Some more Allied leaders arrive

A bit like the rush around of mid June 1815, some more leaders have just arrived to join their waiting troops. Maybe they were at the Duchess' Ball.

On the British team we have Picton with his top hat and umbrella, ably supported by an aide trying to find out where they are on the map. Also the Majors General Kempt and Pack, completing their already painted Brigades.

On the Dutch/Belgian Nassau team, we have Major General Perponcher leader of the 2nd Netherland Division, along with another aide desperately looking at the map to find some French. And Prince Bernhard Saxe-Weimar (newly promoted after a horse kicked the previous commander) and Major General Byland.

Nice little figures from Old Glory. Needed a bit of greenstuff under the saddle so that they sat well on the horses.

Division leaders are two on a base and Brigade leaders are based singly 

Saxe-Weimar's Brigade

Saxe Weimar's Brigade

Just finished the 28th Orange Regiment which with the 2nd Nassau Regiment, finishes off Saxe-Weimar's Brigade. Also painted the 7th Belgian Line, part of Byland's Brigade in the 2nd Netherlands Division.

Belgians up close

Nice to paint different colour combinations. For the Belgians, I used the British line (in Belgic shako's funny enough) with a blue, grey and red scheme. They look quite smart. Shame there weren't too many more of them. I am waiting for some British in stovepipes and greatcoats for the Dutch Belgian Militia, just so I can tell them apart easily. Should be quick to paint as well.

I haven't found a flag yet for either regiments . If anyone has any pointers please let me know. I've left the flagpoles bare.

I will work on the conversions for the Brigade leaders and Perponcher a bit later.

7th Belgian line in a line

28th Orange Nassau Regiment

28th Orange Nassau with the 2nd Nassau in the background

Picton's Finest

Kempt's Brigade in the rear, Pack's in the foreground

Picton's 5th Division, the Reserve, had some of the most battle experienced of the Allied army at Waterloo. Many of the Regiments had fought against the French during the Peninsular War. The Reserve was under the direct control of Wellington during both Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Picton was wounded at Quatre Bras and hid the fact. Unfortunately he was killed by a musket ball to the head during Waterloo two days later. Wellington mixed in inexperienced units (Hanovarians) in with the experienced ones.

Once again, nice Redline figures. I have painted the first two brigades - Kempt's and Pack's. Half of them were painted last year, and I had been putting off the rest. Bit the bullet and all done. Waiting for Si to get some Hanovarians made up to fill out the last Brigade in the division, 4 battalions of Hanoverian Landwehr.

Completed in the Division so far 240 Infantry, 2 Leaders, 6 guns and 18 crew -

Kempt's 8th Brigade

Kempt's 95th, 28th, 32nd and 79th

• 28th North Gloucestershire
• 32nd Cornwall
• 79th Cameron Highlanders
• 1/95th Rifles

Pack's 9th Brigade

• 1st Royal Scots 
• 42nd Highlanders "The Back Watch"
• 44th  East Essex
• 92nd Gordon Highlanders

Artillery Major Hiess

• Two batteries RFA

Also have Picton to do himself.

New Year's Project - 2nd Netherlands Division

The first project for the New Year is Lieutenant General Perponcher's 2nd Netherlands Division. It was a conglomerate Division in the Prince of Orange's I Corps of  Dutch, Belgians and Nassaus. Wellington was suspicions of the Belgian's allegiance (having only recently fought with the French) and decided to mix them up a bit. It had two large brigades  - Bylandt's Dutch Belgian Brigade and Saxe-Weimar's Nassau Brigade.

1/2nd Nassau Regiment with white pants, 2/2/ and 2/3 behind

While Redline doen't have specific figures for each of the different types of uniforms, some careful substitution and new paint schemes should make it all work. I am going to use Redline's Nassau line figures for the 2nd Nassau and 28th Orange Nassau as well as the 27th Dutch Jagers. The Nassau skirmishers can be French skirmishes with some careful knife work and a paint job. The 7th Belgian line will be British line in belgic shakos with a blue and grey paint job. And the 5th, 7th and 8th Dutch militia will British stovepipes in greatcoats with Nassau command. Artillery can be French foot and horse with British guns and an appropriate colour scheme.

I've started with the 2nd Nassau Regiment, part of Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar's Brigade. It was one of the largest regiments present at Quatre Bras and Waterloo with three battalions of approximately 900 men each. I've painted 42 figures in each battalion, giving a nominal strength of 840, which is a good start. I may bump them up later with an extra stand of six each.

Not a bad start to the year already, with the 3 French Line Battalions I painted on New Year's Day, I am up to 25% of last year's infantry total in a week!

Next will be the 28th Orange Nassau and the 7th Belgian Line, while I wait for the order of the other figures from Bend Sinister. There are a couple of leaders in the conversion pile for Saxe-Weimer, Bylandt and Perponcher, once I find suitable uniform descriptions for them.

Dystopian Sea Table

Naval battles need a nice blue base to play on, the old table cloth was not really up to scratch. I saw a great tutorial on youtube on how to make a make an effective looking table in an afternoon (see the link at the bottom).

I started with two 16mm MDF 6" x 4" boards and painted them with a basecoat sealer. Then a nice blue solid cover, don't worry too much about the brush marks.

Next, with a few different blues and greens, sponge on a mottled effect all over the board. The paints I used were old house paints and sample posts I had collected.

Then with some white, sponge on some straight lines for wave tops. The final stages involves painting on some glass coat epoxy. It is a two part mix that I added a little blue dye to it. As it is drying pat it with some scrunched up paper towel to get a nice ripple wave effect. Leave it to dry for 24 hours for a rock hard finish.

The only downside of the table is it is hard to photograph because it is so shiny. But it's a nice surface to play on.  It will be covered later with green turf mats for the Napoleonic games.

Now to get the blue paint out of my hands.

Step by step pics after the read more link