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.