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.

Monsters For Silver Bayonet

Building forces for Duke, Elector, King still continues, but I have started work on another project..... 

I recently purchased some D&D prepainted figures for use in games of The Silver Bayonet (TSB). The majority of these monsters I hope to use in other games such as Broken Legions or In Her Majesty's Name.

Left to Right (LtR): Giant Scorpion, Roper, Pterafolk, Troll 

While only one of the above monsters has official TSB game statistics (the Troll), part of the attraction to the system is the ability to create new monsters as required. It also means that the monsters can be shaped by a gaming group's interpretation of source material relating to the monster. 

LtR: Gremlin, Halfling Rogue, Kobold Mountaineer, Hat Spanish Priest, Vegepygmy

Pterafolk faces off against a Hat Priest and a Warrior 25mm Spanish Officer

Roper about to devour  a Hat Priest and a Warrior Officer

Troll versus Hat Priest and Strelets US 1812 Militiaman

The adaptability of TSB is very attractive, especially as it can allow for the setting to be pushed back into the 18th Century merely by tweaking the game background. Another major attraction is that it will let me use a number of odds and ends figures that don't quite work with my Volley and Bayonet  armies.

Minfigs 25mm French Dragoons prepare to battle a Giant Scorpion

One of the forces that I am thinking of building is a group of French Dragoons with minimal specialists as part of the team, and treating each Dragoon as a standard infantryman. While the force will be at a disadvantage in some ways, quantity can substitute for quality in some cases.

A Roper is engaged by French Dragoons

It certainly will make for an interesting, if albeit short, campaign. It also will allow me to use some nice 25mm Minifigs Dragoons that don't really work with my 1/72 plastic French.

French Dragoons start bridge clearance operations

Duchy of Warsaw 13th Infantry Regiment

I have completed another brigade stand for Volley and Bayonet, but unlike my more recent efforts - it has nothing to do with the 100 Days campaign. Instead it is a Polish infantry regiment from the army of the Duchy of Warsaw.

Waterloo 1815 Polish Infantry painted as the 13th Infantry Regiment

In late 1809 the Duchy of Warsaw added another six infantry regiments to their army. One of these regiments was uniformed with captured Austrian uniforms which resulted in them wearing white coats with white lapels, light blue collars and cuffs topped off with a czapka. More information on Polish troops during the Napoleonic period can be found here.

I also based up a skirmish stand.

This produced a uniform that is in my opinion quite pleasing to the eye. So when some painted examples came up for sale on a local internet auction site I asked Kat to to put a bid in for me. The figures are all from the Waterloo 1815 Polish Infantry 1812/14 set (click here for the PSR review).  

Only four each of the standing firing pose and the reloading pose is supplied in each set according to PSR, so this group of figures has been collected from three separate sets. 

A view from the side.

The figures were individually based which required me to unbase them carefully in order to rebase them in a pleasing manner for V&B. The unbasing process did damage the paint job slightly on some figures, and the ramrods were painted as wood rather than iron, so some minor repainting was required.

The rear view

The flag had also been painted as blue with a golden eagle, so I repainted it to more closely match what most secondary sources have described the flag. Once the touch ups had been completed I used a very light black wash to pop the detail in the figures.

Airfix French Heavy Cavalry (12ème Régiment de Cuirassiers)

 I have recently completed painting another V&B stand for the 100 Days Campaign. I have not added the unit label to the stand yet, but it is the 2nd Brigade of the 13th Cavalry Division which was part of the French IV Cavalry Corps.

Finally finished after a decade!! 

The brigade is represented using figures from the Airfix French Heavy Cavalry (Cuirassiers) set (PSR review here) painted as the 12th Cuirassiers(click here for the uniform plate from the "Les Uniformes pedant la campagne des Cent Jours Belgiue 1815" website).

Spot the additional figure

The Airfix set only contains 9 mounted figures so an additional figure was added to the stand from the stockpile of figures I have been hoarding have acquired for this project. 

Ten mounted figures on a brigade stand is currently my record for cavalry stands

While the paint job on these figures was recently completed, the paint job was begun in 2011 (click here for a view of them from 2011), while the figures were purchased in in mid to late 1990s when Airfix re-released the set. 

Note the lack of a ID label

So now I only have four more Cuirassier stands left to paint.

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:)

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.

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!