Projects On The Workbench - Dreaming Big!!

Life is always crazy and thus impedes the crafting of armies and miniature paraphernalia. There is no exception here at Battleground Hobbies. We have many a project either dreamed up, planned or underway.

First, there is another building to go with the Half Timber Houses we created during the Miniature Building Class. There is also a Tower and Gatehouse combo planned too.

Then we have some British Napoleonic era cannons started...

A Warhammer 40k Space Marine army is also on the table. We picked up some Dreadnoughts and a squad of marines off eBay and started cutting. We'll be modifying these guys and adding another vehicle of sorts.

Then we have some terrain underway. This will be part of a painting tutorial in the near future.

Lastly, we were able to recycle a large printer and came up with this batch of lovely components for an In Her Majesty's Name steampunk project.

One, some or all of these should wind up here on the blog! So til then...
Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

Napoleonic Polish Vistula Legion - New Release from Warlord Games

You can now pre-order Warlord Games new Polish Vistula Legion. Another of Warlords ever expanding and finely crafted plastic box sets.

The box contains 36 plastic and metal Polish line infantry figures. The exact release date is unknown but can be expected some time mid May. Any pre-orders will be shipped out at the end of April to coincide with Salute!

The Vistula Legion was perhaps the most famous of the many foreign units in French service under Napoleon. Formed in Silesia in February 1807 from an infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in the service of the Kingdom of Naples, it was initially named the Legion Polacco-Italienne (Polish-Italian Legion) as it had been organized around the Poles in Italian service.

Renamed the Légion de la Vistula (Vistula Legion) in March 1908, it became three infantry regiments, each of two battalions, each battalion having six companies of 140 men (one grenadier company, one voltigeur, and four fusilier) plus a Lancer regiment of 1,000 men in four squadrons.

The Vistula Legion was sent to Spain in June 1808 where it fought in numerous actions, their most celebrated of which was at Albuhera in 1810 when the lancer regiment rode down a British infantry brigade, destroying three out of the four British battalions in only four minutes of slaughter.

By 1812, the Vistula Legion was greatly rewarded and honored by being accepted into the Imperial Guard. They formed a brigade within the Young Guard Division for the impending invasion of Russia. 

In September 1813 they fought the Russians in a bloody engagement at Neustadt (near Dresden). Participating in several small engagements and skirmishes, they were virtually destroyed at Leipzig that October.  The Legion was reformed in early 1814 and at Soissons, on 2 March, it fought valiantly against the blockading Russian forces earning 23 Legions d 'honneur.

Unusually, none of the Legion’s infantry regiments carried banners until late in 1813, when the remnants of the withdrawal from Moscow were re-organised into the Vistula Regiment.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

New! Napoleonic Russian Artillery from Warlord Games

Warlord Games has just released some new ordnance for your green-jacketed Russian musketeers! The latest addition to the Napoleonic Russian range are three fine artillery pieces. The 6, 10 and 12 pounders!!

Each of the three guns has options for crew firing or in the process of running the gun back. In addition each set utilises Warlords Figure Head System, so you can swap or reposition the heads as you see fit. The heads supplied are either artillery shakos or forage caps.

The sets contains 1 Metal gun, 4 crew and retails for approximately 24.00 USD.

The 6-pounder became the standard gun for light artillery batteries from 1805, and was used to deadly effect by their very capable crews.

Stout and resolute, the gunners would fight ferociously if their precious guns were threatened.

The 10-pounder Licorne (or Unicorn in English) was a different breed of gun to its French howitzer counterpart. It was a uniquely Russian design, being a hybrid howitzer with a long barrel and chambering that allowed a flatter trajectory and improved range and accuracy.

They came as quite a nasty surprise for Napoleon’s veterans.

The 12-Pounder was the standard heavy artillery gun in the later Russian Napoleonic army.

Russian guns were treated with as much reverence as the French viewed their eagles, and were manned by well trained and motivated men.

So add these swell new artillery pieces, grab some additional Russian Line Infantry to bolster your Napoleonic army or if the battle goes badly, pick up these excellent "Ivanna Go Home" Casualties!

Don't forget to have a great battle!
The Old Crow

French Napoleonic Hussars by Perry Miniatures

Gotta love Perry Miniatures and these phenomenal French Napoleonic Hussars!

Let's start with the beautiful cover art on the package by Peter Dennis. It really gets you thinking about heroic charges against great odd.

Now, here's what you get in the box, a comprehensive historical guide to all the French Hussar units dating from 1792 through 1815!
And Fourteen 28mm hard plastic figures to build. The detailing is superb, just what you'd expect from Perry Miniatures.

The command sprue has enough pieces to make a trumpeter or standard bearer and an officer. Each Hussar can have their functional campaign dress uniforms or the more elaborate full dress uniforms.

There is also enough different heads to outfit your Hussars in the early period Miriliton hat, the Bell top Shako, Cylindrical Shako, Coverede bell top or the Fur Colpack worn by most elite Hussars.

There are four trooper sprues, three troops to each one, with all the same options as the command sprue.

And lastly, four horse sprues, also with three to a sprue.

We spent about 2 hours cutting pieces from the sprues and putting these guys together. We assembled five of the 14 available.

Trooper A with raised sword...

and his opposite side.

Trooper B has his sword arm fully extended

The trumpeter has his sword in the sheath.

With a few modifications, a regular trooper becomes the standard bearer.

There you have it for now, get some of these beauties and start building your forces! The hard part is deciding on which of the 18 Hussar regimental schemes to paint.

Good luck in deciding and have a great battle!
The Old Crow

Building modular battle-boards for miniature war-gaming

We were in need of some boards to play Warhammer and SAGA on! And what if we started our Prussian Napoleonic army, what would we do? What a predicament we were in!

Alright, here's what we're going to build. Let's get started...

We decided a 4x6 modular board with a river feature would be the way to go. We wanted to have the option of a river bend so the plan was for three 2x4 sections with a two piece hill. Make yourself a good sketch or cut a small model from spare cardboard so you don’t waste your foamboard. Here’s our model, the bend can be covered with one of the 2 hill sections.

We started with 2 4x8 sheets of polystyrene insulation board and doubled them to enable cutting out the river sections. We used 1 inch thick boards, cut down the center of the river and then used a foam cutter to carve the edges. Using glue to hold the boards then coarse drywall screws to firm everything up and keep them together.

We use a light weight joint compound to fill in gaps and seams. After it thoroughly dries, we based the riverbank with burnt umber and the river with XXXX blue. For the time being we just painted the basic board a light shade of green with some mottling here and there. We’ll add flocking or grass matt in the near future.

Add a wash of black to seep into any crevices and cover any spots you may have missed with the brown. You could prime the boards in black if you prefer, just be careful with the primer you use as some will eat through the polystyrene. Always test on a scrap of foam before spraying your main boards.

We also added some dark wash in the deep parts of the stream and shaded areas around the rocks. Next were successive coats of terra cotta...

and then golden tan drybrush to pull out the highlights. The rocks were also painted in three shades of gray.

You can see where we added some lighter blues were the stream would foam up a bit.

Here are the two river boards after painting.

There are many products for creating water. Many of them are fairly expensive so if you are on a budget, try using a tube of clear silicon caulking. The cost for the brand we picked up was less than 3 dollars. You’ll need a caulking gun if you don’t have one.

You can spread it with a craft stick but a plastic spoon works very well for forming the ripples in the steam.

After the silicon is applied, you can smooth out the high peaks by wetting your fingers in a jar of water and running it over the high spots.

Keep in a warm area for faster drying times and don’t worry, it will dry clear!

Here are the finished boards with all three lined up lengthwise and the hill covering the corner river section.

Another view with the river bend in place and a corner hill.

Here the two hill sections are together.

And there you have it. Plenty of space and variety for any game you want to play! If you have any questions or would like a set built for you please let us know.

Have a Great Battle
The Old Crow

New Napoleonic Early Russian Dragoons released by Victrix

Had to do a midweek update when I saw Victrix announced the release of their new Napoleonic Early Russian Dragoons.

These awesome Dragoons were sculpted by the talented Paul Hicks. He has sculpted all of Victix's metals and has done an outstanding job on the Dragoons with a lovely attention to detail, character and dynamism.  

Each of the trooper packs comes with six separate arm variants to add a real sense of individuality to your Dragoon units. Victrix also added a Dragoon deal so you can get these great figures at nice discount.

Have a Great Battle,
The Old Crow

New Historical Napoleonic Russian Miniatures from Warlord Games

In keeping with our historical news, Warlord Games has released some sweet new miniatures to add to your Napoleonic Russian forces! These are created for use with the Black Powder game. If you're not familiar, Black Powder rules helps recreate the great battles of the 18th and 19th centuries. The game gives the fundamentals of warfare such as how to command troops, movement on the battlefield, the effects of musketry and artillery and the role of morale when getting pounded by Black Powder weapons.

Pictured below is the 1809-1815 Russian Line Infantry box set.  The infantry wear the taller shako while the Grenadiers wear the outlandishly large plumes.  The box set is designed to allow you to field one regiment of Russian infantry The variants in the box allow you to use both musketeer and grenadiers along with a command section to lead them into battle. They also provide a selection of flags from a number of regiments so you can get them into battle right away. You'll find 4 metal and 28 plastic miniatures in the box set.

Recruitment was never a problem for the Russian army.The army offered a steady income and regular meals so any hardship they may suffer was an improvement for many. With that in mind, you can recruit this wonderful Napoleonic Russian Command unit to lead your regiments. Each set contains a mounted officer, officer on foot and a musician.

The miniatures come with separate heads and right arms allowing lots of variation in your units. These are compatible with the plastics and the other metal sets giving you immense scope for individuality.

With these great miniatures available you should be able to bolster your forces near Borodino before the French Grande Armée gets there!

As always, Have a Great Battle!
The Old Crow