Out of action!

If you have been wondering why I haven't posted for a while it's because we've been redecorating the study (and the bathroom) so my little men are packed away along with my paints. Hopefully by Friday the carpet will be laid and I can move my new furniture in!

Imperial Guard Grenadiers a' Cheval

I got a bit weary of painting Brunswickers and so decided to complete this heavy Guard cavalry unit. They had been primed some months ago and had collected a fair amount of dust sitting around while less glamorous units were completed.

These are AB figures and were an absolute pleasure to paint, especially after five battalions of old glory brunswickers! I painted the officers and trumpeters with gold but the troopers were completed in aurora, this is a kind of orangey-pink colour but ended up looking plain orange! Looking at some of the old plates on the internet I think I'm not too far away from the intended effect. I've included the brigade commander (Jamin) in one of the command bases to add bit spice.

As you can see I've also added a divisional general (Guyot) to command them. Just need to paint and flock the bases.

Brunswick Avant Garde

These are all CGM figures and  were easy to paint, they are still no where near as good as AB but a bit cheaper at £11.50 for a 24 man battalion from Vexilla compared with £18 for a AB battalion. Old Glory are best value for money with £15 for two 24 man battalions. Vexilla did not stock the skirmish pose which may have looked better.

I based these chaps quite  differently to my usual style, here the 24 man battalion is broken down into four bases with two miniatures each and another four bases with four miniatures. This is a little experiment for situations where an elite light battalion can be broken down for a skirmish line. I'm only going to do it for special regiments such as this one and the 95th Rifle battalions, otherwise moving the little men might be too much of a chore with lots of bases!

Brunswick Leib Infantry

These are Old Glory and the flag was downloaded from NapFlags - neither this battalion nor any of the other light battalions sported flags. However, I felt they needed something to wave about, so I chose the Herzog flag of one of the line battalions - for the three light battalions I've filled the blue box with a colour appropriate for their facings (pink, yellow and orange). I still need to complete the basing with drybrush and static grass. I read in Adkin that their Duke was killed while trying to rally the Leib battalion at Quatre-Bras after they became disorderd. Other sources say he was calmly smoking his pipe in front of his men when the fatal shots were fired.

Brunswick Horse Artillery

These are CGM figures and the cannons are British 6lb'ers, the uniforms are basically the same as the hussars which reminds me that I need to get some cavalry! Some people think that they used captured French peices or Westphalian peices obtained after Leipzig and that no British peices were used at Quatre-Bras.

The Duke of Brunswick

Here we have Duke Frederick William, the brave commander of the Brunswick contingent and his is 2nd in command General Olfermann. These are figures by Campaign Game Miniatures. There was a third mounted figure in the pack from CGM, this was a hussar ADC who will be used as the colonel of the Leib regiment.

The Dukes father led the Prussian army in 1806 where he was killed at the battle of Auerstadt. After a whirlwind campaign Prussia was defeated. However, in 1809 the Dukes son led his army into Brunswick but they were driven out. After a series of marches he led his men through Germany where they were eventually picked up the Royal Navy and taken to England.

These men fought for Wellington in Spain and then after Napoleon returned in 1815 the Duke offered his services to Wellington again. The Brunswickers fought at Quatre-Bras where unfortunately the Duke was killed rallying his men. A sad end to a brave man.

Brunswick 3rd Line

As last two posts, same techniques I drybrushed the uniforms with off-white to bring out hussar braid and crossbelts. I didin fact paint all three battalions a very dark grey and then gave it a black wash but the figures just went all dirty instead. I was thinking that the dark grey would enable the black crossbelts to be easily picked out and the wash would seep into the folds of the cloth.

Next up will be the Duke of Brunswick.