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. 

Fuentes de Onoro with Blucher

 As is obvious from the lack of posts, I have been derelict again this year in maintining this blog.

Now that I have some time off work over the Christmas holidays I will make a few posts mainly showing the few games that we have gotten in over the period since March.

First up is a great game of Blucher that Ralph put on for us at the club in July.  It was the Battle of Fuentes De Onoro.  John and I were the Spanish / British.  A few photos with captions.

British Division advancing to protect the right flank

We're defending the river and advancing to Fuentes

Just in the time as French cavalry appear on my right flank

British Guards are in Fuentes and would be very hard to evict

After many attempts and wasted French brigades they get into part of Fuentes

But not for long - we took it back on the next turn

We had a great day's gaming and as to be expected :) the British / Spanish forces won the day.  The victory came down to the covering action on the right flank and the steadfastness of the British in the town.

Rapid Fire at the Club

First game of RapidFire we have had at the club for a number of years. Chris and I decided to get the forces out for a scenario from the Normandy Battlegames book with the 6th Airborne Division against elements of 21 Panzer Division.

We used the RapidFire Reloaded rules and were both very new to them. The Germans got hammered by all of the indirect fire and didn’t really threaten the British

Heavy metal (at least for 6th Airborne)

The forces of evil.  The gun didn’t last long.

Table from the German end as we were setting up

Pretty good turnout and a wide variety of games

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.

 

 

3d Printing

I have wanted to get a grand building that I could use in the context of the Italian Wars collection.  I have the wonderful Mirliton sets which I'll post photos of below and wanted to be able to have a place to put a scriptorium in or at different times a grand manor kitchen service a Duke's feast.

I got a 3d printer late last year and have been mainly printing 1/300 stuff for WWII but stumbled upon the Infinite Dimensions site who had a Sciptorium model.  So I paid my money for the files and have been printing it on and off over the past month.

All of the structure is finished - just need to print the doors.  I am very happy with what I have got and think I will be even happier once painted.  I plan on joining the pieces of each floor together so they lift on and off in one piece.

It is very large so don't see it making an appearance often and only then as a centre piece in a town and on the biggest tables.

 

And these are from Mirliton to go with it.  I realise they are slightly out of period - but I am happy with that.

And from Eureka their orchestra to stand on the balcony and entertain.