Prussian Dragoons

I bought a shed load of Prussian cavalry a few years back and never got round to painting them all up. Here is the 8th Prussian Dragoons, a unit that saw action in the hundred days. They have yellow facings and I was damned sure that a second regiment had yellow facings also but no - I checked one of the online resources and only the 8th had yellow, never mind! These are AB figures and the flags are from Fighting15s and I'm not even sure if the flags are for these specific regiments. However, I'm happy enough with them.

I have about 3 x 12 man regiments of landwehr cavalry and 2 x 12 man regiments of uhlans primed and waiting. I already partly painted the Lithuanian dragoons.  I guess I'll complete the Lithuanians and start on more Russian units. Otherwise 1814 will not happen.

France 1814

In the New Year (like many others I suspect) I am planning on wargaming the 1814 Campaign in France. I will simply be taking each battle in turn using the OOB's based on the approximations found in Andrew Uffindels book and various scenarios that have appeared on the web over the last few years.

This means of course painting up Russians, Bavarians and Austrians! Given the lack of time as the battles started in late January I will be using the brigade as the basic combat element. I already have the French and Prussian forces although will need to paint up the old guard infantry units. This will give me something to work towards as I spend very little time gaming, so there is motivation to eventually drop the brush end of January next year and pick up the dice!

Since the scale will be grand tactical I will probably use Grande Armee, I have other rule-sets such as Snappy Nappy (gotta love the name) and DBN, but I'm not so familiar with these. I may tinker with Grande Armee's combat system by limiting the number of combat dice a brigade can use. Often a strong unit can steamroller all opposition despite the fact that the reserve battalions in the brigade would not be in a position to attack the enemy. There have been some interesting posts on WD3 to that effect.

Wish me luck!

Empress Dragoons

These are AB figures and had been kicking around on my workbench for nearly two months! I've had a bit of a painting block, not sure why really although I will say the last few weeks at work has been hectic.

This last unit completes the Guard Cavalry, I have both light and heavy now completed. I don't think I'll bother with the Guards D' Honour as they were a short lived unit (full of spoilt, rich kids anyway!). 

I have a lot more Prussian cavalry to paint up, three regiments of dragoons and three of Landwehr. Two battalions of the Old Guard Grenadiers and two battalions of the British Guards all primed and waiting!

Another trip

We went to Gibside Hall on the outskirts of Gateshead. We did quite a bit of walking here and there and hiding amongst the trees were re-enactors of the good old 68th regiment!The hall was built in the early 1600's and fell into disrepair around 1860. Back then it was the property of the Bowes family (Queen Mum's lot) and is now in the care of the national trust. The Sergeant allowed child number two and myself to have a bit play with a Brown Bess - a joy to hold and I can tell you with the bayonet fitted you're just looking for the excuse to run somebody through!!

1/4th Tirailleurs

Here is the 1st battalion of the 4th Tirailleurs and I've put them together with their 2nd battalion and the 3rd Regiment. These painted up very nicely although I missed the buttons on the soldiers coats and the white piping on the front which I can never do. The officer on horseback is General Delaborde, one of the Young Guard Divisional commanders - all figures are AB's.

Grand Parade 2013

Each September I usually take the recently painted units out for a stroll on the kitchen table and more or less take a head count of my painting totals for the year. This time I've just checked my blog entries and counted up the little blighters. At 12 figures for a cavalry unit  (except guard at 18) and 24 figures for an infantry unit and four figures on an artillery base; plus 9 command figures - my maths works out at 497 figures.

I also painted up 230 28mm figures for the Ayton game, which is 727 in total.

Command bases: 
General Picton
Prince Bernard
Prince of Orange
General Perponcher

Artillery: 
4 x French guard horse cannons and crew
2 x Dutch foot cannons and crew
2 x Brunswick foot cannons and crew

Infantry:
2/4 Tiraillers
92nd Gordon highlanders
79th Highlanders
2nd Nassau Usingen
1st Belgian line
1/13th French Light
2/13th French Light
1st KGL line
2nd KGL line
3rd KGL line
5th Dutch Militia
7th Dutch Militia
8th Dutch Militia
27th Dutch Jaeger
Russian Beilostock line
Russian Narva line

Cavalry:
Cossacks
French Guard lancers (18)
French Guard Chasseurs (18)
5th Belgian dragoons
6th Dutch Hussars

2/4th Tirailleurs

This is the 2nd battalion of the 4th Tirailleurs - the 1st battalion is almost completed but I wanted these guys to be my last post of August. AB figures, the flag is by "Flags for the Lads". Typical unit of 24 figures.