1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 42) The last French infantry brigades (Bony, Thevenet and Tromelin)

This a farewell to the beautiful Bardin uniforms as this post completes the last few three brigades for the French army at Waterloo. The brigade to the left is Bony´s and is made exclusively of Italeri figures; the small one in the middle is Tromelin brigade, the smallest in the entire army and is made of Italeri and two conversions from Hat; the last one to the rear is again Hat conversions with a few Airfix, Italeri and Esci figures. 

The Esci and Hat figures got new sabres taken from surplus grenadiers for the elite companies. The front Bardin details were simply painted. 

The Hat figures with the old long tails of the 100 figures box had their tails cut down to look like the bardin uniform. 

So around half of these figures got some sort of conversion for them to look Ok for the final battles of the Napoleonic wars. The lack of figures dressed in overcoats is due to the fact that I have no more, with this project having eaten 150 of them. Like this they look a bit too pristine but at least there are  a few brigades looking sharp on the shelves. 

Next: Napoleon´s generals

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 41) The last French artillery models

 

In the last few weeks I managed to find the last few artillery models for my French and that was made in old style model shops, my favourite way of getting our stuff. There were still six horse artillery of the line models and two line models to be made so the full French artillery at Waterloo can be complete at brigade level rules. 

The gun models came from Italeri/Esci and Zvezda while all artillerymen figures are the old Airfix with two Hat figures mixed in. The limber is Italeri. 

While all horse artillerymen had their backpacks taken out the line artillerymen had them placed in as you can see with the figure struggling to carry a shell. The colour of the French artillery was made mixing two parts of ochre and one of black as in real life the French artillery green was obtained. Like that you can´t get it wrong. 

The painting of one more line horse limber changed a bit the looks of the figures as the Guard and Line horse artillerymen was different.

Next: the last few Infantry brigades and a stand with the Man itself. 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 39) The French Soye brigade

 

General Jean-Louis Soye´s brigade was sucked into the fighting at Hougoumont and spent a good part of the Waterloo battle around woods and trying to breech the wall of the farm. It was  a large brigade with 3500 men and is represented here by the 1e de Ligne with a total of 9 stands. 

The figures are the usual mix of Airfix (the majority of the figures); Hat in overcoats; Hat with 1808 tails cut to look like the Bardin uniform; Esci (some with new backpacks) and Italeri for the drummer and eagle bearer. 

Next: it depends on what I will be able to get in the next few days as my to-do French infantry and artillery is closing to zero. If I can´t get new French figures I will start the 1815 Prussians. Eventually If I get something that sparks my imagination, something totally different will be made. 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 37) The French "Chaos brigade"

 

With this title I´m sure I´ve captured your attention. This group is meant to be Marechal de Camp Jean-Luis- Brue brigade represented here by 95e regiment de ligne one of the units of D´Erlon Corps. 

From this picture you can understand the "Chaos" term. This group was made from bits and leftovers of all possible origins: You can see many marching Airfix figures from the artillery set, some ex-Westphalians, all with new pom-poms made of Milliput; Esci figures with backpacks added, new Italeri, coated Hat and some figures with Zvezda heads. 

After painting the group is more or less homogeneous. 

I like the idea of old items of equipment and clothing being used at the 100 days campaign. Now read this story carefully as I will only say this once: In my last visit to France I found in a Bric-a-Brac shop  (antique shop) in Paris, on a place I was asked not to disclose, a letter dated 1st of May 1815, from Jean Menteur, a Grenadier of the 95e de ligne, to his wife Marie de la Tricheur with the following text: "Chère Marie, je besoin de mon plumet de grenadier...", well. as most of you read and write in English and have no idea what French is,  I´ll translate: " Dear Mary, I need my grenadier plume, as my shako has no pom-pom, please send it ASAP by post. Don´t forget the cords of the shako! From you husband who loves you. Jean". And here you have it, a living proof that the French used old items of equipment already phased out around 1812, still 3 years later! 

This story is one more total BS but serves to illustrate my aproach in the finishing the French for Waterloo and also a bit of despair!

The Grenadier on the rear right is a 1808-12 Hat figure. What I already did to some of them is to cut the tail of the coat so it looks like the bardin coat. Then at the front a different paint job makes the rest. 

Next: more 1815 French

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 36) The two last brigades of British finished (Adam and Pack)

 

Inititally I was thinking I had enough Scottish units with kilts due to the Bussaco units made and also that the 52nd LIR was already made. In fact when placing everything on the table for a video on Wellington´s army at Waterloo I realised my 52nd LIR had white trousers and there were not enough kilts in the shelves. So these two units were made quickly, the Scottish from Esci and Italeri figures and the 52nd from Hat figures. All command stands are Hat with the Scottish stand with heads from Esci.  

See the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbCZA4Gto4Q&t=943s

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 35) The British finished and some more French to keep them busy

 

Don´t know why but the 5th British Cavalry Brigade was not part of my original OB in the chart I´ve made for my 28mm Waterloo allies. In fact that is a big mistake as the brigade was heavily involved in the fighting at Waterloo, with Colquhoun Grant, Its commander, having five horses shot under him and 

a total of 31% casualties. Well, the mistake is corrected and another brigade of French infantry was also added. 

The 5th Cavalry Brigade is represented by the the 7th Hussars which is made of Esci figures and horses with plastic reigns. 

Only the horse of Lt-Col.Kerrison is Airfix due to the need of a pointy shabraque. 

Sir Colquhoun Grant uniform was based on AI information. I think we are dealing with the same guy that was a kind of spy during the Peninsula period (and also of Sharpe fame). The period portraits of the man show him in the typical scarlet coat but AI gave me the uniform of the 15th Hussars. Is it correct? The figure is Italeri fom the French HQ set.  

This French brigade is Jamin´s represented here by the 4eme Légère. The figures are converted 1806 French Light infantry by Hat from the exchange made with TC. The surgery consisted in cutting the side plume on the shako, drilling a hole at the front and inserting half of the plume there changing the plume to a company pompom. These figures are particularly nice for 1815 French light infantry as they are on the small size (as French lights should be) and they have the short back tails, Bardin style. I think these units were in fact the first ones to have short tails in the French Napoleonic infantry. I was lazy in carving out most of the sabres and thus this unit is mostly composed of corporals :) Regarding the front, a simple paint job solves the issue. There are also a few Kozak 3d prints, namely the oficer next to the drummer and the cornet in the voltigeur stand and some coated Hat figures. 

Next: a video on the allies at Waterloo

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 34) The British high command at Waterloo

 

This post concludes the Anglo-Allied army led by Wellington in the 100 days campaign. When I was making it in 28mm it was the smallest of the three but in 20mm is much more easily done as the variety of troops - British, Scottish, KGL, Dutch, Belgians, Nassauers and Brunswickers - allows for lots of conversions that in the smaller size work reasonably. The commander stands of the first corps and of the Dutch divisions were made previously.  

For this post was used the metal Wellington´s command by Waterloo1815, given to me by TC, and Italeri, Airfix, Waterloo1815 and Hat figures. 

Wellington´s command stand has (L to R), de Lancey, Uxbridge, the man himself and Picton. The figure of Ponsonby was placed in a individual stand as brigade commander and the Scottish officer in the box was not used. 

The tree is meant to be the famous Waterloo Helm, a good place at the Waterloo battlefield for observation were Wellingtons spent some of  time on the 18th of June. The tree was destroyed by tourists after the battle and some parts were taken to England from were at least one chair was made and sits nowadays at the Windsor castle: 

Even so I prefer the tree. 

Lt- Gen Lord Hill, commander of the II Corps, was made from the Italeri figure of Wellington with added plume according to the MSJ website. The ADC is Lord Hill younger brother, Clement. 

Now for the infantry divisional commanders (L to R): Cooke (1st Guards Division); Clinton (2nd Division); Alten (3rd  Division); Colville (4th Division);  Picton (again, this time as Co of the 5th Division) and Lambert ( 6th Division, in replacement of Lt Gen Cole who was fighting another far more interesting battle as he  was at his honeymoon). The Airfix officers got Hat bicornes, Cooke has no plume according to a famous portrait and the others had its plume burned for it to look closer to a General´s. I made no distinction between the Lieutenant and Major General as the differences in uniforms are extra gold in the former, something that at this scale I could not see properly - another advantage of 20mm :). 

The Cavalry Brigade commanders: Lord Somerset (Household Brigade); Ponsonby (Union Brigade); Dornberg (3rd Brigade);  Vandeleur (4th Brigade),  Vivian (6th Brigade) and  Arentchild (7th Brigade).  

In order to be sure nothing is left behind I generally make these charts were I tick with color what was already made. The red color was maybe at one fourth of the total when making all this in 28mm. Then yellow/green had to be used as the built went along in 20mm. 

Next: So much for this chart, only now I noticed the 5th Cavalry Brigade was not made and this one has to be next.

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 32) The last few Nassauers (Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar Brigade)

 

This Brigade was already depleted of 1100 men from the battle of Quatre-Bras on the 16th. Without "true" Nassauers I chose the Italeri figures again this time for the 2nd Nassau regiment and Hat figures for the 28th Orange Nassau regiment. This last regiment also has an Italeri officer and standard bearer. 

The 2nd Nassau didn´t get colpacks for its grenadiers this time as it seems to have had a mix of shakoes and colpacks in those companies. The rest of the figures comes from the more recent French infantry by Italeri with the side buttons at the front cut out. 

Converting the Hat French from the 100 figures juicy box was a bit more difficult as the buttons also had to be erased but the real work was at the tail of the uniform. This elongated part was cut with an X-acto (a big one as this plastic is not easy to cut) which makes more area of the trousers to be seen. The result looks OK and the rest is disguised with the paint job. 

Next: the last British line and allied  artillery 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 31) The 36th Belgian Jaeger (D´Aubreme Brigade)

 

The 36th Belgian Jaeger fought at Braine l´Alleud during the Waterloo battle and distinguished itself at the right flank of Wellington´s line. The figures are Airfix, Hat with an Italeri officer slighly converted. 

This battalion was not the most numerous of d' Aubreme brigade but I chose it due to the different green uniform. 

Next: the last few Nassauers missing

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 29) British Light Dragoons

 

These are two more brigades of Light Dragoons (LD) for Waterloo exclusively with LD regiments, the 3rd and 4th Cavalry Brigades. From the recent exchange with TC I got a box of lovely KGL dragoons (12 figures). In order to make the total of 32 LD cavalrymen I used a trick I was planning a long time ago and that was to use the horses and figures of the Esci and Italeri Scots Greys. These, due to my usual eagerness, ended up being something like 7/8 boxes over the years, even after using several of them for the Union Brigade and converted Peninsular Dragoons.  So something had to be done with them and the Esci/Italeri figures would be the base but coupled with French shakoes. 

Here you can see the lot:

- the front Brigade (4th Brigade of General Vandeleur) is represented by the 11th LD regiment and has Esci/Italeri Scots Grey torsos with shakoes from Italeri late French infantry (from those repeated countless heads you get from extra drummers, eagle-bearers and officers). The shako was cut from the peak and the original head remained. Superglue made the joint but as the joint is quite big it seems to be well fixed and the final varnish does the rest. 

- the rear Brigade (3rd Brigade of General Dornberg, accused of being one of the culprits of Ligny defeat, after arresting a British scout who was bringing intelligence) is represented by the 23rd LD regiment with 12 Hat figures and 4 Esci/Italeri conversions. 

These are the Hat figures in all its glory. The shabraque on all of these guy's horses is the officer´s shabraque but even so they are nice figures. 

As I told you my true British LD ended in the above 12 Hat figures and a few conversions had to be made in order to finish that brigade. The Scots Grey of Esci and Italeri were pinned to the full head of the late French by Italeri with some reasonable results as the detail of the uniform is very soft and the cut in British cavalry uniform is virtually the same in most of the different types of British troopers. 

The 4th Brigade only has the Italeri shako glued to the head of the Esci figures but it works reasonably well. 

The 4th Brigade before painting. The face kept on being British with new French brains. After all, all of them are descendents of William I, so no big deal, at least from my Peninsular point of view.  

Some of the Esci/Italeri torsos don´t have the carbine and these were added from the spares. The problem with this particular conversion is the absense of epaulettes which were simply painted. In the end these are cheap conversions made from leftovers which allows for two more brigades. And  this is one of the advantages over 28mm figures as the small problems like epaulettes simply painted or uniform cut differences are barely seen in 20mm size but gigantic in 28mm. 

Next: More Waterloo with Vietnam and SCW stash sending me menacing looks

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 28) The conversions on Airfix French artillery already painted

 

The lot from the last post is already painted. It consists of converted Airfix French artillery mostly with new wheels and new limbers.

The half bodies of french artillery on top of italeri Cuirassiers legs came out OK even if the Airfix horses are on the small side. The exception is the one to your left coming from the British set but I had no more left since I made a large batch of British artillery a few posts ago. 

With everything put together and painted these sets look nice and are somewhat unique. 

The backpacks of the drivers were erased with fire applied gently as the backpacks are not very big on these figures. Then the crossed belts are simply painted. The whips are made each from two pieces of plastic. 

The limbers itselves don´t have the detail of say the Zvezda limbers but are reasonable for me. 

The Airfix crews are very lively, something that happened in all their artillery sets from Napoleonics, ACW, WW1 up to WW2. The figure holding the ram is fabulous and one of the most elegant figures ever made. 

Next: British light cavalry