Arquebusiers De Grassin

Five or six years ago I was looking for some unusual miniatures to use as a minor ally to my ImagiNation army, the Electorate of Lustigzollern-Großgesaß.  I stumbled upon the Eureka miniatures Arquebusier de Grassin line, and decided to use them.  When I began looking at painting them about a year ago, I looked up pictures of the actual French unit from the war of Austrian Succession. As per usual this lead my down a bit of a rabbit hole, as things often do.

First, I discovered that the Arquebusier de Grassin, a light French unit of  infantry and cavalry, were quite a colourful bunch.  I decided to use their historical colours.  My research lead me first to another WAS unit called the Fusiliers de Moliere.  the two units would be merged in 1749 into the Volontaires de Flandre. this unit served in the seven years war.   

when I started looking into SYW volunteer light infantry units I stumbled upon Cran Terra Miniatures Fantastic line of miniatures representing both the Fusiliers de Moliere and  a good number of these light units from the Seven Years War.  They have specific lines for the Volontaires Etrangers de Clairmont, Chasseurs de Fischer, as well as opposing light formations of Hanover, such as the Freytag Jagers, Scheithers Freikorps, and the Von Luckner Hussars.

At first I though creating an imagination army from these volunteer units combined with the fusiliers de Moliere and Arquebusiers de Grassin would be pretty cool.  but also, the more I researched these units, the more I thought it would also be cool to do a skirmish project of  SYW light infantry formations.

And as usual I also pieced together some Flags from these units.

Arquebusiers de Grassin Ordonnance Flag

Arquebusiers de Grassin Colonels Flag

Fusiliers de Moliere Ordonnance Flag

Fusiliers de Moliere Colonel's Flag

Volontaires Etrangers de Clairmont Prince 
Ordonnance Flag

Volontaires Etrangers de Clairmont Prince 
Colonel's Flag

Alas, I have finally painted up the Arquebusiers de Grassin miniatures I bought from EurekaUSA, which started this whole rabbit hole. there was very little cleanup on these and they were lovely to paint.

Both units of 12 Arquebusier de Grassin

First unit, loading and ready to fire poses

Second unit, all firing poses.

this isn't the final unit composition. I intend to get 3 units of 12. split up into Firing/At the Ready, Firing/Loading, and kneeling firing/Kneeling At the Ready, as pictured below. I'll also be buying 8 mounted figures from the same line, plus command.

the 3 sets of poses which I intend to make a unit of 12 of each.

It may be a while until I have the funds available to get the rest of the project moving, but it has very much piqued my interest of late.  I've never seen the Cran Tera miniatures in person, but they look lovely on hte website. I've ordered Fife and Drum miniatures from them before as shipping is cheaper from the UK to Canada then from the USA in general, so I know they are reasonable to deal with.

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year!

As 2020 draws to a close, I finished 8 french command stands.

French Generals

Light Cavalry Generals

Divisional Generals

Heavy Cavalry Generals

I decided this time to add more stuff to the bases to make them a littler more interesting.  I have a bunch of leftover pieces from various 4ground kits, including a ton of wagon wheels.  I'm happy with how they turned out.

Looking back at 2020, I had a pretty productive fall. Since September I've painted 122 Cavalry, 378 infantry, 4 cannons and 5 limbers/carts. that's pretty good. the rest of the year was pretty much a wash. Thanks Covid.

Looking forward to 2021, I'll be painting many more Napoleonic miniatures.  I have a Russian and a Prussian division, and  I have more French, mostly cavalry and artillery.

Heres looking forward to a better 2021!

Pandemic Projects: Victrix French Infantry

A few months ago I started re-purposing my Peninsular skirmish project and rebasing for larger battles. I started with the British side. The French half had been built with the wrong mix of posses to be able to build battalions of similar poses, so I had to get another box of Victrix 1907-1812 French infantry to get useful battalions.  well I finally got a hold of another box last week.

6 Battalions of Victrix French Napoleonic
Infantry 1807-1812, in 3 Regiments

I painted about 48 figures this week. and touched up the remaining 48 so that they blend well with the newly painted ones. i also did several head swaps. out of 2 boxes  I got 7 battalions of 16, and have 7 figures left over(3 drummers, and 4 centre companies kneeling). I didn't get to the 7th battalion this week. the 7 battalions are split into a 2-battalion Legere regiment, a 3 battalion Line unit, and a 2 battalion line unit(only 1st battalion painted so far). I also have a box of perry french in bardin uniforms, so I'll probably add a 3rd battalion to the smaller of the 2 line regiments.

French Legere Regiment

French Line regiment

Reverse angle

1st battalion of another line regiment.

Since I normally build my stuff to be 1812-compatible, I did my units with the older style flags, since it would have taken time for the new style to disseminate. the light infantry still have their eagle, as some of them kept them as late as 1814.  but the light infantry were ordered to leave their colours in depot earlier so I figured I would use the fanion for the 2nd battalion. I made it with an imperial eagle on it and under the eagle is the battalion number.

when I initially assembled the first box of  Victrix french a decade ago, I was not fond of them. This time around I found them much better, both to assemble and to paint.  Maybe I just have more skill at both now.  while they certainly have more pieces then your average Perry plastic miniature(5-6 pieces versus 2-3 for most  Perry Napoloenics), you can get a much more diverse  selection of poses, and more miniatures in the box. I also don't have to buy extra command sprues for each box to fit the size of my units. I do rather like Victrix a lot more now.  I'll certainly use them if I ever do an Austrian army and I look forward to them releasing their Bavarians.

Pandemic Projects: Finishing off a few Loose Ends

 This week I decided to take it easy and slow down before I burn myself out. I  had a half finished Front Rank French foot battery half painted( 1 gun and 4 crew painted), and half-based individually from my skirmish project. Also, having decided to switch my personal  artillery to 4 crew on a gun on a 60x80mm base, I went a head and converted my lone Prussian battery to that standard. I found a bag of Front rank Russian foot artillery crew, so I fully intend to get my 3 Russian foot batteries upgraded to this new standard once the bases arrive.

Stuff I put paint on this week

 

I also had some regular french infantry in great coats and a Prussian command base kicking around in various states of being painted, so I took some time to finish them off.

 

Front Rank artillery battery with
Perry  infantry in great coats

Front Rank Artillery Closeup

I had the left gun and crew painted and individually based for skirmish.  the right gun and crew were primed but not painted. I managed to Match the dark blue colour pretty good.  then both were based on 60x80mm bases.

Perry plastic infantry with
some metal command added.

 Prussian I Foot Battery, Perry Miniatures

Blucher(left) and Gneisenau(right),
Perry Miniatures, on a 60mm base

The Prussian foot battery was  finished and based as 1 gun and 2 crew on a 50x50 base. Recently I have decided to abandon this basing because Perry guns come 1 gun and 4 crew to a pack for about $16.20 CDN (£9.50).  most companies o comparable quality don't sell individual guns and crews.  Front rank are the major exception. but a FR gun and 2 crew cost almost as much! so I decided to completely convert to the Perry artillery standard on 60x80mm bases. I do admit this looks nicer on the table. it still going to be awfully expensive for my 2nd Russian division's artillery.  I need 3 batteries of 3 guns(9 guns total).

This week I also assembled a  Perry Prussian regiment ( 1 fusilier battalion, 2 infantry battalions), but I'm still waiting for bases to arrive so I'll need to find something to keep my occupied next week.

Pandemic Projects 6: French Old Guard Grenadiers(etc.)

Before I left Ontario 5 years ago, I picked up a box each of Victrix Old Guard Grenadiers and Chasseurs. Once I got here I found that there was only a small historical community, and they didn't really do much that I had an interest in, so many of my historical projects got neglected. after digging through my project tubs in the last month, I came across the sprues for these and decided they needed to get painted. I also had a unit of Perry cuirassier laying around and decided they also need some love.

This weeks painted units.

First unit this week is Perry French cuirassiers.  These are wonderful models.  I have more of these but I need to order a pair of command sprues to finish the units.

Perry Plastic French Cuirassiers

Next up is the Victrix Old Guard Grenadiers.  Each box of Old Guard has 60 models: 48 infantry and 4 sets of 3 command figures.  i used one set of command figures with some Perry plastic french in greatcoats, and there were 9 figures left over so I used them to make an 8-figure skirmish unit. I'm not sure if the Old Guard actually used skirmishers, but its a good use of figures.  With all that done, I have but a single figure left. I have the say that these boxes are much easier to assemble then Victrix' earlier offerings.  the figures have 3-5 parts.

the 2 command stands are from the Victrix(now Brigade Games) Metal Old Guard commanders. In the blister I wasn't really keen on them but I got them cheap.  Unpainted the bearskins make the figures look strange. once i painted them though they looked far less odd.

Victrix Metal Guard commanders and Plastic
Old Guard Grenadier Skirmishers

Victrix Old Guard Grenadiers charging

Victrix Old Guard Grenadiers marching. back unit
flipped to display the detail on the backpacks.

overall I'm very happy with this weeks productivity.  I still have the Old Guard Chasseurs to paint, but  they are essentially just head swaps of the same figures so I'm going to give it a bit of time before I try to paint them. The edging on the backpacks made me go cross-eyed. I'm sure I can find something to keep myself busy next week!

Pandemic Projects 5: Napoleonic French Cavalry

 This week I decided I was going to start eating in to my 28mm Napoleonic pile.  I have a Russian Division, a Prussian Brigade, and a whole host of french kicking around unfinished, mostly Perry with a bit of Victrix mixed in.  The french are the least represented in my painted collection(especially cavalry), so I decided to start there.

Perry French Dragoons and Hussars

Normally I pick a section of an Order of battle to build my formations and decide on regiments, but I haven't really done that with any of my french.  these dragoons are no different.  I have 3 units now.  these 2 are pink faced(Regiments 13-18) and yellow faced(regiments 19-24). I already have a unit that is orange faced(regiments 25-30). I intend to do the other half of all 3 regiments eventually. These colours almost fit the 6th Heavy Cavalry Division, 5th Cavalry Corps at Leipzig. I also converted 2 of my individually based dismounted units into my mass combine system skirmish units. I only got 1 based in time for the photo shoot. they were less important as I figure thy won't get used to often.  I'll need 2 more boxes of Perry Plastic dragoons plus an extra command sprue and a pair of horse artillery guns to finish off this division.

Dismounted Dragoons skirmishing

Dragoons from a random regiment 
between 13 and 18

Dragoons from a random regiment 
between 19 and 24

Unlike the Dragoons, Hussar regiments are pretty unique in colouring, so I did find an order of battle for Leipzig, and chose my regiments that way. I chose the 2nd Light Cavalry Division, 2nd Cavalry Corps. These units represent half of the 5th and 9th Hussar regiments. i have another hussar box kicking around, so if I order an extra command sprue I'll be able to finish off these regiments. in order to finish off the Cavalry division, I'd need 3 units of Lancers, 4 units of chasseurs a cheval, and 2 Horse Artillery teams. that translates into 2 boxes of Warlord lancers, and 2 boxes of Perry chasseurs cplus 2 extra chasseur command sprues.

Painting the hussars was a bit of a daunting task due to the lace. I wasn't sure it would turn out well  but I'm happy with the result.

Hussars from the 5th regiment, Perry Plastic

Hussars from the 9th regiment, Perry Plastic

I have to show off the lace on those white jackets. 
it turned out way better then i anticipated!

 

I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing for next week. might be more french. It'll probably be more Napoleonics, as it makes up so much of what I have left to paint.

WW2 French for Chain of Command

I've had World War 2 French in 28mm for about 10 years now.  but about a year ago i decided to start playing Chain of command a little more regularly.  Last February i decided to put on a Big Chain of Command game at Mayday on the first weekend in May.

I decided I wanted to do 2 platoons of infantry and 2 platoons of armour for the game.  I put in a big order to Army Group North Miniatures to complete several platoons for both Germany and France. I also ordered a platoon of  Dragons Portes miniatures from Crusader miniatures/Northstar.  I painted these up as Chasseurs Portes, the infantry component of the Cuirassier heavy tank divisions. some of these infantry units had blue pants instead of the typically drab pants of other french infantry formations. they also give a decent counterpart to German schutzen, being similar formations themselves.

French Chasseurs Portes platoon.

Chasseurs Portes Infantry

 The Chasseurs Portes are really neat formations. they are basically the french version of Panzer Grenadiers.  2 teams of 5, each with a FM 24/29 LMG.   a section leader and a rifle grenadier complete the Section, although the rifle grenadier was often attached to the platoon HQ to form a rifle grenadier section. . The platoon is supported by a 60mm Brandt mortar, a Hotchkiss MMG team, a Canon de 47mm L53 AT gun and a Canon de 25mm L72 AT gun. there is also a 5 man motorcycle section I made with extra figures.

Chasseurs Portes platoon command and Support teams.

Reinforced French Infantry Platoon

French Infantry Squads

French Infantry Platoon command and Support teams

 The regular french Infantry platoon is 3 sections, each with a rifle grenadier and a FM24/29 LMG. As with the Chasseurs Portes the rifle grenadier was often attached to the platoon HQ to form a rifle grenadier section.  The platoon is supported by a 4th infantry section, 60mm Brandt mortar, Hotchkiss MMG, Canon de 25mm L72 AT gun, and a Canon de 75mm M1897.  I also have 2 81mm mortars left over from when I played disposable heroes. 

I often play this platoon as motorized infantry in Chain of Command, as the platoon structure is identical.  They just get a few more support options.

French Armour.

Left to right, Front to back:  MadBob FCM 36, JTFM R-39,
AGNM AMR-35 ZT3, AGNM AMR ZT1/2, AGNM Char B1 Bis
3x AGNM Somua S35s

Left to Right, Front to Back:  AMR-35 ZT1/2, 3x Hotchkiss 39s,
Somua S-35, 3x Panhard 178.  All AGNM

 All the Infantry are Crusader Miniatures.  All but 2 tanks are Army Group North Miniatures. I would love to add a trio of Char D2s but no one makes a model of one, and any of the 3D models i've seen on Shapeways are way too expensive($120 USD??).  the Char D2 was the tank that Charles De Gaulle's unit was equipped with when Germany invaded.  they were replaced by Char B1s later on, but  i would have though someone would have done a model of them. Warlord makes a Char D1 but they weren't even in service with the regular army in 1939. they were pulled out of  mothballs and set to the front lines in the later stages of the Battle of France.

This army is essentially done.  I have 6 AGNM Laffly S-20s(that I 3D Sculpted), but I've yet to paint them up. they will most likely get used as jump off points for my Chasseurs Portes.

Finally, the buildings in the background of all the pictures are Sarissa buildings.  I painted them up quickly for the  Big CoC game I ran.  I still have to weather them properly.

More Napoleonic Game pics

I mentioned tehre would be more napeolonic game pics, so here tehy are.

These are from 2 games in November/December in which I introduced 28mm Napoleonic wargaming to a couple of Gamers from the local game store.

The first game was played in my basement with Fred, a local proponent of Historical Gaming at Black Knight Games. 

The game was a bit smaller then normal due to the limited size of my basement table, 4"x8"

the game was a close fight. but the Russians eventually won.  I unfortunately don't remember a great deal more. most of the pics are of the setup, as after that i was caught up in the game. as per usual a forgot to take pics after that.

Initial Deployment

Russian Line

Russian High Command

French Line

French High Command

French Cavalry Brigade

Russian Cavalry Brigade

 the second game was roughly a month later.  We played up at Black Knight Games. there were 6 players once everyone showed up.  By that time Fred had finished a brigade(!!!) of highlanders from Victrix, so I replaced a Russian brigade with them so he could use his new shiny figures.

We used terrain boards from Black Knight and I bought along all the other stuff.  Black Knight has an Excellent selection for a store, but it's  predominantly focused on Sci-fi and fantasy terrain because that is their bread and butter.

 I'm a perfectionist regarding terrain so I just can't have Warhammer Fantasy-style buildings for my napoleonic games. It would seriously drive me nuts.  I don't judge other people based on their on their choice or quality of  miniatures or terrain, , but if I run a game, I want it too look good(to me).  That's just part of MY miniature hobby.

Initial Deployment

Fred's British Highlanders

Highlanders engaging the french left flank

On the right, Russian infantry attempted to outmaneuver the Baden Brigade

the fight in the middle

Initial cavalry engagement on the right flank

Baden Hussars engage remaining Russian Cavalry, Lithuanian Uhlans

The pivotal areas of combat were the middle and left flank. on hte left,  Fred launched his highlanders in wave after wave of attacks at Dan's  French line.  unfortunately the french weathered the attacks and eventually broke most of teh highland brigade.

In the centre  Jon's french line and Legere loosed several devastating close range volleys upon Matt's assaulting Russians. the combat sea-sawed back and forth  but the french managed to get the smallest of advantages.  on the right flank, the Russians were outmaneuvering the Baden infantry. immediately to the right of them the french/allied cavalry looked to have the advantage over Russian cavalry, but eventually the heroic Lithuanian Uhlans won the day.

 It was a good close game and everyone seemed to enjoy it.   The rules (based on field of Battle) are a little unorthodox for  new historical gamers, but  they are relatively easy to learn and flow nicely.