French Light Infantry

 Just a couple of photos of my Campaign Miniatures French light infantry. These figures have a lot of interesting poses and came with very little flash. Also have nice solid bayonets, which is always a bonus.

Lithuanian Tartars

 Have just finished on my Boki Lithuanian Tartars. I really like the figures from Sho. They have great character and details. These figures need a little pinching in to get them on some Wargames bases comfortably (ankles and lance hand need squeezing in a bit depending on your base size). Their numbers mean that for most Wargames you probably don’t need that many figures, but I’m building for 1818 and anything is possible!! The lance Pennents are from Essex miniatures, they will sell on request the lances so you can drill and stick them on the end of cut down paperclip or brass rod, I use a 0.8mm drill bit and brass rod.

Here are the first batch of lancers. Difficult to determine the uniforms as they seemed to have a lot of variants.

Have now finished the second lot. I did these in a different colour scheme to give some variety.

Mameluke

Needed a break from the ships so started on some Mamelukes as a distraction. 

 

A bottle of rum - Principe de Asturias

 Another first rate ship for the Spanish, the Principe de Asturias. I don’t think that JJ Wargames blog has this ship detailed, the only info I have is what am I reading off the Wikipedia page.... Built 1794 in Havana.... struck a rock in 1814.... scrapped 1817. She was also at Trafalgar which I think was a small skirmish off the Iberia coast. 

A bottle of rum - Santisima Trinidad

 The Spanish fleet goes up a notch with the arrival of the Santisima Trinidad. Delivering a whooping 140 guns to the party and the manoeuvrability of a 4 ton Preseli Spotted Dolerite. But despite these flaws it is bound to project fear into any opposing fleet, before it catches fire uncontrollably and sinks. JJ’s Wargames blog has much better information on this ship and I again recommend his site.

A bottle of rum - Vauban island fortress

 I painted up this nice model from Hagen-Miniatures based in Germany. Had really nice prompt delivery and packaging.

It’s their Vauban Island Fortress. It looks like it is based off the French fort Fort Louvois. The model came in three pieces and fitted together nicely. The guns were all provided separately. There were a couple of small air holes I should have filled but nothing big, so overall it was a really nice resin addition to the Black Seas world. 

A bottle of rum - Neptuno

 Neptuno is a third rate ship, this is not a comment from a sailor on trip advisor. It was technically a third rate. Again JJs Wargames blog will explain all. Again I tried following all of the advice from Mr Jones and was pretty pleased with the result. Still no ratlines or anchors, oops! I might write a post of the high and lows of loom ratlines at some point. 

A bottle of rum - Santa Ana

Time for a diversion across the seas. I have been following JJ’s. Wargame blog and have always wanted to have a go at some Napoleonic ships. Problem was, I did not have a clue about them. I didn’t know my mizzen mast from my dolphin striker. Luckily Jonathon Jones knows a lot and has very generously shared part of that knowledge on his blog pages, big thank you for that. Warlord Games Black Seas also offer a great scale to get started at 1:700. This really gives some nice proportions. 

First up is the Spanish First Rate Santa Ana. More details on this ship and some really nice pictures can be found on JJ’s webpages. My version is bound to have some mistakes but I was fairly pleased with the result, and very thankful to Jonathan for his excellent guides. Also note, no ratlines have been added. I’m currently working on a small loom and have not quite got the technique yet.

Russian 7th Division

Finished the line regiments for the 7th Division a few months back. This was pretty intense work! It was around 320 figures including the grenadier battalions (still a few figures short on the second grenadier battalion). Frustratingly the camera is making them look much more shiny then they do when I look at them on the tabletop.  

Moscow Regiment

Pskov Regiment

Libau Regiment

Sofia Regiment

Jaegers (more to come)!

Close up, sorry about the thumb

Russian Army Generals

 After using the Boki set for Kutuzov I was left with the AB Kutuzov figure spare. I had also picked up additional command figures that I have been converting from the Prussian sets. I wanted to produce a version of General Fabian Gottlieb Von Sacken. He was a bit round like Kutuzov and the AB figure seemed a good start for conversion. My modelling skills are very limited so I went for the bare head look, apart from a lump of milliput stuck on top of his nogging. 

The end result I thought looked okay. Mostly as it did not rely heavily on my modelling skills, more on the skill of Anthony Barton. Then it was splish splash bosh with the Vallejo’s and voila! 

Now some keen eyed People might say, hang on a minute why is Von Sacken wearing his sash like Kutuzov? It’s on the wrong way round (some might also say it just looks like Kutuzov)! Well, firstly my crafting skills are not good enough to erase the original sash and create a new one. Secondly, the photo was probably taken at a distance and it makes them look similar. Something like that.

French Dargoons

 First up are 24 Campaign Game Miniatures French Dragoon’s. Very nice figures, pushing on a meaty 18mm size. Also annoyingly I should have tried them on my bases Before painting as they are a little wide. This could have been solved by just pushing the end of their legs in a bit. But once painted I didn’t want to do this and I have now had to stagger them.

Russian Opolcheniye

 I bought this unit about 30 years ago. I actually mixed the guys with the caps with the guys with big felt hats. This led to a real rabble look. So I have repainted just the chaps in caps. I made the flag myself. 

Russian Infantry Corps Command Stand

Maybe this is a little over crowded! I wanted to represent Raievski in the midst of battle with the Grenadiers. Raievski is a really nice figure from Boki Miniatures. He is giving some orders to a dismounted AB general (okay his plume is too tall, probably because he is an officer from the pre 1812 range from AB, but it probably got misshapen from the bullets whizzing through it). All the other figures are AB. The thing I like about this stand is that it has a real 360 feel to it. The problem with it, is that you have to handle it carefully despite the numerous raised parts I added round the side for gripping.