First of the Polish

As I mentioned last month, I have now made progress on my latest painting project, the Polish or Duchy of Warsaw.  These figures are based upon the 1812 V Corps and specifically those present at Borodino on Napoleon's right flank, attacking the village of Utitza.

I initially looked at Front Rank but these do not go well with Foundry/Perry and so when I saw Murawski these looked perfect and I have to say they are a joy to paint.  Very clean in respect of mould lines (almost none) and flash (minimal) and excellent detail, especially trims and buttons.  I will probably break the painting up with an initial rush to get figures ready for Mockern 1813 (game on next month), comprising the Uhlans, 3 battalions of Line infantry and a foot battery.  This will expand significantly for Utitza with 4 regiments of cavalry, 10 battalions and two batteries.

I started with the Uhlans and an officer Group.

As I previously mentioned, my preferred method of painting mounted figures is to do the horse first, then fix the man to the horse and then paint him.  But in the case of the Murawski figures, the fit is tight and thus after some judicious filing, the man and horse were glued and then painted as a whole.

The Polish Crimson/Pink is a an undercoat of Games Workshop Khore red, Foundry Wine Stain shade and finally Hues Polish Crimson (with added white for the final highlight).

The flag and pennants are GMB (as are virtually all of my flags).  I cannot recommend GMB highly enough and were applied to the figures after basing and varnishing with a PVA wash to protect the flag from heavy hands!  I am not sure how long it will be before a lance is lost in action.  At Partizan, the Grenadiers a Cheval lost their flag during the battle, somewhat a reflection of their performance on the day.  Now safely restored I hope they perform better this week at a section of Austerlitz.

Next to be finished, the 1st/6th Polish Line battalion.

Partizan 2018

Following the Salute show last month, we put on the Aspern-Essling game again at Partizan last Sunday.  There was only three of us this time which made the day quite congested fielding many questions from the visiting public and trying to progress the game so that visitors did see some progress as they visited us.  However, as always, it is the questions and chat that make the show worthwhile.  If all we wanted to do was play the game, then we would put on at our club or a members house.  I always think the aim of a demonstration game is to try and showcase the hobby, not an extended club night!

We set off from Kent at just before 5am, arriving at the Newark Showground around 7.30, after some breakfast.  One thing to note is how few service stations are open early on a Sunday morning.

It was a bit tight in the car, thankfully I am the driver.

Parking, as usual, excellent, and we had the game set up by 8.30, ready well in time for the public when they came in at around 10.  Our table was at the start of the Demonstrator zone, next to the Perry's Germantown game.

One of the issues with having so few of us putting on the game is that you get little time to look at other games or the trade.  I managed to pick up my pre-booked orders.  There was some confusion with Dave Thomas but will pick up the balance at Crisis in November - it is not as if I will run out of lead by then.  Other than that, little opportunity to get around the show.  A few books acquired but I will use Crisis and Reading for my main shopping and research.

The game itself went well, we actually managed to finish it (French win), unlike at Salute.  It was good to catch up with a few people, specifically;

Michael Perry who obviously was taking a look at the large number of Foundry and Perry figures on the table but was also interested in the fit of their figures with the Gringo officers on the table.  He was also impressed with the Warbases wagons and caissons.

Steve Shann (see link on this blog), who I met for the first time and was the designer and creator of all the buildings on show, including the Granary.

Steve and I spent some considerable time discussing our next projects; the Peninsula and Waterloo.

Most people passing wanted to discuss the Command & Colors systems and also were impressed at how many figures were on the table, and for the General de Brigade gang, one comment was how nice to see 12 and 8 figure units (not such a painting marathon as 36+) and yet the battlefield looked well stacked.

Attack on Aspern

Aspern Church

My overall view is that the Partizan show has a very good standard of wargames that clearly are games that can be played.  There are no diorama style games which you see at other shows.  The location is very good, with good lighting (an advantage over Salute) but on a very sunny day it became very warm and the body odour aroma of some rose as the day went on!

The guys I felt really sorry for were the traders on the south side of hall (including Warbases) where the feel of a greenhouse came to mind.

It is a long day for people coming from the south (and no doubt the north), so for next year I think a night in Newark or Lincoln before hand will break up the day.  Something to consider.

I also noted two of my officer bases in this month's Wargames Illustrated, the Lannes (with Vistula Legion staff) and Grouchy.  Both Gringo figures.

Next post is the first of the Polish for Mockern.

Latest painted additions

Setting aside the ever increasing pile of metal (more picked up at Salute and more to come at Partizan), I have made progress, albeit slowly on completing some units for the next major projects.

Maybe I should try and focus on one project at a time but they are all linked in that they relate to Napoleonic 'Command and Colors' and my attempt to build a French Army and its allies for a number of battles and campaigns.  The main projects at present are:

• Vimeiro 1808
• Utitza and the rest of Borodino 1812
• Mockern 1813
• Laon 1814
• And long term, Waterloo

A friend of mine (Don) is working steadily through the British for Vimiero and the Prussians for Laon, the latter obviously being ready for Waterloo as well.  The Russians are already complete.  The immediate project is Mockern (July) for which some Prussians need completing and I need to complete some Polish units.  I am underway on these and have to say the Murawski Miniatures are superb figures.  I will soon complete the 11th Uhlan and will post some pictures when varnished and flagged.

The Murawski figures are very good for detail, clean and require little preparation.  I found the matching of men with horses a challenge.  I usually paint the horses, cloths, saddles etc completely before mounting the trooper but a quick check with the Polish Uhlan suggested this would not work and would probably damage some of the painted area.  Thus the two were brought together (with a little bit of bottom filing!) before painting.  I will explain more when they are done.

Turning to the 1812 campaign, I picked up at Salute last year some Steve Barber Westphalian infantry in a mix of uniforms, mostly campaign.  They will be quite good for the Peninsular, some in bare feet and with pots and pans - see below.  I have painted them in the pre-1812 colours, much of which I suspect was kept into the 1812 campaign.  Why chuck a way a good uniform?  Pre-1812 they had various facings, switching to dark blue in 1812, officially.  I have 3 more battalions and Junot (superb Gringo figure) as a command stand to go.

The flag is a cloth flag from Maverick Flags which I have to say was very easy to prepare and apply but do follow the instructions to avoid fraying.  A personal preference of mine is to finish, including basing and varnishing the figures before I put the flag on.  I use PVA (whether paper or cloth flag), slightly watered down to apply the flag and shape it.  A little dab of super glue is sometimes required to keep the flag in place on the staff.

I leave to dry for a day.  Then touch up the edges and anywhere that the flag does not align, as well as highlighting any folds.  Once all done, leave to dry for another day.  Finally, using watered down PVA (about 50:50) with a clean brush (only used for this purpose), I paint the glue generously over the flag, remove (with the brush) any excess and leave to dry.  Once done, the flag is set hard, protected from clumsy hands and has a nice sheen to it.  I initially did this on some older figures of mine which had been varnished with the flag attached and some yellow discolouration arose, which actually gives them a bit of an aged look!  This was not planned or expected but did forewarn me to avoid with future productions.

The Westphalians are a bit chunkier than my usual figures (Perry/Foundry) but nice character, they are almost a cross between Elite and Foundry.

Lastly, an Old Guard 12 pound foot battery, one of the Emperor's Daughters.  These are Perry figures and cannon with the addition of the Perry field foundry.  The third base is a requirement of the game and gives me (as someone who enjoys painting) an opportunity to play around with some nice compositions.  This battery will suffice for most campaigns but is primarily aimed at the Waterloo campaign.  I have another one of these to do before moving onto the Guard Horse Artillery.

A top view shows the 3 bases of a battery for C&C purposes

Salute 2018 - The Day

Well another Salute goes by.  My first was in 1981 so this makes it 38 for me.  As in the past few years we arrived Friday afternoon to set up the game and avoid the mad rush on the Saturday morning.  Also the daylight from the large loading doors helps those with eyesight that has seen to many years.  I do wonder if the lighting at Salute could be improved?  Nice picture below of the Battle in the dawn half light (Salute lighting!)

Early morning - half light!

The logistics of getting in are a credit to Excel and the Warlords, well done.  It does take time but once moving, very good, especially the assistance from the Warlords staff on duty on the day.

We (the Old Guard members on parade) completed the set up on Saturday morning by putting the figures out before dispersing to pick up pre-orders and adding even more figures to our respective lead (now white metal) mountains

The set up went mostly without mishap except for a spilt coffee that destroyed our only set of rules for the day as we tried to peel paper pages apart.  Lesson for next time, laminated or plastic envelopes!

As last year (Raab - 1809), we did another Command and Colors (C&C) Napoleonics game from the same campaign, Aspern Essling.  Our new banners (including a club banner) were on show for the first time and we did get some interest from the public on attending on future club evenings, which hopefully makes the effort worthwhile.

Throughout the day we had a good number of interested people which meant the game made little progress as we happily chatted with them through various matters.  We have played this Le Grand Battle scenario before but it takes time and is a close run thing.  Ideally you need 4 players per side but we were down to 2 a-side so a lot of work to do.

A lot of interest was shown in the game system (C&C) and we considered asking for some commission from the Box game sellers at the show as we directed numerous people their way.  The terrain was also of interest, especially the buildings.  These were Warbases generic modules adapted and superbly finished by the excellent Steve Shann, who I am hoping to catch up with at Partizan next month when this game will be on show again.

One chap was particularly interested in the orange used on the Guard heavy cavalry - it was Foundry Orange with a terracotta base.

As already mentioned, the game made little progress on the day with the Austrians avoiding attacking the centre (dominated by a Grand Battery and the Granary) and trying to sneak down the wings, with mixed results.  The left wing made progress, eventually; the right wing fell back from Aspern after losing a number of battalions to fire from the French Legere holding the town.

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Austrian centre with the Granary in the background

French line  behind Aspern await the Austrians

As the show wound down around 4ish, I made my way back to the car to begin the reverse logistics exercise which seemed to take a long time (I did get to listen to the Grand National commentary) but when back in the hall the last of my colleagues was waiting to help load the car and we were away.

Overall another great day and a great Salute, it certainly felt busier to me than previous years.  The main drawback is not getting to walk around the show and talk to the other gamers and traders but there are other shows for that.

Cannot wait for Salute 2019.  Plan is to do another game but not sure which yet, Vimiero (1808) or Utitza (1812)?

Salute 2018

The Old Guard will be on parade at Salute 2018 this coming Saturday, 14 April 2018.  We will be at Stand GG09.  The game will be a demonstration of Day 1 of Aspern-Essling (21 May 1809) using 'Le Grand Battle' rules of Command & Colors Napoleonic.

Come along and have a chat.

Grenadiers a Cheval

Austrian Grenadiers attack the Granary at Essling