All Quiet on the Hobby Front

"Heeeeeeere's JOHNNY!"

There has been a distinct lack of hobby action of late, and like Jack Nicholson's character in "The Shining", cabin fever is setting in...

A combination of family commitments and it just being too damn hot (or humid, or both) have meant I haven't been to the club for weeks and painting has been a write-off. Why try painting when the paint on your brush dries up before it touches a figure? A slight exaggeration, but it's been consistently hotter and muggier since summer officially finished at the end of February, and that kind of weather is not conducive to painting, as you probably know all too well.

Anyway, things are looking up; I'll be going to the club this weekend and will probably play French this time. Several new players have been investing in British armies, so I'll give them some target practice. The Italians I painted up late last year will probably get their maiden run on the battlefield (queue routing markers!).

Because there's been a flurry of British regiments being created, there have been quite a few questions being asked on numbers and basing, and I realise my regiments are undermanned. My focus for when I get my mojo back will be to upgrade my British line regiments from 10 to 12 figures and Highlanders from 12 to 15 figures. I'm also planning to retire some of my older units and replace them with Hagen metal figures (marching and action) and the new Strelets Highlander range. The problem is, though, both ranges have problems: the Hagen figures don't have elite company figures, while the Strelets figures don't have centre company figures! I had ordered some Hagen marching light infantry to use as elite company figures, but when I got the parcel in the mail I found that they'd been replaced with extra centre company marching figures, instead. Consequently, I've used Milliput to make shoulder wings on a few figures. I'll see how they look once I start painting them. I've also laboriously carved off the shoulder wings from the majority of the Highlander figures, too.

Also, I will need to re-base my Spanish infantry, which I mistakenly based on the larger 2-rank base, instead of the standard 3-rank continental infantry. Plus, I plan to boost the numbers of Spanish infantry so that I can field a complete 1500 point Spanish army! "Why?", I hear you ask; well, I have a soft spot for the hapless Spaniards who kept getting up after being knocked down again and again! They embody the image of the plucky underdog, which appeals to my sense of justice. Plus, I have an ambition to win a game with them one day; if I can do that, then I know I'll have made it as a player! That's the same reason I'm still plugging away with the Neapolitan project, too.

We Apologise For This Break in Transmission...

...normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Life at Chez Rosbif is way too busy at the moment for much painting or wargaming. I hope to have something to report soon, but when that will be, I'm not too sure.

My Neapolitan project is ongoing and I hope to have another battalion finished soon. I've also received in the mail a box of the new British Dragoons by Waterloo 1815 and lovely they are too!

Image from the Waterloo 1815 Facebook page.

These will be the first British heavy cavalry I own which aren't conversions. I'm looking forward to putting some paint on these, but I'm not sure when that'll be.

Anyway, watch this space!

Armee des Königreichs Württemberg

While I've got my Peninsular British forces under control, and my Royal Navy project is still in its infancy, and will take a long time to develop, I need another project to get my teeth into.

I had toyed with the idea of expanding my Spanish forces or even starting a Neapolitan army (yes, Neapolitan!), but decided that I have enough bad luck on the table-top without courting disaster! As I have the lovely Franznap Neapolitan Velites of the Guard generously provided by Francesco as a freebie with a previous purchase, I still have plans to eventually paint an 1815 Neapolitan army based on the OB from the Battle of Tolentino, Murat's last hurrah.

What I have settled on, though, is my long delayed Württemberg project! They are a nice self contained small contingent of effective troops which are able to hold their own on the battlefield. I have had the requisite figures for an all-arms brigade for quite a while, but other projects have always taken precedent. Now is the time to set the ball rolling for the Württembergers, including infantry, rifles, artillery and cavalry.

The figures (as always!) will be 1/72nd scale HaT figures from the 3 sets infantry, artillery and cavalry:

Clicking on the pictures will take you to PSR reviews of each set

 At this stage, I'm thinking of creating a force based in part on the 1809 order of battle

2nd Division Vittoria 1813 - Portuguese and British Infantry cont.

After faffing around with cavalry, it's time to finish my stalled British Peninsular War project. I currently have two and a bit brigades of infantry from Daddy Hill's 2nd Division from the Vittoria OB. I have to paint two more Portuguese battalions and 3 more British regiments; 

• 2/6th Portuguese Regiment (red cuffs, dark blue collar)
• 2/18th Portuguese Regiment (light blue cuffs, dark blue collar)
• 1st Provisional Battalion (2/31st & 2/66th) (buff and yellow-green, respectively)
• 1/57th Foot Regiment (pale yellow)
• 1/39th Foot Regiment (pea green)

Facing information from Napoleonguide

24th Regiment (similar facings as 18th, except dark blue collar) 

Following images from of Queen's Royal Surreys

Grenadier 2/31st

Centre Company infantryman in forage cap 2/31st

(l to r) Grenadier and Centre Company Officers 2/31st

The provisional battalion will feature the uniforms from both battalions and, as it is a provisional unit of two 2nd battalions, will not feature flags. I'll also probably have to rate them lower than a full 1st battalion to reflect the lower cohesion of mixing two battalions together. Ordinarily, a 2nd battalion is rated lower than a 1st battalion in our rules, but as both fought tenaciously with distinction at Albuera and were decimated as a result, I won't be giving them a double whammy for being a provisional battalion AS WELL AS 2nd battlions. 

It was a mark of how much Wellington valued them that they weren't sent back to Britian to recruit and refit. He didn't want to lose 2 prime, experienced battalions at the expense of one full but inexperienced 1st battalion.

I'll be using the SHQ metal figures for my Portuguese (which I only found recently in my Metal Mountain & Plastic Pile after misplacing them for a while!) and the lovely HaT Peninsular War British Infantry

Treading Water

Not much happening on the Rosbif front lately, Napoleonics-wise. With Borodino done and dusted I've sort of let things slide with Napoleonic painting.

Currently, I've got 3 projects I'm considering:

• Continue with my long-delayed Italians from Piave 1809

• Finish my long-delayed British 2nd Corps c.1812

• or, start a Wurttemberg division c.1809

Meanwhile, I haven't been totally inactive. Some of you who have been following the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will know that I've been busy with my late antiquity project. Those of you who haven't, feel free to pop over to my other blog, Romani in Tenebris to check out what I've been up to of late.

Another reason I haven't been active of late is that some little toe-rag stole our car a few weeks ago, so I've been unable to attend any of the club sessions in the last few weeks. After wrestling with the insurance company and getting little to no information from the Victoria Police (whose customer service, I suspect, is more geared towards the non-law abiding citizens of our community), we finally had the car written off and bought a replacement. You really don't know how much you rely on wheels until you don't have any!

To protect our precious new car we've installed this state-of-the-art, revolutionary anti-theft system. It's worked well so far....