Category: Figures

Medetian Bersaglieri Leaders

Recently finished: two leader figures for my post-Napoleonic Medetian light infantry – the Bersaglieri. These troops effectively count the same as British Riflemen in Sharp Practice games, and very effective they are too.

I use Front Rank Austrian Jager figures, as they have the appropriate headgear for my early 19th century Medetians. These two are an officer (Lieutenant Verdicchio) and a sergeant (Rigato), based as Big Men for the rules. The sergeant does actually have a face, I just struggled to get any decent light onto the front of the figure for this quick photo shoot!

 

This leaves just 20 more rank and file to do next year sometime…

Dragoons on Parade

It’s taken a few weeks to get around to finishing the basing of the second Fleurian Dragoon regiment (Wurttemberg), but I’ve finally finished. These are Minden Miniatures, painted for me by the very talented James Roach. I do paint most of my own figures but every now and then it’s nice to accelerate the finish rate by having someone else contribute to the collection. I’m hoping to have another arrival by the end of the year too..

I posted about these figures when they arrived last month, here: Link

So now that they’re based up they’ve had their first trot out, and joined their brigade partners (the Rutowski Dragoons) for some gentle evolutions under the watchful eye of their commander, Le Comte de Malbec.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Line Infantry Batch 1 Done at Last!

..And I am very glad to see them off the painting table, they’ve been there a while!

These are the first Fleurian line infantry, to go with the light troops I did in August and September. I started them in early October (I think) and although they haven’t been unpleasant to paint, it was a big batch and I struggled to keep my momentum up. That said, it may have been a good thing as over the same period I have fitted in some other painting and figure prep while avoiding them! The NCO and men are plastic Perry Austrian Napoleonics and the 2 officers are from their metal ranges.

20 done then, and plenty more to do, but there’s no urgency for those. I will need a handful more to make this lot into a regiment of 30 (including command) for next year’s Ayton game, but for now I have what I need: 2 groups of 10 and a few Big Men for Sharp Practice: Medetia vs Fleurie. I’ve finished a couple more Big Men as well but haven’t based them yet.

I hope to have a first solo game of SP at the weekend. Having made some alterations to the St Evian table from last week’s game I intend to play a small-ish scenario just to get used to the rules again.

A few more pics, taken with varied lighting as you can see:

 

 

 

 

Don’t Mess with the Clergy

Following on from the Warlord Games armed priest I painted a while back, I needed to provide him with some additional muscle for a particular game scenario (which I’ll post about next).

This led me to the Perry’s pack of armed monks and priests from their Carlist War range. They’re all really good figures, and I decided to paint up the 3 monks who’re armed with a variety of black powder weapons. These will happily do me for 17th to 19th century games and provide a bit of fun whenever there’s a church to defend or, possibly one day, some zombies to vanquish!

Dragoon Goodness

A pleasant arrival this week – I’ve just received a batch of painted figures from James Roach (Olicanalad to those that know him via his web persona). These are the second regiment of dragoons that James has painted for my 18th century Fleurian army, and I’m very pleased with them.

It’s a 12 figure unit, and I can pair it with another for the big Ayton games where 24s make a lot more sense on a 30ft table.

The flag took a bit of research as neither James nor I could find an illustration to go with the written description; eagle one side, castle the other. In the end James put his artistic talent on the case and came up with a very nice interpretation:

 

The figures are Minden Austrian dragoons, and they’ve been painted as the historical Austrian Wurttemberg regiment, although they’ll mostly do service under a Fleurian name. I chose this unit partly because their red coat/black cuffs match the previous Saxon Graf Rutowski regiment:

They look good in 12s but a double unit with 2 splendid red flags will work well together when the occasion demands. Now I just need to get the new arrivals based.

Legion de Fleurie Light Gun

The mid-18th century Legion is coming along slowly. I’ve managed to finish the small artillery component – leaving the 2nd light company, the bulk of the grenadiers and the commander still to do.

The crew are very mildly converted Royal Ecossais command figures from Crann Tara’s Culloden range. They’re by the same sculptor as Minden Miniatures, so are lovely well-proportioned figures. The pointing officer received a linstock and two standard bearers received the rammer, etc. Lots of detail to paint, but worth it. The uniform is basically the same as the Legion light infantry (inspired by the Royal Ecossais themselves) and the gun is in red to match, unlike the regular Fleurian artillery which has yellow carriages and equipment.

The gun is from RSM and the 3 crew denote it as a light piece.

Deployed on sabot:

 

Old school style:

 

 

All Ashore!

Although technically I’m currently focused on painting line infantry to bulk up my Fleurian forces for Sharp Practice.. I fancied a break and have painted a couple of samples for another small Medetian force – the marines. Medetia is a maritime nation after all!

These figures are from Gringos, specifically Austrian Jager from the Maximillian campaign in Mexico. I decided that the hats fitted in well with the tyrolean-type headgear worn by most of my Medetians in this period, and there are a couple of very nice command figures in the range that I wanted to include as ‘Big Men’. It’s only going to be a small contingent of marines – one that can be deployed as part of the naval landing party I have planned (those river and coastline terrain sections I made last year got me thinking you see..). They should get a run out at Ayton 2015 too, fighting their way across the dark continent with everyone else.

 

The figures are quite chunky but fit in fine with the Perry and Victrix that make up a lot of the rest of the collection. They received traditional Medetian colours; sky blue, white and red, and I think they look the part for what I had in mind. Now I just need to make sure I don’t get too distracted and rush to paint the rest before finishing enough Fleurians for a game!

 

Chasseur Standard

Quick post – I finished the flag for the Fleurian light battalion. It’s a simple design with the Fleurian deep red, the green of the Chasseurs, and the national fleur de lys symbol in black (I thought a muted flag was suitable for the light infantry) – plus the unit name below.

Naturally this was all done on the computer and highlighted with paint. I can’t paint lettering like that and free-hand fleur de lys are tricky!

 

Final Light Infantry

I’ve now finished the second batch of Fleurian Chasseurs a Pied. This gives me a further 10 men and 2 leaders (Big Men for Sharp Practice), making 3 dozen light infantry in all, when added to the earlier Voltigeurs.

They are the same Perry early ACW figures as before, including a command pack this time. When done, the flag will be a clipart printout and highlight paint job. The sergeant (who was originally another standard bearer with an empty hand) has had a plasticard and greenstuff sword added.

This batch:

 

 

Combined Fleurian light infantry (minus 1 figure which I foolishly left in the drawer). This makes 3 ‘groups’ for Sharp Practice, or 1 battalion (on magnetic sabot bases) for the big games at Ayton when we do 19th century:

 

 

 

 

 

Light battalion deployed with Voltigeur flank companies skirmishing out front on open order bases (as per Tim Hall’s excellent ACW rules):

 

 

On to the line infantry next.

Legion de Fleurie Grenadiers – first figures

Following on from my previous posts about my Fleurian mid-18th century Legion ( here and here ) I have now completed the first small batch of Grenadiers to go with them. These were actually painted a couple of weeks ago but I wanted to base them before posting.

These are RSM figures (Austrian Grenadiers) painted in the same colours as the light infantry. The uniform was inspired by one of John Ray’s gorgeous Spanish regiments. White gaiters aren’t much fun to paint, but do look the business when they’re done.

I have the rest of the battalion to do of course, which will take it to a strength of 30, so lots more work ahead! This unit will be the core of the Legion, with lighter troops in support. The rest is made up of light infantry, hussars and a light gun. I aim to have it complete somewhere around the end of the year.

 

 

Now back to painting those remaining 19th century Chasseurs!