Napoleonic French Foot Artillery 28mm

A battery of French Foot Artillery from Britannia Miniatures again. The snowy climate (check the background in the photo) has kept me indoors and painting away. These are the same range of figures that I used for my Italian artillery battery. This time I used a GW ink wash on the flesh and highlighted with Vallejo Sunny Skin Tone. I may stick to this formula as they seem to come out nice. I've now got a total of four complete batteries (of four guns each) for my overall army, which should do for the time being. Although my mate Simon texted this morning to say that he'd come across 16 unpainted Russian guns in his garage clearout, which I'm guessing he intends to point directly at my chaps in our upcoming game! Yikes!!

Napoleonic French Hussars 28mm

These are the first batch of plastics I ordered from Triple Helix games. As loathe as I was to buy plastics again, financially it made sense (£16 per squadron for Perrys or £35 for metal?). I'll admit that part way through I was slightly exasperated when I'd glued my fingers together for the third time. The end result was worth it I think. The above photo is probably something akin to how they'd look on the battlefield running 'Pell Mell' as they say! The uniform is that of the 12th Hussars around 1814 according to the leaflet in the box. I'm currently reading Rory Muir's "Tactics and Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon" which gives a brilliant view from the perspective of the ordinary infantry or cavalryman.

General Jan Hendryk Dobrowski - 28mm Command Figure

The recent snow showers provided the backdrop to the above photo. General Dobrowski, the last of my Front Rank command purchases. I like the way his gloved hand is outstretched, possibly ordering a maneuvering of his Polish troops at the Battle of Leipzig or some such. I'm hoping Front Rank do a few more command figures in the future. They've not quite got the amount that Perry's have in their catalogue (along with general staff surrounding map tables, ADC's etc etc) but they're really nice and loads of fun to paint. Especially if you're into dioramas and stuff.

Marshal Grouchy - 28mm Command Figure

"Voila Grouchy!" This is another General from the Front Rank French command series. Nice pose and lovely to paint. I found the uniform details on another blog site featuring a similar figure. As I'm sure many would agree, Napoleonic officers and generals give a nice opportunity for individual paint schemes. His jacket was done in a Vallejo Black Green (with highlights) and the trousers done in a Carmine Red.

Marshal Grouchy was an interesting and (although perhaps unintentionally) controversial character. Bonapartists generally accuse him of having "lost" the Battle of Waterloo, despite him having received strict orders from Napoleon to follow and engage the Prussians - which he did with a degree of skill and success at Wavre. Having then received a further change of orders from his chief (which were delayed) to come to his aid at Waterloo he arrived too late as the battle had already swung decisively in the allies favour.

General Bagration - 28mm Command Figure.

I recently purchased a few command figures from Front Rank, which included this nicely sculpted General Pyotr Bagration. Luckily I had some extra bits knocking around to jazz up his base a bit (something I admittedly don't spend enough time on). Next wargames show I'm definitely bringing back some materials for this purpose. Anyway, I decided to paint him according to some of the portrait images I could find on Google. Obviously this isn't always entirely accurate and depends on the clarity and resolution of the image you choose. I noticed several of the same portrait images of Alexander I on there, the colouration of which in some instances makes his uniform look anything from green to blue. Bagration's jacket was done with a base coat of Vallejo Military Green, then with a slight addition of white for highlights. The sash is Vallejo Sky Blue (again with slight highlights). His horse is a Vallejo Neutral Grey then a Medium Sea Grey on top with White to highlight. The mane and such were then painted with a GW Agarax Earthshade wash.

Napoleon's Old Guard Grenadiers 28mm

These are Victrix 28mm Old Guard. Ordered from Caliver Books and arrived in rapid time (ordered on the Wednesday and got here Friday morning). I was reluctant to have another foray into plastics, but I'd worked out how much it was going to cost me to finally complete the French army I always wanted and noticed my finances would be stretched. Anyway, I was also pleasantly surprised that Caliver were offering free postage to the UK on orders over £15. Out of one box I could put two regiments together and still have some extras to mix in with some fusilier heads and bodies I head left over from ages ago to do another line infantry unit or two in greatcoats. I'm also getting used to handling the new camera phone I got for Xmas which will hopefully show in the improved photos I'm uploading on here!

King Richard III, Leicester

I watched the BBC documentary "The King in the Car Park" about the search for the remains of King Richard III, and was struck by how those things we consider historical myths are sometimes revealed to be a mixture of both fact and fiction. The archeological discovery of his final resting place in the site of the former Greyfriars Abbey in Leicester confirmed many things once given to pure speculation: firstly (and most obvious) was that his body wasn't exhumed and thrown into the River Soar after the Abbey was dismantled as some suggested, and that he did indeed have some form of spinal problem (although not necessarily in the way others had claimed). Also, the manner of his death which at least all accounts agree upon, that the wounds showed he died "fighting among the thickest press of his enemies".

Many people would offer the opinion that history is simply "open to interpretation", which I tend to see as a very lazy conclusion to make. Rather we should maybe take George Orwell's example and admit that there should always be the search for the kernal of truth in everything (and along with this admit that some of our previously held assumptions can be disproved).

The above photograph of Richard III's statue in Castle Park, Leicester was taken by my girlfriend. It was just after the identity of the remains were confirmed and as you can see someone had laid a white rose at the foot of the monument.