I am striving to get the Warlord Games La Haye Sainte Collector's edition fully completed by mid-September. I will be featuring this large collection of 170+ miniatures in a soon to be announced book.
If you have been following me on Twitter you will see the progress I have been making. I have painted 127 of the miniatures so far and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am slowly constructing the farmhouse itself. I really can not wait to finish this project. It is going to look epic and will be a great achievement.
So far I have painted:
36 x French Light Infantry 36 x Hanoverian Line Infantry 36 x French Infantry 6 x Luneburg Light Infantry 5 x King's German Legion Infantry 5 x French Engineers 1 x Lieutenant Vieux 1 x Farmer's Wife 1 x Marshall Ney 1 x Nassau Officer Extinguishing Fire Resin Sandpit
All the plastic figures are done, the three line battalions have taken the most time, its now just doing all the little blister packs of metal troops and the terrain!
Its been a little quite on Left Handed Panzerfaust lately but I certainly haven't been quiet!
I have painted 32 more miniatures since my last update but am yet to show them on the blog. I will show them as a completed unit. The miniatures in question are French Light Infantry for Waterloo. I just have 4 more characters to paint and the unit will be complete. This is for an exciting project that will be featured in something special later this year however you will have to wait and see what this is.
I also got around to cleaning up my clutter filled hobby room! Enjoy the before and after pictures. My Hobby space feels so much nicer now :)
My friend and follower of the blog Paul kindly donated some 28mm Kriegsmarine Germans for me to paint. Thanks again Paul!
Finally, I am off to Europe for a couple of weeks tomorrow night. I will be in the UK for a week, in Germany for a weekend then back to the UK for a few days the flying back to Australia. I will then get a minor surgery procedure so expects lots and lots of painting! We can also celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of this blog (the day I get surgery)! I intend on painting a boatload of more Napoleonics, some fantasy, moderns and anything else that tickles my fancy.
I have been slowly chipping away at my Waterloo Project and have just recently finished the first six 95th Riflemen from Brigade Games. These are excellent sculpts by the talented Paul Hicks and have recently been released from Brigade Games.
I have used some variations in the green uniforms using Vallejo Black Green, Gunship Green, a combination of both and adding some black into the mix. I highly doubt early 19th Century Soldiers had the chance to replace their uniforms, let alone wash them.
They are based on my own designed 3D printed bases and are magnatised.
If only I could stick to one project, but alas I can't. I really like variety to keep me engaged in the hobby and painting some Waterloo British Coldstream Guards gives me that variety that I crave.
I have now painted up 6 of these dashing chaps and I will refer to them as a company if going off the Warhammer Waterloo Ruleset. Due to my basing system I use, the size of the Company can easily change and I can make it 4 men for example.
Anyways I certainly aim to get more of these chaps painted up soon. If you recall I painted my test figure a few weeks ago and I added these 5 lads as my final entry for the Analogue Hobbies Annual Painting Challenge. I will do a separate debrief post on my first ever Analogue Hobbies painting challenge.
28mm British Line Infantry by Perry Miniatures
Coldstream Guards at the Battle of Waterloo
I can easily downsize a Company of troops to 4 models
Warlord Games have absolutely blown my mind with just how awesome this box set is. The box alone is a thing of beauty and the miniatures are just superb. The photos of them on their website look good but up close I think they look great!
For those that follow me on Twitter you will recall seeing this photo:
You may notice that this cost me a cool £310 but... you may also notice I got 6 Black Powder box sets for free! I had a voucher that for every £50 I spent I got a Black Powder Box for free. So there you go, what an incredible deal! Even better this deal still took effect when I took advantage of the recent Warlord Games Sprue sale. I got a 7th box for free! So when that order arrives I will have another box of Polish Vistula Legion (obviously not for Project Waterloo).
Warlord even timed the order for me as I was to be out of town and as it was coming by Courier they sent it on a day I requested. Absolutely fantastic customer service and the order was sent Monday Night Australian Eastern Standard Time and arrived Thursday Morning Australian Eastern Standard time. Most impressed!
I was so excited to open the box, I had flashbacks to Christmas as a kid!
I even put the Sharpe's closing credits song on full blast to capture the moment, it was most majestic and tear jerking.
Well done Warlord Games for using Paper Packaging fillers as opposed to plastic!
This was a great moment and immensely satisfying
A beautiful boxset and the large white box is the Collectors Edition contents
Oh boy... 6 free boxes of goodness!
So excited to get cracking on this stuff! To be fair its probably going to take me years to paint. Also you may have noticed my miniatures table on the top right of the blog has completely blown out for the month of February! The Zombicide Green Horde Kickstarter Wave 1 certainly didnt help and this order bought 270 odd miniatures to the party!!!! Wow!
Up next... my 28mm WW2 Polish Airborne Painting Guide.
Arthur is most unimpressed with the mass of unpainted miniatures
Undoubtedly one of the most popular eras for War Gaming is The Battle of Waterloo. It was one of the most famous battles of all time and even non gamer types have heard of it. Even here in Australia we have pubs, streets and even suburbs named after the famous battle... so I'm doing it!
Some Complementary Music if you are so brave...
Scale
Well wasn't this a contention for debate for myself! It came down to two choices although I did explore more! 18mm by AB Figures and Campaign Game Miniatures or 28mm with a huge choice of figures. For once I think I can say 28mm is the winner for scale when it comes to Napoleonic gaming (danger zone for saying that, ducks for cover!) and in particular Waterloo thanks to the Perry Miniatures range, Victrix and Warlord Games, obviously there are a lot more however this choice is always up for debate!
18mm AB Figures - Lovely
18mm CGM KGL/British Infantry Retrieved from their Website
Now these chaps look all well and good but... they are so small and I love details in my figures which these chaps have. I really wanted the mass look and to save space so this really put me at a cross roads as I wanted them however I know some guys in my gaming group that do Waterloo and Napoleonics in general in 28mm! Essentially no one I know has Napoleonics in 18mm/15mm let alone Waterloo.
As previously mentioned there are some great ranges in 28mm and I am a massive fan of Perry and Warlord so the decision was made for me and now I am going to commit to it, 28mm it is.
Luckily Warlord Games sent me an awesome deal for every 50 quid I spent I get a free Black Powder box set. As I had been eyeing off La Haye Sainte Collectors edition, well this happened!!!
Lots and lots and lots and lots... of figures! Tremendous value!
Wow! That is going to keep me busy. A whole play set and 6 yes 6 boxes for free! :) I have heard mixed reviews about Victrix figures however some of the poses and interchangeability with the Perry Plastics was to good to pass up on so I got a horde of them incoming and you can't beat Victrix for value. I do like some variety on the table and I have really warmed to the Warlord Figures too. After assembling some of the Polish Vistula Legion they go together quickly and are simple to paint and I expect this too with their British Line Infantry.
I want to represent Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte on the table. I have upgraded the gaming facilities at LHP HQ to an 8 x 6 table with the approval of Mrs LHP. I will not be playing the entire battle obviously, just lots of the engagements that happened on the day. I am not too fused about capturing every single little detail etc etc and dont want long dragged out games that take whole days to complete so I figured minor engagements in 28mm is the best way for me to set out what I want to achieve.
Rules
I really want to play Warhammer Historical Waterloo after recently aquiring the book and reading it cover to cover. My good friend and rival Murray also just picked this up! - not to mention he also go the La Haye Sainte Collectors set :)
I will not be limiting myself to this set of rules, I'm keen to try Blackpowder and some Sharp Practice 2. I wouldn't even mind getting some solo play in at some stage.
Test Figure
As mentioned I want to play out some Hougoumont. The Coldstream Guards were there and so I thought I would be different and paint one of them up first. My Perry's will be representing these chaps as the defence of Hougoumont really suits their poses. Again another decision for 28mm is they just look so damn good.
28mm British Line Infantry - Perry Miniatures
Coldstream Guards - Battle of Waterloo
This is going to be a project that is going to take years! Yes years! I can do it at my own pace and slowly add to it... and yes I will be painting some French (I thought I would never say that).
Stay tuned...
Arthur would most certainly challenge me to a duel if he saw this
