, who know what comes next. So highly recommended easy scenario.

Enjoy !

 

The Battle of Almarez, August 6th, 1809

The Battle of Almarey, August 6th, 1809

The British won the battle of Talavera, but were forced to retreat all the same as French reinforcements arrived. The British formed a new defensive position behind the river Tagus. All of the crossings were well defended, but that might not have been the case if Marshal Soult had been more decisive. One crossing near the village of Almaraz was held initially only by a force of 1000 Spanish Line Infantry and a small detachment of guns. The bridge across the river is described as "broken" but it was apparently still passable by foot. There was also a ford nearby.

Historically, Wellesley had four days to prepare his defenses and he positioned General Craufurd and his Light Brigade to reinforce the Spanish. At this time, the Light Brigade consisted of the 43rd, the 52nd, and the 95th. He also attached Donkin's Brigade to Craufurd, though this brigade had suffered heavy casualties at Talavera, loosing around a third of it's strength (read 24-man battalions rather than 36). This brigade included the 87th (the Prince of Wales' Own Irish) and 88th (Connaught Rangers) line as well as a handful of the 60th (more riflemen, this time with red facings). Soult dispatched Marshal Ney (finally) to take the crossing, but Ney found it too well defended by the time he arrived.

 
The forces are listed below and will have to be modified to meet my collection (e.g. bringing up "The Buffs", etc..).

Third Division, Craufurd

Light Brigade
43rd Light (28)
52nd Light (28)
95th Rifles (28)

Donkin's Brigade
88th Line (36)
74th Line (24)
45th Line (24)
60th Rifles (12 skirmishers)

Attached Cavalry
1st KGL (12)
RHA battery (2 guns)

Spanish Brigade
2 Battalions (24)
half battery of foot artillery

Loison's Division Command by Marshal Ney

First Brigade
26th Line (2 battalions, 36 each)
Legion Hannoverienne (2 battalions, 28 each)
Legion du Midi (24)

Second Brigade
32nd Light (24)
66th Line (2 battalions, 36 each)
82nd Line (30)

Attached Cavalry
5th Hussars (12)

Divisional Artillery
1 battery (4 guns)

This is the goal to actually paint. There will be a couple of substitutes anyway to fit my already painted