Old School Dapol English Cottage

 I've always liked this cottage ever since I saw it in the Airfix guide to Napoleonic Wargaming by Bruce Quarrie.  It seemed like every time I turned around I would see it again in someone else's games, so I finally asked Matt of The Hinton Spieler blog fame where he got his.  Turns out it is available from Dapol and is dirt cheap.  It's actually a very nice little kit, to which I added the stone wall and critters, but here we have it.  There is just enough room for a full battalion of infantry to crowd in behind the walls.

 https://www.dapol.co.uk/c020-thatched-cottage-553

Some Russian Grenadiers scaring away the livestock!

Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspieler Figure Hunt

 In looking for command figures for some of my Hinton Hunt and Der Kriegspielers units I have tried a couple of existing figure lines to find compatible figures.  From left to right:  Art Miniaturen, Hinton Hunt (recast), Der Kreigspielers, Newline Designs.

 As you can see the figures are all reasonably the same, but get progressively smaller, with Art Miniaturen being perhaps just slightly larger than Hinton Hunt, but a really good fit sizewise, and Newline Designs being just a hair smaller than Der Kriegspielers, but still a good match for the DK figures in size.

  As you can see though, when Newline design is put side by side with Art Miniaturen there is a considerable size difference

 Here are some DK Russian Cuirassiers with Newline Design command that are superfluous to my needs so let me know if you could use them.  Would love to trade for some DK Cossacks with Busbys.

 Here is a unit I would love to be able to field, as I could paint them as Guard Cossacks, which were part of the Corps with Palov's Grenadiers which I have already modeled.  I need five more DK Cossacks in Busbys (DK #87).  Let me know if you have extras and I'll work to arrange a trade or purchase.  I have customized three Newline Designs Cossacks so that they have the appropriate headgear for the guard.

 Close Up

 It is really hard to tell from this angle, but the DK Cossacks have three variants, all labeled as #87, I believe.  The one above is the same figure with a fur busby and a bag.

 Here are some close ups of the other alternatives.  I will mix these in with a less uniform group of Ural Cossacks.

 Here's a nice little vignette I got from Art Miniaturen.  I'll use this as my command stand for Russian Hussars.  We have a dismounted officer giving orders to his mounted aide de camp.

Not finished by a long shot, but a nicely detailed Russian 20# Unicorn from Art Miniaturen which includes separate drag chains, tools, and bucket.  Strangely it seems just a hair smaller than the Newline Designs artillery below.

 Newline Designs on the left, Art Miniaturen on the right.

 Some French line that are extra to my needs.  1812 uniform I believe.  None of them have a number on the bottom to confirm which figure.  DK figures I assume.  I really like the musket strap draped under the arm.

 Here are the French Line that I need.  Would love 2-3 more of these if anyone has extras.  Happy to trade or purchase.  It is possible these are Italians painted as French.  The number is hard to read but it could be #158, which is Italian Line Infantry.

 These Austrians need a new home so let me know if they would fit well in your collection.  These are smaller than the DKs, so I assume true 20mm figures, but I have not been able to figure out the manufacturer.

Mystery Figures

French 1/72 chasseurs a cheval.  Are these Qualiticast figures?  Has anyone ordered from them recently?

 http://www.micromondi.com/QUALITICAST/Napoleonic/napoleonic.htm

More Russians and a Village to Defend

2 Battalions of Grenadiers, the St. Petersburg and the Pavlovski, march through a Russian village on the way to toss out the French invaders.  They are protected by a screen of jagers, who have already adopted their cold weather trousers, signalling the approach of General Winter.

My last attempt to photograph the jagers was an abysmal failure, but was able to get somewhat better shots of them this time, despite the sun flitting in and out behind the clouds.  I had a reflector placed to bounce some light on the front of the jagers, but the sun was only marginally cooperative.

Here we have the Russian forces arrayed thus far.  I am working on constructing the 1st Division of the 3rd Army Corp from the Russian First Army.  Next up will likely be a couple of line infantry battalions, probably Tchernigov and Koporski.  After that I hope I will have been able to find the remaining figures I need to model the Imperial Guard Cossacks.  There will also be some attached cavalry, probably a squadron of Cuirassier, and either dragoons or chasseurs, maybe even some more cossacks.  

The buildings you see are mostly by Pegasus Models, the big on is actually a pre-painted model they produce.  I must admit I was inspired by a post I saw some months ago, which inspired me to go ahead and paint up the smaller cottages and add the fire highlights to the windows of the larger structure.  The small log cabin on the far right is actually made with the Linka system for building HO scale plaster models.  You can see some other examples by clicking the Linka label on the left hand side of my blog.

 

The St. Petersburg grenadiers formed for battle.  These were a relatively simple touch up to make serviceable, but still required quite a bit of effort after all the little fixes were accounted for.

Up next will likely be some more scenic elements, a road and a small stream.  Before any more units are touched up for the Russians, I need to switch gears for a while and finish up a civil war project before a friend comes to visit this fall from England.  We will be recreating parts of the battle of Stones River, on the actual site of the battle in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

A Brief Interlude - Spain: Barcelona, Sitges, Cadaques

Miniatures painting took a back seat for a while as we got ready to head to Spain for a family vacation.  My daughter Carolyn got a travel grant to go, so we packed up the whole family and headed out with her.  It's been twenty years since I was outside of the USA, but I figured we better get out before "the Donald" built a wall of isolationism around the whole country.

Gaudi's Magnum Opus - the Segrada Familia.

The inside of the basilica was amazing.  Filled with light due to the soaring support arches modeled after trees.  It literally moved me to tears.

Looking up.  It is extraordinarily difficult to capture this in a way that shows the sheer scale of these arches!

Roman Amphitheater at Tarragona, south of Barcelona.

The Cable car to Mount Serrat.

The view from our room in Cadaques.  We stayed in an 800 year old home, literally a fifty yard walk down the cobble stoned street to the Mediterranean.  We had the top two floors and the owner had her painting studio on the first floor.  We could not have asked for a finer hostess or place to stay.

Carolyn outside the B&B with one of the many street cats.  The artist Dali lived just outside Cadaques and started a hotel for cats, that was just up the street from us.

A view of Cadaques from the light house

A happy family!

Thanks to Carolyn for providing the inspiration for the trip!

Snorkelling and Scuba (for Connor) from our base in Cadaques.  We came up from our dives into a hailstorm, but our guides kept us safe and got us back home in one piece.

Good think we had on the wet suits - those hail stones packed a wallop!

The final stages of our journey.  On the way back to Barcellona we stopped in Allela and had a tour of a fourteenth century winery.  Got to sip wine under the shade of a mulberry treee with a view of the farmhouse and the Mediterranean - simply amazing!

Just a neat house in Alella

Carolyn was able to stick with her vegan ways, even in pork loving Spain.

One of our best - and cheapest meals - was in Alella.  A fresh tomato salad and locally caught Mackerel for me.