"La BRICOLE": Wargaming the Napoleonic Wars in Miniature

Happy birthday to me. I was finally able to unwrap my Wurttembergers, and they are nice. And I mean very nice! Front Rank has clearly gotten away from the pot-belly syndrome, and these are as slender and as detailed miniatures as one could ever want. They will look great when painted, and it should be fun working on them.

So, here is my project. Whether I will be able to reach the bar I've set myself I don't know, but I am anxious to get more miniatures on our gaming table, so here's the plan.

French first, and for la Grande Armee, the 4e Regt. Chasseurs a Cheval. These are in the 1812 Bardin regulation uniform, and are very nice figures. Along with my 7e Regt this will give me two regiments of light cavalry (not including my Guard lancers). They will look sharp in dark green with yellow facings. 12 miniatures.



And my first batch of Wurttembergers. These will be the painted as Regt Nr.4 (von Franquemont) in, Iannick will be pleased to note, pink facings! Four stands of seven figures, with three stands of two skirmishers. I've yet to order the bases and flags, but no immediate hurry on those yet.



Uniform details here. The 1811+ uniform is on the right, with the blue lapels:



http://empire.histofig.com/Line-infantry,833.html

They will eventually be brigaded with the 1st (Leib) Regiment in yellow facings, so the Wurttembergers should prove a colourful contingent.

Finally, I really need to get moving on my battalion of Nassau-Ringgworm Freikorps. Calpe miniatures, with some metal Warlord Landwehr thrown in the mix. These have been cleaned, primed, and undercoated for about a year, but as the allies have been outnumbering the French, allied troops have been put on the back-burner. However, I really need the desk space, so I will try to get them finished in the coming months.



You won't find any other reference than this, though- the regiment is fictional!
http://nassau-ringgworm.blogspot.com/20 ... hofen.html

I designed the flag myself, and it looks good- it just needs the men to carry it and fight for it! Some time back I had painted a test figure, but I wasn't really happy with it; since then I haven't been quite sure how to approach the black uniforms.



The whole lot, including a glimpse of one of the prizes which just arrived this morning from Amazon!



I still have other things I need to finish, a French legere battalion and the 7e Chasseurs a Cheval, but they are outside the scope of the contest and are well on their way to completion. My first priority is to get those done over the coming holiday, and then I'll tackle the project. I don't know if I'll get all three done, but if I get two out of three I'll consider it a job well done.

Ah PINK facings. A real mans colour.

Neil wrote:Ah PINK facings. A real mans colour.

Ooh, ever so, Tiger. And they'll scratch the eyes out of any b*tch who says otherwise.

When they camp out on campaign, they, like, really camp out.

Pink facings are pink (!)

I was only recently reading about the tough Wuerttembergers fighting to the last man in the Forrest around Dennewitz. Real classy infantry (like all Rheinbund minus Westphalen).

Schrumpfkopf wrote:Pink facings are pink (!)

I was only recently reading about the tough Wuerttembergers fighting to the last man in the Forrest around Dennewitz. Real classy infantry (like all Rheinbund minus Westphalen).

Aren't they, though?

I just hope they perform half as well on the tabletop as they did in places like Eckmühl, Russia, and Dennewitz.

Good luck with the project Robert!

The pink facings are a way to get my vote, right?

ArchiducCharles wrote:Good luck with the project Robert!

The pink facings are a way to get my vote, right?

That, or threaten to tamper with your avatar rank again.

Stung into (uncharacteristic!) action by the announcement of Clarence's unexpected entry into the contest with his own Front Rank Wurttembergers, I have finally started work on my own.

I have had a constructive few days of painting, but this morning I bit the bullet and prepped the first of the 4th Line Infantry for painting. Not that they needed much- these are exceptionally clean castings.

Clarence chose standing figures in serried ranks for his own battalion. I was going to do an advancing unit along with some skirmishers, but it is becoming evident that the Wurttemberg line infantry did not deploy skirmishers (they had lots of dedicated light troops to fulfil this function). I've therefore decided to order enough additional firing and loading figures for me to have a battalion in a firing line- just 'cos I luv the figures!



These have been given a few quick passes of white primer (from Gunze Sangyo for plastic models). Just enough to "key" the surface, as when dry I will brush on a black undercoat.

I've started with only one stand's worth of figures for now (out of four). Mainly because I'm waiting for the next order from Front Rank, but also because doing it this way may be less intimidating that trying to do the whole lot at once.

I must say, they do look like great figures. Carry on.

John

Black base coat applied.