Digging in

There are no sapper or miner figures available for the Allied forces. As far as I can tell the 1815 campaign employed civilians to conduct any entrenchment work on the Allied side,  not that much was done an any of the battles.

I found some suitable figures from the Pendraken range - some generic 19thC civilian working party FPX1. There are two sculpts in the 15 figure packet -  a pick axe and a shovel. The figures are working in plain clothes, not uniforms, making them suitable markers for any army.

I mounted them in threes on a standard infantry base, added some ballast and flock and a few bigger rocks. All done.

Generals de Division and Brigade

Undercoat the horse colour

I am a bit short on Generals for my French Brigades and Divisions. There isn't a wide choice of generals in 10mm, and the sizes vary a bit.

Pendraken make a some mounted line officers in their 1809 range. I thought I could use them with a little paint conversions. The uniform is a little different to the 1815 style, but they would do as proxies. They had four styles - Bicorne, Shako, Shako with surcoat and a Guard Grenadier officer. I know that Generals didn't wear shakos, but it makes it easier to see who is who on the table.

Glued onto bases ready for texturing and flocking

I bent a few arms and heads to have some variety and cut a few swords off. I undercoated them brown, black and white - mainly the horse colour to speed things up. A quick block in the colours, lots of gold trim and black magic wash.

I based most of the singly on a 15mm square base for Brigade Generals, and a few in pairs for Division Generals on 20mm squares.

I ended up with 4 Division Generals and 12 Brigade Generals. One Division General will be for Drout and there are four Grenadier Generals which will be for the Imperial Guard Brigade  Leaders.

Now I need to find some more variety for the Corps Commanders and Cavalry Commanders. I have some Old Glory French leaders, but they are a lot smaller in body. Maybe the 3 foot rule will be on my side. I might ned to do some conversions for the Cavalry ones.

General de Division Drout with Generals Friant, Roguet, Morand and Michel 

General Foy with Tissot and Jamin

General Bachelu with Husson and Campi

General Donzelot with Schmitz and Aulard

Generals de Brigade Bauouin and Soy waiting for Prince Jerome to arrive

French Engineers

Preparing earthen works for the artillery

The French engineering contingent was very modest during the 1815 Campaign. They were used to clear the bridges in the crossing of the Sambre at Charleroi, as well as in the Battle of Ligny during the Guard assault of the village. As there were no engineering tasks at Waterloo, they were kept as reserve infantry and were used during the retreat.

These figures are from the Pendraken 1809 range. They are dressed in the siege uniform, with a metal helmet and cuirass. They have long coat tails from the pre-bardin uniforms, but I don't think anyone will notice on a 10mm figure. The helmets worn at Waterloo by the Guard engineers were like the Carabiner's helmet with a black comb. Previously they were the firemen at the Imperial Palaces.

Dig in boys!

Not so bad to paint, they have much deeper cuts and creases than the Redline figures, so the magic wash settles making the lines well defined. The eye sockets are quite large for the scale of the men.

I based them three to an infantry base, with some rocks in the front where they are digging.

They will be useful in other campaigns and scenarios.

Napoleon's Carriage

Napoleon abandoning his carriage

During Waterloo, Napoleon's personal carriage was kept at the back of the battle guarded with the other baggage by a battalion of Foot Chasseurs of the Guard. Despite the picture on the left of a defeated Napoleon abandoning his carriage, Napoleon didn't ride away in his carriage after Waterloo. Marchand ordered it to be taken back to avoid capture. Napoleon eventually took one of Marshal Soult's carriages that was left near Genappe.

The carriage itself was captured in the rout after the battle of Waterloo on the 18th June, by Prussian Major von Keller. It was the later acquired by an Englishman William Bullock who put it on exhibition in London to the fascinated public. Later in 1842, the carriage was acquired by Madame Tussaud and was displayed for the next 80 years. Unfortunately in 1925 it was completely destroyed in a fire.

Pendraken's 17th/18thC Carriage

Made in April 1815, it was superby crafted. The interior could be made up to be a bedroom, office, bathroom, dressing room or dining room. It had many secret compartments and clever storage areas where the Emperor's personal effects, maps and some treasure was kept.

There are not a lot of options in 10mm to model this unusual objective piece. Pendraken make an 17th/18th Century Carriage as part of their Seven Years War range. There are not any pictures on the website or the forums or anywhere really, so I took a chance and ordered it to see if it would be suitable.

The kit comes with 4 horses, the carriage and separate wheels, a chest and sack and a driver in 18th C clothing (tricorn, big cuffs, heavy cloak). The carriage itself needed no modification being close enough, other than painting. There is not too much detail on the carriage, it seems pretty generic.

Carriage undercoated

I decided that the driver needed to be converted to having a bicorne and imperial livery. The large cuffs were trimmed down and the tricorne cut off. Bit of green stuff later and ready to prime.

The rest came together pretty well, a bit over an hour and it was all done and based. I used a  spare Chasseur a Cheval of the Guard as an escort. I am not sure about the N on the side, I might paint over it later, my attempt at an eagle was pretty poor. The carriage will make a good objective is the post Waterloo scenarios.

The carriage with escort

Driver sporting a new Bicorne

Casualty Markers

Infantry casualty marker - Redline figures

One of the challenges in 10mm is accounting for casualties. Because they are based in larger numbers, individual removal is problematic. Because I have lots of units on the table, a paper based one would be confusing, and a computer based one. So a marker is necessary.

In the "Republic to Empire" rules casualties are only removed after half the unit is gone. This represents the "thinning" of the line while losing effectiveness. Regrouping after heavy losses would result in smaller frontages. So I need to make a counter up to around 12 which represents two stands of infantry or 3 of cavalry.

There are a number of commercially available dials and counters. Litko make a nice laser cut one in coloured plastic. They were a bit expensive ($5.99 for 2) and the nice plastic would stand out on the table too much. They were also a bit thick.

Home made dial sheet and Jim's goodies

The Dial Dude had some funky looking ones with flags, a bit cheaper. But he seems to be not making them at the moment and not answering emails.

So I thought I'd make some. I wanted them to blend into the table, but still be noticeable on what they were recording.

I talked to Jim at Litko about his flexible steel and flexible magnetic bases. They were not rigid enough by themselves so I needed to get a .8mm plywood top on them. I thought I could have the plywood and flexible steel on the top and the magnet on the bottom. Unfortunately the magnet sticks on one side, the side without the adhesive, so I have had to glue the paper dial on the magnetic side. I ordered 100 30mm circles in the plywood, flexible steel and flexible magnet ($46 plus shipping - much better).

Parts waiting to come together. The magnetic sheet is already stuck to the plywood

For the dials I made up a sheet using Inkscape, a free vector drawing program. I wanted to use a vector program as the numbers would render better as I bent them round the circle. And I needed an accurate way of printing 30mm circles easily.


If anyone wants the files you can download an .svg vector file or a .pdf version. The dials go from 1 to 12. Feel free to modify them as you need. They are a clone tiled, so by changing the top left one, the others should all change.


I then cut a wedge out of the plywood/steel combination with a chisel. Be careful of which way the grain goes as it may split if you cut along the grain. It is assembled from top to bottom -

plywood

paper dial

magnetic sheet

steel sheet

The flexible steel base keeps is together. The wedge needed to be big enough to only show one number, including the 10 11 and 12, without showing any others.

Assembled dial

Redlines outstanding little casualty vignette. 

Now for the scenic treatment. Not a lot of options in the 10mm casualty range. Which is a shame, it is these little details which really appeal to the wargamer, especially when it helps with the game play and atmosphere.


Redline has some fantastic little two person scenes of a soldier holding his dying mate. The figures are "generic" in that they are bare headed (I managed to get one with a stovepipe shako somehow?) and have a simple uniform with crossed belts. I undercoated them red and blue, then painted the up as British and French Line. Maybe I should have done one with one of each showing a little compassion across the field. They are exquisite little figures that really come up well when painted. Hopefully the photo is clear enough to see them. They are not listed in Bend Sinister's shop. Si normally pops a couple in when you have a decent order. I've collected 9 so far. I'll have to ask him to put them in the shop.

Pendraken's dead horse marker from the Napoleonic range.

Pendraken have a dead horse in their Napoleonic range. Unfortunately there are no pictures. I know it is a hassle putting pictures in online shops, but it makes a big difference to customers when they can see what they are ordering. They come in packets of 5 for a a few dollars. Good value really. Nice figure, lying down with I think a British type saddle. It would be nice to have a couple of saddle variants, but I imagine they aren't a big seller.

A bit of flock, tufts and rocks and all done.  The dials just stick together with the magnet and can easily be moved around. I plan on making one per regiment, so they can be discreetly placed on the table.

I am thinking of maybe making some with morale status on them, or little artillery ones with ammunition counters.

If any 10mm manufacturers are reading this please make some more casualty figures and maybe even some ambulances or wagons for wounded. They are so affordable in 10mm to have them on the field. They really add to the game.

Dials glued to the magnetic bases - steel and plywood circles on the left

A morning's work