Perry French Imperial Guard Horse Artillery WIP #3

I finally finished the Perry Miniatures French Imperial Guard Horse Artillery for Volley and Bayonet. The conversion of the old Minifigs artillery turned out okay; the gun carriages look a little small but, hey, they'll work.


Next up will be the French Foot Artillery in overcoats with the actual 8lb guns provided by Perry Miniatures. In addition, I'm going to do 2 batteries of Front Rank Royal Horse Artillery at the same time.

Perry French Imperial Guard Horse Artillery WIP #2

As I mentioned last time, I mount 2 gunners per base for my Volley and Bayonet artillery in 28mm. Since I have 4 Guard Horse and 4 Line I was short 2 guns. I have 2 old French Guns that I have kept for along time with my "bits" and I believe they are Minifig 25mm. My plan is to utilize them as 6 lb guns. One of the guns has a broken axle so I sent it to the local depot for repairs.


Tools for repair will be the hand drill I bought from Games Workshop, a wire cutter, some small files (not shown) and super glue.

Brass rod is extremely handy an available in various diameters in most hobby shops. I have used brass rod for making standards and for strengthening the fit of some models.
I used the hand drill to drill out the old axle and make a deep enough hole for the brass rod. After a quick measurement and snip of the wire cutter, I put a few drops of super glue down the hole and inserted the brass.


I let the rod dry for five minutes and then glued on the wheel. I waited about 20 minutes to make sure the bond was set and then filed the end of the rod smooth.

I then gave the gun a quick (and I do mean quick!) paint job. For the wood I used GW's Goblin Greena and then a wash of Ork Flesh followed by a dry brushing of highlights with Camo Green. The metal fixtures are just black and the barrel was "wet" brushed with Shiny Gold.

Perry French Imperial Guard Horse Artillery WIP

I finally got started on the French Imperial Guard Horse artillery from Perry Miniatures. I've said it before and I'll say it again - there is nothing like painting great miniatures to bring out the best you have as a painter. These figures are a pleasure to paint. The base colors have been finished and now it's time to do some highlighting, detail work and clean-up of some painting "mistakes". The finished product will provide 2 batteries of artillery for the Emperor's Volley and Bayonet army.


I think that technically the above figure is an NCO, but I decided to paint him based on a print of an Imperial Guard Horse Artillery officer at Waterloo. Looking at the picture, I need to clean up the cuff and gold trim on his right arm.


Above are the other 3 gunners that come with the pack. I recently started using mounting the figures on bottle caps when I paint. Previously I would put them on hobby craft sticks; but now that I am doing more 28 mm figures, the craft sticks were not working as well for me - especially for this period! More straps, lace, etc., to paint - not to mention poking myself with bayonets and hoping I don't break them off.


This figure screamed old campaigner to me. Most of the time I paint the faces first as it gives the figure "character" and helps motivate me as the painter. Nicely animated pose; you can imagine him sighting down the barrel or making sure all is ready to fire on the enemies of France.


Just a shot of the Battery commander and the old campaigner. The pictures really does not do justice to the coveralls that all of the figures are wearing.


Parting shot of the other two figures that will be on the other battery. Once done, I'm going to repaint some old Minifig artillery pieces for them to use. The 8 pounder that came with the pack I'm going to use with the Line Foot artillery pack.

Christmas Goodies

My Christmas gift from my beautiful bride of 25 1/2 years were two packs of French artillery from Perry Miniatures. The packs are FN19 Foot Artillery priming 6 pounder (greatcoats) and FN111 Guard Horse Artillery firing.



I have always been impressed with the quality and detail on Perry miniatures - and these new goodies are not an exception. I was particularly impressed with the coveralls on the Horse Guard artillerymen. For Volley and Bayonet, I mount 2 figures per artillery base so these packs will provide 4 artillery batteries. I'm going to mount the 6 pounders with the Foot artillery and I have 2 old artillery guns that I will mount with the Guard Horse. These will be fine additions for the French army in the Peninsular.

The Battle of Friedchikun - The Conclusion

Honorable Son #2's girlfriend asks: "Okay, explain to me again how a high school freshman beat a retired infantry officer and an Army cadet?"

Okay it's time to 'fess up. I can't find my notes for the battle report. Here's a quick summary and lots of pictures

As mentioned earlier the game would last 8 turns. The initial attacks by the French Infantry divisions were met with disaster. The division advancing on the extreme right through the woods became hopelessly disordered and would stay so for the majority of the game. The other division advanced through the open ground into the Imperial artillery's engagement error which took all of 2 1/2 turns for the division to become exhausted and unable to conduct any more offensive actions.


I've never seen artillery through so many 6's in my life. The only thing the saved the right and center from complete collapse was the reserve and the conduct of the French cavalry.
The French cavalry, led by Honorable Son #2, performed superbly as they repulsed the initial Imperial cavalry charge on the French left flank. Then, in a series of attacks, the French cavalry in wave after wave pushed backed and punished their Imperial counter parts and almost broke the Austrian center.



Only the quick repositioning of several Imperial infantry regiments by Honorable Son #4 prevented the collapse of the Austrian position. If the French infantry had not performed so disastrously early on in the battle (yeah, it was my fault) and had been able to support the French cavalry, the outcome of the game might have been different.


By the end of turn 7, both armies had taken high casualties; however, the French had no divisions except for one cavalry division capable of offensive action. Realizing that there was no way for the French to win, the French commander graciously conceded the field of battle to the Imperial commander.

In the end, the steadiness of the Imperial commander keeping to his plan gave him victory. The French employed their cavalry well, but the uncoordinated attacks of the infantry with the lack of artillery support led to missed opportunities. A fun game that reminded us all that maybe the Great Captains of that time knew how to deploy their armies the right way!