Les Francais sont arrivé

Or something like that... Well I now truly have no excuses any more to avoid to get cracking with the project since the pre-1812 French from HäT arrived.

It took my 3 nights to get everything off the sprues but now I can get on with prepping them for painting.

The size is a tad smaller than the former releases, but since I have to head-swap just about every single one of them, they will grow a bit anyway.

Cheers

A little bit of progress!

Just another small post to show you things are progressing at a steady pace. Here are some of the British Firing line figures base-coated.

They'll be painted soon!

Cheers Sander

Happy New Year!

Hoi,

A short post to tell you guys I am finally gearing up for war in earnest here. I have managed to sort out the British and Allied troops I already own and this resulted in a major scare because I am seriously lacking in marching British (and thus Portuguese)  troops. But for now I will start with the  3 units of Wallace's brigade standing in firing-line. As you can see from the photo below, I have converted some Revell Brits with HäT spare heads in order to create some diversity in the line.

One of the biggest pro's with doing this is that you can alter the pose by turning the heads and that creates a more natural looking situation.
Normally I would use Pattex powergel to stick the figures on, but instead I used Valejo plastic filler. This has the positive effect of filling the gaps left between head and collar and that's good for a better fit but also a better look.

It will take me quite some time to get these chaps painted there being an odd 80 or so, therefore I will let you know when there's something to show!

Cheers Sander

Salamanca Day 2017

Dear folks,

Yeah I know, another year gone by without updates, this is the traditional  Salamanca day update and I have some news.
The reason why the project  has stalled for so long is the lack of good and affordable 1812 French infantry. Sure I could convert them but takes too much time, sure I could also go for white metal but that is rather expensive.

In the meantime HaT has produced  suitable French which are on the verge of being  released and this has prompted  me to start the project for real this time. In December the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will start and I am planning to paint the figures during the challenge.

Anyway if all works out this blog will be more busy soon!

Cheers Sander

Salamanca day again...

Hoi There,

Another year without much progress...or so it seems! For the last few years I have been much in doubt whether I would be able to finish this project due to a lack of decent early French infantry figures. None of the available French sets offered enough decent figures in marching poses compatible with the HäT British.
Now this dirth of good sets seems to have come to an end, HäT have released testshots for both pre- and post-Bardin regulation figures including flank companies in greatcoat and a pre 1812 command set. Pictures of all these testshots are shown below.

Now when these Frenchies are released in earnest, I will buy a load and get planning and painting in a more serious way. So for now, yet again, you will have to be content with just a small peak at a possible future although the sun is shining more brightly on this little horizon at least. In the real world it is a bit more grimm...

Cheers Sander

Salamanca Day 2015

Hoi,

While I would love to show some progress on the project itself today in honour of the Anniversary of the Battle of Salamanca I will show you something else. Today's update brings you some painted HäT test-shots of the British Light Dragoons from the Peninsular War era. These are very nice figures with two of them having pegs instead of right arms which you can choose yourself from several available ones brandishing a variety of utensils like pistols swords and a bugle.

For these I chose the uniform of the 14th LD's with slightly orange-ish facings. Why this regiment? Well I couldn't decide what regiment to paint and than Fate kicked in because while reading Wellington's Military despatches I stumbled along the Duke mentioning a skirmish between the 14th and Massena's advance guard in 1810 somewhere along the Lines of Torres Vedras. So it was decided that I should depict the 14th and here they are.

Enjoy!

9 months have gone and passed...

Hoi,

As is the destiny of this blog it has taken me about 9 months before I have been able to get the project to the next level. The last two weeks I have  been off from work and thus I took out the diorama and gave the plates their final layers of paint. The paint used are two colours of Valejo textured paint. I started out with Brown Earth and dry-brushed it with Desert Sand.
Now I just have a few spots to touch up and than I will have to decide whether I want to put on a layer of gloss varnish to help protect the surface.

 Well without further ado, here are the pictures.

An overview of the entire table:

A look from the Allied left flank upon the French position:

A look from the French position (upon the hill) down to the Allied position:

The upper half of this picture shows the position of the British Artillery, upon the heights and in the lower left corner there will be a clash of French and Portuguese cavalry.

Cheers Sander