1st legere

Gentleman (and others) I give you the 1st legere.

For the record the figures I have used are:

1 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour Bearer (charging)

20 x FN/5 Fusilier (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer (charging)

1 x FN/8 Officer (marching)

Despite the name they have been based as regular close-order infantry.

All the figures are very nice first-generation castings previously in the collection of Neville Dickinson, repainted by me.

Battle of Warve – I was fortunate enough to play in Norm’s (Battlefield & Warriors blog) recent Warve PBEM game. The game had ten players and was superbly run by Norm. I took part as GdD Habert, 10th French Infantry Division, you can follow my exploits on his very detailed AAR - you'll need a cup of coffee and in my case sedatives...

Light Infantry Progress

This is a quick update to prove that work on my French Light Infantry unit continues. I have completed all the rank and file and started on the four remaining command figures.

The unit will represent the 1st Light Infantry who as part of 6th Division, II Corps, took part in the attacks on Hougoumont at Waterloo. It was Sous-Lieutenant Legros of this regiment who, seizing an axe from one of the pioneers, smashed his way through the north gate into the courtyard. Not that it ended well for him.

Strike up the Band

A few weeks back I came across the Miniature Figurines S-range Imperial Guard Band that Tony kindly gave me a couple of years ago. Looking at the figures again it struck me it was a shame that they were hidden away in a box as they are a really charming little set and the painter had done a good job.

Now, of course, these are not Hinton Hunt but they are contemporary being from the period when Miniature Figurines produced 20mm figures. I vaguely remember seeing listings for the band set in 1970c but back then I would never have invested pocket money in non-combatants. I have no catalogue now, but the code numbers are clearly stamped on the top of the bases. This is what I have:

2 x No1 Bassoon

2 x No2 French Horn

2 x No3 Trombone

2 x No4 Serpent Horn

1 x No5 Trumpet

3 x No6 Oboe

2 x No7 Flute

1 x No8 Drum

1 x No9 Drum

1 x No10 Bass Drum

2 x No11 Cymbals

1 x No12 Triangle

1 x No13 Jingling Johnny

1 x No15 Bandmaster

Percussion section

Brass section

Woodwind section

As far as I can find out the complete band should be in three ranks of seven (percussion, brass, woodwind) plus the bandmaster. I’m a bit puzzled as to what the missing number 14 would have been – any ideas?

I didn’t repaint these as that would have been a diversion too far, so I just jazzed them up (no pun intended) by touching up the white then giving them a couple of coats of gloss varnish and basing in my house style.

Order of Battle – I have added a new page to the blog listing all my units together with links to their debut appearances. This has been useful to me in focussing my mind on gaps in the OOB’s and hopefully you’ll like perusing them too. There is a link under the ‘pages’ heading on the sidebar or just click here.

More French Infantry

During my recent reappraisal of this project, I realised that, believe it or not, I don’t have enough French infantry units painted. Now I know ‘enough’ is a bit of a moot point for wargamers but I’m basing my requirement on the French army I need to balance either the Anglo-Allied-Prussian forces or the Austro-Russian-Swedish-Prussian forces. Whichever way I look at it I’m shy of about three French infantry units.

So, I have begun work on another unit using the FN/5 Fusilier (charging) figure but for a bit of variation I will be painting these as Light Infantry. As far as I can see by 1815 there was no difference between the employment or organisation of Light Infantry and Line Infantry. However, the difference in uniform is a help for me when trying to tell one unit from another on the table where they’re made up of the same figure type.

To be honest when I’ve brought the French side up to strength I will have about as many troops as I can use on my maximum 8’ x 4’ table but of course that won’t stop me painting more.

Guard Cavalry Review

With the upgrade to the Guard Lancers finished my Imperial Guard cavalry contingent is complete. Yes, I did say COMPLETE unless of course I ever find enough Chasseur-a-Cheval to make up a full unit.

Another boyhood dream ticked off the list.

Lancers of the Guard

The Red Lancers have taken their place alongside the Polish Lancers to complete my unit of Lancers of the Guard.

The figures used for the full unit are:

1 x FN/40 Officer (mounted) charging

1 x FN/41 Trumpeter (mounted) charging

7 x FN/43 Lancer (mounted) charging

3 x FN/44 Lancer (mounted) charging with separate lance

(all the castings are vintage ones)

Thanks to Tony for kindly providing the last few figures I needed to complete this unit.

Red Lancer progress and revising the plan

The Red Lancers are finished and fully glossed up but not yet based. I’ve really enjoyed painting these so here is a sneak preview.

I have recently been taking a long hard look at the lead pile and considering it against what I’m ever likely to paint for this project. At best I manage 120 or so Hinton Hunts per year so unless I’m going to live a very long time (and retain reasonable eyesight throughout) it’s probably time to set some sensible limits.

With that in mind I have gone delete happy on my master-plan spreadsheet to bring the total ‘to do’ list down to around 500 figures. In doing this I have thought about likely scenarios in relation to what I can fit on my maximum 8’ x 4’ table. Waterloo is top of my list, and it looks like I only need 4 more units for a scaled-down representation of that battle, so the immediate plan is to fill in those gaps.

Beyond that I need to balance out the various army OOB’s and make sure that I paint all the favourites in the pile making sure the vintage figures take priority.