The recruiting depots have been working away.

First up is a unit of Byzantine light cavalry that was 95% completed in Lockdown, however the shield xfers were faulty. Stephen Hales from LBM Studios sent me replacements free of charge and I have put the xfers on the shields and added a LBM banner.

My Byzantine force now has 2 cavalry units, a heavy and a light and  1 unit Skutatoi infantry. Another heavy cavalry unit is on the painting table at the moment. All figures are metals by Gripping Beast.

Next up are 4 battalions of 1809 era Austrian Grenadiers. Figures are Front Rank with flags by GBM Flags. There were some broken bayonets on the figures, so I found a use for some plastic Warlord Prussian Landwher by painting their bayonets, cutting them off then gluing them onto the metal Front Rank figures. Happy with result.

Last up are reinforcements for my Netherlands Waterloo force. I already have 2 Militia battalions and have added the 2nd Line Battalion and 35th Jager battalion plus the Belgian horse artillery battery Bichin. All figures are Perry Miniatures.

That’s all for now.

Back in 2015 for the 200th Anniversary of Waterloo, the Group led by Goldie organised a multiplayer refight of Waterloo. This took place at the aptly named ‘Wellesley Hotel’ in Wellington, a venue which was a treasure trove of prints on walls of said battle. It was a rather large game, 50ish players, 1000’s of troops in varying paint standards and basing conventions! Goldie got Russ’s wife to sew him up to long base clothes for the 2 tables and he then painted them on his driveway to match aerial pictures of the fields at that time of year around the battlefield….Alan made card buildings to scale and the rest of group had hill making sessions in the then garage to scale.

It was a great success.

A few pictures are below, mine were on a laptop that died…these are courtesy of Von Peter.

Table maps overlaid over setup map for battle.

Start positions on main table, Prussian table is elsewhere!

Multiple lines of Allied troops, Prussian table in background….they took a LONG TIME TO ARRIVE.

Prussians arriving at last and clearing all before them. Very nice Calpe figures painted by Rhys.

Roll onto 2020 and the Auckland Group which Garagegamer John has joined planned to put on a Waterloo refight. A few of us in Wellington Group decided we would head up for the game, and provide a large portion of the troops. A certain global plague has caused the delay of this refight(unknown future date!).

As I don’t collect British(they are a sideshow army) my contribution to the original game were basically French. However, as I was to be Prince Orange(with special rules!) in the original game, I obtained the Prince Orange and General Chasse figures from Front Rank and painted them. Feeling a bit guilty I also painted up the Dutch Heavy cavalry Brigade, mainly because I really like the Front Rank Belgian Carabineer figures. However, the Dutch ones I did not like so used Wurttemburgers!

Roll onto 2020 and for some reason I agreed with PaulW I would do the 3rd Netherlands Division. Prior to Global lockdown I ordered the 1st Brigade from Perry Miniatures and not Front Rank…..mainly as Alan had 2nd Netherlands Division in Front Rank figures so decided to have different figure range.

The 3rd Netherland Division is commandered by Chasse(who will be on both the Prince of Orange command base and the division command base, he is a busy chap!). Initially I will be generating the 1st brigade only, if have time and motivation, will add 2nd!

• 3rd Netherland Division – General Chasse
• 1st Brigade Colonel Detmars
  • 35th Light Bttn
  • 2nd Dutch line bttn
  • 4th Militia bttn
  • 6th Militia bttn
  • 17th Militia bttn
  • 19th Militia bttn
  • Horse artillery bttn Bichen

The first 2 units ready for service are the 17th and 19th bttns. Pictures below(painted by Fernando Enterprises). Figures are Perry Miniatures, flags from Flags of  War, bases/movement trays from Battlekiwi. I am painting up the Perry, Dutch command figures from their range and quite like the Ghigny figure so thinking will add his light cavalry brigade so he can command it.

Production has ground to a halt as the bolts on my Superlux Magnifing lamp have sheared off and its a goner. New one ordered  but will have a few days respite before can paint again. Good news is my Front Rank order sent from UK on 21st April has arrived…..so can clean up the 2 command packs of Russian Musketeers for 2 completed bttns that are awaiting their commanders and get cracking on them when new light arrives!

Well, we are into Lockdown level 3 now which seems to mean more traffic on road, and crazy lines of vehicles queued up outside KFC and Maccas .

I have failed to complete 2nd unit Byzantine cavalry……but that’s down to the decals being faulty. They are from LBM and to date I have never had an issue. But this time…arrgghh. There are 12 in the set….need 8 as the 4 mounted archers do not have shields…but after mutilating 4 decals attempting to peel off the the clear plastic cover…gave up. Quick email to LBM, and within hours reply…sound faulty…sending new set. What more can one ask?

So have moved to work on some woods in interim. I obtained 9 woods bases from Battlekiwi which hold from 5 – 9 trees on them. Beauty is if a 9 tree woods…can have as few trees as want as they are on 20mm discs and by using discs with no trees can create heavy or light woods. Gone for some terraining and a lighter colour than normal flock. Test base is below…..consider it a work in progress still.

Thankfully, others have been more productive.

PaulW has been busy rebasing newly acquired units from Goldie as well as painting units himself. Selection follows:

Iberian cavalry

Portugese Line Infantry…

British 1st Dragoon Guards from Waterloo. Paul and Alan are on a quest to have ALL the Allied army.

And last but not least…..Goldie has been busy over level 4…..locked in a dark room…..growing a Mexican bandito mousetache…..

And that’s all folks!

Another 3 weeks of this……..

So Alan has sent through some pictures of more additions to his Carthaginian Army in 2 units of Iberian Caetati. Very nice they are to.

I have been getting hassled for sometime about the size of the bases on my older troops so I have started to rebase them to current convention. Way back when started my Naps, Von Peter and I agreed on a basing regime(well….I just followed Pete truth be told) which had 4 figures on a base and 6 bases to a unit. They look like the unit below.

And the 3 bttn Regt looks like picture below……

With the basing convention in the group being 4 bases of 50mm x 50mm being a 24 figure unit these units are just not fitting as take up to much space. So the first converted units are below. Now on standard bases, the bases are in my latest colour/flock variation of lighter colours(English Uniform with drybrush of Iraqi Sand) and have replaced the badly faded GMB flags with new ones and movement trays.

And below is a close up of the refurbished 33rd Ligne from 1809.

Below is a comparison between the old and new basing styles.

The greatcoated bttns of the 48th Ligne will be up next for an update.

The next offering is from Goldie. Now this crazy man sold off his French/British Portugese Spanish themed troops to PaulW. I swooped in early and acquired the French Guard Cavalry.

Goldie has now gone and started Front Rank French using the newer Reinforcement packs and is painting them in a style similar to my 33rd Ligne and also basing them similar to my newer basing style. However he has moved away from the 50mm x 50mm basing to 100mm x 50mm with a seperate Voltogeir base per bttn. I think it all looks rather smart. These are residing in my garage at moment and I will be adding the flags to them this week.

Below close up on a column. A VERY NICE paint job.

At present Goldie has painted up 3 bttns, here they are beside my 33rd Ligne.

As mentioned above, I obtained Goldies French Guard cavalry, they are all Front Rank so I really had no choice!

Gardes d’honneur

Empress Dragoons

Guard Horse Artillery

Grenadier a Cheval

Finally below is a shot of my Guard Cavalry. Command base are Front Rank(of course) figures painted as Imperial Guard Artillery Officers( refer page 65 of F.G. Hourtoulle book ‘Wagram -The Apogee of the Empire’ for the picture, had to have that look!)

And thats all for now. Von Peter has alerted me to Front Rank actually now being open again…but with 100 pound limit on orders… postal restrictions apparently….but that gets me 3 bttns French Reinforcement packs!!

Its Monday 20th April and hopefully today we find out when level 4 ends!

My painting has been bit slow… work been busy(working from home 4 days and then go into Hospital on Fridays as opposed to work remote), then an unfortunate accident with a bean slicer with the thumb on my paint brush holding hand(lesson learned…contraption has 3 sharp blades where u push the bean through!) and daughter stealing laptop to binge play Sims4 then delayed weekend update.

So few updates today….

From me the first of my Byzantine Heavy Kavallarioi units is finished. Figures are from Gripping Beast Miniatures with the shield decals and banner from LBM . If the decals are out of stock on the GB site, LBM normally has them. I have started a Light Kavallarioi unit next.

Russ has added more French Napoleonic’s in a Legere Bttn and horse artillery battery.

Rob has also added some French Naps as well.

Hussar Generals

General Pajol

And Goldie has finished his 1813 Prussian/Polish buildings…..

Lastly, the Perry’s are in Lockdown but they have a plastic box set of Austrian cavalry to be released at SALUTE and I am really hoping Goldie and Alan who have Perry plastic Austrian armies will take advantage of all this Austrian Cavalry goodness and generate brigades if not DIVISIONS of Austrian HEAVY Cavalry goodness.

and that’s all for now……. lets cross our fingers for a sensible decision at 4pm!

So its now Wednesday 15th April and 1 week til Level 4 due to finish…be extended or who knows what!

Offerings today are from Goldie and Russ.

Goldie(Paul) took his family to the UK a while back for a holiday… when people took holidays overseas…..and not only attended the opening EPL game of season at Anfield where his West Ham was duly dispatched by Liverpool( and thanks again for the Liverpool scarf and coffee mug!) but he made a visit to Calpe Miniatures where he picked up some Prussians Peter had caste for not only Paul, but me! Paul has actually painted his troops…. mine down for a painting 2nd half of this year now my Russian’s almost done.

So after painting and basing his Prussian’s, then a handful of games Paul decided he didn’t like the basing job. Prussian troops are not exactly that colourful…..being dark grey, black grey, grey black etc …and when you make the bases rather….dark…..the overall effect is quite…dark.

So a rebase has now occurred. Paul also has chosen to break the general basing convention and have LARGE bases for his units. Looks rather good actually.

The force is from the Battle of Leipzig 1813, Army of Silesia, 1st Brigade of Oberst von Steinmetz.

It was composed of:

• 1st East Prussia Grenadier bttn
• Silesian Grenadier bttn
• 5th Silesian Landwehr Regt(3 bttns)
• 13th Silesian Landwehr Regt(3 bttns)
• Leib Hussar Regt
• #2 Foot battery

To this Paul has added the Cavalry Reserve of Generalmajor Jurgass:

• 1st West Prussian Dragoon Regt
• Lithuanian Dragoon Regt
• 1st Neumark Landwehr Regt

Pictures are below.

1st Brigade

# 2 Foot battery

Leib Hussars

Dragoons

Steinmetz

Silesian Landwehr Regt # 13

Rest of the 13th.

Silesian Grenadiers and Jager

Silesian Landwehr Regt # 5

Final picture of battle line.

And finally Paul has sourced some 1813 ish buildings from a supplier in Poland which he is working on. Early picture below.

And the last part of this report is from Russ who has taken a break from painting Napoleonics and for something totally different…..

Needed a break from painting Naps yesterday so painted up this Project Z biker boss mini that Warlord Games dropped into an order a while ago. The bike paint job inspired by one published in Wargames Illustrated last year.

And that’s it for now….keep safe out there!

Monday 6th April…..

Not much to report….weathers been nice…..weekend spent gardening really….

Have completed 1 Byzantine Heavy Cavalry horse archer as a template for rest of unit. Painted all 12 horses, and started on 3 more riders. Tricky figures to paint with the raised bow arm with the built on small shield. Couple pictures below. Initial command will be a command base, 2 units heavy cavalry(8 Kontos/4 archers) , 1 unit light cavalry(8 spears/4 archers) and a unit Kataphractoi(8 HEAVY cavalry with mace/4 HEAVY cavalry with bow).

Russ has finshed a unit of British Crimean War cavalry he started a year ago and put aside. They were 90% completed and so make a nice quick addition to his armies.

They are the 17th Lancers but Russ is calling them the Any-army Ulan-chevau-legere lanciers.

Its now Saturday April 4th…… and it was a beautiful dawn over Patahanui Inlet

Alan has sent through an update on the fist of his Westphalian units using the new Perry French plastics. This the Westphalian 3rd Light Infantry.

Russ has sent through another update.

Latest.

And that’s all for today.

Its’s Thursday 2nd April and 1st week of Lockdown comes to an end.

So I have ended up adding 3 more units of Legionnaires to add to # 12 finished last week and Roman week comes to an end.

They are units #13, #14 and #15.

Pictures below of the new command of units # 12 to # 15. As Hail Caesar is my rule set of choice, these 4 units make up a command once add some skirmisher types and a command base.

Several weeks back I ordered some movement trays from Battlekiwi for my Russian Artillery and cavalry in general. Today I assembled them. Once we are allowed to shop online again, will order some for the Romans(they are on 60mm x 60mm bases). Pictures below of a Russian 3 gun battery and a regt of Kuirassiers on their new movement trays. Trays still to have a lick of English Uniform paint on their tops.

I was going to add a couple units of Auxilia cavalry but as the saying goes ‘a funny thing happened onto the way to the Forum’…. I was having a fossock through one of the Roman boxes in garage and came across some A&A 3rd Century Romans. Had purchased these 5 years ago and haven’t done anything with them….so I will. There are 4 units legionnaires, 2 units cavalry , commanders and a selection of the fantastic LBM shield decals. Will start them after a week or so on Byzantine cavalry. Below is a link to Dr Phil Hendry’s beautifully painted figures on his blog. Mine will never look this good….but ideal for inspiration. .http://philhendry.me.uk/Phil_Wargaming_Website/third_century_roman_photo_a/index.html

And that’s it for now…. tomorrow will rip into Byzantines…..however as is a Friday its the day I spend day at work rather than work from home….. will be some time in evening expect…..unless get distracted by a whiskey….or 2 even.