11th Light Dragoons

I've added a second unit to add to Vandeleurs 4th Cavalry Brigade with a small unit representing the 11th Light Dragoons.

Again all figures are from the Perry Miniatures British Light Dragoons 1808-15 set.

I assembled these fellows at the same time as the 16th Light Dragoons so they also have the same mistake with carbine placement - bugger!

At only four bases they are quite a small unit, but I've ordered another box from Arcane Scenery so I'll be able to bring these and the 16th up to strength and make a start on the 12th Light Dragoons to complete the brigade. Now I'm in the know I'll not make the same mistake with carbine placement.

 I've just finished off a few Anglo-allied oddments, skirmishers and the like that I'll post in the next article, but after that it's on to painting some Highlanders, must admit I'm not looking forwards to having a go at tartan!

Royal Artillery 9-pdr

 I think I'm pretty settled now that my 'big battles' set of choice will be General d'Armee from TooFatLardies. Having played a couple of games of Pickett's Charge I like the mechanism and they fit my vision for the period.

However, these rules do represent artillery batteries at one model per two guns so I would need to bring my Royal Artillery batteries up to three models to represent the six gun battery.

I had already painted a pair of 9-pdr to represent Lloyd's Battery Royal Artillery so on my last order picked up another gun.

The model is the Perry Miniatures British Foot Artillery firing 9 pdr from their Hundred Days range.

One of the resons that I maintain the blog is so that I can check up on the previous palette used and although only a couple of months ago, the old notes did come in handy.

At the same time I also picked up another couple of guns to bring my French batteries up to strength and as I move back to the forces of Napoleon I'll get those two painted up too.

Here is the completed battery represented by all three gun models.

16th (The Queen's Own) Regiment of Light Dragoons

The Anglo-allied forces for the Hundred Days were coming along nicely, but I'd not done any cavalry for them so it was about time that I cracked on.

For the first units I purchased a pack of Perry Miniatures British Light Dragoons 1808-15 plus an extra British Light Dragoon Command so that I could make two units of eight for my initial force.

Like all cavalry, they are a faff to paint, with far too much going on with them to make it truly enjoyable.

There also seems to be a lot less variety in this set, you seem to be building the same rider over and over again. Likely that is because the frame contains parts to make both the pre-1812 and post-1812 cavalryman and as there are no common parts that leaves little scope for anything but the choice of shouldered sword or charging sword.

I've also modelled the second unit; currently on my painting desk, with the shouldered sword, but if I get another box will do the third unit at the charge.

The command frame allows you to build this officer and trumpeter which are both very nice figures.

A pair of troopers made from the set.

 Unfortunately, every one of the troopers horses in the set I had was a miscast, the left hand side of the horse is incompletely formed around the blanket roll, as my eyesight is so poor and I don't use my magnifier when building, only when painting, I did not notice this until far too late!

I'll have to do some green-stuffing on the ones in hand to fix this up.

Update:That area on the left hand blanket roll is not a miscast, you should be putting the carbine there, despite what the instructions on the box show.

Not my favourite of the Perry Miniatures sets but serviceable and I'll have to pinch my nose and paint another couple of units to complete my cavalry brigade.

SU-76 support for the Soviets

Quite some time ago, Phil posted some rather lovely 1/72 scale SU-76 on his blog and I do think that the SU-76 is probably my favourite looking WWII armoured vehicle.

I decided that it was time to add one of my own to my growing collection of 28mm WWII Soviets.

I remembered that JTFM do a great model so sent off an order for one, and what with production delays and my vacation I only got around to painting it this week.

The colour scheme I used gives I think a good dirty tank look and despite the vehicle being plain old green leaves it looking I think a bit better that plain old green. The basecoat is Rustoleum Camouflage Forest Green spray that had VMC Russian Green blocked over. The whole thing was then washed in AP Strong Tone.

Once the strong tone is dried I blocked in again the basecoat of VMC Russian Green and highlighted the panels adding more VMC Iraqi Sand to each layer. One that was done I added stippling in VMC Black Green and VMC Flat Earth, then added stains and streaks with VMC Black Grey.

The decals I used are actually from a very old Battlefront T-34 model, but do seem to work OK.

The whole thing was then given a good going over with a Tamiya Weathering kit, muddier to the lower hull, sandier to the upper hull. As I said, plain green, but not plain green.

The two resin crew supplied with the vehicle were then painted and stuck in place. My only critique of this model are that the crew are a really bad fit and don't seem to be made for this crew compartment.

 Now, I do wonder when I'll get the opportunity to play with it, but at least it's there if I need one for my games.

British and KGL Commanders and Aides

There are now seven units of Anglo-allied troops in the collection so it was about time they had some leaders.

I started blocking in some undercoats on these before we headed out to Wyoming, but decided that I'd not take any painting away with me.

This first command stand is a bit of an anachronism being made up of both Generals Pack and Kempt from the BH3 Major Generals set.

Two lovely sculpts that work well together on the command base.

The second commander, from the Colonels set, was done with blue facings with the intention of leading my KGL contingent.

The drummer is a plastic one from the infantry set, I had also hoped to add a sergeant to this base, but the three figures on it looked too busy, so he ended up leading the skirmishers in the last post.

The next commander was also from the Colonels set, and was based singly.

White facings on this one on a black stallion.

The last command stand has Halkett from the BH3 Major Generals set paired with one of the aides from the BH 151 Mounted ADCs set.

Another splendid pair of sculpts from the range, as usual though a bit of a bugger to clean up ready for painting. 

I also did some more of the aides singly based. These chaps will make good mounted officers for our Sharpe Practice games, or be used as ADC's in our General d'Brigade games.

These are lovely dynamic sculpts.

The final ADC is a Warlord Games figure from their Mounted Napoleonic British Infantry Officers set. I think he's quite a nice figure although the undocked tail on the horse mark him out as probably on a captured horse. 

 I was not entirely idle in Wyoming, although I took no paints, I take a scalpel and glue, so a couple of units of Anglo-allied Light Dragoons are currently on deck at the moment.

KGL Light Infantry Skirmishers

 It's been over three weeks since I posted anything on the blog, what with a couple of weeks vacation and returning to a heavy workload there has not been a great amount of time to get painting, but all that ends now.

Todays update is six skirmishing light infantry and a sergeant from the Kings German Legion to support the growing Anglo-allied collection.

All the figures are from the Perry Miniatures Plastic Napoleonic British Line Infantry box set and will be useful as a leader and group of skirmishers in my Sharpe Practice games and as part of the brigade skirmish screen in our big battle games.

Following swift on their heals are a another batch of troops that are ready for photographing and will be up in the next couple of days.