Let it Snow…

The weather outside is frightful (with 3 inches of snow and still falling thick and fast)
But the fire is so delightful (not lit yet but at least I’ve brought the wood in from the wood store)
And since I’ve no place to go (already been to Sainsbury’s)
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Our back garden - 3 inches of snow and still falling.

A good time to open up the painting desk and take a proper look at the two units of vintage Old Guard foot Chasseurs that Santa brought me. The marching figure is FN/67 Chasseur (marching) and the firing figure is FN/65 Chasseur (firing). It’s great to have these as they seem much harder to come by than the foot Grenadiers.

The Chasseurs differ from the Grenadiers in that the left foot
of the marching figure is forward (right foot Grenadiers) and
the firing figure is leaning forward (whereas the Grenadier is
more upright).

The mounted Colonel appears to be a conversion from the Blucher figure with a head graft from Dorsenne. If it snows for the next 12 weeks I might just get these painted.

Russian Parade

My Hinton Hunt Russian Grenadiers were paraded today to receive their colours at long last.

As there are no Russian Generals in my collection the duty of presenting the
colours fell to Marshal Blucher. "Here mein children take zis early
Christmas present!"

The regiment is proud as punch, they've only been waiting since 2006!

Off they go, drums beating and flag snapping in the wind. There'll be a few
miniature bottles of vodka consumed at the barracks tonight.

Thanks to Tzar Alexander and WM for making this possible.

Young Guard Command

I’m on a bit of a roll because tonight I have completed my Young Guard Voltigeur command group by finishing off a marching officer FN/74 Young Guard Officer (marching). I’ve had this particular figure for many years, in fact I think he was included in one of the first batches of figures I acquired at the start of this project.

I guess that’s the fun bit of this unit done as I’ll have no option now but to move onto the rank and file next. Perhaps painting them one at a time is the way to go to stave off boredom although it would probably be quite wasteful of paint.

Four down twenty more to go.

Young Guard Flag Bearer

Although painting time is now officially over until after Christmas I just had to have a go at the Young Guard Flag Bearer. The figure used in the conversion is FN/70 Young Guard Officer (charging) and the amazing flag is the handiwork of Wellington Man.

I had to do another paint job conversion for the strap that holds up the flag (there must be a proper name for it) and I still need to do some touching up however I’m very pleased with the result. Of course Hinton Hunt never did produce either flag bearer or drummer for the Young Guard in common with several of their Napoleonic ranges and perhaps this was to encourage such conversions.

Three down, only twenty-one more to go.

Young Guard Drummer - Take 2

Matt gently pointed out to me that my drummer was missing the shoulder strap that supports the drum. He was right of course and I was vaguely aware of this while I was painting him but not enough to engage my brain.

I have now corrected this and removed the levitating drum effect by adding a suitable strap by way of a paint conversion. Matt had even gone to the trouble of removing the cartridge box for added authenticity when he did the conversion so shame on me for my omission.

I also took the opportunity to repaint the drum hoops in a lighter blue which matches my other French drummers – consistency is everything.

Young Guard Drummer

It’s amazing what things I can find to distract myself with when faced with a full 24 figure infantry unit to paint, even buying Christmas presents seems preferable. However I did manage to pull myself together enough to paint up the great little drummer conversion Matt did for me.

This has been converted from FN/75 Voltigeur Guard (charging). I’m not very talented in the conversion department so it was nice to have this difficult task carried out for me. Left to my own devices the unit would probably not have had a drummer at all.

Anyway that’s two out of the twenty-four done although they do of course still need to be varnished which should make the colours pop a bit. I doubt very much if we will see anymore finished this side of the Christmas festivities.

Allied light cavalry on parade

Stapleton-Cotton, Ponsonby and Uxbridge have been reviewing the recently expanded allied light cavalry contingent.

The 11th Light Dragoons

The Brunswick "Death's Head" Hussars

The entire brigade including Mercer's horse artillery

Stapleton-Cotton looking spiffing

If I'd had these figures in 1972 they might have looked like this

It was never part of my plan for this year (if I had a plan at all) to increase the size of the allied light cavalry force but sometimes things just happen.