American war of Independence - Will McNally's rules - Hessian Infantry Regiment Von Donop

Once again a full Revell unit that fits nicely into the Hessians that fought for England in the AWI.

Brigade commander Von Stirn. Apparently he was around 60 YO by 1777 and probably not as a handsome figure like this one from Revell and probably a bit more on the 'round' shape.

Several of the poses you can see above were changed. Some of the kneeling and and standing fire figures had their torsos and legs interchanged for the sake of variety. The right  hand of the middle figure came from the 'dead' figures from Airfix I'll post next. The flag bearers had their nice but small flags taken out and replaced by plastic shafts and printed flags.

Von Donop site once again provided the necessary information.

Visit to Waterloo, February 2015

Finally I managed to go to Waterloo and to Belgium, profiting from the Carnival break. I really wanted to go there before the 200th anniversary so I could say " bah, I've already been there...".

This is the view from the Lion's mound, a very unfortunate construction that ruined part of Wellington's defensive terrain but from were you can have a fabulous view over the entire battlefield. 

To the right you find La Haie Sainte...

...and you can see the reason why Wellington chose Mont-Saint-Jean as the main feature of the allied defensive system. The ground rises gently to the left creating a ridge ideal for his defensive tactics. 

From the Genappe road I took this hasty picture of La Haie Sainte looking at the axis of the French assault.

Back to the Lion's Mound and far to the top you can see the Papelotte-Frichermont area.

Continuing clockwise you can see to the left the place of the Grand Batterie and the area of D'Erlon's attack. 

 

Now a little more to the center you have the area of most of the French cavalry charges made in the afternoon.

The area was also used by Foy and Bachelu divisions that ended drained to Hougoumont, fooled by Wellington's breakwaters defensive system. 

And the Hougoumont area close to the woods you can see at the center. 

Continuing clockwise you have to your back the allied places were the infantry squares were placed to resist the French cavalry charges. 

Now to Plancenoit and its iconic Saint-Cathérine's church that changed sides between French and Prussians several times.

And here I am safely in front of the walls...

...and preaching from the inside. 

The walls offered great protection for muskets and the whole area became a killing ground on that 18th June 1815.

The church yard was and still is a cemitery. 

A tribute to the courage of the Jeune Garde.

This street was one of the axis of the arrival of the 4th Prussian army of Bülow von Dannewitz. 

  

Going back to the museum area you can see a beautiful diorama of Hougoumont in a scale about 1/40. 

The North gate,the only part of the building to be pierced by the French, but only for a short time.

The South gate and the aproaching area of a good part of Reille's men.

And an also beautiful painting of Napoleon. 

In the Cyclorama you have an outstanding 360 degree painting of the French cavalry charge recently restored. 

With the light already fading I came to Hougoumont. 

The south gate. A place were so many died that is still strange to have your feet in such place knowing that, according to witnesses,  the ground was not passable without tripping in a dead body. 

 

The also famous North gate, pierced by Sous-Lieutenant Legros and his group of 30 men.
 

 What remains of the woods to the South that covered  from Napoleon's  eyes  the walled Chateau D'Hougoumont, allied to some really bad French  maps of the area. Originally they were 30 meters chestnut trees that gave the impression of an easily passable obstacle.

Next: the Army Museum of Bruxels.

 

AOE 28mm French Waterloo army in video

I'm getting lazy with pictures... 

This Napoleonic French Waterloo army is almost complete but became too big to present pictures. So I present you a short video you can see by clicking the link below:

http://youtu.be/nbopWZfS9Vk

28mm AOE Waterloo 1815 - Simmer division

This is the last infantry division missing from the total of nine used by the French at Waterloo.

Simmer (19th) infantry division was used against the Prussians on the right flank.

Most of the figures are Perry Miniatures.

Simmer figure is a metal Irregular Miniatures with plastic arm and head from Perry.

The command stands have a metal Irregular Miniatures officer and a drummer and flag bearer from Hat.

The charging markers officer (Irregular) have Victrix coats glued to their backs. The coats  were taken from the Imperial Grenadiers box. Irregular Miniatures portrayed a light infantry officer as you can see by the cuffs but I didn´t change it as there was some indivuduality in officer´s uniform and probable transfers from unit to unit.

The still missing units of my Waterloo French army are the  2 Imperial cavalry divisions; 4 Chasseurs à Cheval cavalry brigades and most of the artillery.

AOE 28mm 92nd Highlanders, Waterloo 1815

Last unit to be added to my Waterloo allied army. All miniatures are Victrix Miniatures.

The skirmishers are not for AOE rules as this set of rules is brigade level. Nonetheless they may suit any regimental level set of rules or a future homemade one.

Lucky enough the flags for the  92nd Foot are inside the Victrix Highlanders centre company box.

I only used this box for the whole unit as the arms of flank companies came from the  box of British regulars, which contain plenty of them. 

28mm AOE Waterloo 1815 IV 2nd Swiss Regiment

The 2nd Swiss was not present at Waterloo as it was with Vandamme III Corps. Nevertheless I´m one more modeller to fall in the arms (better, sleeves...) of those red coats.

Painting blue coats gets tiring and this regiments is a nice possibility for something different.

Figures are plastic Perry Miniatures.

The only battalion of the regiment in column preceded by the usual voltigeurs.

In the Tête the Colonne there is the sole non-Perry miniature: a Hat pionner from their Light Infantry command box.

With just a small piece of plasticard glued to the pioneer base, the figure gets taller and goes along well with the Perry´s.

The column turns into line.

 This voltigeur has Victrix arms for the sake of variability.

 Same for this one.

By the way , I introduced recently a small change in the basing of figures: after applying the normal diluted PVA glue to the stand and dipping it into the scatter material box, I let a drop of cheap chinese Super Glue fall on the green scatter material.

 Some strange fumes comes out of the contact of the diluted PVA and the Cyanoacrylate but the scatter material gets pretty stiff in a matter of seconds.

 Try it and you can have grass as stiff as your figures... if this is good for anything.

 Many of the figures have the Pokalem instead of the shako as this makes  the unit more red in colour.

The Officer is the sole blue jacket to be seen in this unit.

28mm AOE 1815 Waterloo-Jeanin Division

Latest 28mmm French division for Waterloo. Built before the beach and sprayed after this was the smallest division in Napoleon´s Armée du Nord.

Usual stuff for these ones: top (Plastic Perry Miniatures)- the small Tromelin brigade ( in fact just the 107eme de ligne); bottom (Hat) - Bony brigade, here represented by the 5eme legére with 1808 uniforms.

The trick is  never to represent the older flag as only tricolores were fielded in 1815, with the exception of the Swiss regiment. In this way you can represent some 1808 uniforms in the 1815 campaign without feeling too guilty and using the first boxes of frenchVictrix and Hat ...

 Once more I think Hat goes well with the larger Perry range, specially if you mix heads.

Markers : Voltigeur and Charging officer. Hat bodies with Perry heads.

A metal "General Jeanin" from the Victrix range. This is a lower ranking officer transformed into a general with the aid of GreenStuff applied in the waist and hat.

VI army commander Comte Lobau and aide from the Metal Perry range.

 

The full division and corps commander. There are no skirmishes in the AOE rules but i´m doing some for each brigade as may appear a Regimental AOE for napoleonic rules as happened with ACW Fire and Fury rule set. But specially they are funny to make.