Airfix Imagi-Nation Highlanders

 One of the side effects of playing Volley and Bayonet (V&B) with 20mm plastic figures is the accumulation of certain types figures in excess of what you can use. A classic example is that of Scottish Highlanders in British Napoleonic forces. 

Command stand for a Klantyre force

Given the scale of the standard game, it is extremely unlikely that you would need more than two brigade stands of Highland infantry, and even then, the Highlanders would typically only represent one of the battalions in each brigade.

Klantrye has a proud military tradition

Over the past twenty five  years  I have acquired a number of painted and unpainted sets of Airfix (and other brands too) Waterloo Highlanders (Click here for the PSR review) in excess of my requirements. Naturally I have hoarded these figures as they might be useful one day.

As I have been building forces for use with my Duke, Elector, King (DEK) 18th century imagi-nation campaign, I have been trawling through my collection of painted and partially painted figures looking for something suitable. Upon discovery of these painted Highlanders, I was struck by the thought that they could be used as well, despite being technically the wrong period.

The original painter's attempt at a tartan pattern is very subdued in these photos 

Indeed, one of the advantages of DEK is being able gloss over imperfections in uniforms as long as it has the right vibe. And since I have recently decided on the campaign background for my DEK campaign, these figures will work perfectly, and in numbers in excess of those normally needed for games of V&B in the Napoleonic era.

A proud regiment of Klantrye: The Glenmoorloch Borderers

The original painter made quite a nice impression of a tartan on these figures

And while perfectly nice sets of 18th century Highlanders exist, these figures have the advantage of me already having them, having a good range of poses that work well for making V&B stands of regular infantry, and of being quite forgiving of my restoration techniques.

Holiday Napoleonics WIP

I started off the 2016 holiday season with another refight of Quatre Bras, using the same scenario reported on here. The three major differences were:

1.  I brought along to the game extra figures, bases, and blue tack, to make skirmish stands as they were needed,
2. I played the French, rather than the Anglo-Dutch forces, and
3. The French didn't even come close to winning - but the butcher's bill was significantly less than the previous refight. 

During the game it was mentioned, that while the French were coming along in leaps and bounds, the Anglo-Dutch, were looking very much like the poor relations of my V&B forces.

The whole lot - in various stages of refurbishment.

With that in mind, and having some free time due to the holidays, I decided on a mass refurbishment of my British forces. I have been fortunate in acquiring over the years a number of painted and semi painted British figures from a variety of sources, so I figured I should start with these figures, and then if required paint figures from scratch.

Eight artillery stands. Guns are Revell and Airfix 9pdrs, figures are Revell Foot Artillery, and Airfix and Esci Royal Horse Artillery

 The figures are from a variety of manufacturers: Airfix, Revell, Esci, and even some Eagle Games figures.

Artillery and Revell 95th Rifles painted as 60th Foot and based as skirmish stands.

I still have to finish the basing by adding tussock, scatter grass, etc to the stands, and to touch up paint on a number of Airfix figures where the older enamels have flaked. I still have to add an ink wash to many of the stands. I have started to experiment with black and sepia washes.

Brown washed Revell and Airfix Infantry.

In the middle, a very thin red line is formed by Esci British infantry.

Another view of the Revell and Esci infantry stands.

 I still have a couple of stands of Airfix Highlanders to refurbish, and a few more stands of Airfix British infantry - but they (and some more command stands) will have to wait a little longer to finishing.
 

The Esci thin red line. I acquired a large number of nicely painted Esci British infantry, that were primarily made up of the standing and firing pose from the Esci British Infantry set (click here for PSR review). 

After the last game of V&B I really wanted to make sure that I had a pool of skirmish stands available for use. The 60th foot stands are probably of more use for the Peninsula War than Waterloo, but since I had acquired some already painted from Steve H., I figured I should just base them up.

Riflemen of the 60th Foot. Metal British 16th Light Dragoons in the background.

Essentially, if I had a painted British figure, I was going to find a stand to base it on in order to bulk up the number of British forces available for use on the table top.

Airfix figures that had been converted to Riflemen. I suspect the intent was to create a detachment of the 95th Rifles. My intent is to use these skirmish stands as generic Jager stands for Netherland and Prussian forces.

Esci skirmish stands with a couple of Revell figures thrown in to the mix on the center stand.

The other major weakness has been the hodge podge of command stands available for the British. While I do have some of the very nice Strelets British command figures from their Aliied command set  (PSR review here), and the Waterloo Napoleonic Mounted Line Officers set (PSR review here) - I am still in the process of painting those figures. So since I had some other mounted officers available, I decided to use those, even though strictly speaking they are in the wrong uniforms,

LtR (Left to Right): Airfix Highlander Officer, Italeri French Officer (repainted) Airfix British Infantry Officer.

 Another source of officers has been the Italeri French Imperial General Staff set (click here for PSR review). I can't remember if it was Frank or Steve H. who first alerted me to the paint conversion possibilities of this set, but the British and Prussian forces Steve H. gave me both had examples of the figures in use as officers.

LtR: Airfix Highlander, Eagle Games commander, Revell British officer, Italeri French officer (repainted)

 Eagle Games used to sell additional figures for their game 'Napoleon in Europe'(click here for the Board-Game Geek review and here for the PSR review of the figures). I bought a set these some time ago with the intent of using them to supplement my Prussian forces. I have re-horsed the mounted figures with Esci British horses, and have started painting up some of the mounted officers as British command stands.

Eagle Games British General on Esci horse - still a WIP as base needs finishing and sword needs to be painted,

 One very interesting event that did come about from the holiday Napoleonic fest was that I discovered my wife has a talent for painting miniatures. I hate painting Napoleonics - hence my great love of refurnishing older figures - and routinely bitch about it being hard. Katherine commented that it looked fairly straight forward, so I asked if she wanted to try painting some.

Katherine's first painted stand. She wants to add more to to the base before she finishes it.

Katherine said yes, and the next day I had another freshly painted skirmish stand at my disposal. I think she has done a very good job with these! I am currently negotiating with her to see if she wants to paint up some of the Netherlander command stands I need completed!

Here Be Dragoons

As I continue to build up my Napoleonic forces for the upcoming summer campaign, I have found myself acquiring a number of metal Minifigs figures.

Various artillery crew. 3 French Foot Artillery, 1 French Horse Artillery, and 1 British Foot Artillery. The mounted officer I believe to be a French line Horse Artillery Officer, and the fellow with the telescope a French Horse Artillery Officer of the Imperial Guard. All corrections gratefully received.

At first it was just the odd command figure, but entire units of second hand painted figures have started being purchased - especially if I think they might be old 'S' range Minifigs.

French guns. The one on the right seems to have its wheels put on the wrong sides.

The main reason for this is that I find the figures have a great deal of character - much like I find the Airfix plastics have a certain charm to them, even though there are much better figures available now, the nostalgia value of Airfix figures will always remain high for me. So given that I believe the 'S' Range figures were originally designed to complement the Airfix range, and fill the large gaps in the Airfix Napoleonic line, it seems only natural that I should like  them as well.

These I believe are Minifigs S Range British Light Dragoons painted as the 16th Light Dragoons.

My most recent purchase has been some rather nice figures I believe painted as the  British 16th Light Dragoons (As always please feel free to leave corrections to my identifications in the comments!)

These will rebased  and turned into a V&B stand that will represent the British 4th Cavalry Brigade during the Waterloo campaign

The other group purchased is this rather interesting set of of what I presume are French Dragoons, with their metal helmets painted yellow rather than a more goldy/brassy/bronzy colour.

French Dragoons! These will require a little bit more effort in their refurbishment.

The figures are smaller and thinner than the Minifigs Dragoons I acquired earlier (click here for details), and the horses seem to be a much rawer sculpt, but never the less the effect is one I find pleasing.

Another view of the figures. One can never have too many Dragoons.

I'm still processing through the last purchase of Airfix figures, but I hope to have figured out exactly how I plan to base them up in the next few weeks. The British infantry have largely all been painted with white trousers which may reduce their utility for the Waterloo campaign. One possibility is to paint their trousers grey. I'm reluctant to do this for two reasons: Firstly, the original paintwork is very nice, and secondly, it does start to defeat the purpose of buying prepainted figures.

Logistics Vehicles

I finished these back in August, and I have been meaning to post these pictures  for a while. The bulk of the models are either Airfix or Airfix reissues of ex JB Models kits.

I decided on a nice generic olive drab scheme for the vehicles, so I can use the for variety of forces. I am finding that the Airfix reissues of the JB Models kits are becoming harder to find - particularly the 105mm light gun kit.

Hiding in the back - a Corgi Land Rover

The view from above.

The idea is to create a pool of vehicles to represent various logistics elements on the tabletop. The next additions to the pool will hopefully be a few Unimog or MAN trucks - the S&S resin models will probably be what I use.

Land Rovers and trailers.

A different view of the Land Rovers.

I still have a couple of moderns logistics vehicles to assemble and paint, and a few diecast trucks to repaint in a common paint scheme, but finishing this lot has made a major contriution to my motor pool.

More Napoleonic Purchases

Recently I have been purchasing more second hand Napoleonic figures to refurbish and use for Volley and Bayonet. These figures have been a mix of 20mm plastic with some 25mm metals as well.

A vast horde of very nicely painted Airfix and Esci figures.

 The plastic refurbishment I hope to cover in another post, but the metal figures have been quite fun. While most are true chunky size 25mm Minifigs, some are possibly either part of the older S rnage of Minifigs that were a smaller 25mm figure, or even possibly from other manufacturer like Hinchcliff (or is it Hinchliffe?)

Back to Front: Minifig French Dragoons, Some Chasseurs?, and  French Cuirassiers.

 The Dragoons required little in the way of refurbishment, just touching up some paint, basing and and then given a brown wash. The Chasseurs (please feel free to provide a better identification) required a little more work, but not much more. The Cuirassiers will need some reinforcements before I can base them up.

Bare metal: Minifig French Lancers, Red circled figures discussed in the text below, and three Minifig French Dragoons.

I've circled a number of the figures above as I hope to use them as command stands for V&B. The rest should find an eventual home in the legions of the Archduke Piccolo. The encircled figures are I believe (from left to right), A French General, a Minifigs Murat, a Grenadier Officer, and a Dragoon Officer. Please let me know if I have misidentified anything.

Minifigs Murat. I had fun with painting the tiger skin.

Chasseurs? or not Chasseurs?

Nice big chunky Dragoons!

I'm quite looking forward to using these figures on the tabletop, as they have a nice heft to them. I suspect the Dragoons will eventually become a display piece as they dwarf my 1/72 plastic Dragoons, but they do have a great deal of charm about them.

Volley And Bayonet: Quatre Bras

Earlier last month (or perhaps even the month before that) I arranged a game to see how the second edition of Volley and Bayonet worked. The 1815 Quatre Bras scenario was selected (with the Anglo-Dutch having a rather motley and Prussian feel to their forces).

Refurbished Airfix Hussars. French heads on British bodies.

The game was run over two days, as it would allow for a late start on Saturday, and a leisurely conclusion on the Sunday. On the first day I acted as umpire, and on the second I took over the Anglo-Dutch forces.

The Prussians Dutch defend Gemioncourt against the first of many French onslaughts

The scenario in the second edition rule book presents a rather different order of battle for the two opposing sides compared to that in the Napoleon Returns campaign book. The main differences between the two are a reduction in the number of artillery stands, and an increase in skirmisher stands. The next time I play this battle, I intend to use the order of battle from the campaign book.

A French division on the advance. The black squares representing two of the many skirmisher stands I have yet to complete.

This is in part due to the unhappiness faced by the French player in having less guns and instead having to deal with the less flexible dedicated guns that many French infantry stands gained. Keeping track of them was bad enough, but the rules regarding crossing streams seemed overly harsh. (Essentially you have to leave the dedicated gun behind, but small separate batteries can cross exactly the same stream that their dedicated brethren cannot)

The green dice represent a visual reminder of each stands dedicated gun. This, to my mind, is not the most optimal method - but I have a plan...

The battle was hard fought, with the successive waves of reinforcements for each side being committed to battle as soon as they arrived.

Confused by who is who? Well, the French are the ones advancing....

For the Anglo-Dutch, this rather seemed like feeding fresh meat into a meat grinder. The French artillery and heavy cavalry seemed unstoppable.

Guns and heavy cavalry - rather useful stuff.

And as Anglo-Dutch units were either eliminated or exhausted, the defensive perimeter around Quatre Bras shrank dramatically.

From holding on....

....To opps! the French are through the gap in the middle....

The game, which was to end after eight turns (2pm through to 9pm), only resulted in a draw because the French ran out of time to deal to the last allied reinforcements holding on around Quatre Bras. One more turn and the road the Brussels would have been secured by Ney!

If this game had been linked into a wider campaign, then the very heavy losses that I suffered would have resulted in a number of absences from the fields of Waterloo! In terms of casualties in this game versus the real battle, let's just say that the French losses were less, but the allies much higher....

I rather liked how these figures turned out. Click here to see their original state.

The game was, as like the other two recent V&B games quite fun, and has certainly spurred me into painting more - even if I am making less blog posts!

105mm Light Guns - All Finished!

I've finished painting the scratch built 105mm guns I was working on in my last post. The initial plan was to use sections of Chux cloth to disguise elements of the build that were simplified for ease of rapid construction.

Three more painted 105mm guns.

 The Chux cloth proved to be too unwieldy, and too good at obscuring detail, that when I showed it to others, they suggested using bandage gauze instead (and even kindly supplied me with some:))

Comparison shot between the scratch builds and a actual model.

And while the bandage gauze certainly looks better, it is very fiddly to apply. The results are very promising, and certainly I hope to use the technique again in the future.

Side shot of the three guns.

 I have a few other scratch built guns that I think I am going to treat in a similar fashion using gauze to simulate netting over their position. I will try and layer the gauze to help create a more substantial netting effect.

Bandage gauze versus Chux cloth .

 If I make more scratch built 105mms, I will try and put some into sandbagged emplacements in order to add some variety to the stands - and obscure some more detail!

The three store bought models.

Overall I think they work well with the actual models, and their construction has proved to be interesting and enjoyable - two things that I think should be central to any hobby.