Marshal Ney - Perry 28mm

Well it's June 18th, and a rather momentous day in several ways as I also bought a house! Had to do the equivalent of sending in the Guard reserve to win it at the auction though. A close run thing indeed. And another of our Napoleonic fraternity is having his first child born today (provisional name "Arther Wellesley" of course).

To commemorate the day, here's Marshal Ney ready for the second Waterloo refight (happening this weekend). This is quite a characterful and popular set. Also much commented upon is the hair style which the Perry's have sculpted as bald on top with comb over. I searched for records on the state of his hair, and apparently it is quite likely that he was bald by this time. I also chose quite a ginger colour for his hair to make him stand out, though in reality it was probably more chestnut coloured. Going for the colour and emphasis as with all my figures for reasons I've remarked upon before, i.e. the effects of scale and light perception. 

I might rebase my generals on circular bases later as I quite like that look, but I only had rectangular and square ones available when I did these.

This Perry set is based on this painting by Demoulin of the Charge of Donops Cavalry Led by Marshal Ney at Waterloo. A brilliant translation of it into miniature.

However I switched the position of the ADC's around to better protect the sword of the one in red!

Report on the second Waterloo refight using General de Brigade will be up next week! As Ney I will no doubt be running around taking control of vast swathes of the French army and ordering poorly timed but impressive charges. Especially since our Napoleon is unfortunately (but appropriately) in ill health at present. Get well soon Ion! It will be a complete disaster if I'm let loose on the field I'm sure...

General Lobau - Perry 28mm

Defending against the arrival of the Prussians is where I'll be this Saturday and Sunday commanding VI Corp as General Lobau. I painted up the Perry General Lobau figure, together with a French Colonel I had lying around. Certainly looks confident enough on his white horse waving his hat around, but how will it all go on the field of glory?

Was somewhat undecided as to the colour of the hair, but went with a greying black. Here's a portrait of him in his younger days, 1792.

And much later on, but not certain of the date of this portrait. After the defeat at Waterloo he was exiled, returning to France in 1818. For services to the King of France he was eventually made a Marshal of France in 1831. He also served in the House of Representatives. 

An interval of warm weather today so happily I also managed to spray undercoat some more figures!

Austrian Generals Perry 28mm

Here's some Austrian generals, from Perry miniatures again. From left to right, Prince Liechtenstein, Archduke Charles, Prince Hohenzollen, and some German Officers. 

Now flocking my last lot of German infantry, which will also be posted soon!

General Sebastiani and Leipzig Table

General Horace-François-Bastien Sebastiani de la Porta

General Sebastiani  led the 2nd Cavalry Corp at Leipzig - the Corp I have painted up over the past couple of months to use in the Leipzig refight tomorrow. He was given the nickname "General Surprise" by some of his troops, due his unfortunate habit of being surprised by the enemy rather than vice versa (not enough scouting with Chasseurs perhaps?!). This may be quite an appropriate command allocation given some of my own Napoleonic blunders, including the heroic but disastrous charge of my Cuiraissiers at the redoubts in our 2012 Borodino refight. Surely things can only improve...

Despite his less than stellar reputation, Sebastiani appears to have performed well at Leipzig as far as I can understand, throwing back the Austrians for a time. Looking at the opposing force lists and map, I expect it will be challenging to achieve as much. He was wounded by a lance blow to the chest at Leipzig, but survived to have an active later political life as a Minister and Ambassador, eventually being made a Marshall of France in 1840. I shall have him leading the charge as befits a true cavalry general, but avoiding enemy lancers if I can!  I'll be posting the after action dispatches in a couple of days - stay tuned!

Speaking of lances, looking at this photo of French Napoleonic cavalry equipment from Wikipedia commons, I note the pennants on the lances are much larger than I expected. If accurate then perhaps the Front Rank pennants I expressed doubts about in my Lancer post are ok afterall.

Some further more information about General Sebastiani at these links:

http://www.arcdetriomphe.info/officers/sebastiani/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horace_Fran%C3%A7ois_Bastien_S%C3%A9bastiani_de_La_Porta

Lastly, here's the planned layout for our big Leipzig game - I've never seen a wargaming setup like it before! Click on it to see a larger image. I'm assuming my Corp will be deployed to the South East (lower right).

French Generals 28mm Perry

French Generals, including Heavy Cavalry Generals in Cuirasses.  These are more metal Perry figures.  I may go back and add further layers and detail to the paintjobs at a later date, but they'll do for now. Typically I only use 1-2 layers for most colours, combined with extensive black-lining. It saves significant time and still looks ok on table. The technique is fine for rank and file, but a bit more work on generals is probably worthwhile!