Hinton Hunt Wargame 11th June 2016

Yesterday morning I made an early dash to Bath (lovely part of the country) to play a thoroughly enjoyable Napoleonic wargame using vintage Hinton Hunt from the collections of Ian and Roy.

I played the part of Wellington and had to settle to leading my side to second place. Your intrepid War Correspondent did not make extensive notes so I can only leave you with snapshots of the action from the Allied side of the table!

The Left Flank (Picton)

The serried ranks of Picton's Division in the early morning haze.

The French advance against Picton

The Swiss enter the Church yard...

...and get mauled horribly!

They didn't stay around much longer.

 The Centre (Wellington)

The source of much hilarity throughout the day and the only troops responsible for inflicting casualties on every nationality on the table-The Rocket Troop. Hurrah!

Napoleons Old Guard advance - which was to be my undoing.

With support from the combined Grenadiers and the guys with sky blue pompoms!!!

Despite the excellent musketry of the Silesian Landwehr (my Death Star unit on the table as it turned out!) the Old Guard contact the Allied line. The writing was on the wall for yours truly.

The British Naval Contingent's last stand in the Centre.

 The Right Flank (Blucher)

Over on the right flank the largest collection of A class cavalry ever assembled. The horse artillery piece would have been REALLY useful had it not been destroyed so quickly!

The whole right turned into a cavalry mincer for the Allied cavalry. Blucher's mid afternoon quote"Sorry I appear to have lost the cavalry" was a masterclass in understatement!

Blucher's infantry denying the French the 1VP for undisputed ownership of the "rock" - despite the constant threat from the remaining French cavalry.

 Games end!

The Centre has collapsed, the left flank is definitely ours and the right is holding on. Unfortunately the number of Allied routing/destroyed units tipped the balance against us!

All that remains is to say a huge thank you to Ian, Roy, Tony, Clive and Nigel for a thoroughly enjoyable game. Plus thanks to Mrs S for having us and the delicious food!

The Airfix Battle of Waterloo Project

I have recently made a very important purchase. Inspired by the work on my favourite vintage wargames blogs I have decided to try once more at a major Airfix project, this time to recreate the Battle of Waterloo using nothing but Airfix HO/OO soldiers.

Its a BIG box!

 The box contains the equivalent of one box of each of the figures in the Waterloo range together with the farmhouse, a base, some rather useful carts plus glue, paints and brushes. 

The fact that such a project can be done is beyond argument, however the question is how good can the models look? Unlike the "Airfix ACW Project" which I started and then (foolishly) abandoned all those years ago these figures will be getting the "full beauty treatment". 

The French artillery have been started. The rule have been decided-"Age of Eagles" the Napoleonic variant of  "Fire and Fury".

The first figures will be up for show after a small family break in the South of France.

The Franco Prussian War in 15mm

It has been a long while since my last post. Lots of stuff too boring to tell but I have decided to give it another go and so I present you with my most recent work, the Franco Prussian War in 15mm.

 

The figures are Essex Miniatures which I find are very cleanly cast and easy to paint. The basing system is intended for the next member of the Fire and Fury rules family - the "Age of Valor" which covers 19th century European warfare, hopefully to be released in 2017.

 

The units are the second battalions of the 45th & 71st Line regiments. The flags are from Flags for the Lads 20mm range (sadly no more) scanned and reduced to fit the smaller scale.

I am currently working on some supporting French infantry and a sprinkling of artillery. Oh, and a big tank kit!

HaT French Napoleonic Supply Wagons

Here are the contents of the HaT box, three identical wagons with the same horses and rider from the ambulance set. Again they are in a "rubbery" plastic which is not as easy to work as the Italeri kits.

That said the horses have bases which make for a sturdier arrangement and there are not as many bits to them which makes life a little easier when producing them in large numbers. They are now off to their new home. I will be painting more wagons and guns for the diorama soon but for now I have a bit of time to tackle some of my own figures. Starting with some sci-fi figures picked up at Salute!

More 1/72nd French Napoleonic Figures

Here are the contents of the Italeri French Napoleonic Supply Wagon set. Moulded in a bright light blue the pieces all fit together beautifully. None of the pieces have bases which may not be sturdy enough for wargamers, but they make a good model. 

This now leaves me with three HaT wagons and the order is complete. They should be finished by the weekend and then, at last, I can get on with some of my own stuff. Most likely starting with some Colonial Campaigns figures.