Bellona River Sections

Following my last post I have been very kindly been sent some original Bellona river sections.

In all there are 3 straight sections and 2 curve packs.  Once the edges are trimmed the straight sections are 10" by 5".

Amera Mouldings do very similar river sections in their fantasy realms range and are very similar in size.

http://www.amera.co.uk/product.php?range=f

I would like to thank J for his generosity in sending me these long out of production river sections.

Home made Streams

Bellona made a range of terrain pieces and I owned quiet a few as a youngster. I have been looking out for some Bellona stream for a while now to go with an old Bellona bridge I have.

As I have been unable to find any I decided to have a go making my own stream sections using some Kardean  flooring I had left over from a bathroom floor.

Kardean is very easy to cut and is flexible. I made the banks using Caulk and a simple paint job and a bit of Jarvis flock finished them off.

The Old Guard crossing into Belgium in June 1815.

A section of the stream painted in an appropriate gloss blue with a little dry brushing. You can see the texture of the Kardean which I think adds to the effect.

First game of DBN

 Its been a while since I have had a game and this is partly because I only have access to a kitchen table which for some reason my wife wants to use for eating meals.

So in the last few weeks I have been looking at alternatives for quick set up and play games that can be played in a small space. 

I have been looking at Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame rules and DBN.  I have decided to first give DBN a go and this has been influenced by what Lee has been doing on his blog http://napoleonictherapy.blogspot.com/?m=1

So I dug out my old Napoleonic 15/18mm armies and picked enough figures for two 12 point armies.  I spent sometime refurbishing the figures which included new flags, rebasing and a two coats of gloss varnish.

For terrain I kept it simple using one of my old mdf boards with some hills made by cutting up another board. I dug around in the shed to find some trees and a building. The roads were made in the mid 70s out of plasticard.

This morning I had a first game of DBN with my son Max.  I am sure I got a lot of things wrong but the game was fast paced and completed in just about an hour. Max won.

The initial set up. This is an 1809 encounter with the Austrians, commanded by me, attacking. I pushed forward my central Infantry supported by artillery on the hill. I also launched my cavalry in an attack on my right flank however one of my light cavalry brigades is hit by French artillery fire.

My left is anchored by two brigades of militia infantry.

A brigade of French Light Infantry is deployed in the small village of Schwartzdorf. My artillery opens up a desultory fire on the village. 

The Austrian Columns close with village as the French advance to turn my flank.

The cavalry battle on my right is in decisive and my hoped for breakthrough as stopped in its tracks.

I do however manage to get one heavy cavalry brigade to threaten the French centre. 

The French respond and move up a light cavalry brigade and although I get a charge in it is easily beaten back.

With the Austrian attacks failing and with casualties mounting the French launch their wheeling movement on the Austrian attack on Schwarzberhdorf.

In the resultant firefight the French prove to superior to my poor Austrians and the battle is over.

Max enjoyed the game and says he will play again. Well at least it kept him off his Xbox for a while.

Charge Organisation - Infantry

When I game with my classic Napoleonics I use the Charge rules by Young and Lawford.  I have been gaming with 1/2 size units but as my collection has grown I have come to realise that larger units maybe the way forward. 

My current 24 figure Infantry units represent a battalion so why not put 2 battalions together and add a unit of Skirmishers.  In all a unit will muster 61 figures and in Charge the unit can take 31 casualties before going below 50%.

Today I got a few figures out and set a brigade of 2 units. I set up the unit in line with 2 options.

Firstly with the two units side by side with a cloud of skirmishers deployed.

The second option is with the combined elite deployed on each flank.  A third option would be to merge the elites and have 3 16 figure sub units. This option would replicate the Charge organisation with each unit having 3 companies.

The final picture shows a massed column of Infantry.

French Guard Lancers

I have been preparing my next unit of classic Napoleonics for painting.  I will be concentrating on cavalry for the next few months. 

These are recast Hinton Hunt FN44 French Guard Lancer charging with separate lance. I had to use bit of Milliput to fill gaps between the lance arm and body.

The first 6 figures will be the Polish Guard and will form the 1st squadron and the 2nd squadron of 6 will be Red Lancers. Should be colourful once finished.

One figure I decided rather than use a lancer arm I decided to cut of the trumpet arm from a plastic figure and use that instead.

If the weather is not too cold I will finish off cleaning them up and spray them with black undercoat.

Silesian Verkehrspolizist

Just before Christmas I received a box of Prussians. I have now finished restoring and painting the first of these Prussians as a Silisian Landwehr unit.

The rank and file and officer are all original Hinton Hunt figures and are in the classic HH firing pose. As this a classic unit the uniforms are neat and tidy and the unit is well dressed. 

The standard bearer and drummer are David Clayton copies. The drummer is based on a French figure so required some filing to remove the lace on his sleeves.

I had hoped that these would be quick to finish. However a combination of  the detail painted on the cap,  3 coats of yellow to get the right depth of colour, meant they took longer than planned to finish. Still in all less than 4 weeks is to too bad.

For the flag I used the thin metal foil from a bottle of wine. I folded this over and stuck it together with super glue. Even with the thickness doubled the flag was easy to bend and manipulate with no cracking of the paint. Once shaped I applied two coats of varnish.

So I has started 2021 with another unit. Looking back on last year I painted a total of 121 infantry, 12 cavalry, 4 mounted generals, 8 gunners and 2 guns. 

I need to concentrate on some more cavalry over the coming months.  

A box of Prussians

I have been fortunate to receive some welcome reinforcement in a box of classic Prussians from a fellow gamer.  

There are a bunch of Lanwehr (on the left) and whilst the bases have been filled down you can still make out the HH code numbers. I have started rennovating a unit of these figures and I hope to finish by the end of the month.

The marching figures on the right and at the back are probably copies of an Austrian marching figure which have been painted as Prussians.  I will probably strip these and paint up as 1813 Austrians.

I was also pleased that I now have some rather nice Prussian Garde figures. Not quiet enough for a full unit unless I add a detachment of Freiwilller jager to make up the numbers.

I was also pleased that there is a rather nice Prussian Mounted Officer (PN64).

There a few figures that are not Hinton Hunt types. Firstly a drummer that is I suspect a Lamming one by the look of his face.2

Secondly there is an Infantry man advancing. This one is a mystery. I assume he is a Prussian as he has a mess tin on his backpack. Could he perhaps be an early minifig/alberken figure.