Waterloo - Command & Colors

For a long time I have wanted to try the C&C scenario for Waterloo using miniatures, and my 'Scrapbox' army allows me to do this, as I have constructed all the units to match the C&C scenario. The internet is peppered with other examples of this well worn battle being refought using the C&C rules, but I feel it is worth a go, using my five inch hex board and terrain.

So, here is an overview of the table set up ready for play:

The French are at the top, consisting of a mix of Minifigs, Prince August and Del Prado figures:

Reille on the left:

 Ney in the centre:

 D' Erlon centre right:

 Guard heavy batteries:

The Allies, consisting mostly of Prince August infantry, Del Prado cavalry and a mix of artillery, is deployed with Hill on the right:

Picton in the left centre:

And Perponcher on the left, with the Dutch/Belgians:

The Allies also hold the three strong points, that are also French victory objectives:

Hougoumont, on the Allied right:

La Haye Sainte in the centre, with Rifles in the adjacent sandpit:

and, Papelotte anchoring the Allied left flank, held by jaegers:

There are no Prussians in this scenario, so it will be a straight slugging match, with the French attacking and attempting to take the three strong points, or by destroying units to give a total of eight victory banners. The allies simply have to hold the French at bay and gain eight banners by causing French casualties.

Scrap Box Army - Completed

Today I fnished the last of the British units, completing the scrap box project. I have enough figures, generals and guns to play the Command and Colors 1815 scenarios, with all the right models. This has given me a Dutch Belgian contingent, with 6 infantry units. A gun battery provided by Minifigs and a Del Prado general and cavalry:

Then there are two British Brigades. The first consists of the 2nd Foot Guards, the 42nd Foot (Black Watch) and the 4th Foot:

The second Brigade has four units; the 1st Brunswick Line, the 30th and 5th Line and the 92nd Highlanders:

With a light cavalry Hussar regiment, a foot battery, as well has a heavy cavalry brigade, with its horse artillery the British contingent looks like this:

Putting the whole lot together, adding a battalion of rifles and senior commanders we have the allied army:

The cavalry are all Del Prado, as are the rifles and most of the commanders.

Scrap Box - British Artillery Prince August

The scrap box contained two British horse artillery figures, an officer and a gunner with trail spike. I was able to acquire a mould with two different figures; gunner with ball and another with rammer. I cast two new figures then painted all four. This is the result:

There were no guns in the box of any use, so I employed a Del Prado offering.

The British infantry are almost finished and with luck I will be able to post some pictures soon, That will complete my scrapbox challenge!

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.

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.

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!