28mm French Artillery for 1812 Retreat from Moscow Game

Finished sixteen artillerymen this week - the total of my French 1812 retreat crews. Two Perry crews "priming" and two from what was the "old" Westfalia Miniatures - now Black Hussar Miniatures from Berlin. (The guns are from Old Glory [painted some months ago], fences from 4Ground, and the buildings from Pegasus Hobbies.)

I'm really getting backed up on my painting table - and I have a hundred other cavalry and this and that primed on the prepping table that has no place to go, until I finish up some things in the painting side. Here's a shot of the paint station from just last week.

I painted these Perry's thinking they were from Wargames Foundry the entire time. Same sculptors of course ... First Perry Miniatures I've ever painted I think. Lovely models.

I also decided NOT to add any tufts to the artillerymen. It's on the guns so didn't want to over do it. I believe those are 8lbers. I did decline to get limbers for them, which I may rectify at a later date. I envision this as sort of a 1:1 man to figure ratio project so something to move the guns with would be a necessity. 

The howitzers. Um, even in overcoats, there's no "whipping out some French real quick." that thought occurred to me as I was highlighting the cork stoppers in their water gourds.

The Black Hussar "French Gun Crew in Winter Dress" #1 ...

... and crew #2 - these guys on the ends have some dodgy faces on them. I also was screwing around with my tried and true skin recipe and left a failed experiment in place for these guys. Still, they came out fine.

What every Russian wants to see: French backs.

So how do they compare side by side, Perry and Black Hussar? Pretty good with the latter being only slightly taller - perfectly within the range of human variability. Gear is comparable in size as well.

The non-regulation coats came out nicely on the middle pair. Fun to paint.

Why round bases for the Perrys and square for the Black Hussar? Partly they were bought and prepped separately and I forgot to check. Also the Perrys all fit neatly on a U.S. penny and the Black Hussar miniature (at right below) didn't so I, not paying close attention, went with what was going to work right in front of me. On the plus side, I can assign different moral classes or some other characteristic with ease now and have a visual distinction to help remember it.

The overhead shot ...

and the closing one.

Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged. More Napoleonic goodness on its way.

25mm Old Glory, Napoleonic French, 12lb Cannon

More roadside detritus/battlefield objectives - the rest of the battery is intact and will appear when the crew is completed.

Old Glory officer for scale

Yes - I bought brand new guns just to chop up and found a spare tree that escaped the bigger bases already seen here on this blog.

Perhaps there's some powder, matches or burnable wood?

Some bits from Black Hussar/Westfalia Miniatures who do a lovely set of artillery equipment (last entry at the bottom): http://www.triangleminiatures.com/BHM.htm

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!

15mm Old Glory Napoleonic Württembergers

Throwback Thursday! First a pair of Historical entries followed by a pair of Fantasy ones.

Completed during the 90's sometime, these were created for Empire and as I did then, I decided to double up the numbers as I didn't care for the anemic strips of single ranked figures. This is in actual fact a brigade comprised of the First and Fourth Wurttembergers with the requisite brigadier. Nobody made Wurttemberger light infantry or Germans of any kind in greatcoats so the other half of this brigade are actually French infantry in greatcoats (unpictured) that I doctored up to fill in.

I had hatched up a hare brained scheme whereby I would base all the French in white snow covered bases, the German allies in just brown fields, and the Russians in green grass fields so that they would all be easily identifiable on the table. Very silly in retrospect - and it was not as clear to me then that snowfall didn't occur until after the retreat was well underway.

I can't recall who made the flags - very possibly it was Old Glory too.

In these double up units - I used the NCO figures to command the second line.

My daughters love the pink facings

The horse artillery battery - those guns can double for French ones as well. The crews have 2 single figures and three stands of 2 figures - one in front, one in back that could nestle in between the gun carriages. I thought that was clever.

The foot artillery - as you can see, I was divided about how to base the guns. I think I prefer them with gunners on a single base like these

They become nice pieces in and of themselves with the gunners along.

Thanks for looking: questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!