OMG just had a look around your wargames room…wow
Vodkafan, thanks for the quick reply. I will try to get a battalion or two from Rapier then. Would you by chance know how Rapier miniatures are packaged? The online store shows random pictures of 2, 3 or 4 unpainted, or a cropped show of painted models, but lists every entry at 5 pounds. Is there some kind of standard package size independent of the pictures?
There appears to be some debate on the historically correct headgear, but in an ocean of red all variety is welcome.
Helge matey, you've put me to shame, bigstyle. I've been doing my 'Airfix Waterloo' collection for over 50 years now, here's you nailing it in 50 days!!!:'( :o :'(
Those artillery batteries look really impressive on the big bases.
Any preferences between cavalry or the 2nd Dutch-Belgian Division?
Harry, there will definitely be some French as well :). At present, i have a few filing boxes full of French which will be formed into:
- full Imperial Guard (3 infantry divisions plus assorted cavalry)
- full I Corps (4 infantry divisions, 1 light cavalry division)
- Jerome's 6th division from II Corps
- 2 additional light cavalry divisions
- full III Heavy Cavalry Corps (2 heavy cavalry divisions)
Comes to just under 2,000 models. Not quite the full order of battle, but enough to fill a (few) table(s). I am missing 2 infantry divisions from II Corps, the entire reduced VI Corps (2 infantry divisions, 2 light cavalry divisions), and the entire IV Heavy Cavalry Corps (2 heavy cavalry divisions). The French formations are quite repetitive so skipping a few divisions will keep me sane...
Those Dutch look OK to me. I'm curious now - how were their proportions weird?
Ah. I see now. I suspect that they'll look fine in their own units...
Your quantity and quality of this project's production is still impressive. I remain envious but enthralled with your posts. Well done!
Don’t take this the wrong way, but having given up all thought of pursuing Napoleonics in any scale after a number of failed attempts - I hate you so much right now. ;) ;) ;) :o
I just noticed that the completion of 6th Division also marks a big milestone for this army. Two actually. First, I have now painted over 2,000 figures for this army. Second, the infantry has crossed 45 battalions which rises to a much more noteworthy 50 if you count the skirmishing light infantry battalions. Plus of course some cavalry and artillery. Not bad for 8 months of grinding :). There are about 700 figures left to complete for the Allied Army - mostly Brunswicker, Nassau and the remaining cavalry - and then it will be on to the next big project.
Apologies if I missed this upthread somewhere but who makes your casualty bases? I take it there is a little number wheel in there? I like casualty bases, rather than putting little dice or other tokens next to my units.
Your display cabinets are as nice as the miniatures. You could host wargames as your retirement job.
Lovely set up, what are you planning on printing?
It is utterly vile to keep such beautiful figures hidden in a box when not in play.
Yeah, and I thought I had it good in my gaming space. But yours is splendid! :D
I don't know if you have previously mentioned it but whoe flags do you use?
They look very much like GMB flags, I wonder if they may be a wee bit large for my burgeoning Napoleonic armies which are old school miniature figurines 25mm.
Thank you (and Bonaparte himself!). I am blessed with the trifecta of space, means and a tolerant spouse :).
Plus an insane amount of energy to keep assembling and painting at this pace! Wonderful work.
But a blob of black/grey on the end of the bugle, it'll really pop, then!
:)
And then we have the brigade commander Lt.-Col. von Specht leading the Line Brigade that I posted a few weeks ago.
(https://wargamingworkshop.files.wordpress.com/2023/10/nap-aa-brunswick-div-line-brig-ltcol-von-specht.jpg)
I think the helmets of Household-Regiments had brass peaks...?
Much as I hate to do it, especially in light of your splendid effort to represent Die Schwarze Schar as more than just a handful of combat units, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you (well, four bits of bad news, in fact).
.They are painted as such, unless I am missing something. Brass on the helmets and then the plumes. Am I misunderstanding your question?
Hello Helge - I meant the front peaks of the helmets, just a minor detail though.
They look superb.
Just reading Bernard Cornwell’s book on Waterloo at the moment (which is an excellent) as a friend is persuading me to do the 100 days campaign in 28mm. Trying to resist but your thread really isn’t helping lol
... Indeed, I have to admit that the whole collection does look glorious all laid out. It now fills a full 9x5' table even tightly packaged just for the allied forces. ...
Here we have the two 8 gun batteries supporting the Brunswick Division. One Horse, one Foot.
What a fantastic project so far. Can't wait to see the Prussians! Can you try to explain why you like to mix manufacturers for variety. I am asking because I am the opposite in this regard and I find your approach very interesting.
Very nice indeed! Congratulations! You're basically there with the Allied army! :o
I just assumed it was to the front for display, to the rear for play…
Very nicely done Helge! By my reckoning that's the last of the Dutch infantry (assuming no militia) Congrats!
Your display case to put all those miniatures must be enormous.
I am somewhat running out of steam in the final stretch of this project with new projects taking ever more of my mindshare. 5 more cavalry units and two more (half) batteries to go... Pushing myself :)
Very nice woodcut. If I might ask, where did you purchase it from?
At what rate will you be done with this project? And have you already thought about what the next one will be? Curious minds want to know.
crikey, you'd need quite an income just to cover the cost of rattle-cans !
DONE! It's a done.
You can see the full collection on this page (https://wargamingworkshop.com/historical-collection/napoleonics/allied-army-of-the-netherlands/), though I am also tempted to make a video of some kind later.
I am immensely privileged that financial considerations became irrelevant to my hobby a long time ago. Figure painting is an interesting hobby because it doesn't scale with money like many other hobbies. Sailors can buy larger boats, golfers join fancier clubs, sports fans luxury tickets, musicians fancier instruments, video gamers virtual goods, but figure painting is rate-limited by their own ability to paint stuff (assuming you do paint of course :)). My ~35 year hobby journey went from "can't buy much at all" to "can buy what I need" to "could buy anything but can't paint fast enough" :). I am conscious that I am a "whale" - and privileged to be that - but being a figure painting whale is surprisingly tolerable compared to the big spenders in other hobbies. Every time I grouse about a price hike, I look at acquaintances dropping more on a Superbowl ticket, fancy car or boat than I could spend in a decade of hobby and chill out :).
Thank you all for the wonderful comments. I have started the assembly process for the Prussian infantry. Also bought every Contrast/Speed Paint/etc variant of "blue" to have maybe a bit of variety in shades. Unfortunately, my last burst of painting went to far and I developed some kind of tennis elbow pains in my arm! I will have to rest a bit before launching into the next big project. Lots of time to assemble until then.Sorry to here that! (The arm, not the blue paint) Wishing you a swift recovery :)
Really great start :-*
Just wondered why you aren’t doing the French next so you could start having games for your efforts?
One down, how many to go?
A really great project that I like to follow. One question about the size of the unit. I have read that a battalion of the Prussians consisted of four companies. At that time I opted for 6 men per company, equal to 24 men per battalion. This had the advantage for me that I could also see a progress when creating the units.
You made your units 36 models large. Is there a reason for this or is it simply the freedom of the artist?
... a few words on army organisation. I will of course use the same basing scheme as for the Anglo-Dutch with a standard battalion having 24 figures on 4 bases of 50x50mm each. Large battalions will have 6 bases for a total of 36 figures. For the Anglo-Dutch, there was a pretty clear line between the two size classes because most British/Hannoverian/Dutch units had around 400-500 troops while some of the Guards/Nassau battalions had over 1,000 men. For the Prussians, this is a bit trickier as virtually all their battalions have a target strength of 800 men with very little variation.
I found a scan of an old German book showing casualty figures for the battle at Ligny which I used to estimate unit sizes on June 18th when the Prussians arrive at Waterloo. As expected, this reduced the headcount of battalions in I and II Corps quite considerably since they bore the brunt of the fight at Ligny. That brings them closer to the 400-600 men range of "standard" size units and I have classed them accordingly. The regiments in IV Corps were not engaged at Ligny so they would have arrived at Waterloo with approximately their full strength. With the exception of organically smaller regiments - such as the under-strength Silesian Landwehr - I have classed such units as "large".
Appropriately, this gives me a dozen or so large battalions to lead the initial steamroller charge into Plancenoit, followed by regular units for the second wave. ...
Very nice!! Which contrast paint are you using for the "Prussian blue"?
A very nice project. I like the way you combine everything here, the miniatures from different manufacturers, the joint placement of metal and plastic figures. The overall impression is definitely convincing.
Then my local club has jumped into Age of Chivalry with the new release so I followed with a bunch of Perry boxes. Assembling English, Frenchg/Burgundian/Free Companies, Swiss, Condottieri, and York/Lancaster warbands right now. All-in about 750 figures to paint which will nicely counterbalance the drab Prussians with some flamboyant colours :)
Excellent Landwehr, like the firing line battalion.
Paul
:-*
Very nice and congratulations on the smashing the milestone! Really impressive as always. I'm liking the look of the metal minis far more than the plastics. Much more animation!
Fantastic as usual! How many more minis are there to go?
Current count is 1469 Prussian figures painted, 1144 left to go. The is excluding the horses which are progressing well. Should be done this week.That's quite the impressive statement to be making! Godspeed to you sir! :D