Dutch Artillery

These are CGM Dutch artillery, both foot and horse with two guns per battery. The ones with red plumes are the horse artillery and the ones with red with green tips are the foot. These will represent  Stievenart foot battery and Bijleveld horse battery. Both were at Quatre-bras where they were the only allied guns present for quite some time. Since Ney had several batteries from his numerically superior army - these Dutch guns suffered heavily from counter-battery fire.

1st battalion Belgian Infantry

These are OG 15mm British infantry figures wearing the belgic shako in the march attack pose and the flag is from GMB. Not much to comment on but I will say there is a lot of white in this uniform! Crossbelts, plumes, collars, cuffs and epaulettes! This battalion formed part of Perponchers Dutch-Belgian division that held Quatre-bras on the 16th June.

Primed and waiting on my desk I have three more units of the same figures intended to be painted up as Kings German Legion. One unit of OG Highlanders, along with CGM Dutch and Brunswick artillery. Finally, two units of French light infantry (skirmish pose). If I can clear these then I will make a start on some AB Guard light cavalry, i.e the red lancers and chasseurs a' cheval. The Russians can wait.

Guard Horse Artillery

These are AB horse gunners, the uniform lacks the plume and bag but is otherwise quite smart (campaign?). Only 16 figures so did not take long, I placed the figures in the same position since this is where they would normally stand in their assigned positions. Next to be completed is a unit of Belgian infantry (using 1815 British infantry as stand in's). I was going to paint some OG Russian infantry but guilt has set in and I really should clear my workbench of stuff thats already primed and has been waiting weeks!

2nd Regiment Nassau-Usingen

Back to painting 15mm figures after the Ayton game and it's 28mm loveliness. These figures had been sitting partly finished on my desk for weeks and weeks so I thought I'll settle myself in to the old scale with these figures. Here we have the 1st battalion of the 2nd Regiment Nassau-Usingen, they are old glory figures with the exception of the mounted officer who is a Warmodelling (Fantassin) Prussian officer. I've already painted up battalions 2 and 3. These battalions in actual fact were quite strong with about 900 men in each. I can't recall if this regiment was at Quatre-bras or not but certainly both regiments were at Waterloo. I think the difference may have been in the shako covers, one regiment had white or light covered material, so the story goes these were removed at Waterloo as it was felt they gave the French gunners an unfair advantage! The flag is by GMB. I'm a bit ashamed to say it but I rushed these and made a mess of the turnbacks. Anyway, heres a couple of pics of the battalion and the complete regiment along with their divisional commander Prince Bernhard.

The Ayton game

This is now a regular fixture in my diary, basically the guys who frequent the WD3 site meetup every bank holiday around May. The village of Ayton is near Scarborough in Yorkshire and is central to most of us. A few have a LOT of travel such as Scotland and down South. I first attended in 2011 and painted only one battalion for the Imaginations theme, for 2012 I had a small brigade of four battalions and three Ottoman units. This year the theme was the ACW and the majority of troops were from the collection of the umpire Tim. The participants brought troops from all over Europe and even their Imaginations! It looked a bit like something out of Jules Verne novel since a couple of the boys had brought some rather weird war contraptions.

Here we setting up in the village hall. It's a really nice, light airy venue with probably enough room for two such large games. We travel down on the Friday and spend an hour or so getting the tables ready. One of the chaps bought 3 or 4 table cloths for about £8 each and offered to sell them to us as wargame mats for £40 each! Bless!

The all important drinks and snacks section.

I think we are just about done.

We then went to pub.

Next day the troops were positioned. Here are my Mexicans on the table. I then took photos of some of the others guys troops prior to entry of the table. A lot were reserves and didn't even make it into the game. I think the OOB had just under 3,000 28/25mm figures. Sunday afternoon at about 2:30ish we (Confederates) admitted defeat. My force of one Confederate brigade routed off piecemeal and my lancers were vaporized by three 12lb batteries. The white-coated Mexican line battalion routed. I then called a withdrawal on what was left. Plenty of stories and anecdotes to tell that night in the pub!

The game in progress...

Mexican Militia #3

Yaaaahoooooo! Thankfully, I've finished the last unit. Same poses as last two militia units, I've given them different coat colours for variety this time, brown and greys in addition to the beige.

Feels as though I've done nothing but paint and I have completed a few units in a short space of time (for me). Well next stop is Ayton for a grand gaming session. Afterwards, I'll try and ease myself back into 15mm Napoleonic's.