More 1815 Dutch Militia

I have now completed both D'Hauw's 1st/1st Netherland Brigade and De Eerens' 2nd/1st Netherland Brigade both of which form part of II Corps st Netherlands Division.

Both brigades side by side

In my last post regarding painting and basing Dutch Militia, I mentioned that the metal figures I was using purchased from eBay from a seller who had them listed as manufacturer unknown.

Rated as poorly trained with low morale they hopefully will have lucky dice

Fortunately a number of readers (Doug - from Doug's Soldiers blog, Archduke Piccolo -from Archduke Piccolo blog, and two anonymous commenters) were able to identify the figures as Warrior Miniatures 25mm Napoleonics, and part of their Spanish range (click here for more details).

The flag is pure conjecture

As these are smaller 25mm figures they do seem to work well with the rest of my Napoleonic collection which is primarily 1/72 plastic. They also seem to work with other figures....

Silver bayonet anyone?

Prussian 25th Infantry Regiment

I have just recently finished making another two V&B stands for the 100 Days campaign. The brigade stand represents the main body of the Prussian 25th Infantry Regiment (25 IR), while the skirmish stand represents a detachment from the main body.

Full frontal Prussians

An excellent online source for the uniforms of the 25 IR is "Les Uniformes pedant la campagne des Cent Jours Belgiue 1815" website (click here for the Prussian 25th Infantry Regiment entry). This has been the main source of information for my paint scheme.

The bulk of the figures have come from the HaT Waterloo Lutzow Freikorps & Nassau Grenadiers set (PSR review here). The figures are perfect for the 100 Days campaign as the 25 IR as they were still primarily wearing the black uniform of the Freikorps.

Unfortunately the set doesn't contain any officers, musicians, or flag bearers. However it does contain a figure with a ring hand, which means that accessories from the HaT Waterloo Dutch Infantry set (PSR review here) can be used to create a passable musicians and a flag bearer.

Skirmish stand that can be detached from the main body.

Noting that some sources have some senior officers of 25 IR wearing the uniform of regular line officers I decided to use a rather nice figure from the Strelets Russian and Prussian Chiefs of Staff (PSR review here). I think having the officer in the regular army blue and grey is a nice contrast to the black uniforms of the rest of the figures.

I couldn't find any definitive answers with regard to the flag used by the 25 IR - or even if they had one! Based on what I could find, I decided that a draped red flag would look good and be easy to do.

KGL 3rd Regiment of Hussars

 I am continuing to slowly raise forces in order to conduct the 100 Days campaign as outlined in the V&B scenario book "Napoleon Returns". In order to do this I have been reviewing both my existing collection, and the Orders Of Battle (OOB) listed in the scenario book to see what additional stands I need to acquire. Fortunately I don't need to paint figures for every unit in the campaign - just ones that would be representative of the stand listed in the OOB. 

Label added on stand with bonus paint smear.

Greatly assisting in this project has been the set of unit labels for "Napoleon Returns" from Keith McNelly's excellent Volley and Bayonet site. Keith's site is an invaluable resource to Volley and Bayonet players. I have printed off the labels and started the process of identifying existing elements in my collection to populate the respective OOB for each of the three armies required. 

Full frontal Hussars! Only eight of the twelve figures could fit.

The most recent result of this project has been the refurbishment of one of my older stands that I acquired many years ago, but required quite a bit of work to restore as the original head swap conversions had parted way from the bodies.

According to PSR the saddles are correct for the Crimean War.

The base figures are from  Esci Set 230 British Light Dragoons (PSR review here) with the heads coming from Esci Set 227 French Line Infantry (PSR review here).

Only after basing the figures did I realise that I only put one figure on with a carbine 

The paint job seems to have been based on Haythornwaite's "Uniforms of Waterloo in Colour" which aligns well with the information from the "Les Uniformes pedant la campagne des Cent Jours Belgiue 1815" website (click here for the uniform plate for the 1st Squadron 3rd Hussars KGL).

The main differences appears to be regards the colour of sash barrels for troopers, and the colour of the saddle cloth. Since the Esci horses have the wrong saddlery for the Napoleonic era anyway, I wasn't going to correct it, nor was I going to change the coloured barrels on the sashes. So it is possible that all my troopers are wearing the officer sash instead of the correctly colored trooper sash:) 

Now with added black wash on the horses and troopers:)

Previously I had used these figures as generic light cavalry, often representing sub par cavalry, as I wasn't sure what nationality they were:), but their tabletop performance had always been first class.I hope with their recent refurbishment that this will continue:)

Heller Bobkit Commando Set

A while back now I purchased on a local auction site  the Heller Bobkit Commando set. The Bobkit range has always interested me due to the quick assembly snap fit vehicles and the figures that only seem to have been released in these sets.

The packaging is very 1980s

The contents of this set did not disappoint, as it contained five individual figures, a McDonnell Douglas MD 500 Defender helicopter, a VAB APC, a Renault J series truck, and Hotchkiss M201 light utility vehicle.  The set also came an instruction sheet that I have reproduced below:

Side A: Advertisement for other Heller products

Side B: Easy to follow instructions

Everything was complete and undamaged - except for the helicopter rotors that required careful repair. I haven't assembled the helicopter yet as I want to paint it before assembly, but I very quickly build up the other three models.

VAB APC and French Commandos (Esci Warsaw Pact figure for scale comparison)

The figures are quite animated and will make a nice addition to the  French figures from the ESCI NATO set. Detail on the VAB is basic, but it assembled quickly and was fun to put together. I expect that once painted it will work nicely with my other VABs

 Renault J truck and Hotchkiss M201 light utility vehicle 

The reason why the Hotchkiss M201 light utility vehicle looks like a Jeep, is because it is a Jeep! The French built them under license after WW2. Further details can be found here.

Overall, the set is a very nice collection of quick build models that are useful additions to a 1980s French force. I enjoyed building them, and hope to paint them and some other French vehicles over the upcoming Christmas break.

1815 Dutch Militia

A key part of the Dutch forces required for the 100 Days campaign are the Dutch militia units. The figures are metal figures I purchased on Ebay. Neither I, or the seller, know the figure manufacturer.

Mystery figures

Unlike the Dutch  regulars, the militia wore a stovepipe shako, so seeing the above figures in blue jackets and white trousers (which according to the Volley and Bayonet campaign guide was the summer uniform the militia should have been wearing during the 100 Days), I figured were ideal for using as militia.

Ready for painting and basing

The figures included two flag bearers. According to most sources the militia didn't officially have flags, but there is speculation that unofficial flags were carried in the field due to their practical value in showing where the center of the unit was in battle. I figured I could paint a pattern similar to the flags shown at War Flags.

De Eerens' 2nd/1st Netherland Brigade

These metal figures are enough to populate two of the five militia stands I need for the Netherlands order of battle. The rest of the stands will use Hat figures from the Waterloo Netherlands Militia and Belgian Infantry set (PSR link here), and converted figures from the HAT Waterloo Dutch Infantry set (PSR link here), and the A Call To Arms Netherlands Infantry 1815 set (PSR link here).

Generals of the Netherlands 1815

As part of building up the forces needed to conduct the 100 Days campaign, I wanted to start building the force needed for the Army of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Having stockpiled a number of the various HaT sets required, I figure it would be a straight forward project that I could slowly work on.

The labelled command stands.

The required  V&B ToE for the campaign is given in the V&B Napoleon Returns supplement. An Excel spreadsheet with labels for all the require stands can be downloaded from Keith McNelly's Volley & Bayonet website here. The site is well worth exploring if you play Volley & Bayonet, as it has a number of useful resources. Keith also has a group on Facebook devoted to V&B that also has some useful material, but also a growing membership that seems quit open to sharing idea and information.

HRH The Prince of Orange from the Waterloo 1815 Napoleonic Mounted Line Officers set.

Dutch Divisional Commander from I Corps Anglo-Allied Army. The two figures on the left are from the Italeri French Imperial General Staff set, while the last one is an Eagle Games General mounted on an Esci horse from their 'Scots Greys' set.

 Unfortunately, this project was disrupted by my discovery that I would need significantly more Dutch Militia wearing stovepipe shakoes than I had planned on. My figure needs had been based on the information contained within 'Napoleon Returns' which doesn't quite match up to information contained in other later sources. Additional troops, spare heads, and other sundries have been ordered, but there have been some quite understandable logistical delays of late...

The Eagle games general was originally produced as a generic commander for use in Eagle Games' "Napoleon in Europe" game.

On the plus side, I had the figures I wanted to use for my Dutch Generals, and if I was prepared to do the block painting of the figures, Kat would give me a hand with the detailing work and the horses. This was an offer I happily took up.

II Corps Dutch Divisional Commanders

The astute observer will note that the label placement is a little lumpy on the stands. This is due to me basing the figures before applying the labels. Happily, I will be avoiding that mistake with the rest of the Netherlands army.

Dedicated Gun Markers for Volley and Bayonet

Before the recent lock down measures, Rhys and I played the Quatre Bras scenario from the V&B 2nd edition rule book. During that game we made use of Risk playing pieces to remind us which stands had dedicated guns.

After painting they received a gloss varnish.

 While the roster sheets provide that information, having a small cannon on the stand is a more obvious reminder.

In V&B terms this represents a French brigade. By adding the marker, I can visually show that it has dedicated guns.

I painted up eighteen guns as I felt that was a reasonable number. The paint job is very basic, but I think suitable for the purpose. 

The Risk pieces received a basic paint job and a brown wash.

Of course, once I had painted the markers I needed a way of storing them. Fortunately, I had an Altoids tin that I had painted previously, but not used, for another project.

Perfect fit, with room for more

The previous project had a Napoleonic French flavour.