Wallmoden was in Russian service in 1813, so this is probably what he would have been dressed like during that year. His Chief of Staff was none other than the famous Carl von Clausewitz, who was also serving the Tsar at this point, so I'll probably need to paint him too.

New Zealand goes into lockdown for four weeks in 24 hours, so to cheer myself up (and anyone else who might be watching), I've gathered together my German generals. Blücher will know what to do!

To all my friends, stay safe old chaps. I'll see you all again one day, no doubt, if you don't see me first.

All the best
WM

We have a long weekend here in Wellington and as tradition demands the weather has been completely awful, so I've been hard at it again on the Grenadiers. They're not quite ready for their photoshoot, however, so as promised I have a new Marshal to show off instead.

Sharp-eyed readers of this blog will have noted, I'm sure, that my fusiliers were lacking a regular commander. At Dappol they had to make do with a hastily recruited Alberken Marshal Ney, still in his 1960s factory paintjob, which may account for their strange reluctance to become engaged. Moreover, a persistent rumour, despite furious denials by Imperial Headquarters, that they ran away from the Lützowers has left the Emperor with no choice but to find another marshal to command them. He is none other than André Masséna, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling.


The terror of the Austrians in his prime, Masséna was well passed his "best before" date in 1813/14, which is the period around which I've rather loosely based my armies, but I couldn't leave such a splendid figure out of the order of battle. He's a really lovely David Clayton version of Hinton Hunt FN 356: Marshal Massena, in marshal's uniform. He's basically the same figure as FN 355: Marshal Davout, but with his hat on.



We'll see what the fusiliers make of him....

Next post: Grenadiers, I promise.

WM

To my utter shame I have failed to complete the 73rd in time to claim them for my 2018 painting total. They're nearly there, but it's going to take another day or two before they're ready to take the field.

What I have to show instead is my new commander, who is a David Clayton version of that favourite old Hinton Hunt standby: BN 107: British General (mounted), pointing (horse attached series).

General Lyon cantered onto the field to take command of the 73rd,

Hinton Hunt experts may notice his face is a little unusual. This is because he was completely missing anything resembling a nose, so I had to give him one with my soldering iron.

but no matter where he turned.....

Like my French General, Marshal Quiestil, he is to have a roaming commission. General Hoosie is to be his usual name, but when serving with Wallmoden's Army he is to be Brigadier James Frederick Lyon.

...he couldn't find them anywhere.

Lyon commanded the 97th (Queen's Own Germans) Regiment of Foot in the Peninsula until 1813, when he was sent to North Germany to help organise the new Hanoverian Army and was almost immediately given a division to command in Wallmoden's Corps. On the day of Waterloo he was in command of the 6th Hanoverian Brigade at Hal, and so missed the battle. If I ever play Waterloo, however, I'm sure I could find a place for him.

He will find his regiment, with a bit of luck, by Saturday morning, for as the pictures show, the armies are already massing for battle.

Till then

WM

It's been more than two weeks, I'm ashamed to say, since I promised to post my first battle report about the Prussian Expeditionary Force, and it's still not ready. The main reason I haven't done it is that I've been far too busy painting. There's nothing like photo editing, it seems, to drive one back to the painting table.



He's a little more My Little Pony-ish than I'd intended, but I decided to  keep him as he is because he's actually not too far off the pastel shade of pink depicted in the famous Martinet print.

Essex Hussar: Gadzooks!

Every shiny new French infantry regiment deserves a shiny new marshal to command them, so as promised here is my new general.


His is, of course, Hinton Hunt FN 355: Marshal Davout in marshal's uniform raising his hat, on horse FNH 10. These particular examples are David Clayton castings.

Louis-Nicolas Davout, it is said, was Napoleon's ablest marshal, with an uncanny ability to turn up at exactly the right time to save the day. His most famous victory was Auerstaedt in 1805, where he took on and defeated a Prussian army of over twice his strength while the Emperor had the somewhat easier task of thrashing a smaller Prussian army at Jena. Nobody likes a clever clogs, however, especially one prone to denouncing the incompetence and corruption of his fellow marshals, so he wasn't a very popular chap.

Davout's star really began to wane after the Russian Campaign and all the finger-pointing that ensued, but in 1813 and 1814 he fought a very capable rear-guard action against hugely superior Coalition forces, including a model defence of Hamburg right through to Napoleon's abdication. It was undoubtedly because of his administrative ability that he was appointed Minister of War during the 100 Days. The Armée du Nord could not have been put together nearly so successfully by anyone else. His absence from the army when it marched, however, has been regretted by Bonapartists ever since Waterloo. Certainly, if it had been Davout, rather than Grouchy commanding the French right wing after Ligny, things may have turned out very differently.



When she caught sight of him, Wellington Woman wanted to know if he was a Portrait of the Artist as a French Marshal, which is an outrageous thing to say as my barnet isn't nearly as grey as that. I still get a few funny looks when I wear that hat in to work, though.





Happy Easter!

WM

My new gunners are complete, but as I haven't finished their guns yet I've used an existing gun detachment to illustrate the spiffy new plasticard gun bases I've made for them. The prospect of painting this (in fact I needed to do six) with my increasingly dodgy supply of Humbrol 80: Grass Green was so daunting that I finally bestirred myself to head down to the local DIY warehouse and get a 250ml pot of matched emulsion.


It wasn't an exact match, but this was by no means a bad thing. I rather like the daring two-tone effect it produces with the original Humbrol colour on the figure bases. I think I'm going to all my plasticard bases like this from now on.

Colonel Von Lützow has arrived at last to lead his famous Schwarzen Jäger.


And very dapper he looks too in his black duds, which match his black heart!




How I made him

As explained in the last post, von Lützow is actually a converted Hinton Hunt PN 10: Prussian Foot Guards Officer, charging. The tools I used for this conversion are pictured below.



The first job was to cut him off his base and then bend, cut and file his legs until he could sit  comfortably on his horse. Greatly aiding this process was the 'D'-section shaped microfile, which was just the thing for hollowing out his...er...undercarriage.

To make his litewka I tried out something new which was to create a very basic frame for it using 5-amp fuse wire. This was bent into shape with pliers and then glued into place. I hoped it would give a well-defined edge to the litewka once I started smearing solder around, and it worked a treat. The only major thing needed after that was to drill off any excess solder with my rotary tool.

I also repositioned his sword arm and added a couple of epaulettes. The latter were made by attaching small blobs of solder onto his shoulders, filing them flat and then shaping them with a small hand drill.

The final touch was achieved using the tool shown below. It's known as a "Diamond Poger", apparently, and is normally used for setting gemstones in jewelry. The little concave cups at the end of each point, each of a slightly different size, also happen to be excellent for making buttons!


My sincere thanks to Lewis Gunner for sending me this device when I couldn't find one in New Zealand.

Should be gunners next.

WM

He still needs a little cleaning up, and perhaps a bit more work on his sword arm, but he's mostly complete. He is to be Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm Freiherr von Lützow, of course. The horse, by the way, is a recast Hinton Hunt FNH 13.

I should be getting back to my gunners now, but I suspect they're going to have to wait a little longer....

Yours, soldering on,
WM

Well, I survived my encounter with the wild clans of the South Island and am back at my at my painting desk. To ease myself back into the painting groove I've decided to have a go at another general officer figure.

The figure I picked was another one of the Der Kriegspielers command figures (set #50) featured in a previous post. He is the generic French general figure, who is clearly based on a Hinton Hunt FN 224: French General. Interestingly the DK version has the horse's head turned slightly to the right, rather than to the left as in the HH version, and the rider's head is turned to the left rather than to the right.


My version of this figure is also painted red because he is to be Nicolas Antoine Xavier Castella de Berlens, who was the only officer in any of Napoleon's Swiss regiments to reach the rank of General de Brigade. The uniform he is wearing is based on a portrait which was probably painted in late 1815. I couldn't find a colour photo of this portrait, but an engraved copy can be seen in the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, here. He is to command the 3rd Swiss on the grounds that Marshal Soult always seemed a little too grand for that gig, and because I really fancy having a French general dressed in red!



Castella de Berlens started his military career in the Saxon Swiss Guards, but was persuaded to transfer to the French service (despite being a convinced Royalist) in 1806. He commanded the 2nd Swiss Regiment in Spain and Russia and was made a General de Brigade in 1813. It seems fairly clear, however, that he never went into in action in this capacity. Having been badly wounded in Russia, he sat out the 1813 and 1814 campaigns, and then made himself scarce (along with most of the other Swiss officers in Napoleon's service) during the Hundred Days.


To make his uniform conform to the portrait I filed off the single row of buttons running down his chest and replaced them with a double row, and also added a bit of fuse wire to represent the leather cord that he used to suspend his sabre. The only other thing required after that was a bit of filing and scoring of his pistol holsters to simulate the fur covers which can also be seen in the portrait.

I hope you like him.

WM

Dörnberg's only other claim to fame, at least far as the Anglosphere is concerned, is his failure to pass on early intelligence that Napoleon's army was about to invade Belgium in June 1815! However, he seems to have made up for this by leading numerous gallant charges at the head of the 3rd British Cavalry Brigade at Waterloo.


Vintage 20mm Napoleonics connoisseurs will instantly recognise the figure I've used as the Alberken/Minifigs version of the Earl of Uxbridge. I thought he'd be just the ticket for Dörnberg, however, after I found a portrait of him made in 1813 held in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. This can be seen here.


The first squadron of the hussars he is to command are now quite advanced and so with a little bit of luck I may be able show them off next weekend.

Till then

WM

Edit: I've added another shot to give a slightly clearer view of his face. Alberken commanders can be a bit vague in the face department, but this one's not too bad.

Lurking somewhere within many vintage 20mm Napoleonics collections are examples of the Der Kriegspielers command set.

Der Kriegspielers sold their command figures as a single set, described as #50: Mounted Officers. There were supposedly eight of them to each pack, but I suspect the eight contained therein may well have varied a bit from pack to pack as there seem to have been more than eight variants produced.

Five of the command figure variants are in the Hinton Spieler collection and are illustrated below:

Three are clearly recognisable as close cousins of the Hinton Hunt Russian, British and French generic generals figures. The chaps on the far left and in the centre, however, look like conversions of the Russian figure.


As these are the only Russian command figures I have, it seemed sensible to choose one for my Russo-German Legion commander. The chap who won this gig was the one on the left, seen vaguely waving his sword around. I thought he'd need a bit of tidying up first, however.

The result is seen below. The new head is from a recast Hinton Hunt PN 5 Prussian line infantry figure.  I used the body of this figure to make a Prussian Foot Guards standard bearer over two years ago and the head has been rolling around in my bits and bobs box ever since.

The main task was to transform his infantry shako into an officer's schmirtze. I did this by sawing off the top and then simply dripping a large blob of molten solder onto it. All it needed after that was a bit of filing and cutting.


He is to be Major General Wilhelm Daniel von Arentschildt, who commanded the infantry of the Legion in 1813 and 1814. Arentschildt was a Hanoverian soldier who had served in India fighting against Tipu Sultan, interestingly enough. He entered Russian service, however, after the French occupation of Hanover and was instrumental in the setting up of the Legion in 1812.

I haven't quite finished the rest of the battalion but they shouldn't be tooooo far off.

Ta ta for now

WM

Having failed to deliver a completed Field Battalion Bremen as promised last week, this week's post comes with a bonus Hanoverian general. He is Hinton Hunt BN 254: Lieut-Gen. Charles. Count von Alten, in General's full dress uniform, on horse BNH 11. Both figures are David Clayton castings, I believe, but are very fine.

Marcus Hinton clearly based him on the magnificent portrait of Alten that hangs in the Bomann Museum in Celle. The painting even provides an intriguing little peek at the decoration in the corner of his general officer's shabraque, which one only very rarely gets to see as paintings from the era always seem to show just the plain blue-grey shabraque cover used by British general officers on campaign. I liked this detail so much that I even had a go at incorporating it on my figure.



Alten is to command the now completed Field Battalion Bremen, with whom I am really quite chuffed, having wanted a 'thin red line' of my own for about as long as I can remember. Less successful, however, is the new shade of green I've been trialling for my tabletop. As in previous attempts, it's played havoc with the colour balance on my camera. The last shot, taken with the flash turned on, is the closest I could get to capturing anything like the actual tones. It may pay to invest in some whiter light bulbs, perhaps.





In other news, I'd like to say a big "hello" to David C, who has now embarked on his grand design to refurbish an army of Der Kriegspielers and Hinton Hunts. If you haven't seen them already, do take a look at the splendid first results on David's Miniature Minions blog.

Even more Hinton Hunt goodness is also now on show on Mark Dudley's Ilkley Old School blog. Mark's Austrians are simply stunning.

Finally, Rob G has sent me some photos of his absolutely spiffy Spencer Smiffies in action during a recent game. Further photos and one of Rob's uproariously entertaining write ups of the game should be appearing in a forthcoming addition of the Wargamers' Notebook.



Happy Easter everyone!

WM

Edit: I've added an extra shot of Alten to show his nearside. The resemblance to the painting is a lot clearer from this angle!