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.

Garrison 20mm Napoleonics

At the moment there is some ongoing discussion about the Garrison and Rose Napoleonic Ranges. The Garrison figures in particular were quite a large range (or ranges!) but not very well documented. Certainly, not much about them on the Eastern Garrison (?)

So I've been looking around - I've actually got quite a few moulds, lots of actual, figures already cast and some photos on the hard drive of my computer. The moulds, cast figures and photos don't match up fully... plus there are very few cavalry figures around... so anyway - these photos are what I've got in photos, most of which I labelled! More as a reminder to myself as I tried to sort everything out! Not all the ones here are 'available' in cast figures or moulds (though probably findable) - as I said, lots of chaos in the Napoleonic field!

Note where a figure code has 72/73/75 at the start I've put those in - they represent the year of the catalogue  I 'found' it in! Obviously, FN is French, BN British, RN Russian, AN Austrian.

Happy New Year everyone

To welcome the New Year

And for eats later

Photos taken earlier...