Guard Artillery Train, 1815

This is the typical grey-blue uniform of the artillery train companies. With the red colour distinction of the Guard. The gun is a 12 pounder, pulled by a train of 6 horses. This was a Christmas gift from my other half for Christmas 2009!

Perry Miniatures, painted 2010.

 

That is a lot of lead on a long and single base... I should have used a separate base for the gun as presently it bends a lot while carrying it by hand!

Old Guard Artillery, 1815

These uniforms haven't changed much over the 1805-1815 period after the bearskin was introduced. And there is no flag to distinguish the period either. BUT the cockade changes in 1815 for the hundred days. These guys have the 1815 cockade!

Perry Miniatures. Painted in 2010.

 There are three 12 pounders and one 6 pounder. Heavy artillery it is! Some guns are fired, others are being loaded.

Young Guard Tirailleurs, 1815

Following the Old Guard Chasseurs I decided to go for Young Guard. At the 1:20 ratio the 1st battalion of the 1st Tirailleurs regiment (1815) needed 28 miniatures - which I based by groups of 7. Not so practical for gaming!

Perry miniatures, GMB fanion. Painted in 2009. 15mm frontage.

This unit did not carry an Eagle nor a flag, instead they had a fanion. 

The casualty figure is a line infantry model modified (epaulettes added, handcuffs modified). Faces have improved a lot, but took ages to paint!

Old Guard Chasseurs, 1815

Back in 2008 I painted these Old Guard Chasseurs. They were the first in a long serie of French Napoleonics units to come. They represent the 1st battalion of the 1st regiment of Chasseurs: hence the Eagle. Hence Cambronne to lead them.

They are 32-strong. 15mm frontage, 8 men to a base. Perry miniatures, GMB flag. Painted in 2008.

The usual beginner mistake (is it?) is to paint Guard units first - as they are not really supposed to be used much in games. Moreover they would be committed last in any game. Also one may wait for confirmed painting skills to do them.

Nevermind, I think they came up ok. My first attempt at painting eyes was acceptable.

1st cuirassier, 1815, part one

And here are the first few shots of the 1st cuirassier regiment so far. They are based on packs FN59, FN60 and FN61 by Perry Miniatures.

Pack FN60 is single cast minis. In packs FN59 and FN61 horses and riders are separate. Flash was easy-ish to remove but I have to say, it took a some effort to unbend horse legs and swords. Compared to the plastic hussars horses are quite massive, which is what you want for heavy cavalry. Note that FN60 cuirassiers have bayonets.

I fully assemble miniatures prior to basing in black. I use single highlights and washes are limited to trouser creases, hands, face and some of the metal. After years of experimenting and little success at painting eyes, I find that they are better left out as long as the face is shaded!

So here is the result of the last 3 months work: 12 riders including the command. The trumpet has been represented in imperial (green) livery, which is not accurate for 1815. I always find it a bit sad to use royal uniforms on imperial units! Also I could use these minis for non 1815 games. The Eagle is missing: Perry's flag poles are quite short and flags by GMB (my preference) are rather large: I will need to order some separate pole (and Eagle?). Front Rank and Calpe poles/Eagles are possible alternatives.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.

If I can maintain the speed by late Feb the regiment could be completed. Realistically I can hope to get the 1st Brigade done in time for June, but there is no chance the full Division will be. This blog will be a mean to remain me focused and motivated - so all comments are welcome!

And as stated earlier, I will also use this blog to show my painted collection so far. One thing I will need to improve on is taking photos!

Planning the 13th Cavalry Division

My present project is ambitious. It sounded nice at the time to focus on a Waterloo 200th anniversary project. It made sense to illustrate the grand and brave (though pointless) charge of the French Cavalry following marshal Ney to its death. Well, almost all the French cavalry charged the British and allied squares, and I'm not goint to do it all, so the 13th Cavalry Division was picked.

Divided into two brigades, it consists of four cuirassiers regiments - all with a different distinctive colour. So all cuirassiers it is, but with some variery. Perry Miniatures provide several different models, perfect for variety!

As in most wargame rules, the scale of 1:20 is respected (1 miniature to represent 20 men). The 11th Division is actually of a modest size.

The following diagram shows the grand plan. Three horses to a (75mm by 60mm) base, two Brigade command stands, one Division command stand. 67 miniatures in total. The distinctive colours of the regiments is highlight on the diagram.

For the uniforms, I have two sources. The famous Rousselot plates and the Mont Saint Jean website.

For the miniatures, I chose Perry. Perry metals. Not plastics. I feer the plastics are fragile (blades, muskets). Plus from my experience of plastics there is a lot of time to be spent on assembly: removing flash and filling in gaps.

And I started with the largest unit. The 1st Cuirassier. These guys will be in the charging pose. See their uniforms on the link below:

Perry command stands surely come with an officer. But not any officer: he has got a single epaulette. He could be a squadron commander. Yet this is a "problem" as I want a colonel to command my regiment. Then I shall add one using putty. Problem solved.

Introduction

Hello readers - wargamers, fellow miniatures painters, relatives or lost web users - and welcome to my blog.

My name is Blancard, and I paint wargame miniatures. More precisely, French Napoleonics. I paint slow. Very slow. To a reasonable standard, probably over the top for wargaming. After years of painting my miniatures haven't seen a gaming table yet (!) but my long term objective is to field some coherent formations at the local club sessions.

I intend to share my 28mm French Napoleonic miniatures painting with you here. There are some similar pages on the internet - I follow a few - and this will be my contribution to the community.

This is not my first attempt at blogging but I will hopefully be more successful at keeping it alive this time. Dedicating a blog to a particular project (as with my old blog) may help focusing for some time, but sooner or later we get bored of projects themselves and need to move on. This blog won't be dedicated to a particular military formation, instead it will follow my project of the day.

THE PRESENT COLLECTION

As a child I played with and later painted some Esci miniatures (1/72). Later I painted a few Games Workshop fantasy miniatures. Not so pointless as I learned to improve my painting skills.

More seriously, I started working on 28mm French Napoleonics back in 2008. So far I have painted:

- 1st battalion of 1st Old Guard Chasseurs, 1815 (painted in 2008)
- 1st battalion of 1st Young Guard Tirailleurs, 1805-1815 (painted in 2009)
- Old Guard Battery (painted in 2010)
- Guard Artillery Train, 1812-1815 (painted in 2010)
- 4th Hussard, 1812-1814 (painted in 2011)
- Generic battalion of light infantry, 1812-1814 (painted in 2012)
- Generic brigade of line infantry, 1812-1812 (painted in 2013-2014)

[pictures to follow!]

THE PRESENT PROJECT

Presently, I am working on the 11th Division of Cavalry during the hundred days (1815). This consists in four regiments of cuirassiers organized into two brigades. This is quite a challenge, and most likely it will not be completed on time for the 200th anniversary of Waterloo! Let us see on this blog how far I can get into this cuirassiers project.

[plans and pictures to follow!]