Waterloo in 28mm - My journey log

[Wellington Bonaparte]

You are a proper war games legend  .  Up there with the greats, I'm astounded at your work, attention to detail and devotion to this project. 

[CapnJim]

Yeah, and I thought I had it good in my gaming space.  But yours is splendid!

[Helge]

Yeah, and I thought I had it good in my gaming space.  But yours is splendid!

Thank you (and Bonaparte himself!). I am blessed with the trifecta of space, means and a tolerant spouse .

Here we have the regimental command of 2nd (Light) Nassau Regiment followed by the first battalion. Models are Perry with some surplus from Front Rank/Perry for the regimental base.

[Helge]

And here we have II and III battalion of 2. Nassau-Usingen. These are Rapier Miniatures which are - frankly - the worst models in this entire collection. Lots of miscasts, fragile parts and not the best details. But at least I am done with the green Nassauers now. On to the more Dutch Belgians!

[CapnJim]

Those are some more great-looking troops.  Nicely done!

[Wellington Bonaparte]

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.

[Helge]

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.

Indeed, these are mostly overwhelmingly GMB. I have a few flags from Warflags where GMB was missing something. For example, I tried to have some kind of differentiation between the conventional Dutch line infantry banner and the 28th Nassau Regiment in Dutch service which otherwise looks identical. So I used Warflags for the latter.

Speaking of 28th Nassau, here is there first battalion. Another large unit of six bases.

[syrinx0]

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. 

[Helge]

Plus an insane amount of energy to keep assembling and painting at this pace! Wonderful work. 

LOL. I am definitely committed. I have a high stress job and assembling/painting allows my mind to work out mental stress while my hands are on autopilot. I am toying with the idea of (very) early retirement in the coming years which would bring more time and less stress. Not sure if that will result in a net gain or loss of miniature painting productivity .

[syrinx0]

Strangely enough my retirement decreased my painting.  There was some impact due to fine motor control health issues but also quite a few other tasks shifted my way as I was off during the day.  In hindsight a decrease in stress (I was in financial trading system devops) really changed my habits. Who knew it is normal to sleep more than 4-5 hours a night? 

[Helge]

i am not retired yet, so the army is still progressing . Here we have the second battalion of 28th Nassau in Dutch service, often called the Orange-Nassau Regiment. This is a regular sized one.



Attached to the 28th regiment were a few volunteer Jaeger.



Finally we have a battery of Dutch-Belgian Horse Artillery. This is a large 4-section battery on a 30cm base. In keeping with my basing convention, I added a mounted model to denote their "Horse" status. This wraps up Saxe-Weimar's 2nd Brigade and with it the 2nd Dutch-Belgian Division. Back to some Brunswickers!




As an educational side note, these volunteer "hunters" are often found with two spellings: "Jäger" versus "Jagers". This isn't some weird anglo-speak mistake but rather the linguistic difference between German and Dutch. In German, a single "hunter" is a Jäger and multiple "hunters" are also Jäger (the Umlaut is often spelled ae on keyboards without the special "dotted a" symbol). But in Dutch, a single hunter is a Jager (no Umlaut) and multiple hunters are Jagers (with an "s" for plural).

Now, Nassau is a German principality - or was in the age of Napoleon - so these individuals would have identified themselves as "Freiwillige Jäger" (Volunteer Hunters in German) in a formation called Freiwillige Oranische Jägerkompanie (Volunteer Orange Hunter Company - the "g" in Orange is missing in German). But they were attached to the Orange-Nassau Regiment - not the green-coated 2nd Nassau Light even though they wear the same uniforms - and that regiment was technically the 28th Line Regiment of the Dutch order of battle. So their Dutch masters would have referred to them as "Vrijwillige Jagers" serving in the Compagnie Vrijwillige Nassausche Jagers (Company of Volunteer Nassau Hunters in Dutch). Note that the intermediate combo "Jaegers" or "Jägers" doesn't exist. Either Umlaut or "s" plural, not both. There. You know that now .

[Helge]

While updating the progress list in the first post, i notice that this whole adventure started on November 23rd 2022. So we are two months away from the project's first anniversary. Wouldn't it be nice if the Allied Army of the Netherlands could be done by then? i don't think i can do it, but it's worth a try. Here is what is left to do:

I Corps - All done except the 3rd Netherlands Division which only had a few units in combat at the very end of the battle. I have models for two Chasseur battalions and two Dutch Line battalions. Maybe those can wait until after the first anniversary.

II Corps - All done except 4th British Division which only had 3 battalions of the 4th Brigade on the field. Three standard redcoat units seems doable.

Reserves - All done except four Hannoverian Landwehr Battalions from Vincke's 5th Brigade and two from Best's 4th Brigade. These were largely unengaged and not originally planned for this collection so maybe I will be forgiven for not completing them by the first anniversary.

Independent Contingents - Nassau is done but we still need the four Brunswick Light battalions, Advance Guard, Cavalry and Artillery. I will focus on this next.


Cavalry - Lots to do here with the Household Brigade (4 regiments) and 8 Hussar regiments of 5th, 6th and 7th Brigade to be done. This is a stretch but I will see how far I can get. And we have the 7 regiments of Netherlands cavalry which are only partially purchased (for lack of available models).

All in, we are looking at 18 infantry battalions, 21 cavalry regiments and two artillery batteries. Definitely not doable in 2 months, but maybe i can do finish the 8 engaged battalions (Brunswick/4th British) and the core 12 British cavalry regiments. Still feels like a stretch, but let's give it a try! Wish me luck.

[peachey_c]

Good Luck! It will be a fine show anyway.

[IronDuke596]

An ambitious goal. Nonetheless, your production and quality rate is extraordinary! Well done!

[vodkafan]

If anyone can do it Helge it is you. I have never seen anyone paint to such quality and quantity so fast. Your example has even got me out of a long rut and painting again