1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 27) The Airfix French artillery with some improvements

When I was a boy - maybe 8 or 9 yo, almost 50 years ago - I found with awe in downtown Coimbra a shop window crammed with Airfix boxes while strolling with my mother. Suddenly, in the Toy Shop street all other shops had the same thing: lots of Airfix kits in the shop windows! There also I understood that the mosquito that bit me didn´t bit other kids, as they would pass on the same shop windows and didn´t even look at those boxes that were for me the closest thing to paradise that I have ever seen. Quickly the deal with my mother was to take two at a time, after all a sole army needed someone to fight with. I´m not sure but I think the French artillery and some British infantry were the first. Or was it the French infantry against the British Guards band? Or both ACW sets of infantry? Frankly I can´t remember right as all free time and money became for ever connected with buying those magic small boxes. Of course I started to go with my grandmother to downtown too and had a particular interest in picking my father that worked nearby. In fact my father became my main assistant as he was also very fond of modelling even if he prefered cars, trains and peaceful stuff. So one model for him and two or three for me would be our deal each time we were passing on Adelino Veiga street. 

The French artillery set is beautifully designed but with may errors, which for me in those days were completely indifferent. Later on, I found in the Funcken books and in the Millitary Modelling magazines (also bought in downtown Coimbra) that the limbers were very wrong in toy like style, the gun tubes too large and the wheels too small. Even so these guns went to defend the Alamo or to attack it, went to the Napoleonic Spanish army while others I have no idea were they went. Some were converted like this others stayed like the originals. Recently I got a number of them from the exchange made with TC and decided to have a go at reusing them but with some changes. 

The wheels of the guns were discarded but reused at the limbers. For that I copied the measures of my own Hat industries limbers, built new ones from plastic card and tubing and stuck the wheels in the axle as they are the same size as the Hat ones. 

The horses used are also from the Airfix set plus a few others from here and there. Next to the horses you can see the blue artillerymen which will be cut in half in order to produce drivers. The horses are in 1/76th scale while figures are 1/72nd but everything came from the same factory so I just hope they get along. 

The guns themselves got new, larger wheels from the Esci Russian Crimean artillery, a trick I learned from Will McNally, of the super famous Fire at Will blog. 

 

The horses got new stowage made from GreenStuff and the figures torsos were pinned to Italeri Prussian Cuirassiers legs as knee tall cavalry boots are necessary. In the meantime, not shown here, the backpacks and epaulettes were melted with fire and some whips were glued to the right hand of the drivers. Also the ropes tying the limber to the horse got some heat for better hold and looks. 

They are ready to be painted.

Next: this lot painted. 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 26) The British Heavy Cavalry at Waterloo

 

The British Heavy Cavalry was considered by Napoleon some of the best cavalry of Europe but the worst led. In fact the British cavalry at Waterloo was a mix of breathtaking bravery but also a disastrous lack of control. This led to its defeat in the 18 June 1815 by the French lancers and cuirassiers with the loss of many men and many officers including General Ponsonby (commander of the Union Brigade), Hamilton (commander of the Scots Greys) and Packe (commander of the Blues). Even so the initial charges destroyed a good part of the French D´Érlon corps and eventually being considered a factor of the final success of both British and Prussians.

To the left you can see the Household Brigade and to the right, the Union Brigade. 

I didn´t paint the cornet´s horses in grey (exceptuating the Scots Grey which are already all mounted in grey horses) as the British had already officially abandoned grey horses even if it is known that the rule was only partially followed. 

1st and 2nd Life Guards at the front and the Royal Horse Guards (The Blues) to the rear. All figures are Revell. 

The King´s Dragoon Guards and 2nd Dragoons (Hat miniatures). 

The Scots Greys (Italeri and Esci). 

Having only one box of British Dragoons from Hat I sorted out the 6th Inniskilling by mixing Scots Greys from Esci with Italeri French Dragoons. 

And here they are. This mix made me thought once again on how clever the old plastics designers were. Esci, for instance by providing a box of Scots Greys allows for conversions for other Dragoon units if you use for instance the heads of the Esci French Cuirassiers (or Italeri Dragoons as above). The plastic reigns were added later as the Esci horses are incomplete even if beautifully sculpted. 

Next: more British cavalry 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 25) The Dutch Militia and high command at Waterloo

 

The Dutch militia is an important part of Wellington´s infantry (13%) on the 100 days campaign not only due to its numbers abut also because they didn´t behave that bad, at least as expected from militia, sometimes retreating but also placed in exposed positions against the Grand Batterie, as it was the case of Bylandt´s brigade. 

William, Prince of Orange, and its ADC are Waterloo1815 figures. He was wering this flamboyant uniform of Hussar influence at the 100 days. 

Obviously Waterloo1815 got the inspiration for the figure from this famous painting, were his horse, Wexy, is white. The white horse was usual in wartime paintings were it stood out in the middle of the black smoke of a battlefield. In fact this was not true in this, and many other cases. 

 Wexy can still be see at the Royal Stables at Hague, were he was preserved after being taxidermied. Chestnut was his obvious colour. 

General Perponcher (2nd Dutch division) was in its 40s, so just a bit of white hair was painted. The figure is an Italeri Prussian. with its left side medal cut out. 

General Chassé (3rd Dutch division) is another Italeri figure, this time British in its birth. Chassé was in its 50s and a bit more white hair was added. I like these kind of details even if they are not significant in wargame terms but gives you the feel that you are doing the right things. 

The Dutch Militia here is Hat from the mixed box with Belgians. Only the officer and drummer are Italeri as the Hat box carries none of these. Also the flank companies have some Hat British light infantry due to the shoulder wings. I was about to use the officer and drummer from Hat´s Napoleonic British Command but Italeri places a lot of these figures in a box and you end up with too many of them which can be used here. Besides the officer of the Militia used the French influenced shako while the Hat British command only have the Belgian/Portuguese and the stovepipe shako. 

Next: British cavalry for Waterloo

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 24) Les Géants

 

These were the "big Guys on big horses", the Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde were the last unit of the French Guard still to be done. This is one more conversion this time using the horses and bodies of Italeri Dragoons and the heads of the very old Airfix Foot Grenadiers (the officer has a Zvezda head). 

In fact both French Horse Grenadiers and Dragoons shared the same uniform cut, which, even better, barely changed all along the Napoleonic wars. 

The good thing about the Airfix Grenadier heads are the big heads they have (compared with the bodies) and so they blend quite well with the much bigger Italeri bodies. 

The officer with Zvezda head had to have a plume and this why no Airfix figure was used here. 

Unfortunately you only need 4 stands for Waterloo AoE as these guys are a nice sight with their black horses and imposing figures. 

Next: More Dutch

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 23) Chevaux-Légers lanciers of the line

 

The Line lancer´s brigades were a structural part of each French Corps and were used at Waterloo in the famous counter attacks against the British heavies, the Union and the Household Brigades, which were completely shattered in a few minutes. Here the lances proved much superior in combat against the sword. 

From front to rear you have the 2nd regiment (representing Gobrecht Brigade), 4th regiment (Wathiez), and 6th regiment (Colbert).  

In order to make these three brigades I never thought about the ones available in the market, Hat and Waterloo1815, as I have too much stuff in the stash which I could convert. Initially, I thought about Polish lancers from Esci with heads from the Italeri Carabineers. But then, after looking carefully at the Italeri Carabineers I found them a good base for the final result without any need for the Esci Lancers, making the job easier.  

What you need to do is:

- to shave the top part of the boots;

- shave the front part of the cuirass (still not done here in the right side figure);

- cut the swords, twist with heat the arms in order to receive the lance;

- shave the shabraque cloth and only leave the sheepskin to be shown.

Don´t forget to leave two figures with the epaulettes for the elite company. 

Only the horses of the officers came from the Esci lancers as you need the pointy rear shabraque. 

The flags were not used by these regiments and left at the depot but they always look great in Napoleonic units. 

The 2nd lancers had cornets with the blue dolman which was kept from previous campaigns. The figure to the right is firing his mousqueton and keeps his lance in a small leather bucket on the right stirrup and by a leather sling over the shoulder. 

Another good reason for using the Italeri carabineers as the basis for the Line Lancers is the almost invisible cuirass, particularly at the back. 

The 4th lancers had cornets with the later green uniforms.

The 6th lancers had the famous officers with red trousers and an even more spetacular Czapka on his cornets. 

Next: Maybe the British heavy cavalry at Waterloo

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 22) Chasseurs à Cheval and Lancers of the French Guard

 

This another useful group to have for Napoleonic wargaming. The uniform didn´t change for years and all of them can be used up to the Waterloo campaign. You just have to be careful with the Polish lancers which started to carry the lance at the end of 1809 and the Dutch lancers in 1810. Even so you can use all the three units along the Russian campaign, the 1813 campaigns and the 100 days campaign, without change in uniform. The Polish Guard lancers were just a squadron at Waterloo but making 5 squadrons allows for the other campaigns. 

The Chasseurs à Cheval are Revell from  a nice and rich box that includes 17 mounted figures plus a dismouted one. 

The only conversion of the group was the making of a standard bearer from the figure with the sword at the front.

The Polish and Dutch Guard lancers are Esci from their 1985 box but even so a very nice box with very detailed figures as usual with Esci. 

The problem with these Esci figures was some memory problems of the designer who forgot to place reigns on the horses and saved on the lenght of the lance. Here you can see plastic (you can also use wire) pieces for the reigns and an alongated lance of 4cm when the original is only 3 cm. The trick is to cut 0,5cm from the original, glue the shaft to the hand and then to glue a 1,5cm piece of plastic to the back of the hand, making 4cm lances. It´s always better to try to sit the rear of the lance on the horse for sturdiness. 

The flag bearer is a conversion from the figure with a sword. 

The trumpeteer of the Dutch lancers is Zvezda while the other is Esci. The Zvezda box is a far superior product but with the two tricks of the reigns and alongated lances you can always improve the Esci figures. Regarding Esci, don´t forget to glue all horse´s legs to the base as they tend to be unbalanced. 

Finally I painted General Michel of the Foot Chasseurs guard division, a Waterloo 1815 figure that I got half painted from TC. There is still a debate around who said the famous sentence "La garde meurt mais ne se rend pas" between Cambronne and Michel. The known truth is that Michel was killed leading the charge of the 3e Chasseurs and his body is most probably in the big mass grave at Mont-Saint-Jean. 

Next: a return to Vietnam

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 21) Bauduin´s Brigade and the French Guard Horse Artillery

 

These two were not that much close at Waterloo. The 2ème Légère fought around Hougoumont mostly (part of the 6ème Division of Jerôme Bonaparte) while the several batteries Guard Horse went along the Guard Infantry in its final attack late in the afternoon. 

The artillery is made of Esci and Zvezda guns (some with Airfix barrels); Zvezda caisson and Italeri artillerymen. The driver of the caisson was later exchanged by the Zvezda one as no colpack equipped driver was used in this unit, even if it would look damn good!

In fact these figures are good enough up to the 1812 Russian campaign as after this campaign the uniform changed and left the Hussar type only keeping the colpack. The Hat uniformed officer with colpack came from the voltigeur box and enters here as a "transitional" figure. Maybe in the future I´ll make this unit again using Esci artillery bodies with Hat colpacks for a proper 1813-15 unit. 

The 2ème Légère was the biggest French regiment at Waterloo with four battalions. Like this I broke the unit into two battalions, the first (with Eagle) made of Airfix and Hat figures and the other ( 3rd battalion, red fanion) with Italeri and Hat figures. The only addition was made on the Airfix figures which got bigger pompons made of Milliput.

Next: Vietnam or more French Guard cavalry

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 20) The Royal Horse Artillery

The British RHA and the HA of the KGL (same uniform and guns) were present with 11 batteries at Waterloo. They had a big impact on the battle, like the action of Mercer´s guns in front of the Brunswick squares, and also look nice on the table due to the flashy uniforms. 

Around half of these guns were already beautifully painted by TC and only the guns were repainted in a lighter color. The other half on this picture and all others thoughout the post are freshly built and painted. 

All 6 and 9 pdrs have Airfix crews with most of the guns coming from other sets like Esci and Revell. The great Airfix set has the most complete artillery set ever produced, at least until the arrival of the Zvezda French and Russian sets. Included you have figures that, when placed correctly, made my normal artillery stands (5cmX4cm) too small. So I cut the bases with an extra square of 1,5cm in order for a spongeman or a handspike man to fit while doing their task.  

Three RHA battery commanders were added. 

The Hat Congreve rockets offers four small tripods and four wheeled boxes for transport. While searching for this weapon the one firing the rockets from ladders looked the coolest of them all. In order to produce these ones you need:

- ladders (these ones were taken from a cheap Chinese fire truck);

- wheels, rockets and the central shaft from the original box;

- large tripods made from plastic tubing;

- small plastic boxes to the side of the wheels. 

The four stands here are Ok for Leipzig, which was the largest gathering of the system during the Napoleonic wars land battles, while at Waterloo only one rocket section was used. 

Even if quite cool, this ladder was not used at Waterloo, being used mostly during sieges like Copenhagen and Boulogne. At Waterloo this system was fired from the small tripod and even from a bank of dirt but the ladder system looks more imposing. 

This one from Mark Adkin´s Companion is another possibility but there is no frontal image of the thing which made me not to make it.

The howitzer battery of Major Bull is also represented here. I used a surplus Bavarian carriage as you need a double-trail carriage for the elevation of the howitzer.

All the guns and rocket systems were pulled by the same limbers. Airfix makes this old but still nice system. Some of the Airfix drivers were kept aside and replaced by Revell ones (sporting the new late coats) as they will be used for French guard horse artillery. The limber to the right has a figure converted from the vent man foot figure that is now giving orders to everybody even if having a severe back pain!

Next: more French