Project Updates - Old School Napoleonics, Romans and ECW oh my!

Getting close to putting the finishing touches on these elements of Gallic mercenaries serving with my Roman army.  These are the last elements that will make up an all options DBA Marion Roman army that has been a very long time coming.  In the spirit of never completing a project though, it seems to me I could easily add a few more legions and have all I would need for a nice Roman civil war!

 This is a painted English Civil War army that I picked up on the cheap at Nashcon this summer.  I'm re-basing and replacing old "spaghetti" lance made of soft lead with wire pikes.  I'm also touching up the painting and giving the figures a quick wash, which will be followed by a cursory highlighting.  The figures are from a variety of manufacturers, and though not a high end selection of figures or painting, should make a quick and easy opponent for my New Model army.

Not a lot of progress on the 17th regiment of the line, but any progress at all is always a good thing.  Their painted brethren are clamoring for support, so I'll get these to the top of the queue before too long.

These chaps were a major source of distraction over the last couple of weeks.  They will be the next French infantry battalion to be painted, the Middle Guard Grenadiers.  Here we have the command figures: First is a DK 24 artillerist converted to a drummer, next is a recast of a Hinton Hunt Old Guard sapper (cast by the esteemed Jon Cunningham), with a head swap from a DK 16, then a DK 7 officer with yet another head swap from a DK16 that was surplus to my needs and with a broken bayonet, and finally a DK 168 Italian I think, being converted to a standard bearer.  I may keep the backpack and think of him as a fusilier stepping in to keep the colors held high.

I'm considering using this lovely modern figure from Art Miniaturen to act as Colonel.

Finally we have the Grenadiers - DK 16 which are supposed to be chasseurs of the Middle Guard, but to my knowledge the only real distinction in the sculpting would be the chevron shaped cuffs, which you can't really see anyway.  Nothing a little paint won't fix.  These guys were heavily painted and required quite a bit of effort to strip.

Lastly, I could use a little help with this fellow.  I am guessing a Jack Scruby French command figure, but would love confirmation from the experts.  I was thinking I might choose him to represent Colonel Louis Vasserot, who served with the 17th from 1809 until 1813, having led them during the Russian campaign where he was wounded.

 

Nashcon 2018 Napoleonic Smack Down

Our yearly convention in Nashville, Nashcon, was last weekend and I ran a game using my favorite Napoleonic rule set which is loosely based on DBA and is fast and easy.  Its available and described here:  http://www.dbnwargaming.co.uk/   I'm using a hodge podge of 28's from the very first figures I ever purchased, Hinchliffe Miniatures, through the ages from Minifigs, to Foundry, to Front Rank to Perry (So far the Perrys are my favorite!).  So apologies to you shiny old school players, I brought out the collection and off we went.  Somewhere in Spain the battle ensues.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but it was a well balanced battle with the French pulling out a narrow victory in the end.

17e Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne

After the slogfest to get through the Russian Guard Cossacks, I thought I would try a good ole French line unit in their brand spanking new 1812 uniforms.  1st up, the French 17e Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne.  I have just about finished up the elite companies and command, with 12 more fusiliers waiting in the wings.  Here are some WIP pictures:

I cheated and bought the flag from the Flag Dude at this year's Siege of Augusta.  It's actually one of his 15mm flags, but he intentionally makes them oversize, so I thought it worked quite well with the larger Der Kriegspielers figures.  Though I enjoy making and painting flags, I must admit I rather enjoyed not having to do so for this battalion.

1812 Russian Guard Cossacks Completed!

They have been a long time coming, but at last they have arrived to bolster the defense of the Motherland!

 The setting sun, or burning villages, illuminates the skyline as the Guard Cossacks prepare to charge.

A fellow contributor to the Miniature Page asked that I take some close ups of the officers when done, so here is just one of a series I took to thank him for uniform help provided.

 I took inspiration for the painting style and motivation to complete these fellows primarily from two sources.  Matt from the Hintonspieler blog continues amaze with his fantastic work, and much reassurance that I was on the right track with the uniforms came from the My Ever Growing Armies blog.  

http://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/

http://myevergrowingarmies.blogspot.com/2017/11/russian-guard-cossacks.html

 Horse butts - 😀

A rather intimidating block of cavalry.

 

With all of the straps and saddle bags and other paraphernalia, I think these figures ended up looking just as good going away as moving forward.

The original cast on lances were held horizontally, so one of the byproducts of removing them was that most of the canvas food bags had to be augmented with a little green stuff epoxy sculpting compound to disguise the cut marks.  This was more or less successful, with some turning out more convincingly than others.  Below is a series of close-ups of the troopers and officer stands.

I believe the Guard Cossacks were the only Cossacks considered a formal organized force and were the only unit of cossacks given the distinction of carrying a guidon.  I was able to find a picture of some reenactors on line who used this flag, which was confirmed as appropriate through some knowledgeable folks on the Miniatures Page.

 http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=476870

Der Kriegspielers did not make Russian Cossack Command, so these figures owe their command arms and Busby's to newline designs 20mm Ural Cossacks.  Those busbys unfortunately had no cords or plumes, so I had to sculpt those once again using Green Stuff.

Hinton Hunt and DK Russian Cossacks Picking up Speed

 I have finally been able to carve out some painting time this week and made significant progress on the Cossacks.  It is when the painting starts to come together like this that usually I am able to make some quick progress.  I have almost all of the colors blocked in, so now it is just detail work to bring them to completion.

I will admit to being quite nervous about how these would come out, given the lance conversions and general lack of detail on a lot of the figures, but in the end I have to say I am quite pleased.  Hopefully the end result will equal the vision I have for them, but that is yet to be seen.  Many thanks to Matt of the Hinton Spieler for his painting inspirations and also the painting of this unit as seen in the My Ever Growing Armies Blog.

http://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/

http://myevergrowingarmies.blogspot.com/2017/11/russian-guard-cossacks.html

Russian Cossacks Plodding Along

It has been so long since I started these Cossacks, that I thought I needed to at least share some photographic evidence they they have not been abandoned.  Here they are, slowly taking shape:

 All the lances were painstakingly replaced and now I am realizing the challenge of painting these old Der Kriegspieler figures in earnest.  Some castings are great with subtle detailing, whereas as others are going to require a lot of painting skill to make any kind of detail show.  Hopefully I'm up to the challenge, but the detail bits are yet to come.

The current state of my painting desk is one of the reasons the Cossacks are taking so long.  I have tons of small projects underway and have also been trying to clear out excess lead through some garage sale posting (more to come today!), so there has been a challenging lack of painting space.

Russian Reserve Cavalry Cleaned and Preped - Ready for Painting

Three regiments of Cavalry finally cleaned customized and ready for priming.  The three regiments are the Guard Cossacks, and an unspecified (as of yet) regiment of Cuirassiers and of Chasseurs.  The Chasseurs a Cheval were the last to be customized.  Below is an example of taking a trooper and turning him into an officer.  I removed the carbine and ammunition pouches, and then added epaulets and an officer's sash out of green putty.  A simple, but necessary conversion.

 

Next post will hopefully have some color added to the first regiment on the painting desk; the Cossacks of the Guard....