Forward the Light Company!

I've been working on my beloved Napoleonics this week and thought I'd give you a little WIP shot of what's on my desk right now and an overview of the grand plan for this project.

My old man got me playing my first wargames when I was younger. He owned two Napoleonic armies, one British and one French. My dad painted some of the figures but time was always an issue and so the vast majority of the 15mm collection were commissioned. Looking at them now the standard is poor and basically made up of a black undercoat with some very basic base coats slapped over the top.

My Napoleonic project is really for my dad. I picked 28mm as this is my favourite scale to paint at. The only other consideration was that the entire collection had to be metal. I love the feel of a metal model and the reassuring weight of them as you move them around. My dad hates the feel of plastic models and so although there are many quality plastic models out there this was going to be an all metal project.

I plan on painting up two small armies to start with set at the height of the Peninsular War. Part of the fun of Historical Wargaming is the research into uniforms and unit strengths. The British Army will eventually comprise of the entire Third Division under Sir Thomas Picton (selected in part due to my Welsh heritage). I haven't got around to the French yet but the photo below shows the bulk of the First Brigade under Major General Thomas Brisbane.

As you can see, lots to do!

I have been working on the attached riflemen of the 5th Battalion, 60th Royal American Regiment of Foot. They may not be as famous as their cousins in the 95th but they were just as deadly!

 

WIP - base coats only.

There is much work still to do but these models are an absolute joy to paint! They all come from Perry Miniatures and the sculpts are great with very little cleaning up required. They have enough detail to look good without causing the painter a headache! More photos to follow once they are completed...

"Ours (our army) is composed of the scum of the earth - the mere scum of the earth."

The Duke of Wellington 

Finished! 10th Hussars, 1815

Finally got done with my Hussar, and have to say, I'm really proud of it.

At first I was a tad disappointed with the Perry plastics because I felt that the details werent deep enough, and there were cases of some details being blended with other details. Its certainly not computer-designed laser-etched plastics like from the Plastic Soldier Company guys, but you can tell that the original master sculpt was hand sculpted, and not computer sculpted. For that, I think I can definitely appreciate the work that went into this, and considering the Perry twins were basically the one of the original sculptors for Games Workshop, have to say, I'm not let down, and the "old school" nature of the model really fits with the napoleonic feel.

I'm still getting used to the macro settings on this phone camera, and seeing as it has better resolution than my old camera from 4 years ago... would rather use this. Sorry if its a bit blurry, been trying to get as close as possible to show the details.

WIP - 10th Hussars

Well, decided to start on this new project of using the Perry Miniatures' British Hussars box set. I don't really play games anymore in 28mm - as I find it horribly tedious to have to paint (for example) 36 soldiers at display quality to represent a single battalion of 600 or so men. On the other hand, I do find the prospect of painting 36 10mm figures at a high standard and use that to game instead. I suppose it has to do with the idea and my general dislike of WH40K tank sitting 12 inchies from each other, "maneuvering" and doing "sweeping flanking attacks" by moving 4 inches to shoot each other to pieces.

I do rather prefer the scale of battle at 15mm... although it does feel like the Flames of War battlefield is still too small.

So, my project involving these 28mm Hussars is not to paint them up or use them as game pieces, but to paint each trooper in different regimental colors, so that each trooper represents a different Hussar regiment. I find that oddly appealing, but also makes for an interesting display piece!

So, this is Day 1, with 4 hours worth of work put in so far:

Sound the advance!

Huzzah! And we are off! This blog is a first for me as I have never attempted anything like it before. I loved following Leon on his first blog and wanted in. Leon and I go way back. In fact his Space Marines stomped all over my Praetorian Guard in my first real game of 40k back in the day (honour was quickly restored when my Orlock gang ambushed and badly shot up his Delaques in our first game of Necromunda). Since then we have grown up (sort of) and although I still dabble in a bit of 40k, our interests have broadened with Historical Wargaming taking center stage.

Wargaming may be a bit of an overstatement as I haven't yet played any games and one of the main reasons for this blog is to get my projects done and on the tabletop. Knowing that Leon and others will be reading through progress will provide all the hobby momentum that I need!

Unfortunately as Leon has mentioned, we live on opposite sides of the world and it is not looking like this will be changing anytime soon. I am hoping to challenge him to a game of Flames of War sometime in the future which will allow us the possibility of getting a battle report on here. Most of what I post will be painted figures, ramblings about painting, building gaming tables, reviews of modelling supplies and a general report on what I've been up to.

That said I am a bit of a hobby butterfly and tend to flirt between several projects at any one time. This means that if I get bored of painting one thing I can move on to something different before returning a few weeks later. I find this keeps my enthusiasm up and I enjoy my painting more.

I currently have three projects on the go. I'll go into more detail about these in the future but I'll briefly introduce them here and include pictures of the first test models completed for each. The first of these is a British Para Company for Flames of War based on the Market Garden Campaign.

Secondly I have a Vostroyan Imperial Guard army for 40k on the go. Say what you want about GW I still think that they have created one of the richest Sci-fi universes there is and they are still world leaders in the production of miniatures!

Lastly is the project that I am most excited about. My 28mm British and French (Napoleonic) Peninsular War armies. The following is my first test base of the 1/88th Connaught Rangers (The Devil's Own).

There you have it. I'll delve into each of the three projects in turn and explain 'the plan', outline paint schemes and review models as we go.

"In war there is but one favourable moment; the great art is to seize it!"

Napoleon Bonaparte