Chicken Hunters

Here they are at last, served just for you, the table-ready French Imperial Guard Chasseur-a-Cheval. Nigel (unkindly) called them Chicken Chasseurs, but I prefer Chicken Hunters as they will inevitably seek out and destroy any Austrian cavalry who approach within charge range!

The figures used are:

1 x FN/48 Guard Chasseur-a-Cheval (mounted) charging - converted to trumpeter

4 x DK 47/1 Guard Chasseur-a-Cheval

7 x FN/305 Chasseur-a-Cheval Old Guard (on horse FNH/3)

This unit has been a long time coming and could never have been assembled without kind donations of figures from Don W, Tony, and Nigel. Your emperor thanks you gentlemen.

Seeing Marengo (Off Topic #38)

We’ve just come back from a few days in London, and I found the time yesterday to visit the National Army Museum. I hadn’t been to the museum for quite a few years and had forgotten just how good it is, being a much nicer and less busy environment than the Imperial War Museum in my opinion.

I had also forgotten how many amazing Napoleonic Wars artefacts the place holds from Siborne’s Waterloo Diorama to the skeleton of the great man’s horse – yes really.

The eagle of the French 105th regiment captured at Waterloo by Captain A Clark of the 1st (Royal) Dragoons. I still haven't been to see the eagle of the 45th in Edinburgh castle museum which is very bad of me.

"Dawn of Waterloo" by Lady Butler. This painting was bought by the museum in 2021 for £325k and has been expertly renovated. The restorers removed many layers of yellowing varnish to reveal some really stunning brushwork. Perhaps Mrs S could acquire something like this for the Hinton Hut?

I had forgotten that Siborne's model resides at the museum and it took me a few minutes to realise what I was looking at. It really is impressive in scope and detail although I think it will soon be surpassed by the model being assembled by General Picton.

I did a double take at this - Napoleon's horse Marengo! Just crazy to think that he sat on this animal who went on to survive him by 10 years. The skeleton is complete except for the hooves, one of which became a snuff box and another an inkwell.

Not Napoleonic, this is the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaklava. I just really liked this painting of the lesser known charge at that battle.

Not at the museum, this is Wellington by Wellington Arch just outside Apsley House. Wellington had originally sat on top of the arch but was replaced in 1912 by the sculpture "Peace desending on the Quadriga of war" - given what happened two years later perhaps they should have just left Wellington where he was.

If you haven’t been to the museum it's definitely worth a trip.

Man the trenches mes amis!

I finally went to see Napoleon last night with Mrs S and my daughter and can report that despite my low expectations I rather enjoyed it. I knew in advance that it was going to be full of historical inaccuracies, but I have to say that the photography, costumes, and overall atmosphere was excellent. My companions enjoyed it too even though their knowledge of the subject matter was pretty thin (actually that probably helped).

I came away not entirely sure what Ridley Scott was trying to do. I read that he has had a lifelong fascination with Napoleon so clearly must have read some of the actual history and probably the military history too. It seemed to me that with the battle scenes he was going for a sort of Game of Thrones effect with lots of tents, flags, snow and individuals rushing around, only the White Walkers were missing. Napoleon himself came over as a bit of a loner (and rather stupid according to Mrs S) with no hint of the charisma he clearly must have had in real life.

Not tonight, but thanks for asking.

I did manage to sit through most of the battle scenes without hyperventilating at the strange interpretation of events, but I had to give up at the portrayal of Waterloo. Even Mrs S (who has walked the field) did lean over and ask me if they really had trenches and what had happened to Hougoumont? I did actually start sniggering as the French lads went over the top and Wellington told his infantry to prepare to receive cavalry by rushing forward in line, although to be fair the squares they eventually formed were probably better done than those by Bondarchuk. The Prussians arriving on the British right flank was a nice touch too.

"Charge!" If you want a job done properly...

Despite all that I did enjoy it as a cinematic experience and all three of us loved the comic ending when Napoleon fell off his perch.

New Year Update

A happy new year to you all. The Christmas Tree is down and the mince pies and unhealthy levels of wine consumption are behind me. Time to get back to the serious stuff starting with those Guard Chasseur-a-cheval. All the one-piece castings and the horses are done and I'm now working my way through the remaining 7 riders so the whole unit should be finished soon.

I prefer to paint the horse and rider separately and then glue them together before finishing the detail on the riders. 

An early Christmas present to myself was replacing the frozen PVA with a smart new 500ml bottle.

Note to self - do not store at less than zero degrees!

I also pushed the boat out and asked Santa for a board game - this is entirely the fault of Norm (click here if for some inexplicable reason you have never visited Norm's brilliant blog) enticing me to have a go at something with "high solo playability". I've cut out the counters but haven't played it yet.

I think this is going to be good.

The counters are nice but the board is not mounted which is a bit disappointing.

Santa also brought me some lovely vintage Hinton Hunt Prussian Guards. I know I already have some but I couldn't resist as the marching figure is one of my favourites. I'm sure Blucher will be pleased too.

Who doesn't need more of these - well, not me obviously.

Buying more figures is probably not the way I should be going with this project. My master spreadsheet shows that I only painted 89 figures last year whilst I acquired 131. At this rate of course I will never finish so this year the plan is to paint at least 150 figures and buy absolutely NOTHING!

Wish me luck...

A Trumpeter for the Guard Chasseurs

With the Hut temperature back to a balmy 5 degrees I have once again taken up residence. No damage to report except that my tub of PVA glue froze solid and had to be chucked so something to put on my list for Santa.

As you can see, the trumpeter is finished and I’m rather pleased with the result. The pale blue dolman against the deep red pelisse is particularly pleasing, well to my eye anyway.

I’m thinking that the four chasseurs now sat on my desk do look quite Christmassy although that probably wasn’t the aim when the uniform was devised.

Guard Chasseur test figure

I found a bit of time to begin work on the Guard Chasseurs starting with this test figure of the Der Kreigspieler version of FN/48 Chasseur a Cheval (mounted) charging. This is another case of a DK castings being virtually indistinguishable for the Hinton Hunt one so I’m happy using them.

I used the Hinton Hunt painting instructions as my guide for this figure and was curious to see that they varied quite a bit from the illustration in my Funcken (Part2) book. The illustrations for Funcken were drawn in 1969 but I'm pretty sure Marcus Hinton would have published his instructions before that. However, as you would guess it's no contest for me as the 'official' Hinton Hunt guide will always win out!

With the evening temperature currently below zero I have been forced to decamp from the Hinton Hut to perch on the end of the kitchen table for my painting sessions. I did insulate the floor and ceiling of the Hut when I built it which makes it habitable 99% of the time even in a Scottish winter. I’ll happily sit out there with a fan heater and my heated blanket but sadly the acrylic paints are not so hardy, as I discovered to my cost (literally) during my first Hut winter.

I now have four troopers completed and have started on the trumpeter but more on him in the next post.

33rd Line – Done!

You’ll be pleased to hear that he French 33rd Line Regiment are painted, based and ready for action.

They do look quite colourful when all ranked up.

The figures used are as follows:

2 x FN/1 Officer (charging)

1 x FN/4 Colour Bearer (charging)

19 x FN/5 Fusilier (charging)

1 x FN/6 Drummer (charging)

1 x FN/8 Officer (marching)

All the figures are very nice vintage first generation castings.

I painted the flag with a brush that really needs to be chucked away so I'm amazed that the results are so legible.

I managed to bamboozle Mrs S into looking at the Colour Bearer (and why not, she’s always getting me to admire her knitting) and was astonished to find she could read the battle honours on the flag. Impressive stuff as she even managed to pronounce Austerlitz correctly. I may run with this and try to get her to come and see Napoleon with me although that may be a bit more tricky.

où est monsieur le rosbif?

With these chaps out of the way the painting desk is cleared for the Guard Chasseur-a-Cheval.