Perry French 1812-15 & Victrix French 1807-12

Finally picked up a box of Victrix French 1807-12 after building my first four regiments of I Corps from Perry plastics.
The main difference between the sets is the work required to build the Victrix figures.  I don't mind this part of the process but I can understand why it may seem like a chore to others more used to metals.  The attraction of the multi-part plastics is their versatility; every man can be different.  I happen to like this flexibility but be aware of the time it can add to completing a unit!
I have mixed Perry heads with the Victrix bodies; the scale of both products allows for mixing of parts and completed figures within units.
Another difference lies with the two uniforms, the 1812 Bardin jackets are shorter than the pre-1812. This equates to 3-4mm difference that I'm prepared to ignore in 28mm scale.  Besides, the Bardin regulations were not fully implemented until well after 1812 so at a push I can justify it to myself.  (Is this what it's come to, trying to salve my conscience over little plastic soldiers?......)

Napoleon's Memoirs

Last week I visited the Targe wargames exhibition in Kirriemuir and picked up a copy of Napoleon's Memoirs for £3.  The hardcover is from the 1940's and is edited by Somerset De Chair, bringing the various campaigns dictated to his secretaries into a single narrative. 
Of course, I immediately flipped to the back for the Waterloo section.  Napoleon's point-of-view is interesting, and reads ' Winning, winning, winning, winning, Prussians, winning, lost'! 

Speaking of Prussians, the first command stand for my Silesian Landwehr are based.  I've gone with black crossbelts  based on the guidance of the Mont-Saint-Jean site. 

Victrix Britsh Artillery

After many years of not paying much attention to miniatures (toy soldiers) I have been very surprised at the hard plastic troops available from Victrix, Perry & Warlord.  I've bought boxes of all three and they seem to be interchangable as far as size goes.  The new Warlord Prussians are ok but I would have like some more variety in their poses (3 marching figures repeated 9 times).  As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm basing regiments in 6 stands of 6 figures , 36 total.  The 30 man Prussian unit is 6 short if I wanted the Landwehr to be the same size as the British & French (or more if I go with the larger Prussian size relative to the other nations).  I like the look of the Calpe figures (fantastic sculpts and historically spot-on) so will be filling out the units with metals.

The fourth plastic company, HaT, produce Nap French and others in 28mm but I have no experience with them. The Voltiguer box I've seen are too early for my 100 days units. Feedback on TMP is split over the HaT figures with the only common ground being that the sculpts are of a different style to the other three (Victrix, Perry, Warlord)

In the meantime I've finished my first box of Victrix British Artillery.  I'm only using 3 of the 5 figures per gun as the remainder will be added to the base of the limber and horse team when available.

Diary of a hopeless Nap addict

For a couple of years now I've been a 'lurker' on TMP Message Boards and wondered 'What kind of person writes/keeps a blog?'.  I guess I now know - someone who wants ANOTHER excuse not to paint!

This blog is a journal of my interest in the Napoleonic wars, re-awakened after many years by a chance encounter with the new Victrix Highlander plastic set.

Above is my first attempt at painting miniatures since I had the Airfix Waterloo set in the mid-70's.  The Black Watch tartan seemed easier to start with than the Cameronian!

I've added the Victrix flags for the post-Penisular period and will concentrate my collecting on the 100 days campaign.

Basing is a dark art that I'm learning on the fly; Airfix 1/72 didn't need stands back in the day! 

I'm using  6 man stands; 45 X 40mm based on two ranks of three. I think that this gives a feeling of a properly ranked Nap regiment but this is a purely personal preference. It also unfortunately means that my 6 stand regiments have 36 'wee men' to paint rather than '24'.  Hey-ho, If I wanted to be practical I wouldn't be spending hours painting stocking tops!

After looking at rule sets I'm leaning more towards Black Powder than Lasalle or Republic to Empire.

This may change - in August I watched a beautiful demo game of RtoE in Edinburgh that tempted me (an assault of the Borodino redoubt).