His Majesty's Guardsman

One of, if not the quality, I admire most in our hobby, is the depth of friendships we develop over our shared passion for this relatively obscure endeavor.  I have good friends across the city, and some across the globe.  Of those international friends, many I have never met in person - a state of things I hope to remedy!  

 

Astute readers of my blog will have noted the troops around Vimiero are taking a "Winter's Peace" of sorts while I attend to health matters.  Not to belabor the medical stuff; I recently discovered that I was living with two large aortic aneurysms.  Thanks to the amazing folks at the medical center where I work, I am now one week out of post-op, home, and feeling stronger every day.  I even walked the pups yesterday much to my wife's chagrin.  Health-wise, I could not have hoped for a better outcome.  It looks like my dear spouse and family are stuck with me for at least another 40 years (that may be a bit greedy, but why not at this point).

 

Not a day after getting home from the hospital, I discovered this ambassador waiting for me in the mailbox.  What a joy to open the package and find this immaculately painted guardsman in the old style.  He is a vintage 30mm Willie figure of an Imperial Guardsman originally sculpted by Edward Suren and ably painted by Aly Morrison.

 

The guardsman came complete with orders which read: "His Imperial Majesty sends his regards and has dispatched one of his finest guardsmen to ensure that you take time to rest and recover.  Most importantly - GET WELL SOON!" signed Aly Morrison (ADC)

 Thanks to all for the support along this journey and for the host of well wishes I have received from our community.  With any luck I'll be able to incorporate painting into part of my rehab and will have some of my own soldiers to show off soon.  In the meantime, I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to Aly for a real lift of my spirits that was unexpected and truly delightful.  Best to you my friend.

A Bavarian Welsh and French Confection of Metal Delights

Today I present a lovely assortment of miniature sculpting styles and nationalities.  The last couple of months I have been preparing for an international re-creation of the battle north of Vimiero, but while that battle has been progressing over email, I have been busily painting and am happy to show the results of those efforts below (as well as a few spoiler photos of the battle).

The Royal Welsh 23rd Fusiliers.  Originally painted by Dick Tennant

I wanted the Battalion to have command figures in bearskins, and was a few figures short of the 36 figure standard battalion, so added a Der Kriegspieler NCO as regimental standard bearer, officer and drummer.  The rest are Hinton Hunt originals painted by Mr. Tennant in his usual extraordinary style.  I refreshed the paint a bit and added some shading.

The flags had to be replaced unfortunately, so I decided I might as well incorporate some Hagen tassels from their flag pole set.

The DKs fit in just fine with their Hinton Hunt brethren in this instance, which was a relief!

A Waterloo 1815 metal casting from their command set, slightly modified and demoted, serves as Colonel Ellis of the Fusiliers

I love the animation of this figure as he peers forward over the neck of his horse.

Here we have an Art Miniaturen casting of Roustam Raza, Napoleon's body guard and secondary valet.

You have to love all of the gold on the oriental costume which he would wear on ceremonial occasions.

The horses bridle was my favorite part!

On deck is the 76th Infantry Regiment of the Line, so I thought I would go ahead and get their Colonel and Chef de Bataillon done while I was working on command figures.

On the left is an SHQ casting and on the right, perhaps my all time favorite sculpt, a Franznap Colonel.

The different sculpting styles is really evident when seen from behind.

More Franznap - a Bavarian six horse artillery train.

Limber riders and gun complete the set.

The traces were a little fiddly to put together, but come as part of the set cast in metal.

Altogether a fantastic piece.

A better view of the artillery drivers and the traces.

I won't be doing any more six horse artillery trains until I model Napoleon's beautiful daughters - 12 pounders in the Imperial Guard artillery reserve.

Bavarian light artillery piece

Note the attached bucket as well as the cast on drag chain.

Just another beautifully detailed piece by Franznap.

Lastly a few teaser shots from the ongoing battle north of Vimiero.  The troops have temporarily laid down their arms while I take care of some health matters, but I hope to be up and running again in a couple of months.  Till then, happy gaming!