Friday 23 September 2022

Epic Guard cavalry and adding more infantry command bases.

 I must start by wishing regular customer and friend Graham a full and speedy recovery from his operation.

This week has been mostly about epics, the Guard cavalry set for (New) Tony and the addition of more command figures for my own collection. I started with the Empress Dragoons and followed up with the Grenadiers a cheval and today I'll be painting the Guard Horse artillery battery of 3 guns and crews, next week will be the Chasseur a cheval and Polish lancers, I'm told the Dutch lancers will also be coming my way. Whilst I do have some reservations about the soft resin material these are made from they do paint up very well. The swords and horses legs are pretty 'bendy' but not brittle so should be OK with careful handling. These are going on the warlord supplied 60 x 20mm bases, by comparison my own cavalry are based on 60 x 30mm MDF which does help with the handling somewhat.

A question for my readers here who know more about this period than I do, should the trumpeters of the Guard cavalry be in the Green livery for Waterloo or the light blue coats? Every image I found showed them as painted below but a French chap on FB said they should be wearing green? I hope I'm right but can correct if required and the customer wishes.

As I wanted the black horses of the Grenadiers to pop a little, I tried something a bit different to my usual black with black grey highlights and used Vallejo Glossy Black highlights instead which once matt varnished still retained a nice realistic sheen, one to note! The blue coats do look slightly bright in these shots.







Having recently discovered that the old Chariot Miniatures 15mm range fit very well with the epics I am taking the plunge and painting additional command strips for my infantry bases. The lack of flags had been bothering me, especially for DBN, so this is the prefect solution. Plan is to paint just the front command strips then use existing flagless bases to create the rear ranks. They do look much better this way. I think that Magister Militum - who own the Chariot range - will be selling quite a number of the command packs judging by the number of people using smaller units and looking for a solution.






On a slightly different theme I came across these lovely old photos the other day of my Dad during National Service (on the right)  and family. I think this would have been around late 1940's as he is now a sprightly 93 year old, still driving to the shops and going out for walks! The other photo shows Dad (left, middle) and family members on a day out clearly. Kneeling in front of him is his elder Brother Alfred a veteran of the Normandy Landings, Uncle Alf never once mentioned this to me, as I only learned recently from a cousin he never talked about his experiences of that event. That's my lovely old Nan at the wheel with my Grandfather beside her, he died two years before I was born but I recorded his war service in The Buffs in a post here in 2018 (here).


10 comments:

  1. Great painting, as ever - I think your French contact is incorrect about the musicians. These are super photos from family archives, as well - I'm intrigued about the veteran car - any clues? What was the occasion?

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    1. Thanks Tony. Every reference I checked showed the musicians attired as I painted them and they do look rather smart! Really no idea about the car/occasion of the old photo to be honest, my cousin sent it to me some time back (that's his parents on the right front). They were a very close family group and often went away all together so possibly a holiday snap.

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  2. Great Epic as always. I have had mine out on the table today and had a lot of fun. Photos take on a significant importance over time. Often it is what is captured in the background that becomes the topic ‘do you remember when that was a stationers shop’ etc. I have an old family photo of my dad’s family and friends at a gathering, when he was very young (he would be 105 now had he lived) , but there is no-one left alive to tell me who most of them are! That seems an almost bizarre thing.

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    1. What struck me Norm about that photo was the fact that I knew them all so well growing up - apart from my Grandfather - but only my Dad is left now of the adults. They all look very happy :)

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  3. Superb figures, I do like the dynamic cavalry...

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    1. Cheers Phil, they are pretty good figures for 90p each cavalry figure I think, makes getting into Napoleonic wargaming very affordable for younger gamers :)
      Lee.

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  4. Lovely painting, and like you I hope Graham's operation was a success. Re the trumpeter, my understanding is that the Garde, especially the old Garde wore their original uniforms ie. blue coats. Anyway if you use the original uniform they can then be used in the earlier campaigns.

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    1. Thanks for this, the trumpeters add a nice splash of colour to the Guard cavalry units. Chasseur a cheval next up!
      Lee.

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  5. Lovely stuff as ever Lee. Will the cavalry figures be rebased at all? I much prefer figures that don’t “overhang” the edges of the base. Still, horses for courses and all that…
    Cheers,
    Geoff

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    1. Hi Geoff, my own epic cavalry are on 30mm deep MDF bases but these are as supplied by the customer, standard Warlord epic plastic bases. I guess they will look better once textured. Will be painting your figures this week (finally!).

      Cheers,
      Lee.

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