Book review: The Battle of Quatre Bras by Mike Robinson

I bought this non-fiction account of  Quatre Bras before Christmas and last week finally got around to reading it. Covering the battle from the Allied point of view, it builds the tension slowly until contact with the French Corps under Ney.
Traditionally wargames begin with troops on the table (or just off table awaiting an activation roll); the author has vividly described the complexity of moving large bodies of men & materiel in real life. Having never served in the Armed forces I have gained a renewed appreciation of the logistical sophistication that is part of their role - even more so in 1815 with horse & man power the only options!
There was some mild criticism on the forums that the French side is not represented in the book but this gives the story an almost thriller-like feel.  Just as the shark in Jaws does not appear until the end of the movie, we know what's out there but don't know when the 'big reveal' takes place.
It is quite an achievement to make a battle fought in 1815 seem so immediate to the reader and I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in the 100 days.

Prussian Landwehr - Work in progress with new metal recruits

Started again on my Silesian Landwehr regiment, shown below as a work in progress.  I'm filling out numbers using the new Warlord metals that will add some variety to the plastic box set figures.  I like the new figures, especially the 'at trail' set.  Each of my Landwehr regimental battalion will be either 36 or 42 men strong (still can't decide).

 The front rows have been glued to the base ready for wood filler.  I tend to paint the models individually and then base, rather than painting as a group.

 The group of figures 'at trail' are based as a '3' rather than '6'.  I'm going to use them as skirmishers as required.

 The mounted Prussian officers from Warlord are sculpted in the same style as the plastics; I'm going to use one for each battalion.

First three regiments

I've finished my first regiments for d'Erlon's I Corps.
From the 1st Infantry Division - the 1st battalion of 54th Ligne and 1st battalion of 55th Ligne
From the 2nd Infantry Division - the 1st battalion of 13th Legere

The 13th Legere - The middle ranker on the right-hand column has on a Ligne cap (lining in red rather than white) and the drummers pom-pom needs to be painted light blue.  Two more chores to add to the growing 'to fix' list!

The Legere is much easier to paint, by using the French Blue acrylic spray paint from Humbrol I cut down on the prep time too.

The 55th Ligne - The only regiment with a flag, to date. This came with the Perry box

  and it looks a lot better than I thought (due to my usual cack-handedness, not the flag quality!).  I followed some advice on TMP and added a layer of kitchen foil between the two sides of the paper.  This lets the flag be folded into a 'wind-blown' shape once it has dried around the pole.

The 54th Ligne - Again, another Perry plastic boxed regiment.  This photo shows two grenadier companies because the 54th command stand is still being based.

The massed effect takes me back to my youth, moving down to eye-level in order to make the soldiers look bigger!  I read a quote a while ago from an executive at Games Workshop who was commenting on the company results 'Some men are hard-wired to like toy soldiers' - very true!

And side-on....

And from the other side....

I have a fourth box of Perry plastics to finish and a further 4 boxes of Victrix French.  With the 60 figures in the 1807-1812 boxes I reckon I can make 6 regiments of 36 troops with enough left over for some skirmishers.  This may mean some conversion work on the officers/eagle bearers/drummers.