Napoleonic French casualties

  I have been busy this last week since returning and have managed a number of hours at the desk. First up some 28mm Napoleonic French casualties from old glory and out of ammunition markers. A simple afternoons painting, then basing on warbases dials, ready for General de Brigade or Grand Armee games. 

Cheers

Matt 

Sassanid & Roman casualty markers

Sassanid & Roman markers

More few pieces from my project drawers, these chaps have been sitting half finished for some time, two maybe three years, in some cases it was only the flocking and shields to be done! The figures are a mix of Old Glory dark age figures, hand painted shields and the Sassanids are from the lovely Aventine range with LBM transfers

Working through the drawer has been good for me, the cleaning out really is refreshing, I can see the back of one now an clear space in two of them so making good progress! 30 odd more figures and two space ships, a steam engine and one drawer will be empty. I may complete one whole drawer by Christmas I hope on the side along with the main projects.

More markers for Impetus or Hail Caesar 

Late Romans 28mm old glory miniatures 

28mm Aventine Sassanids, LBM transfers

Aventine Sassanids with LBM transfers

Aventine Sassanids with LBM transfers

Aventine Sassanids with LBM transfers

Aventine Sassanids with LBM transfers

Cheers

Matt

Gallic Auxillia

I have really concentrating on the completion of projects in my project drawers that sit in my work area, these chaps have been awaiting completion before I move to France and were the beginnings of my gallic project before Victrix came along with the huge bags of plastics. Originally I planned to build my Gaulois tribes from metal ranges from various manufacturers to get the variants I wanted in the tribe. These are 32 of the 80 odd figures I commenced with which are a mix of Old Glory, Crusader, Warlord metals, and Gripping beast. They basically have had the base coats completed for three years, but were never finished as the shiney new Victrix figures came along to change my focus. Last week when I was restocking my 6 project drawers that sit on my workspace these guys came from the back to the front of the project table and were basically  completed in three days, the hand painted shields were another two days and basing a further one. I have added some victrix bits including plumes, weapons and a carnax.

These three units will join my other three completed Gallic Auxillia bases (which, possibly also need a review now I have completed these) as Gallic Allies for my Republican, Caesarian and Imperial Roman armies. I tried to paint them a little differently so they looked more southern or eastern Gallic in appearance with horizontal striped germanic type tunics. I really enjoyed completing these and will try to resist buying some ore as this takes my Gallic totals to over three hundred figures........

Cheers

Matt 

Saxe-Ducal Hussars 1809-12

Another rebase and touch up unit. First painted around 1995 for a Napoleonic campaign, I required some Gendarmes to patrol the interior lines, so looking through the Confederation troops I found the Saxon Ducal Hussars. Happy with how these 28mm Old Glory figures have tarted up, I added a fanion from a later formation of Saxe Weimar formation. Next unit upgrade more Cuirassiers !

Saxon Ducal Hussars

The saxe-ducal hussars were a police/gendarme formation numbering between 30- 80 men total. Below is information from several sources, all these are from the Napoleon series.

GOETZ (F.) -- Uebersicht der sämmtlichen Abbildungen des Grossherzoglich. Sächsischen Militärs in dem Zeitraum von 1775 bis 1825. (Overview of all Illustrations of the Grand Duchy. Saxon Military in the Period from 1775 until 1825.) -- Weimar, s. d. -- Album, in-folio enlarged, containing 17 pages of text and 20 plates (F. Goetz del.), dedicated to His Highness the Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimer-Eisenach.. N° 4. Husaren, von 1775 bis 1806. (Hussar, from 1775 to 1806.) N° 9. Husaren, von 1806 bis 1808 (Auerstaedt). (Hussar, from 1806 to 1808.) N° 19. Husaren, 1808-1825. (Hussar, 1808-1825.)
LIENHART and HUMBERT. -- Les Uniformes de l'Armée française depuis 1690 jusqu'à nos jours. 1806-1812. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar; hussar in pelisse.
KNÖTEL (Richard). -- Uniformenkunde. IV. 54.-- 1806-1808. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar. SAINT-HILAIRE (Marco de). -- Histoire de la campagne de Russie en 1812. (History of the Campaign of Russia in 1812.) -- Paris, Eugène and Victor Penaud, 1846. 2 vol. in-8° with 10 color plates of uniforms, by de Moraine. 1814. Hussar of Saxe-Weimar.

Dark Blue Dolman, Red Pelisse black fur, red and yellow barrel sash, white Lace, white buttons white breeches / grey overalls black hussar boots white tassel and lace black belts Sabretache black white sheepskin saddle furniture with blue trim black hungarian harness brass fittings, my trumpeter I see entirely fictional.

Cheers
Matt

Grand duchy of Frankfurt Hussars

During the mid nineties my good friend Dean organised a Napoleonic campaign in Sydney. I had quite a large French minifig and old glory army at the time and I had just started to collect Confederation of the Rhine coalition troops. Eventually the campaign got underway and I found that I required Gendarmes to protect my rear and supply lines, so I built a number of Confederation cavalry units to meet the threat. I eventually built five hussar and light dragoon units to fulfil the role, Anhalt chasseurs, Frankfurt Hussars, Saxe-Ducal Hussars, Baden Hussars and Duchy de Berg chasseurs. This year I will be refurbishing my older miniatures bringing them up to current painting style and basing, so all of these units will be on the table at some stage.

In 1806 Frankfurt lost its status as a free imperial city with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon granted Karl Theodore Anton Maria von Dalberg, Prince Primate and Chairman of the Confederation Council, the former archbishop of Mainz;  received the titles of Prince Primate of Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg,  Regensburg, the possessions of the princes and counts of Lowenstein-Wertheim, Earl of Reineck and Count of Wetzlar. He also remained the Bishop of Worms, Konstanz and Regensburg.

  In 1810 Dalberg relinquished the Principality of Regensburg to the Kingdom of Bavaria, but gained the territories of Hanau and Fulda, raising the principality to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt. In 1813 the grand duchy temporal offices were passed onto Eugene de Beauharnais, Dalberg passed away in 1817 in Regensburg.

Grand Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars 1809
The actual unit never reached more than 60 strong and we're used as Gendarmes and messengers primarily between the cities of the Duchy. There is only one print of them in existence published in the Herzberg in Augsburg (K.K priv. Kunsthandlung) and is not noted in the Weiland Collection!

 The Frankfurt Hussars had a blue hussar styled Dolman trimmed with yellow braid and buttons. The Pelisse was blue with black lambswool and yellow lace and buttons. the Breeches were also blue, black hussar style boots laced in red. The barrel sash was red and yellow cord, white belts and black cartridge pouch. The horse harness was black with white sheepskin with yellow wolf-teeth edging. The Trumpeter is entirely fictional, but possibly should of been in red as the Ducal colours were red and white.

Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars

Grand Duchy of Frankfurt Hussars

References 

Duchy de Frankfurt

Uniform of the Duchy of Frankfurt

HERZBERG. -- True portraits of all the military costumes of the monarchs of Europe. -- Herzberg, K. K. Akademische Kunsthandlung. Augsburg, 1800-1814. -- Collection of 97 plates in-4, colored with the greatest care, and appearing in parts of 5 sheets. The single plate concerning the troops of Frankfurt is part of the 18th part (Allied troops of France). It gives the following types: Infantry Officer. -- Grenadier. -- Fusilier. -- Hussar.

Carnet de la Sabretache (novembre 1889). -- Reproduction of the plates from Herzberg, discussed above

Sassanid Elephant

Sassanid Elephant

The first of my Sassanid elephants, this one is from old glory with A and A archer in the howdah. I am yet to use any elephants in Impetus and I am looking forward to it…….just a little bit!

Cheers

Matt

Foederati

Roman Foederati

Painted these for our clubs latest painting competition, I will be using them as late Romans and Foederati! The miniatures are a mix of old glory and Gripping Beast and LBM transfers.

Foederati

Gallic Archers

lately off the painting desk is some Gallic archers for Dave's army middle imperial roman army. The figs came out quite nicely I think, one day I will paint my awaiting horde of 400 odd Celt figures.

cheers
matt

Montrose Highlanders Return!

I sold my Montrose ECW army two years ago and last weekend bought it back again at our clubs car boot sale. I am refitting all of them to my new painting style, washed in devlan mud then highlighted again.

The first unit I refitted from the army were the highlanders, I added some white and yellow to the kilt setts to make them more flashy. I made up the setts so they really don't really have any historical attachment, my ECW kilt research mostly describes 16th century setts as red and black. I have added a flag just because every wargame unit deserves a flag! This unit will also double for my Jacobite rebellion army so I probably should of painted them in a historical pattern......oh well live and learn!

So far quite happy with the result, another 20 odd figures to do, then I will attack the eyes etc by then my eyes will need a rest andI will move onto Gordon's horse next, then the Irish pike and shot, which I think I will increase in size by adding another eight pikemen to each unit and another four shot.










cheers
Matt

Victory without Qauter

The guys at the Goulburn Valiant Stormer’s are throwing around some ideas for the big project next year, a few of us think be 30 years war could be a possible front runner, as the warlord plastics lend themselves nicely to the period (still some discussion and dissention in the ranks as to basing conventions though), so with that thought a number of us have started to play test some rule sets. On Sunday Dave and I (we both normally play Warhammer English Civil War) had a game using the Free “Victory without Quarter” rules.

Using my ECW figs we each had a C in C, one cavalry general , two pike and shot blocks, one trotter and one galloper horse unit, one gun and a clubman for the parliament and highlanders for the Irish Royalists.

The game was played over 4 hours, I really liked the rules as I found they could be a little unpredictable and I liked the different factors for troop types and the card idea, although I think that VWQ will be a little slow for those players wanting to get two games in on a club day. VWQ still gave a satisfactory result and possibly would speed up after a few games; however I don’t think they would handle much more troop wise, two more pike blocks possibly and another regiment of horse each would slow it down even more. My ECW army is a mix of different figures, the Irish Montrose army are mostly Eureka, the pike and shot, horse, a mix of Old Glory, Perry and Eureka Highlanders and a Foundry gun and crew, On the parliment side, all Foundry and Perry except for the clubmen who are Warlord metals.

As the boys want to play a more grand tactical game I think VWQ will not be suitable for what we have in mind, although I would happily use VWQ for ECW. The next rule set we will play test is the Baroque set from the guys who wrote impetus.


Cheers
Matt