Oh it's been a while!! (But there are photos of painted miniatures)

I haven't posted anything on here for almost a year, primarily because I have been painting thousands of Adler Napoleonic figures. If you've seen some of the older posts on here you'll know that they are aprox 8mm in height.

While I have been painting them and putting them on plywood bases, I have not done any 'basing' with them as I could not make up my mind what looked best. Bit stupid really when you consider that they are bloody small.

So I did not feel that there was any point in putting up images of (very small) based but unfinished units.

Along the way, one thing that I firmly landed on was that the basing material / ground cover needed to be relatively light in colour as I think that makes a big difference to the unit's visibility on the table top as well as allowing the paint job to be more visible.

At Cancon this year, I saw a basing paste that I thought might wok - and bought a pot to test. I had also seen a great post from a guy on Facebook by the name of Ricky Bell who gave a 'recipe' for a mixture of Javis flocks that looked pretty good to me. So a few weeks ago I painted up a few units and tried it out. I am very pleased with the outcome. The real test will come when I do some artillery bases and limbers this week.

So, with that decision made, expect to see many many more posts about the Napoleonic project over the coming 18 months because ......

I have been collecting these Napoleonic figures from Adler since 1994. While I have approximately half of my figures painted - there are also another half unpainted and they were intended to be a project that I would work on for years and years.

So to my horror, a few weeks ago I received a message from Leon who owns Adler saying that he is planning to shut down production of the 6mm lines. However, very generously he is allowing existing customers to continue to purchase through to June 2025 so as to be able to finish collections off.

After some hand wringing, I decided I'd better make a concerted effort to get as much completed as possible so that I could identify any gaps that needed to be filled.

Taking photos presents a slight quandery - they need to be close to see the little buggers - but get too close and you see all the shortcuts taken to paint a 6mm figure.

These Wurttemburgers supported Napoleon in the 1809, 1812, 1813 and 1814 campaigns. In most cases I have used the 1809 uniforms.

Firstly a group shot.

First up are the Wurttemburg Jäger zu Pferd Regiments - two regiments each of 24 figures in four squadrons.

Next are two Chevauxleger Regiments, again each regiment consists of four squadrons of six figures.

Then we have the Wurttemburg Light Battalions with their snazzy red plumes and blue lapels and turnbacks.

These took some work. The stock figures do not have a plume - but I wanted the dress uniform because (especially at 6mm) it looks good on the table. So, into each shako I drilled a small hole, glued a piece of brass wire and dipped that into the neck of a bottle of Vallejo Plasttic Putty to give some volume to the plumes. In addition, while not really visible on the photos (and certainly not on the table) each shako has a green fabric trim around it at the midpoint. While these are moulded onto the figures, they are meant to be piped in white on the edges. While it would have looked good, my sanity is worth more - so they just have the green fabric painted.

And finally we have the Milan Battalion which served with the French. I wanted this as I thought the light blue jacket looked good.

Quick photo of the ongoing 6mm Napoleonics for 1813

Work continued through the year on my 6mm Napoleonic project for 1813.   The last post I put up was Saxons for 1813

Two simple shots taken before basing material has been applied - Guard Chasseurs - Old and Young Squadrons

And the rest of their cousins

Over the course of the year I have done approximately 200 French and Allied battalions of infantry and 20 cavalry regiments.  Work started on the Prussians about a month ago.  

But .... I still haven't decided on the basing material I will use so all are simply on painted Litko plywood. 

Normandy Navy

I have continued to experiment with the 3d printer over the past few months.  

Test prints of the various Landing Craft needed

I recently started planning to put on a set of large games around the Normandy Landings for June 2024.  I have a large number of the wonderful Leva (and more recently LegionsIVHire) bunkers and defensive positions.  But as I am doing this in 1/300 scale I have the opportunity to have a large number of landing craft of various types so that the seascape truly looks like "wall to wall ships" as various German reports stated on the morning.

So I have acquired various STL files for these craft and have been resizing and doing test prints.  This will allow me to realise a long held dream - many of these variants are not commercialy available in resin or lead.  As well the cost of those that are available range from 5-15 pounds.  So to put a lot of them on the table would have involved a significiant investment.  

At the moment they are simply undercoated.  I have some more work to do to tune the file and printer to get rid of some of the step marks - but otherwise I am delighted.   

LCT Mk3 and Gun and Flak versions

Plain LCT Mk4 and Gun, Flak and Rocket versions

LCT Mk5

LCI(L) - Landing Craft Infantry (Large)

LCI(S) - Landing Craft Infantry (Small)

A (small) 3d test printed of a gun for the Flak versions

A little progress on the 1813 Project

 I have been making slow progress on the 1813 project using my Adler miniatures.  

When I say I have 'completed' these - that is up to the stage of flocking the bases.  I've tried various basing styles none of which I have been overly happy with in the past.  I am awaiting some new supplies to try a new option or two and once decided I'll have hundreds of bases to catch up on.  

Over the past four or so months I've finished painting my Saxons except commanders and the guns.  They have come out as:

• Liebgrenadiergarde - 2 battalions
• Converged Grenadiers - 4 battalions
• Line Infantry - 16 battalions
• Light Infantry - 4 battalions
• Garde du Corps
• Von Zastrow Cuirassiers
• Liebcuirassiergarde
• Prinz Klemens Uhlans
• Von Polenz CheveauxLeger
• Hussars
• Horse teams

And for the French I've done 17 battalions of the Marine Artillery that were converted to Line regiments.

 

 

A few scenic items

Just got a package from Take Cover Scenics https://takecoverscenics.co.uk/ .  I have traditionally made all my own scenic stuff for the tabletop but wanted to get some of these as they looked so good on the web.

For my 6mm WWII, Modern and Napoleonics I got a flexible field as well as some bocage.  I also splurged and got a section of 20mm deluxe hedgerow.

All are very well made.  Comms with John was great throughout the process and I received some photos as work was progressing.

6mm flexible field

6mm flexible field

20mm Milicast Churchill with Deluxe Hedgerow

20mm Milicast Churchill with Deluxe Hedgerow

6mm with bocage

A Mulberry Harbour

I'm sure many of you know how it works ... you go onto a website looking for something particular and then get sidetracked and follow a few more links / threads and end up not where you intended but close to a "Checkout" button.

Well that what led to the purchase I'm showing below.  I went onto Shapeways to look for a 6mm Freya Radar for my Normandy Germans.  Then saw a reference to a Mulberry harbour component which ended up with these landing on my doorstep.

Beach ramp and bridges

Bridges and Beetles

Pierhead

LST Pierhead

In need of a beach and water board

Realising that it would not be too often that I would use the Harbour setup, I saw something else that I thought may have been more useful - Rhino ferries.  So click and a few of them were on their way.

Rhino tugs and barge

Small Rhino ferries

No comments on the prices if you follow this link :)

All of these come from https://www.shapeways.com/shops/miniandbeyond?section=1%2F300+WW2&s=0

Battle of Bull Run

Well we picked the hottest day of the year (more on that later) to gather at Ralph's place for a game of Fire and Fury.  This was set at Bull Run on his handmade specific terrain using part of his great (huge) collection of 6mm H&R ACW troops.

I was the Confederate commander and faced Ralph, Ross and Nick.  The Rebs had a hard time of it for much of the game.



The Battlefield looking North with Bull Run on the right

 

Bee's Brigade sheltering Evans's reduced Brigade with the Union are on the ridge

Union opposite Bartow's Brigade behind the woods

Up comes another Union brigade while Evans moves to close the gap

Hampton's Brigade comes on - looks a little small doesn't it?

Hampton looks even smaller when you consider the Union forces coming on in the distance

 

While Hampton held them, Stonewall's Brigade had time to come up

 

Stonewall about to repulse Sherman's Brigade back across the river

On the other flank Evan's Brigade is about to be hammered

 

But too late for the Union, Stonewall, Hampton and Bartow have held the right flank

 





And yet more Confederates are coming onto the table



The Confederates hold Henry Hill and win the game

More troops arriving on Henry Hill to make sure it is held

Now I said that I would give you a bit more on the weather - below is a picture of the car about 5 minutes after getting in to it to go home - this was 5.45pm.  Aircon was keeping me sane inside the car while the outside was getting ready for the bacon and eggs.  I've never seen it get to that level before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



6mm French bits

Two regiments of dismounted dragoons - not sure where I will use them but Adler did them so wanted to have them for something different.

And then two French Batteries.