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:

Peninsular Warriors - Spanish Cuirassiers

Another heavy cavalry unit joins my Spanish forces, this time Cuirassiers in the splendid red tunics.  Also from Warior Miniatures, these lovely figures were fun to paint and look the part as they join the ranks of the Spanish Army.  I will need to send off to John Holt for some light cavalry next.

Warrior Miniatures comparison with Minifigs S range

Several people of asked me about using Warrior figures to fill gaps in old Minifigs S Range collections. An area that does need filling are in the Minifigs cavalry ranges, as only the British and French napoleonics had command groups. So, Russian, Austrian Minifigs and several other states have just a limited selection of figures. The same can be said for artillery figures, which were produced, but today are hard to find.

I will start off with infantry, which I feel do not work that well. The Minifigs offerings are more elegent, while the Warrior figures have an exagerated lunging stance; the Warrior figure is on the right:

I think cavalry figures work much better, again Warrior on the right:

It can be seen that the two cavalry figures are about the same size, but the Warrior horse is taller. However; if you put a Warrior figure on a Minifigs horse, the match is very good:

Swapping the horses around, as the left one is a little smaller:

There you have it. I did do some comparisons of Austrian artillery in an earlier post, but could do some side by side shots as above, if that would be useful.

Peninsular Warriors - Spanish Dragoons

Next off the production line are these rather smart dragoons; 25mm figures from Warrior Miniatures. As with all of these vintage casts they are fun to paint and produce a pleasing result.

The Spanish cavalry certainly add some colour to the field, with these bright yellow dragoons. Next up will be some red coated cuirassiers!

Some pictures: