Ros Napoleonics

 I have had some Ros 25mm figures sitting on the work bench for a while just awaiting some final touches and basing.  Yesterday I finally completed them.

The first batch, just for a change, are some French Imperial Guards, painted as the Dutch 3rd Regiment of Grenadiers:

I have also finished another British line battalion:

I have added these to two other battalions painted a month or so ago to form a new brigade:

I still have some fusiliers and a light infantry battalion to finish.

Anyone Remember These? - Clydecast

 I was having a rummage in the roof space of my garage and found a box, within a box that I had not seen for decades.  It was a box of 25mm French Napoleonic infantry by the company Clydecast.  Most will be aware of the ship models from this now defunct manufacturer, but I wonder if anyone has examples or remembers this brief foray into the wargame figure world (at least I assume it was brief).  

I did have some cavalry too, but they were sold or swapped long ago.

I seem to remember liking the figures when they arrived, but not doing much with them as they were a bit on the large size for my existing collection.  Here are a few samples from the box:

And here is a comparison picture with an early Hinchliffe British Fusilier (on the right).

The figures are about 27mm foot to eye when measured:

I believe there were some British figures too, but I did not buy any.

I would be interested in any views on these figures and if there are any still around in collections.

Hinchliffe Brunswick Line Infantry

 The latest unit to be updated are these Hinchliffe early 25mm Brunswick line infantry.  Like the Light Infantry in an earlier post these figures are from the true 25mm skinny age of Hinchliffe production.  The standard bearer is a conversion of one of the officer figures.

I am slowly assembling a number of units and I should be able to paint a British line infantry battalion soon:

Meeting My Waterloo!

Will and I decided to give the Command & Colors Waterloo scenario a go, again using my in house rules.  I played Napoleon and the French and having read accounts of this battle on the C&C website I felt pretty confident of a french Victory.

For the game (appropriately) we used my Epic Waterloo figures and the 'village in a bag' buildings to represent the various objectives.  Before I begin, I should add that I was suffering from a really bad head cold and as the day wore on my enthusiasm waned, but what the heck, wasn't Napoleon ill back in 1815 and he er....lost!

Here is an overview of the battlefield, French on the right, Allies on the left:

Looking towards the Allies positions with La Haye Saint centre left:

And the left hand side of the battle with Hougoumont on the left.

The Allied ridge;

The battle kicked off with a brisk action around Hougoumont Farm, with French light troops attacking through the woods.  Eventually the British were overwhelmed and the French infantry took control of the buildings.  Attempts by the French to reinforce, however, were thwarted and the light infantry were left to hold the position.

Meanwhile, French infantry advanced towards and take La Haye Saint but suffer heavy casualties.

Supporting French cavalry is cleared away by a bold charge by the Union Brigade and French infantry casualties mount.

Over on the French left a concerted assault by the Allies destroys the French light and in the next turn the French hold on La Haye Saint crumbles.  The French are more or less back to their start positions having lost about half of their infantry.  An extensive exchange of fire by the opposing gun batteries cause further casualties but it is clear that the have lost the ability to continue the attack being just one loss from their exhaustion point.

Napoleon concedes and sneaks away to bed, hot lemon, and sympathy!

Overall the allied defence was strong, the French were over extended and maybe should have just concentrated on taking one objective rather than both.  I suppose one conciliation was that following a salvo from the Imperial Guard Foot Artillery it was observed that Wellington was unhorsed and seen being carried from the field! 

In any event it was a clear victory for the Allies.

Ros Figures 25mm French Cuirassiers

The second batch of Ros 25mm French Cuirassiers to be refurbished are now complete. I continue to work through a seemingly endless amount of figures, but progress is being made.

Nassau Troops

Next off the production line of my 1815 allied army are two units of Nassau troops.  Both are from Minifigs S range of figures.  The first, a unit of Grenadiers, are the only Nassau figures available in the S Range. The second unit consists of paint converted French troops; the standard bearer is from the Dutch Belgian range:

Next will be some Brunswick figures.

The Final Few

At long last I have reached the end of my Prussian infantry painting project.  During the last couple of months I have painted/repainted 18 Prussian infantry units, along with two batteries of guns. In all this has worked out at around 230 figures.  It is quite satisfying to know that I have completed an army - well more or less. I still have a few cavalry figures to do and there are around 30 odd Prussian infantry that could be formed into units.

The final two units consists of a couple of Ros 25mm Prussian Jaegers.  There are no Jaeger musicians in the Ros range, so I converted a couple of standard bearers. I have also used some Warrior Prussian Horse Gunners as officers, as I did not think that the standard pointing Infantry officer figure would look right, given the Jaeger pose.

Here they are, ready to take up their position in the line:

Methinks a Spring review is in order!

French Staff Officers

Three French Staff officers survey the field.

The group includes Marshal Ney, a General of Division and an ADC.  They are all 25mm Minifigs and were a delight to paint:

Prussian Jaegers - 25mm Ros Figures

These figures are actually Ros 25mm Prussian line infantry. Way back in 1975 these were painted as Jaegers as the Prussian Jaeger figure by Ros had not been produced and so we had to make do with paint conversions.  I now have some proper Jaegers, but decided to keep these the way they are purely for nostalgic reasons. The command group were added later and were sourced from Warrior Miniatures, again before I could lay my hands on Ros command figures,

I have refurbished them and put them on new bases: