Six Napoleonic Westphalian line infantry battalions

I have finally finished six line infantry battalions and two skirmisher screens to add to my Westphalian contingent. I screwed up and ordered them all with Grenadiers in bearskins whereas only the first regiment had Grenadiers in bearskins, with other regiments having Grenadiers in Shakos. Oh well, I can always replace those bases later if I get around to it. Some times things like this niggle me. Hopefully this won't!

The battalions are painted for about 1810 which is before all facing colours were changed to dark blue. 

I still have the cavalry and artillery to paint. Before I get around to that I've three battalions of Portuguese Legion, the Zastrow and Guard du Corps Cuirassier of Saxony, a couple of Portuguese officers, for line regiments I finished years ago, to complete .

These are Elite miniatures. The figures are based for "In The Grand Manner". The rule system is 1:20 figure to men ratio. Obviously it is quite a job to collect for this system. If you don't have the space or time have a look at the Wargames Holiday Center. Mark Freeth, your genial host, can supply the figures and gaming space. It is an amazing spectacle.

If you like the Westphalians you may enjoy reading this ebook written by a contemporary courtier.

28mm Napoleonic Westphalian 1st Light infantry

Here are some light infantry to add to my 28mm Napoleonic Westphalian contingent. This time I added some static grass to the bases, which brightens them up, in addition to the tufts I used last time. The highlighting hasn't come out well in these photos. I may have screwed up the lighting.

I'm not sure the center companies had plumes. But this is how Elite miniatures do them.

I came back from a walking holiday in Nepal recently. This picture shows the virtue of taking hundreds of images in case one comes out OK! This is looking back from the route to Annapurna base camp. (on the edge of the Rum Doodle range..)

Napoleonic Westphalian gunners

Hot on the heels of my two Westphalian Guard battalions here are some gunners to give them support. I've no guns as I have so many for the French I doubt I'll ever get them on the table and I may as well use them for allies when needed.  The figures, once again, are from Elite miniatures.

I couldn't get the horse gunners to stand up. Minus one on firing for them for hitting the ale too heavily at that last village!

28mm Napoleonic Westphalian Guard and Russian Soum Hussars (metal from Elite miniatures)

I closed my factory in August, to allow me to spend more time outside of Bangladesh, but kept on the best 12 people and moved them to my house (a new and larger place). We still have projects to finish for customers and since August I've only managed to get these figures for myself. I hired a couple of extra painters to speed things up. I guess we will go to a higher staff level from here. I've piles of lead to be finished. BTW, in the future we will only work from stock - of which there is a lot.

These are the Westphalian Guard Grenadiers. The metal is from Elite miniatures. You will see that Pete Morby, the owner and sculptor, has abandoned the "hey, steve!" dramatic turn of the head on his figures. I've still to add flags.

The figures are painted off a light grey base, to make them look different from my mass of Austrians which are painted on a base of "off beige/sand". This is my new painting technique which I came up with about six months ago. Instead of painting a block of colour I have the paint "tickled" on in little lines around the area to be painted. This doesn't cover everything, so the effect is a sort of blending where the strongest coverage is in the area "highest". Then the next, lighter, layer goes on top of that in the same manner but more restricted to the higher area.

I got a new light box fixed up in my house. This, along with a tripod, is helpful in taking good pictures. Click on images to get a larger picture.

 

These are the Westphalian Guard Fusiliers. I think I have the Guard Jaegers somewhere in my lead pile (from another manufacturer). I got the Westphalians from Elite, Connoisseur, Bicorne and Front Rank. I have enough for my needs from each manufacturer (i.e. times 4) and ambitiously thought of selling off the figures I didn't want when I'm finished. Well, only 2 infantry units done so far!

 

These lovelies are the Russian Soum Hussars. I painted 12 for a customer and then noticed that some of the uniform details were from the wrong year. I hated the idea of over painting so I replaced his Elite miniatures figures with some from my unpainted 32 man regiment and then finished this lot for myself.

Bundles of joy

Latest arrivals from Warlord Games

Basing, un-basing, re-basing my Bavarians

Back in 2011 I posted pictures of some of the thirteen Bavarian battalions I had painted. The figures are Old Glory 1st edition, which I like for their animation (more people hate them than love them). Well, not having mounted officers for those units bothered me. I could feel the figures calling out to me from the shelf.

Napoleonic Bavarian 6th Line Infantry Regiment (Old Glory 1st edition figures)

http://lacenbighats.blogspot.com/2011/02/old-glory-28mm-1st-edition-bavarian.html

 Eventually I broke down and ordered a Connoisseur miniatures mounted officer for each battalion. This was part of a huge order to Bicorne miniatures, which took months to fill - I spent months dithering over the order too! Then I had to get around to painting the figures, of course, and to face the pain of taking the painted figures off their bases and re-basing.

Now I am finally done.Well, except for the fact I have to sort out flags for the units and import some silfor tufts for the bases. A wargamer's work is never done.

Napoleonic Bavarian Line infantry regiment. Old Glory 1st edition figures with Connoisseur miniatures mounted officer.

Napoleonic Bavarian Line infantry regiment. Old Glory 1st edition figures with Connoisseur miniatures mounted officer.

I have all of the painted figures, which were replaced by a mounted officer, and so, of course, I have to paint more battalions. And so the cycle begins again..

10mm WW2 British Hamilcar Glider (Pendraken miniatures)

This is a Pendraken 10mm Hamilcar glider. It is photographed next to a couple of German Sd. 222 Armoured Cars, which I have airbrushed with three colour camouflage and then dry brushed.

Pendraken shipped a huge order out to me in Bangladesh. Unfortunately the glider was broken in transit. Pendraken kindly offered to send me a replacement part, for the wing which was broken in the middle, but I was too keen to get started. I used some quick bonding metal filled Araldite to glue the wing parts onto the body. This was far harder than I had expected. The resin warped once it was broken. After a day of messing around I finally got it together. I used "green stuff" to smooth over most of the damage. You don't notice any problems because of the strong black/white pattern.

I undercoated the aircraft with airbrushed Vallejo deep bronze green primer, which is great stuff. Then I sprayed on brown, in the RAF heavy bomber pattern. Next I went back to the green areas and sprayed on Vallejo US olive drab while leaving a border in the original, darker, green. After this I used a darker brown to border the brown areas of camouflage.

I took a sheet of paper and drew around the aircraft body. Then, using a ruler, I put on marks for the start and end points of the D-Day black/white markings. Putting this on the aircraft I was able to get roughly symmetrical patterns. After these were painted on, I printed out a variety of sizes of circles for the roundels. Once I had the right sizes, I drew outlines where they were to be. My handiest painter, Mishma, was tasked with painting the roundels for me. Voila!