Rose artillery masters.

Somewhere someone mentioned that they thought they'd seen the masters for the Rose French Napoleonic gun (probably on one of the Old Metal Detector Rose blogs). That made me think people might be interested in them.

Most of my Rose masters are in tobacco tins or cigar cases, the 20mm (or, as described on the box, 25mm) artillery are in a 'normal' box. The 25 on the box definitely looks as if it originally said 20.

The masters are very neatly packed in polystyrene. The guns include limbers though I have not made moulds for these.

The French gun. The carriage is so similar in design to other nations I think I'll use it as a universal carriage.

British gun.

The American Civil War Parrot gun.

I bought some metal

Since closing Garrison back in 2014 I've been casting figures for myself using left over stocks of metal and unwanted figures. These ran out so I bought an extra 5k from Tiranti. Buying in small quantities is really quite expensive!

Les Higgins catalogue

I've just posted the Les Higgins catalogue on Pages. Actually, the scans I took these from seem to be missing the Ancients page - I'll reinsert it later.

(Note that when Les Higgins died his ranges were taken over by Phoenix Model Developments.)

Douglas Miniatures catalogue

I've just posted a copy of the early (1970,71 or72?) Douglas Miniatures catalogue on Pages.

Napoleonic Lifeguards

First of the British cavalry units.

No British horses available so having to use French ones.

The horse has been painted as a bit of a mish-mash. Bit of a mix of Life Guard and Scots Greys...

Figure itself is not carrying a carbine so possibly meant to be an officer - not something I'm going to worry about too much!

Meanwhile, been thinking about this figure. Instead of considering it to be a Life Guard figure, I 've decided to look on it as a basic Carabineer figure - which would enable me to produce heavy cavalry for a number of different armies. May not be totally accurate but should 'look' right.

May be a while before I get my next unit finished - number of work sessions has trebled in last couple of weeks as I get back into work so going to have fewer painting days. Still, pays well and gets me out of the house.

Garrison/Rose cavalry comparison.

Once I've 'finished' the Garrison Napoleonic forces I will (probably) do a couple of Rose armies. However, I had already done (years ago - hence better paint job) some Rose hussars so thought it might be useful to post a comparison between the two.

There is a very definite size difference, not helped by the fact that Garrison horses have their own base while the Rose horses are attached directly to the element base.

Different colour bases due to running out of the colour I normally use!

Will I use them in a 'mixed' army? Don't know - fact is, Garrison doesn't have many heavy cavalry, Rose much better in that area, likewise no Garrison French artillerymen available - and I'll use Rose guns for both anyway.

British Grenadiers

As in 'normal service is resumed'.

Quite happy with these - reasonable old style glossy wargames standard.

I should have made the flag staff a bit longer - the flag is a bit too big. Or I could have reprinted the flag in a smaller size...

Hard to see, but at the time I painted these I only had one British officer - so I cheated and used a French figure as standard bearer.

Next, some British heavy cavalry on French horses - then, not sure. Was going to do some Highlanders but I might make the next unit French line infantry.

French Lancers

Simply described in the catalogue as as a 'Light Horse Lancer', this figure was started at the same time as the Chasseur,  but I concentrated on getting the Chasseur finished first. Problem with it is the mass of braid across the chest...

Anyway, had to choose something, so nearest being a Gendarme Lancer I've loosely based the scheme on the figure on page 63 of Funcken.

Not exactly right but it'll do!

Overall, effect looks about right.

And I now have 2 French cavalry squadrons facing 1 British infantry battalion and 2 guns! Not the order I had originally intended to paint these!

Now for some confirmed Chasseurs...

After the attempts to i.d. the British Light Dragoon I continued casting from other moulds and came across...

A figure with shako, no plume, double breasted jacket, no sabretache... it even had that ow of buttons on the trousers...

So, 100% confirmed Chasseur a Cheval!

So I slowed down and painted a squadron. I'm easily distracted - getting on with French cavalry like this (I've also started some lancers) means I've stopped work in the middle of painting a battalion of British Grenadiers. No problem, need the French anyway.

Technically, as light cavalry they should be mounted two to a base. However, I've put them three to a base as I think aggressive troops are more like cavalry, using heavy cavalry as knights.

They aren't meant to be any specific regiment - one advantage of solo work - but corresponds mostly to the 27th Regiment from Funcken page 57 volume 1.

Comparison with the quick paint figure - hopefully these are better!

Very, very quick paint job...

... On that presumed Chasseur a Cheval. Couple of hours ago it was bare metal... So very, very bad paint job...wet paint on wet paint and rushed...

Best thing I can say about it is that gives an impression of the figure!


'Update' - did a British Light Dragoon search and found a Knotel print of a British Light Dragoon with long plume! 14th Light Dragoons. 1815!
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/849210073457465015/

Napoleonic cavalry - what is it?

Usually I work it out. OK, Hussars/Chasseurs difficult, so many variations of busbies and shakos it's hard to tell which is which - but then, a hussar with shako from one country is pretty much interchangeable with a similar type from a different country... think I might post some of them later though to get a better idea of what they are officially supposed to be!

This figure is different. Checked out Funcken L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats du Premier Empire, checked out Cassin-Scott Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars and Uniforms of Waterloo. It doesn't appear anywhere...

Hard to tell from the photos but the original has a very clearly defined front-and-back cuirass! With a shako!

Actually this photo no better. He also carries a slung carbine.

So, anyone... ideas please?

Gave it a wash of brown - some extra detail showed up like a row of buttons. If what I thought were straps on the right side are actually depicting a medal or something the is a pretty good match for figure 3 of page55 in vol 1 of Funcken - 13th Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval, 1906! Thanks for your help everyone - I'm going to treat it as that but remove the 'medal. on ones I paint!

Further 'update' - did a British Light Dragoon search and found a Knotel print of a British Light Dragoon with long plume! 14th Light Dragoons. 1815!
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/849210073457465015/

First battalion finished!

First impressions? Napoleonics take a lot longer to paint than Ancients! As a minimum, I think I would need 3 infantry battalions, 1 gun and 2 6-man cavalry squadrons per side to have a meaningful battle. On projected painting rates, I will need about 6 weeks to complete these. Hope I'm still 'interested' enough in doing these to last out!

In the event I went for a decorative non-playing separate command group. The command group base is a slightly different colour because I ran out of the original paint!

I went for a gloss finish to the figures and plain green base.

Command figures have a simple paper flag printed off the Internet.

One of the deciding factors in going for the separate command group was because I thought having them in the centre of the square would look good.

Rose 1973 Wargames Figures

This has now been added to the Pages section and includes most of the 20mm Napoleonic Range (though described by Rose as 25mm!)

Starting British Napoleonics

Finished the second gun and started on the first infantry battalion.

I've settled on a four man crew, putting the officer in one crew and the 'spare' man in the other.

Although going with the DBX element idea I've put the guns on 60mm bases rather than the 80mm bases artillery in DBX use.

I've also started the first infantry battalion. No officer or crew, so I'm using the artillery officer and have also 'converted' the artilleryman with ramrod by the simple expedient of removing the ramrod, drilling a hole in the hand, and adding a brass spear to act as a flagstaff. Still not sure how I'll set them up - 24 man battalion including officer/standard bearer, or 24 man battalion with an external command group for show only?

Some I did earlier plus more 'finds'

Rooting around and still finding things....

20mm and 25mm Napoleonics were among the first ranges I intended to release when I acquired Garrison. Because of this I started painting figures for the online catalogue - though not all of them were completed.

They included Austrians,

Prussians,

and French.

I've also found more artillerymen. On the left, I'll have to paint him up for the British foot artillery gun - though I've decided to outfit two guns, crews started but need another gun. Next, RHA officer with a miscast sword then a French foot artilleryman. Looking at the codes, G&B must have produced designs for 8 British and 8 French crew - the Frenchman's code is FNA8. Sadly,I'm missing 3 British and 7 French figures from this range...

Garrison British artillery painted

That's the good thing about painting four figures to a wargaming standard - you can do it quickly. They haven't been glued to the base or varnished yet - not sure whether to just give them a coat of matt rather than gloss.

There are actually 3 figures - the fourth crew member is simply a miscast of the figure holding the portfire.

However he fits in well and any future guns will probably include him anyway! The portfire is pretty delicate - the one here snapped off during painting and had to be reattached.

Lamming British Horse Artillery

Back in the early 70s my friends at Uni bought me some wargames figures for my birthday, including a couple of Lamming artillery crews. The French foot artillery are... somewhere... and the British crew are here. No idea where the guns are, so the gun here is a Rose offering.

Haven't removed all of the dust off the figures yet!

Untouched figures painted nearly 50 years ago. Well, not the gun of course.

Rose gun, like these because they are a good 'clean' design.

Looking at the Garrison 20mm catalogues I can't find any record of them producing 20mm artillery crews - but the figures exist- I'll post better pictures when these are painted.

Meanwhile, still going through the Garrison 20mm figures - lots of different and easily cast attack march, few other infantry poses but not many officers/standard bearers.

A Review of 2019

Having done quite a few Reviews of individual armies last year it seemed reasonable to do a Review of the year itself. Being a bit of a grasshopper personality as far as hobbies go it's no surprise that any Review would cover a wide range of topics.

Lots of nice Reviews last year including India, Rome, Cataplana and 'minor' Greek and Persian. I've chosen the Garrison early Persian Winter Review to represent these.

Lots of figures painted including a large Indian expansion. However, chose the completed tinplate Assyrian chariots...

... and a load of Greeks. Actually uploaded an earlier Greek regiment - should have uploaded the White Bird shields!

Let's see, games over the year involved Celts, Spanish, Kushites, Romans, Egyptians, Assyrians, Philistines, Greeks and Persians. As the first outing of those excellent terrain boards I'm showing part of the Spanish/Celtic game.

Did a few Newhaven scenarios, just not from the town (and very little from St. Norman's Hospital. So to represent the horror/pulp games I've gone for the 5 Hounds scenario...

These I enjoyed doing - hand carved balsa models. Having a photo including the 'Stinson' and the 'Boeing', seemed reasonable to use it. Not sure what modelling projects I'll do in 2020.

Of course, 42mm bought on EBay and painted these... then bought moulds for the figures and got round to casting my first few a short while ago.

And the last thing to mention from 2019 - Cadet Commander. Played at Partisan, score board and grid made, using 42mm figures.

And that is an abridged version of my wargaming in 2019. Quite a bit covered and, subject to health,  lots to build on in 2020.