1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 33) The British and Dutch line artillery

The Army of the Low Countries is virtually ready for Waterloo with only a few command stands missing. 

 The British line artillery was made of Revell figures with guns coming a bit from eveywhere: Esci carriages, Airfix barrels and wheels from 3d printed leftovers. 

After painting, this motley bunch doesn´t look that bad. 

The same story applies to the Dutch artillery but here there was a bit more work. Waterloo1815 makes a box of beautiful (Esci style) figures of Dutch artillery but with British guns which is wrong as the Gribeauval system was still used by the Dutch.  I used the British Revell bodies with Airfix French heads and Esci backpacks in order to build the figures.

As I was short of wheels I used the wheels of the steering tails of the Airfix Mark I WWI tanks. The problem with these wheels is having only six spokes. So six more were glued and taken from spare wheels. A bit troublesome but effective. The gun carriages came from the Esci Crimean Russian set with tubes from Airfix. The farthest gun is horse artillery. 

Next: British command stands

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 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 14) Middle Guard Grenadiers

 

The French Middle Guard wasn´t very well dressed around Waterloo time. Apparently some items of the equipment were missing to equip the 3rd and 4th regiments of both Guard Grenadiers and Chasseurs, like bearskins, blue trousers and coats. Thus the white trousers and  greatcoats were common and even the guard bicorne was used as main headdress by some. 

These four regiments didn´t have eagles but 24 company fanions were distributed. Alexis Cabaret, the author of the absolutely amazing site MSJ 1815, shows them as similar to the ones of 1812-13 but I added a large "N" with some laurels just for the central white rectangle being happier. 

The figures are Esci, Revell, the pioneer is Zvezda and there are also three Hat figures in bicornes and greatcoats. Half of the Esci figures didn´t have a backpack and got theirs from old Airfix Grenadiers. 

Next: probably Nassauers or Dutch Militia. Eventually a go at the Papelotte farm.

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 11) The Chasseurs of the Old Guard

 

These represent the Old Guard Chasseurs of Cambronne and Pelet. Again the good thing of making Imperial Guard is that you can use them across the Napoleonic wars without any particular important uniform changes. Here they have the blue trousers that apparently equipped all of them at Waterloo as they were pretty well uniformed on the contrary of the Middle Guard. 

The cartridge box was painted white as per the protection that the Imperial Guard had for this item of equipment. 

All figures are Revell. This box works very well within itself as you can make a nice firing or advancing line. Only the kneeling figure was discarded as it would look a bit out of subject. The problem of Revell figures (if it can be considered a problem) is their slim figures with small heads, but I think they do it on purpose as to have distance to, say, Airfix and Esci, not counting the more recent eastern brands. 

Next: The Jeune Garde (Tirailleurs and Voltigeurs) 

1813-15 battles in 20mm for AoE and V&F - (part 7) Finishing the British line infantry

This post completes the British line infantry necessary for AoE as this is a Brigade level game. All other infantry will be Brunswickers, Nassauers, Belgian, Dutch and one missing Hanoverian brigade. My original idea when receiving this large batch of exchanged figures was to use the Airfix figures but these had received a cut at the top of the Belgian shako and had an inserted plume at the center, Peninsular style. No problem with the plume that can be taken out but the front curved top of the shako was gone making a second life for them in 1815 very difficult. Instead I used the Revell figures. They had suffered the same kind of surgery to become Peninsular infantry but TC (the previous owner) didn´t cut the top of the Belgian shako but just added some paste and the central plume for them to look like Peninsular infantry. So these ones just had the paste taken out. As the side plume was also gone I covered all shakos with a very dark gray color for it to look like covered Belgian shakos. 

The Revell figures are very elegant but its not easy to mix  with other brands as they have tall and slim bodies and small heads and headdress. In the picture you have the 4th Foot (Lambert´s brigade, 6th Infantry Division); 33rd Foot ( Halkett´s Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division) and two KGL regiments for two brigades of the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions.

There are also a few Hat figures in bonnets and bearskins as drummers, NCO´s and pioneers as these doesn´t impact the small Revell shakos. 

The Napoleonic French allies for the campaigns of 1809 and 1812 for AoE/V&F rules in 20mm size

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

The Stutterheim brigade at Wagram was constituted by the 2nd Jägers, the 5th Chevau-Légers and an artillery battery. During the battle the brigade was involved in the fighting around Aderklaa, defending the place, then loosing it and later recapturing it.  

I placed some of the Jägers with the old Raupenhelm of 1805 which, I think (or hope), that was still used by some units. The skirmish bases are not intended for brigade size wargames with most of the line infantry in Age Of Eagles having the SK mark showing skirmishing ability. The problem, at least for me, comes when a brigade only has infantry made of Jägers, not being very logical to show these troops in rectangular bases with 6 figures or even less. So I like to use these smaller stands that can be spread a bit all over. Another advantage is using them in smaller scale actions using other rules. 

The majority of the Jägers were changed to have the newer Corsican hat. The figures used were Esci British and Russian figures without shako. The trumpet came from the Esci Prussian and the third figure from the left is Italeri with my last Hat Corsican hat from their Austrian Landwehr box.

The brim of the hats were made from small pieces of card glued on the head. Then on top a piece of Belgian shako (without the top part) was glued. All Jägers, including the ones with the Raupenhelm, got a backpack. The rifles were also cut down to show the Jägerstutzen short rifle 1795 model and the Jägerkarabiner 1807 model. 

Klenau´s Chevau-Léger Regiment is made from the Revell British Life Guards, less the plume, on top of Airfix Hussar horses, due to the rear pointy shabraque. 

The more I paint these old types of plastic figures the more I get convinced that the figure designers of Revell, Airfix, Esci (and Italeri to an extent) were thinking to provide the basic types of equipment used in the Napoleonic wars and then trusting in its soft plastic for the conversion of whatever necessary by modellers and wargamers. In fact they had their hands full was they were making figures for all possible periods of history and this choice seems totally logical. Then StreletsR and Hat changed all this by making everything you need. In fact the British Life Guards can be turned easily into Austrian Dragoons or Chevau-Légers simply by changing the horse, cutting the plume and ignoring a bag under the canteen. Almost all horse´s legs in the air were glued to the base in order to provide a sturdier stand. 

                                 

Karl Wilhelm von Stutterheim was considered one of the best Austrian commanders of the 1809 war but he killed himself in 1811 at the age of 41 due to an unknown scandal while writing a book on that famous campaign. 

Next: French Cuirassiers

The Wurttembergers at Wagram and Borodino for AOE/V&F in 20mm

 

I collected a small Wurttemberg force from Hat during the Covid days. I think my first seriously painted Napoleonics were some Esci Austrians painted as Wurttembergers maybe 40 years ago. Then these went to a friend´s house when Hat released their own boxes. 

These are the three boxes of Hat Wurttembergers: one box of cavalry with 12 figures; one box of artillery with 4 guns (only 3 are necessary) and one box of infantry with 100 figures. After looking for the OB of the Wurttemberg contingent during the Wagram battle (they were near Vienna, guarding comunication lines and thus they didn´t participate in the battle) I divided them into three brigades of infantry (one of them of Jägers), one cavalry brigade and three batteries of artillery. At Borodino the contingent was much smaller but still included men from all three arms. 

The blue figures are Bavarian leftovers from StreletsR turned into Wurttembergers as 8 figures were still missing.

A good thing about this army is that the Wurttembergers fought in two lines, even if they also knew how to do it in three lines. This saves at least 40 figures as I place 6 figures in three lines for most of the Napoleonic armies.

Th 2nd and 4th IR were used to provide figures for the two line infantry brigades. Besides the few Bavarians turned into Wurttembergers, two of the four officers became flag bearers with the left hand heated up in order to hold the flag.

The StreletsR Bavarian figures had a 1mm slice of the Raupenhelm cut out and a bit of GreenStuff was used for the tip of the crest.

The Bavarian artillery figures are the best of the three Hat boxes together with a nice gun divided into several parts. 

The horse artillery limber is scratch built: Irregular Miniatures wheels; wood parts from EverGreen plastic card, converted figures from Revell, Esci and StreletsR and horses from Valiant IF8 infantry cart given to me by the great Colin Rumford from Rapid Fire! fame (together with some other 200 sprues!).

If you want to avoid this trouble you can go to Franznap but prepare to open your wallet. The good thing about Franznap is that you will get first class figures, probably the best around. 

The Jägers form the 3rd brigade. The individual figures are for another set of rules were they can be used as this is not the case of Age of Eagles (AOE) or Valour&Fortitude (V&F) which are brigade level games. 

The cavalry is represented by the König Chasseurs à Cheval regiment. I couldn´t find any information about a flag for these troopers but I added  a pink one to go along with the facing colors. 

Next: The Essling granary and more Austrians.

Rapid Fire! Blitzkrieg in 20mm - German inflatable boats for the Meuse

This was an old idea of mine since I started my French and German armies for 1940 campaigns. The Meuse crossing by the Germans always caught my imaginaton as it involved the 5e DCL and two French infantry divisions and even some counter attacks by French tank units. The Meuse crossings are also on my visit list for the future. The boats are resin Anyscale Models and the figures are converted soft plastics. There are also ten Revell rowers from five  boxes of Engineers. They just needed some cuts in the anorak as the original is the late war for them to look like the the feldbluse. 

These twelve boats are enough for three battalions, one per fusilier company and one for the support and command companies (quite crammed these last two). There should be more people inside the boats tahn the 6 I used as the period pictures shows sometimes 12 men inside. The Anyscale models German inflatable boats in 20mm size maybe should be a bit bigger but they capture the essential of the piece. 

I used old soft plastics for the figures, mostly Airfix, Esci, Revell Hat and Matchbox. This one is the charging Airfix German and was one of the most used figures for the right hand side of the rowers. The trick was always the same: the figures got cut by the waist; the portable gun was taken out and replaced by a piece of heated plastic broom stick; a rifle or SMG was glued to the back; the legs were made in Milliput; the bottom part of the jacket was also modelled in Milliput and the boots were glued to the trousers while the Milliput was still drying. 

This one is the Esci mortar figure with new legs and left arm. 

Now the same for the relatively useless Airfix DAK figure with a shovel. 

This one was also from the Airfix DAK figure. Its the one in shorts bayonetting the opponent , something that Rommel forbade (not bayonetting but using shorts :) 

The most used torso was the Esci grenade thrower with new arms and used in both sides of the boats. 

The Airfix MG34 gunner just got new legs and its old boots. 

In this one there is an Esci DAK torso hold a LMG, a Hat cyclist (rower) and a Matchbox figure. The two figures on the lower right corner are again Matchbox and Airfix. 

 Some of the boats have a LMG or a flamethrower lying on the floor. Virtuelly all figures neede new gas mask containers, shovel and bayonet, bread bag and canteens and these ones were taken from Preiser or cut from the original figures before the torso was glued to the legs. Nowadays you can also do all this using much more recent figures like Caesar and Pegasus but this is a way to use these old figures in a different, fun and useful fashion. 

Next: Italians for the Russian campaign of 1812.