Dutch National Militia

Here are three battalions of old glory Dutch Militia, the flags are by GMB. These were part of Perponchers division and held the crossroads at Quatre-bras. I think they look quite nice with their blue coats and orange facings. They are the 5th, 7th and 8th battalions, to finish this division I need to complete a battalion of Nassau (3rd battalion of the 2nd regiment) and a battalion of Belgian line infantry (the 7th). Plus the artillery, these are all primed and waiting for a paint job!

All the best for a happy New Year!

Prince of Orange

These are command stands representing the Prince of Orange (on white horse) and divisional general Perponcher. It was these two men and the Prince of Saxe-Weimer who had the idea of defending Quatre-bras in the first place and not the Duke of Wellington!

The figures are by CGM, again this is from the batch I ordered from direct from Dermot in Spain. The green clad Nassau officer is by Old Glory.

27th Dutch Jaeger

These are CGM figures, the poses are skimishing and are based a bit different to my usual style. Since I wanted them to act as a skirmish screen but also to deploy as a normal regiment I based these in groups of four on  40 x 20 base. The flag was printed from NapFlag, basic scatter grass was used. They have black crossbelts, which is a bit drab but I have given them off-white straps for their muskets.

The 27th Jaegers were part of General Perponchers 2nd Dutch-Belgian division. They fought at Quatre-bras and Waterloo.Positioned to the east of Gemioncourt farm, the majority of the 760 men were raw recruits and not well versed in light infantry tactics.  They were dispersed over 3km of front (from Gemioncourt farm to the Materne pond) and were to act as an early warning system when the French advanced. They fought well but according to the Mike Robinson book they were at times out skirmished by the experienced French light infantry. They are a welcome addition to my Dutch-Belgian army.

92nd regiment (Gordon Highlander)

These are Old Glory figures (AB officer and piper) with flags from GMB, the pose is that of assaulting so you don't get to see much of the cross-belts and piping. The 92nd regiment had a tough time of it at Quatre-bras, having left Brussels in the early hours of 16th June after giving a display of Highland dancing at the Duchess of Richmonds ball. They occupied the crossroads and then later charged the french troops at the farm of La Bergerie just down the road. During one of the french cavalry charges Wellington himself had to take shelter in their square.

Dutch-Belgian Light Cavalry

These are CGM figures, the poses are a little wooden and too similar but they painted up ok and represent two of few allied cavalry regiments actually present at Quatre-Bras. The light blue figures are the 6th Dutch hussars and the green figures are the 5th Belgian light dragoons. These were commanded by General Merlin who later died at Waterloo. This brigade performed well enough but was later pulled back into reserve after several encounters with the French. Thanks to the similarity of their uniforms with the French, the 5th dragoons were fired on by the English infantry mistaking them for Chassuers a' Cheval! I usually only base divisional generals but I'm tempted to paint up Merlin to go with these guys. I'm waiting for some GMB flags to complete the units.

Allied command bases

I've not done much this month apart from a couple of allied command stands. Here we have Sir Thomas Picton and ADC, these are AB figures and poor old Sir Thomas is missing his brolly. This snapped off and I was never able to glue it back on successfully, so he now looks as though he is reaching for a drink.

The other base is of Prince Bernard of Saxe-Weimer, he was the commander of the Nassau contingent. These are CGM figures and the pack is supposed to be Von Kruse with an ADC figure.

As you can see, the PVA is still wet!

Grand Parade 2012

We got the troops out and doing a battalion count of new figures since last time (a year ago) I have painted up 6 x 24 man french battalions; 22 x 24 man allied battalions; 2 x Brunswick cannons (8 crew); 18 french cavalry. That's a total 692 figures in about a year, 2242 in total. We just set up the French and the new allied units - the Prussians had to sit this one out. The kitchen table was augmented with a wallpapering table and the green felt throw over just covering both. I think I could probably squeeze in another wallpapering table but wouldn't leave much room for a portly chap like me to move around! The first and last pictures are of the allied units, most of the pics were taken by my son (Ken junior) and daughter Sarah.

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Brunswick Light Brigade

Here we have the three Brunswick 24 man light battalions, 1st with pink facings, 2nd with yellow and the 3rd with orange. These are a mix of the old glory light BRN2 and line packs BRN1(mainly light since the line have the Lieb included). As I stated in an earlier post the light infantry did not come with bugles/horns but with drummers. Another discrepancy is that I gave each battalion a flag, this was one of the Battalions Fahnes copied from NapFlag, I used Microsoft paint to change the colour of the square to match the facing colour. Not too bad given I've a really crap printer! Again, I also removed the old flagstaff and replaced it with a metal spear.

I now have all eight Brunswick battalions completed - when funds permit I will get the foot battery and the hussars and lancers. Probably get the battery from Vexhillia (CGM) and AB's for the cavalry. CGM figures are ok for infantry and artillery but their horses really suck, they lack details. Old glory horses are worst of all as they are just too tiny!