For England, for home, and for the prize!

Well folks here we are back again. Presenting our projects for the 2014 installment of the Guns of April ! As you all have seen we are covering skirmish sized warbands for Napoleon in Egypt. Unlike last year where I posted numerous photos of the ACW project over many months, I decided to just make one post due to the smaller scope of this project.

For this years project I have the privalge to present you with my take on a British Royal Navy landing party with a detachment of  Royal Marines. Below are some shots of the landing parties and Marines. The miniatures I used this year were from a few manufacturers. The Royal Navy officers and Jack Tars are from Brigade Games. The Royal Marines are a combo of Perry Miniatures plastic British Line Infantry with white metal Royal Marine heads from Victrix LTD. 

I hope you enjoy the photos and until next time. Keep the paint flying!

And with that, the game was over...

So, after all this planning, painting, travelling, building, and a bit of drinking, the first project of our little group has come to fruition. The 2012 200th Anniversary "What if?" Salamanca battle went off very smoothly, and to a very appreciative group of onlookers and passers by. Here are a quick(ish) batch of photos from the game. More detail will follow once we get some sleep and take some better photos.

From the start, the British column was up against it as we struggled with our command rolls. From failures to complete blunders, our initial strategy was in tatters from the start.

Not wanting to gloat too early, the French commanders attempt to hide their mirth at our plight.

By the time we were able to form a credible defensive line, the French second brigade was racing across the northern portion of the table.

Had this been a straight forward, stand up fight, our Guards battalions would have certainly held the center.

More action at the northern end of the line as the 42nd hastily form square in the face of French Hussars.

The battle for the chapel was a complete bunfight! All manner of units were trying to unseat the 95th from their loopholes.

With a few jammy rolls towards the end of the game, the French were able to bring three cannon into close range of the 3rd Foot Guards, with another at medium range in enfilade. After 13 shots from artillery, and another three from the Legere to the Guards front. This powerhouse unit was forced to retire 12".

After four hours of hard fighting, and incredibly enthusiastic piss-taking, the game fell to the French. It was determined as "A minor French victory, with no allowance for future French bragging, and no-one owed anyone any beers."

Above are the crew, from left to right: Joe Krone, Chris Ferich, Jamie Welling, Alex Akers, Brien Dulaney, myself, and Dave Pauwels,

There was quite a bit of spirited discussion following the game, and the results were:
a) This event had been a roaring success, despite never setting indicators for success, and
b) We'll be tackling some part of the Gettysburg battle for our 2013 project (another anniversary game of course)!

Cheers
Dave

Why the red coats?

So, the blood doesn't show.

With a game like Black Powder, where all your models are either on the table or off the table, you need to have something to mark the declining status of the health and morale of your units. There are, of course, plenty of ways to denote these things - during our playtesting we used poker chips or Warlord Games sell laser cut tokens (just two examples).

Well, I figured enough effort had gone into the battalions of fine British soldiery that they deserved something a little more special. Above (and below) are the first batch of my casualty/shaken markers. Once a battalion takes a casualty, the marker will be put down and the red d6 turned to 1. As they take more casualties I can turn the d6 to the appropriate level. These models are from the Perry Miniatures French heavy cavalry boxes. I have a handful of Perry metal British casualties on their way to me as I type. I hope they arrive in time!

And, as disruption plays an important part in the game too, I figured some other markers would do the trick there. Below you can see a half dozen casualties from the Front Rank British range, most of them clutching their painful gutshots. The chap on the far left is converted from a Perry plastic rifleman, again clutching his wounded stomach. All of these have been based on hex bases to make them stand out at a glance from the other, larger and rounder casualty bases.

With less than two weeks until our fateful game, I expect we'll see a wonderful flurry of posts on this interesting chronicle of the project. I know that over the last three weeks or so I've painted at least 27 French horses. Can't wait to see them all on the tabletop!

Cheers
Dave

The 95th Rifles

Greetings All,
        Well until now I have stayed somehwat in the shadows on this progect as life has been crazy, but I am ready to show you all the first of my two regt's that will be taking the field at Adepticon in April for the side of King George! Now I actually finished these about a month or two back but again life was busy so it took a while to get pictures of them and then get posting about that so I do apologize. Since this was the first time I have painted Napoleonics in over 15 years I wanted to try something new and used the army painter green  as the base coat.

I apologize for the picture but the close shots weren't comming out well. As Far as the army painter I would say if I was going to dip the army and shoot for a basic quality it would be ok but I think for my painting style it wasn't the best choice but thats ok. Overall I am looking forward to this and may even expand the brits into a brigade as normally I am a French fan but hey we all have roles to play:). Overall I am extremely excited for this and I look forward to what is in the works for Adepticon 11.

The 24th: The Race Is On!

Just a quick update on the progress of my unit for the British.  I finished my first stand minus basing and can't be more excited.  I don't think this is my best work by far but time is of the essence so I'll have to let some things go (for now at least).  6 down, 18 to go and 44 days remaining. This is going to be close.

March on Soldier(s)

After falling ill last November I wasn't entirley sure whether I would even make Adepticon let alone complete my required units of British for the big Salamanca game.  But, the beauty of a group project, espeically with great guys like the ones involved here, is people are ready and able to step up and help you out.  So, most of my painting tasks went to some newly aquired recruits and I can't thank them and the core group enough for picking up my slack. 

Well, a couple of months ago I realized I was recovering well and not only did I set a goal to play in the game at Adepticon I really wanted to challenge myself to complete at least one unit. Completing this unit and playing at Adepticon are really going to be benchmarks for me as I get back to my old self.

Starting this week I finally put together my unit of the 24th Foot for the British side.  I'm using Perry plastic British Line Infantry and, as usual, their models are just superb.  I was very fortunate to have the able guidance and advice of Dave Taylor in assembling this unit as I'm a complete noob when it comes to Napoleonics.  After a short Skype call with Dave I had the basics of what a center company should entail (who knew all the subtle differences!) and this week I set to work on putting it together. The one challenge I faced was the variety of poses possible with this plastic kit.  Looking at lots of source references for these models, like the Black Powder book and others, I had the small delima of going with very regimented and repetitive poses or going with some fun and asthetic ones.  Well, I'm a painter and hobbyist first and foremost so the fun and asthetic side won that battle!  The first three "test" models are on my painting stands and the other 21 are assembled and ready to go.  My plan is to paint them before basing since they'll be packed tight on the final bases (which looks cool in my opinion).  So stay tuned for the first pictures of a completed stand #1.

Hussars! Hussars!

Despite promising myself I'd be working on something else, the playtest game got me in the mood again to paint more Brits, so with just my Hussars to complete for the big game, I set to work on them.

These are the first four of the 1st KGL Hussars (three troopers and a trumpeter). I think once they're complete they'll probably be the most gaudy of my units ; )

It is always interesting painting up new units for my army as I learn so much more about the uniforms and, by extension, the attitudes of the time. With these Hussars I got to learn four new words too: shabraque, pelisse, sabretasche, and dolman. Pretty cool. One note I must make about these Hussars is their pelisse. Although it was common for the pelisse to not be worn in hotter climates (such as the Peninsula) I just had to include them. After all, the pelisse is one of the key things that to me says "Hussar!"

Cheers
Dave

PS. I used to call the pelisse "that fancy jacket thingy".

Campbell's Staff

Last (British) post I mentioned that my Divisional Command stand would be next up. Joe jumped in with a good look at his progress, only seven fusiliers and his cavalry to go for him, and they're looking great too. So, we're now back to the Brits for a post or two.

As I've mentioned earlier, there aren't a lot of British Staff Officer models out there. That's why this stand sports only one truly British model who (for our purposes) represents the First Division commander at Salamanca, Major-General Henry Campbell. The model is from the Perry's British range (as Major-General Kempt).

The remaining models are from French packs from the Perrys, most of them modified in some way to make them look more British (or German).

I hope you like them, and that they serve us well on the field of battle.

For those of you who might be wondering, the dog is from Warlord Games' Celt Mastiffs pack, from their Hail Caesar range. I spotted a dog just like it on a table at Salute last year, asked the guy at the table where it was from, then dashed off to the Warlord stand to buy a pack of my very own. The pack has been sitting on my desk since April last year, just waiting for an opportunity like this. While I haven't read anything that suggested (or even hinted) Campbell had a dog, I thought it would make a great addition to the base.

You can take a look at the table (Alternative Worcester 1651) that inspired the purchase of the dogs here. And if you look closely, you might be able to spot the dog in the pics.

Cheers
Dave

The British Commanders stand ready.

Well it seems to have been a month since our last update! Who'd have thought it?

In our little group, however, we've had quite a bit of turmoil in our lives. 

Joe spent the last five weeks of 2011 in Vietnam. Brien bought a new house (his first) and all the joy that comes with that. My wife gave birth to our second child, which has certainly changed the dynamic of the household. And two members have been going through some medical dramas of their own.

Throughout it all we've been plugging away at our modeling tasks. Joe has been working on some cavalry, Alex has finished off some Rifles, and Jamie is about to start of the 24th Regiment of Foot.

I've been able to squeeze in a few hours here and there finishing off the command stands for the British. As I've mentioned before, a few of these models are actually from the Perry British range, but most of them are from other Perry ranges (including a few Frenchies). Some minor conversion work covered up of the uniform inconsistencies but I know there are a few still visible. Hopefully you can look past those and enjoy the simple stories in each vignette.

1st Brigade - Fermor and Von Lowe.

2nd Brigade - Wheatley.

3rd Brigade - Van DeLeur.

4th Brigade - LeMarchant.

Next post, Campbell's Divisional Command.

Cheers
Dave

PS. Only three months to go!

British Command reaches next level

After a little bit more work adding some greenstuffed sashes and sword belts, my collection of Officers and their staff is now ready for painting!

One of our new sponsors, Dragon Forge Design, provided the bases I used for the command stands. Jeff has a great range of sculpted bases, perfect for lots of sci-fi and fantasy games, but he also has a range of "base blanks" just perfect for this sort of thing. For the Brigade commanders I used 80mm round blanks, and for the Divisional commander I used a 120x95mm oval blank. 

So, here are my commanders: First Brigade - Femor (left) and Von Lowe (right, mounting up).

Second Brigade - Wheatley (mounted) calling for haste with the delivery of new orders to his sub-officer.

Third Brigade - Van DeLeur (mounted with telescope) observing the actions of the enemy and preparing to give orders to an officer of the RHA.

Fourth (Cavalry) Brigade - Le Marchant (mounted, wearing the bicorne) with von Bock (or Alten, I haven't decided, in the KGL Hussar uniform).

And finally, here is Campbell, commander of the Guards Division at Salamanca and "Divisional Commander" of the British for our little game at Adepticon.

As well as thanks to Dragon Forge Design, we would also like to thank the Perry's for their kind support in the form of these command models. Cracking stuff!

Cheers
Dave