The Jacobite Rebellions

I have had a heap of old Minifigs Jacobites sitting in one of the darkest corners of my collection for several years, with a view that one day I would paint them and perhaps play a game. Well, last year I asked Old John to supply me with some british infantry of the period and this he duly did.  Now, with the work bench free I was looking for something a little different and the Jacobites seemed to be the answer.

So far, I have just painted a unit of Highland musketeers and a Government forces unit.  The highlanders have an officer and piper figure as well as ten infantry.  I am not good enough to paint tartan, so I went for an impression of tartan, which was time consuming enough for me:

The Government side wear the early 18th century uniform and consist of eleven soldiers and an officer figure:

I have to say that I enjoyed painting both lots and will likely do some more.

ACW Union Gun Crew

Continuing the slow time refurbishment of some Minifigs ACW figures, I have just completed another gun crew.  This one is for my Union army and I think the figures are listed as Confederate gunners,but with all of these ACW chaps it is possible to mix and match.

In my next post I shall be straying into new territory as I have a go at painting some Jacobite Rebellion figures.

Nassau Grenadiers 25mm Minifigs S Range

The final napoleonic unit from my recent painting spree takes to the field.  These are Minifigs S Range Nassau infantry, in the form of Grenadiers.  They were originally from the late Eric Knowles collection and were quite nicely painted.  I have touched them up a little and added a bit more detail, before mounting them on new bases.  

I am not sure Nassau had Grenadier battalions, probably just companies, but I will use a little wargamers license here.  

I have some Nassau line infantry on the work bench made up from French figures.  These along with some Dutch and Belgians will form a Netherlands division

25mm Napoleonic Bavarian Infantry Minifigs S Range

Next in line to be based were these three battalions of Bavarian infantry, all S Range Minifigs.  There are two line battalions and a guard battlion. The guards are paint conversions of French Imperial Guard and while not 100% accurate, they look the part:

 

25mm Russian Napoleonic Infantry

With the continuing wet weather and the COVID restrictions the weekend provided a perfect opportunity to finish off a number of painting projects. In all I managed to clear over 100 figures off the workbench.

First off are these splendid vintage Minifigs S Range Russian infantry, made up from ebay purchases and some figures from the lead mountain.  They will join my slowly expanding Russian napoleonic army:

Next up will be an American Civil War Union artllery piece with crew, followed by some Bavarian infantry and a unit of Nassau grenadiers.  Finally ther are some Airfix WW2 French.

German Paratroopers

Being a really wet day yesterday, I thought I would go for a rummage in the garage and my eye fell upon a crate with WW2 German written on the side.  Inside there were a load of boxes, but three caught my eye and I took them into the house for inspection.  

 

The contents had been there since a game up in Cumbria in the 1990s, a jumble of German paratroopers from various manufacturers, some painted, others not.  So, I decided to pick out the best, tidy them up and put them on bases.  There were two types; early war c1940 and later war c1944.  

First off the early war figures, mostly by Airfix, with a few Revell items:

The second lot were mostly Revell, with a few ESCI and a scratch built recoiless weapon:

Now, I can see a game emerging that involves the early war paratroopers attempting to capture a bridge held by French infantry during the 1940 invasion of the low countries!

New Gaming Mat - Cigar Box

 A few weeks ago I ordered a new gaming mat from a US based company, Cigar Box.  I had almost forgotten about it when the postie delivered it to my door. It has an overprinted terrain map, which is in turn over printed with a three inch hex grid.

On first inspection I did not warm to it, but I set it up on my table and added some very basic scenery, which in my mind represents a part of Normandy.  I have added some tank models and some infantry stands to see what it would look like and how well they would fit.  I have to say that now that I have seen it set up it looks OK.

The three inch grid gives me scope for more figures to be used on the table, as opposed to my existing four and five inch hex mats.

Here are some pictures, the figures are Airfix and the vehicles are Roco Minitanks: