Brunswick 1st Brigade

Late last week a box of reinforcements arrived from Bend Sinister. Si is very helpful and quick on the postage considering he is sending them across the world. A few days later the Black Duke has some infantry under his command.

Left to Right 3rd, 2nd and 1st Brunswick Line

First on the painting bench were the Brunswick Line regiments. Quick to paint, it took longer to mount and dismount them of the painting sticks than really to paint them. The only difference between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd regiments are the collar colours. Flags were from Napflags.

Leib Regiment

The Leib regiment was even easier as their plumes are black. As they had no standards, I had to cut off the poles and paint them brown to look like muskets. Hard to tell at a distance. One base of 6 is missing as I lost one of the men while cutting them off the painting sticks. It's in the room somewhere, I just can't find it. A reward has been offered to find the deserter.

Leib, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Line

Each unit has 30 figures based in groups of six (except the Lieb regiment). I think I'll order another packet of Brunswick line to fill out the units two six bases of six.

Brunswick 1st Brigade finished, just waiting for their commander

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Light are next  on the list with the Avant Garde/ Jaegers soon following.  Then it is just the hussars to finish the Brunswick Division. And I have to find a Black Duke and commanders. I've ordered some Old Glory Prussian Generals and thought I could do some minor conversions.

Litko order tokens for Republic to Empire

I saw this idea on Curt's Analog Hobbies Blog which I thought was brilliant. The laser etched wood gives a very authentic look on the table, not too obvious but clear to see from a distance. I ordered a few more styles than Curt did to cover the different orders and unit states.

Jim from Litko was fantastic, fast service and great communications (sounds like an ebay review!). I had them made up when I got my .8mm wooden bases and magnetic underlays.

They fit very well with the 10mm figures. Now I need to make some casualty markers.

New Forest

While waiting for some bases to dry, I started a quick forest project. I had picked up two boxes of 6mm conifer tree sets from Cancon from one of the trade displays. I' sorry I can't remember who made them, but there were 26 in a box with resin bases.

Undercoating the resin bases

A quick undercoat with brown paint from Army painter, then some drybushing with light shades of house paint. I then flocked them with my usual mix and glued the trees on. Pretty easy really. Now I have another fifty or so trees to spread out on the battle field.

10mm Redine Bruswick Lieb regiment for scale

Brunswick Ulhans

As part of the Black Duke's Black Band (say that fast!), he had a squadron of Uhlans or Lancers. While only numbering 240 in size they were attached to the larger Hussars and fought at Quatre Bras and Waterloo as well as in the Peninsular.

For my 1:20 units I needed only 12. Unfortunately no one makes them as such, which isn't really a problem with 10mm. I did find a packet of 30 Old Glory French Guard Lancers. There were 30 in the pack with two sets of command figures. A quick snip to remove the plume and a black and blue paint job. Done.

Now I just need to wait for Bend Sinister's Brunswick Hussars, the all the Brunswick Cavalry is complete.

Fastest unit to paint?

Aside from an invisible ninja army, it has to be Brunswick Horse Artillery. Black uniforms with black braid, black cartridge pouch and belts, black hat, and black plume! Officers have a gold sash and silver waist belt.

So after a black spray undercoat (obvious I know) a good dry brush all over with dark grey, then I picked out the face and hands. A wash with some brown ink to pick up the facial features. Then paint the equipment - silver scabbard, brown shafts on the artillery bits, some silver highlights on different parts and that is about it.

This were my first GHQ miniatures, quite different to the Redline ones. Very clear detail, but quite stiff and formal poses. Maybe they are doing drill. The swords and flagpoles are ridiculously thin, I know they are supposed to be true to scale but they are very, very thin. The guns have a fantastic level of detail in them,  almost too much for the 10mm scale. There was a wide variety of poses in the 13 figures per box, and a different combination in each box. I only need three crew per gun so I have a bunch left over for maybe some small vignettes with leaders or in the "artillery park".

All up it took 2 hours to clean up, undercoat, paint, detail, glue to the base and sand 26 men and 4 guns. Twenty more minutes to drybrush the base and flock and they are done. I'm sure I can improve this speed with practice.

It's a pity there was only ever 8 Horse Artillery guns total in the Bruswick army. I use a 1:2 scale so I have painted the whole battery. I'll have to find someone who make a foot artillery line so I can improve my black speed painting.

I have ordered all the infantry of the Brunswick army (1 Leib, 3 Line, 3 Light, and 1 Jaegers/Avantegarde) from Bend Sinister so I can have them painted up in quick time. Si at Bend Sinister is currently working on making Brunswick Hussars available shortly. Then I just need to convert some mounted officers for the Black Duke himself and his small staff. I've ordered some Old Glory Prussian Officers to see if I can make something.

Shame the troops were so raw in battle, brave and feisty, but raw.

Vegetation

I like well vegetated battlefields. Having realistic looking trees and forests really enhances the visual appeal of the game. As a kid, I made trees by scrunching found lichen into balls and sticking them on some melted bits of sprue. The worked, but looked rough.

Now I have access to a wide range of flocks and bits and a bit more time to make things look good.

First is a forest, from the Architecture of War tutorial about making small forests. Nails were stuck onto a 3mm MDF base board then the ground textured, painted and flocked. A removable canopy was made by hot glueing chopped up clump foliage to another bit of 3mm MDF.

A couple of locating holes were made to fit two taller nails on the base. Now troops can be placed inside the forest.

Progress so far

3 weeks painting

Well my first order from Bend Sinister arrived about 3 weeks ago, up until they turned up I had spent the Christmas holidays making terrain. I go lots of trees made, some hills, and a few small buildings. I've made a small version of La Haye Saint, and have begun a version of Hougumont (this may take a little longer)

Now that the figures have arrived, I have focussed on getting at least a division up for each side so I can start to play with them. Reinforcements will be coming later as I paint them.
So far I have painted and based

• 6 Supply wagons
• 24 French Line Lancers
• 12 Brunswick Ulhans
• 60 French Ligne
• 60 British Highlanders
• 15 French Skirmishers
• 4 RHA batteries with crew

I'm halfway through painting 6 RHA limbers and some French Generals. Next will be 60 British line to finish Pack's brigade and 60+ Legere and some French guns to finish off  Jamin's Brigade. Work will get busy for the rest of the month, so I may slow down my productivity here.

Here come the Scots!

Got the 42nd Black Watch and the 92nd Gordon painted and based over the weekend. Painting the tartans and socks made me glad I have a magnifying light. The glue is still drying on the flock, that is why the base has some white blobs on it. Will dry clear by the morning.

Nice figures again from Redline (Bend Sinister). I'll need to order another packet to make the 79th Cameron.

92nd Gordon Highlanders

42nd Black Watch

These will form part of the 9th Brigade under Major General Pack, part of Picton's Reserve. Coming soon will be the 1st Royal Scots and the 44th East Essex, and a few skirmishers. Maybe the Major General himself.

Both battalions, of 30 figures each