Scrap Box - British 1st Foot Guards

I am not sure our glorious guards would appreciate being associated with my scrap box; however, here is the latest unit - some British 1st Foot Guards. I have given them white trousers, although I expect they should be wearing grey along with the line regiments, but I wanted them to stand out a little.

These are the first of four infantry Battalions that will make up two British brigades when added to two highland regiments, giving 6 in all. With the Dutch Belgians, this will give an Allied strength of 13 Battalions - and an almost empty scrap box!

Here are the guards:

Prince August Conversion - Brunswick Line Infantry

Although the same figure as those from my scrap box, I actually cast these myself using the second hand moulds bought off ebay.  I used broken figures from my collection as a source of metal. I did a bit of cutting and filing and another unit for my 1815 allied army takes the field.  Thes only took a couple of hours to paint as the uniform is very simple.

More from the Scrap Box - Belgian Infantry 1815

Over the last few days I have completed two more Belgian units from the pile of dusty, poorly painted Prince August figures. This is what they looked like before I started:

With some cleaning up and a repaint, I finished up with a unit of Belgian Chasseurs:

And another Belgian line regiment:

I need to square off the flag, which is a little misaligned.

I now have a Belgian Brigade:

This will form a Dutch/Belgian Division in my new 1815 allied army.  I have also been experimenting with a Brunswick line infantry conversion:

This has potential too!

From the Scrap Box - British Infantry

I have started painting some of the British castings, starting with some highlanders. Having now been through the whole contents of the box I had enough figures for 10 Westphalian battalions, two French, three Belgian, three Dutch, two highland and four British.  I currently have 11 units on the painting table at various levels of completion, plus an artillery battery.

Here are the latest - highlanders painted up as the Black Watch:

I am very pleased as to how these figures turned out.  Some of the British line are equally promising and they should be finished soon. Using the casting kits that I acquired I am experimenting with converting some French to Brunswickers.

Spanish Lancers - Any Ideas?

I received these rather splendid fellows from John Holt at Warrior Miniatures and I am not sure how to paint them. They have rather curious looking headwear:

The only reference that looks anything like these figures is from a painting by Denis Dighton. The two fellows in the background:

Although the hats a slightly different, I will use these as the basis for painting, but would welcome any information that might help me with the uniforms.

From the scrap box - Dutch Infantry

The box of scrap figures produced 41 Dutch figures, giving me enough to produce 3 units with a handful left over. I was short of a standard bearer, but one of the spare infantrymen was easily converted. He carries the standard for the Jagers.  The units make up a Brigade of one light and two line regiments. 

I am working on a further Belgian unit, although I have run out of officers, drummers and standard bearers, so ebay provided  some second hand moulds and I have been casting figures to plug the gaps. In addition I have been working on some highlanders and painting some British as British!

More from the box of scrap - Dutch and Belgian Napoleonics

I took a closer look at the pile of grey twisted figures, that I had assumed to be French, and I am now convinced that some are Dutch troops. There are about 40 that look like this:

Anyway, on the assumption that they are Dutch I have begun to clean them up, straighten them out and paint them. More later.

In the meantime I have picked out a number of figures from the British Prince August pile and my first unit of 1815 Belgians takes the field:

I have also sorted out some of the highlanders, which I will paint to see how they turn out.

Peninsular Warriors - French Line Chasseurs

Another French unit from my Warrior Miniatures collection takes to the field. Something a little different this time - French Light Infantry Chasseurs.  These are basic line infantry painted in the distinctive all over blue of the light infantry:

Box of Scrap and Prinz August's Army

To this day I don't know why I bought these, but about 25 years ago at a boot fair I became the proud owner of a box of poorly painted home cast figures. There were hundreds of French and British. They cost about £5 and although I did not need them, had no idea what I would do with them, I could not resist this bargain.

They weighed a ton and I remember struggling back to the car with about 10kg of lead under my arm. This is what they looked like:

They were poorly painted in what I can only describe as imagi-nation colours:

For the last quarter of a century these figures have been stacked in a corner, occasionally looked at and then put away. 

The recent bad weather saw me house bound for several days and with time on my hands. I had just finished reading about Junot's 8th Westphalian Corps of 1812. This sparked an idea. Using the the French figures in the box I reckoned I had enough to represent the Westphalian army or a large slice of it. I had some cavalry, artillery and a pile of infantry;enough for 12 infantry, three cavalry and three artillery units. I found some senior officers from my spares box:

Here is the commander (Minifigs), the fictional Crown Prinz August:

The cavalry consists of the 1st Hussars:

The guard lancers:

As well as some French Cuirassiers:

The Guards Division, the Grenadiers Guards:

The Guard Carabiniers and Chasseurs:

There is also a line Grenadier regiment and two French regiments in this division:

The second division consists of five line regiments:

As well as a light infantry regiment:

Finally the Corps is supported by three gun batteries:

So from a box of scrap, I have a usable Wargame army. They were fun to paint, with vague detail and reminded me of my old Spencer Smith figures.  I am now wondering what to do with the British; however, that will probably have to wait for the next beast from the east!

Peninsular Warriors - French Veterens - Grenadiers

Thes figures are Warrior French line infantry, painted as line grenadiers; however, I have decided to list them as veterens, partially clothed in locally sourced uniforms.  These guys have been in Spain for many months and are seasoned campaigners: