The Year in Review: British and French Napoleonics

(Originally posted on the Home Page, Dec 15th)

I was glancing at my blog calendar just the other day and realized that December 19th will mark a year since I started 'Analogue Hobbies'. Wow. It feels both so long ago and yet it  seems like only yesterday. I must say that at the time, when I started this whole blogging thing, I was a bit leery about it, thinking my interest would quickly peter-out or I'd simply have nothing to say. Well, while I doubt that what I have to say is of any real value I have found that the blog has become very valuable to me for a variety of reasons. First and foremost is that I've met some really fabulous people through blogging - people who have a similar passion for the hobby and whose words of encouragement have been both gracious and helpful. 

A bird's eye view of the two forces.

In addition making new friends, this whole exercise has really helped me focus my efforts at the hobby table. I dunno, but it seems the mixture of getting jazzed in seeing others' great projects and knowing that there are others out there anticipating my own work has really fanned the fires of productivity.

The white-uniformed 16th advancing towards the British position.

To underline this new 'renaissance' I've had for the hobby I thought it would be fun if I spent the next few days pulling out all the stuff I've done over the past year or so, set it up on the table and take some shots - sort of a 'Year in Review'. So, first up is the largest representative of my efforts this year, figures for 'The Beautiful Game': Napoleonics.

Rifles sending out a skirmish screen to meet the French.

The pictures here show the majority of my French and British collection. To be clear, about five of these units had their beginnings many years ago, and a few were started about 14 months ago, but for the most part what you see is around a year's worth of work. I think there is around 550 models in total of which I probably painted approximately 400 in the past year. I'm usually a fairly plodding painter so this is a notable achievement for me especially when this does not include the oddball forays like my Dystopian Wars diversion and things like the recent Russian 'campaign'.

Marshal Ney leading forward regiments of Carabiniers and Dragoons.

Portion of a British Rocket battery getting ready to engage.

Imperial Guard 12 pounders doing hot work.

A view down the French line.

Anyway, like the picture of Ney above, I thank all the visitors of Analogue Hobbies in spurring me on - you've been a great encouragement to me in both getting stuff done and enjoying the stuff that I do. Its been a great year and I'm really looking forward to seeing what the new one will bring. 

Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year!

Curt

The 2nd/66th (The Berkshires) - 28mm Perry & Victrix

 Here are some new recruits to bolster my British Napoleonic collection. This unit (composed of Perry plastics and a Victrix mounted officer) represents the 2nd battalion of the 66th Regiment of Foot (The Berkshires). I had mentioned previously that I was building a British force based on Colborne's ill-fated brigade which was severely mauled by French cavalry at Albuera in 1811 (approximately 70% casualties throughout the brigade).

On top of being a speed bump for Polish lancers, the 66th had the distinct misfortune of loosing both its Regimental and King's colours that day.

The 2nd/66th was all but destroyed at Albuera. Of the approximately 400 men that made up the battalion at the start of the day, it suffered 16 officers and 310 men killed or wounded. The following day, it was able to muster only 53 bayonets. The majority of the casualties had been killed and among the dead were the battalion major, and the ensigns Walker and Colter. Captain Clark was taken prisoner, but was able to escape later, wrote that one of the flags was saved, but he does not specify which one. The remnants of the 2/66th was formed into a provisional battalion with the 2nd Battalion 31st, which had saved its flags. It was noted in its last inspection in Roncesvalles in 1813 said “The Battalion of the 66th doesn't have flags, because their new ones were sent to Lisbon in 1812. It is the undeniable test of their loss at Albuera, and the King's Colours also exists still in Paris”.

Another document, a letter from Lieutenant George Cromption of the 66th, dated May 18, 1811 states, "Oh, what a day that was. The worst of the story I have not related. Our Colours were taken. I told you before that two ensigns were shot under them; two Sergeants suffered the same fate. Lieutenant seized a musket to defend them, and was shot to the heart, what could be done against cavalry?"

These flags, in fact four complete and two reduced to the flagstaffs with their spearhead and  some fragments of their cloths, were sent by Soult to Paris, where they were temporarily deposited in the home of Marshal Berthier, until their presentation in the Tulleries in August 1811, along with 200 flags taken from the Spanish in the past campaigns.

After 1814, these trophies remained hidden until 5 April 1827, when five were displayed in the Museum of Artillery. During the Revolution of 1830, a mob stormed the Museum and took weapons and flags from it, including the King's Colour of the 66th Foot. 

In 1831, the four remaining Colours, were placed in the cornices of the chapel of the Hotel des Invalides. During the funeral of Marshal Sebastiani on 11 August 1851 a fire broke out. The Regimental Colour of the 66th Foot was completely destroyed, while the King’s Colour of the 48th Foot was badly damaged with only its central shield surviving. 

In 1861, General Duffourc d'Antist donated to the Invalides his collection of flags. Among these flags was the King's Colour of the 66th Foot which had been stolen by the mob in 1830.

From what I understand, currently there still exists the shield of the King’s Colour of the 48th Foot, which is in a frame in storage of the l'Armée Musée, while the King's Colours of the 66th Foot, as well as the remains of those of the 3rd and 48th are suspended of the cornices of the chapel of the Hotel des Invalides, which is part of the annex to the l'Armée Musée.

(Information from napoleon-series.org)

British Command Stands

Just a short post on a new British command stand I completed recently.

Figures are from the Perry range. In order to make the stand less Waterloo-specific, I cut away the 'Belgic' shako from the right figure and replaced it with a bicorne from a Victrix sprue. I still have some work to do on the white horse as I'm not too wild on its midtones. 

I'm working on a few Napoleonic vignettes right now so I should have something on them in a week or so.

28mm 95th Rifles in Battalion Order

Good Lord. They look like a 19th century version of U2. Apparently the British army had no barbers (nor enough shakos)...

Really, I thought I'd never do it - I thought I'd never crack. I was committed never to paint one of the most ubiquitous units in a British Napoleonic wargaming army: yes, yes, you guessed it, the 95th Rifles. To me 'The Rifles' are like the iPods of Napoleonic gaming - very trick, sexy, grossly over-promoted and seen freakin' everywhere. 

In my defense I did have a pile of unpainted Foundry riflemen from an age-old ebay auction AND I had several frames of the Perry plastic riflemen that come in each of their infantry boxed sets. So c'mon, I had to do something with them. Right? Right?! (sigh) Anyway, I've since stifled my toy soldier snobbery and have done up a unit of Rifles for myself. 

Over the past few weeks I've been reading about several actions where the 95th eschewed their regular skirmish tactics and instead fought in standard battalion formation. So I thought I'd depict a unit of Rifles that are madly scrambling to double-out into battle line while being under fire. I wanted to use as many of my current castings as possible, but the scale difference between the Perry's older Foundry stuff and their more current range is quite distinct. Since the Foundry models are significantly shorter I had to do something to make them blend in better. I decided upon an old trick by using a type of forced perspective where I've placed the shorter castings on trimmed down plastic base 'shims' and put them in the front rank.

Here is an example of a base with the plastic 'shims' in place.

The older Foundry castings go on the shims...

...and the newer, taller Perry model goes au naturale.

This way the shims partly mask the bigger dimensions of the taller models set in the back and the extra height helps to draw the viewer's attention away from the differences in scale. I still see the differences but I think for the most part it worked out okay.

Note: This man was shot for not having a mullet.

I added a dead horse casting I had in my bitz box to depict the officer just having his mount shot from underneath him. For the pistol laying on the horse's flank, I trimmed down the hand from a pistol in the Victrix plastic set and placed it in the vignette to show that the officer has just put his horse down, dropped the pistol and is now drawing his sword, all the while bawling out commands.

The end of the line has a sergeant pointing to where he wants the men to form up. The plastic Perry riflemen are great for giving that hustling sense of urgency.

Well, there you have it. I've now joined the ranks of those who just had to have the 95th in their collections. Actually, I'm pretty jazzed about taking them out for their first game. I can now just hear the whining, faintly annoying electric guitar playing 'Over the Hills and Far Away"... (shudder)

28mm British Line Infantry (aka The beginnings of Colborne's Brigade)

Here are a couple British battalions I painted up for a recent 'Black Powder' game that I thought I'd post. My long term plan is to build Colborne's ill-fated brigade of four battalions which was over-run by Polish lancers and French hussars at the battle of Albuera (with a near 70% casualty rate). The first unit shown below is the 2nd battalion of the 31st (The Huntingdonshires) which was the only battalion of the brigade that managed to form square before Latour-Maubourg's cavalry hit. Twenty four of the figures were previously painted and based from ages ago, but I  rebased them, added a fresh colour party, a mounted officer and some additional casualty figures to flesh it out.

The next battalion is a completely new addition to the collection: it is the 2nd battalion of the 48th (The Northamptonshires). Like the 31st this unit was also mauled by the Polish lancers, but rallied and then endured a protracted firefight with a French brigade. It lost over 400 men during the action. Poor buggers.

Both of these units are composed of venerable Foundry castings (Perry sculpts). The excellent flags are from Rick "The Flag Dude" whose service I cannot recommend enough (to which a dedicated review will follow). I still need to add flank companies to both these battalions but that will have to wait for another day...

28mm British Royal Horse Artillery

Here are some Perry British Royal Horse Artillery castings. I quite liked the sculpting on the crew running up the howitzer. Again, I have these based on sheet steel to keep a low profile to the playing surface. I'll need another gun to make up a full battery for Republic to Empire. Then I'll start some caissons and limbers to denote the depth of the battery. My apologies for the crap photos as they are a bit blurry.