"On July 9, 1810..."

"...After the Kingdom of Holland was annexed by the French Empire..."

These two 28mm scale metal models are sold by “Wargames Foundry", and can be purchased as part of their identical eight-figure blister FN175 - Imperial Guard Dutch Grenadiers In Greatcoat Marching. The company's Napoleonic French range was sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry, and I was lucky enough to pick this set up in person when I visited the manufacturer's premises in Newark, late last year.

"Initially numbered the 2nd Foot Grenadiers Regiment of the Imperial Guard", the pair were initially primed using my usual mixture of "Citadel" Abaddon Black and Vallejo Surface Primer Black, before their trousers and various leather straps were layered with "Two Thin Coats" White Star, and 'weathered' with some heavily watered-down "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. I then applied some "Vallejo" Heavy Blue and "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade to each miniature's great-coat, as well as 'picked out' all the details around their waists - such as drinking bottles, swords and ammunition pouches.

"...The Dutch Grenadiers were incorporated into the French Imperial Guard."

To be honest when I had first selected this particular blister off of the showroom's rack I hadn't spotted half the equipment attached to each soldier's rear, so was originally a little despondent when I later saw just how much stuff each Frenchmen carried. However, despite having decided early on with this painting project that I wasn't going to go mad with buttons, small straps and cuff /collar braiding, I did feel elements such as the tassel tied around on the sword-hilt were worthy of some time, so gave them a lick of "Two Thin Coats" Sanguine Scarlet and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. Furthermore I applied "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson onto the two models' epaulettes, bearskin tassels and grenadier emblems.

One of the big motivators behind my current passion for all things Napoleonic is undoubtedly Joseph A. McCullough's "The Silver Bayonet" ruleset by "Osprey Games", and recently I was able to play a couple of the game's opening scenarios - pitching my British (Coalition) warband against a fiendish French raiding party. Littered with various buildings, a spot of marshland and a river running into a pond, the tabletop was somewhat larger than the 3x3 foot one recommended in the book. However, it gave us plenty of room for manoeuvring and exchanging musket balls across the village/town before each side closed upon the clue markers.

The British Officer leaves with the artefact whilst the French continue fighting Straw Bears

The first conflict was based upon the scenario "The Investigation", and was frankly a bit of a one-sided affair as the murderous Hobgoblin killing the locals was soon revealed by my forces, and then shot to pieces by a pair of British Green Jackets using their famous rifles. This caused us to quickly slap a disused barn into the centre of the battlefield so we could give "The Revenants" a try instead, and this battle against a horde of animated Strawbears (by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" was much closer.

Indeed, there was some ferocious firefights between the Russian Infantrymen I fielded and some of the French side's more colourful characters - such as the Occultist, who successfully twice cursed one of my fusiliers during the skirmish. On the other side of the battle, my Riflemen were outnumbered by muskets and became locked in a truly deadly battle of attrition, with lead balls flying all over the place. In the end though, my Officer was able to snatch the missing artefact and bring it safely back behind the British line, whilst my opponent's Commander, Doctor and Sapper were still busy fending off the straw-based revenants around the village pond... 

(Lead) Mountain Musings - "Black Site Studios" November 2024

"Lunar is a skirmish game that pits rival crews of astronauts against one another."

Whilst I was extremely tempted to dedicate another month of hobby time towards my ongoing Napoleonic project using "Wargames Foundry" 28mm figures - especially when I've just received plenty of reinforcements from both "eBay" and the Newark-based manufacturer themselves - I thought it might be more prudent to focus upon my slow-burning collection of "Lunar" miniatures by "Black Site Studio" for November instead. To that end I'm planning on not only completing my force of Soviet Cosmonauts. But also assembling, pigmenting and getting tabletop ready a similarly-sized team of American Astronauts too.

In addition, I picked up plenty of resin scenery whilst visiting Colours 2024 in September, and intend to turn the various packs of unpainted Shell Holes by "Magnetic Displays" into various clusters of moon craters. This should at least give my spacemen something to fight over, as I continue to contemplate picking up some of the digital STL (Standard Triangle Language) file downloads "Black Site Studio" offer on their website - including a 110mm tall Soviet LK Lander and a crashed Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

"Warbases are proud to present these simple movement trays for your troops."

Of course, that doesn't mean for a second that I'm totally dropping my interest in the Napoleonic era for the next four weeks, as I have a quartet of partially-painted British figures taken from packet B041 Late Line Infantry Flank Company Shouldered Arms earmarked for completion. I've actually been a bit remiss when it comes to putting my brush-tip to any Redcoats, having always been put off by the red and white colour combination. So hopefully, this particular handful of soldiers will help me devise a method for tackling many more similarly uniformed infantrymen in the future.

Furthermore, I've started working on a number of MDF movement trays purchased from "Warbases" so I can hopefully play some games of "Black Powder" (lite) in the near future. To begin with I have only bought some four-figure (tiny unit) and eight-men (small units) stands, as I don't currently envisage having any larger units that these. But before this five-year project has concluded I'd like to think I'll be combining a few trays to make significantly larger companies for my tabletop.

October 2024 - No change in the standings for my favourite manufacturers over the past month

Somewhat disagreeably, the past month has not seen me as productive as I would have hoped. This lack of fruitfulness is an issue I lay somewhat squarely at the feet of the time-consuming, and occasionally intimidating, early Nineteenth Century historical models I'm currently obsessed with. Though I had felt that the much more straightforward "Lunar" offerings would somewhat off-set the time it takes me to finish the likes of a Dutch Grenadier - even when I omit many a brass button and baggage strap.

November should be a little different as I have several much more simpler sculpts to pigment, including a load of 3D prints by "Lost Heresy Miniatures". Indeed, I'm planning on cranking out quite a few resin creatures using my Mars 3 Pro 3D Printer, including a few mutilated monsters for the currently highly popular Trench Crusade universe - such as a Lord of Tumors and gaggle of disgusting Grail Thralls...