Detachment of Chosen Men from the 95th Rifles

 

Last month Victoria bought me some packs of British Rifles from Brigade Games, and rather splendid figures they are to paint too.

First pack is the British Rifles Veterans Command - Chosen Men

Somebodies going to get called a "Bastud"

Of course Sharpie needs his Harper.

The second pack is the British Rifles Veterans - Chosen Men set

Rifleman Harris and Rifleman Perkins

Rifleman Cooper and another that I'm not sure of.

I'm basing my skirmishers in pairs, as there are only five in the pack, the "not Daniel Hagman" Cheshire Poacher is joined by a English Bulldog from Warbases to make up the numbers. 

They are a really made for the Peninsular campaign but I think they will not be too out of place for my Hundred Days forces 

10e Companie 6e d'Artillerie a Pied

After the slight Orc diversion it's back onto the Napoleonics with a battery of French six pounder cannons representing the 10th Company of the 6th Foot Artillery that was attached to Donzelots 2nd Division of d'Erlons I Corps at the Battle of Waterloo.

I already have 10 Perry Miniatures guns painted for the French, so this battery is really more a case of me wanting to try out the Victrix offerings, this battery was made using the Napoleonic French Artillery 1812 to 1815 set. 

Although all things considered, as I now play representing a battery with four guns another set of these will bring me up to a strength of four batteries.

 Like all the Victrix kits they are really nicely done, but this one was rather fiddly to put together and there was quite a bit of mold line to clean up, but I think that the final effect is worth the effort and they come out rather nice.

Reaper Bones Orc

I needed to paint an Orc for the "The Orcs’ Pit" over on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, needless to say I've not bought an Orc in years, so a trip to my LGS launched me into my first foray with Reaper Bones.

I wanted to keep the chap quite muted so used a drab palette on him, for those interested the green of the flesh is from a basecoat of VMC Brown Violet. The tunic is worked up from Flat Earth and the cloak mainly German Camo Beige and Stone Grey.

It was quite an easy paint job, but as this is the first Reaper Bones miniature I've painted I don't think I am that impressed, they seem to be molded out of jelly, the axe shaft especially, bent like a banana and wobbles like the set of a 60's Sci-fi classic.

To keep the tones muted the metalwork was done mostly from a base of VMC Bronze or VMC Gunmetal Grey.

The shield is adorned with a collection of gruesome  trophies and I again kept the metalwork quite drab.

Recent miscellany for the Painting Challenge

Over the past few weeks I've been steadily completing entries for the Chambers of Challenge XI for the Painting Challenge, Eureka Miniatures have provided a rich vein of suitable vinettes.

The first entry is a half of the Egg Collecting set that I entered for "The Hatchery"

It's a great set but strangely the chaps at Eureka have no images on their site for it so it was a "buy blind and hope", thankfully I was not upset with it.

The second part of the Egg Collecting set was purposed for "The Guardroom" location

This "owd battleaxe" is certainly not going to be relinquishing her produce to the common soldiery.

This pair of armourers from the Wheelwright & sword sharpener set made a great pair of armourers for "The Armoury"

I've still got the wheelwright to get painted at a later juncture, but he probably is not a good fit for any of the locations available.

Although they are from the earlier French Revolutionary Wars range, I'm not so fussy that they will not fit in my 1815 collection.

Finally, not a Eureka model, but a Paul Hicks sculpt of chum Drew's dad for "The Ancestors" location.

I painted another one of these a couple of years ago, but this time I did him in a Knights of Columbus livery.

Drew can have this one to add to his collection.

 

A little solo General d'Armee

 

Having painted more troops to fill in the disparities of our last game I set up another General d'Armee game to play through the rules again.

Each side had four brigades, the French two each of cavalry and infantry, the Anglo-allies one Hanoverian foot, one Kings German Legion foot (veterans), one British foot and one British horse.

I rolled up for random positioning and against the odds both sides started the game with two brigades in reserve.

Seeing the Hanoverian foot exposed on the right the French went all out for them and summoned up some of their cavalry reserves while maneuvering the guns to cover the British. The Anglo-allies bought on their KGL foot to shore up the center.

And I stopped taking overview shots after turn two, so here are some highlights.

The French foot pushed on to the Hanoverians who withdrew in good order before them until the KGL foot were in a position to support them.

With the French foot advancing on the KGL and Hanoverians it looked like they could deploy into line and overwhelm them while chipping away with their artillery and skirmishers.

The British light dragoons launched the first charges of the game, one of them failed terribly against the French Hussars seeing them retreat in some disorder, they fared slightly better against some Chasseurs a'Cheval, but the most telling action was forcing a battalion of French foot into square to have them savaged by the KGL volleys.

The French went into somewhat of a malaise, Hanoverian skirmishing fire felled the Brigade commander opposite them and KGL volleys broke the square which fled in disorder to the rear and apparently did not stop running until it reached Charleroi.

The British cavalry in a true reflection of their type responded with the Light Dragoons attempting to charge the French guns, the close range cannister was not as effective as it could have been, but the result was as expected.

The KGL foot, their blood up charged home on the French infantry who had already suffered from the unequal exchanges of fire and another French infantry battalion scurried from the field. 

The French foot formed a line to overwhelm the Hanoverians and every units volley was so ineffective that they all lost their fire discipline.

The French Hussars despite urging from Ney had a very extended period of Hesitancy and with the British committing their third infantry Brigade to the battle it was time for the remaining French to withdraw and fight another day.

So much for painting new troops, I left four battalions of foot, two regiments of horse and a battery of guns in reserve unused!