15mm Samurai Bow

 The next tranche of figure for this project are eight elements of samurai bow, comprised of 32 figures:

There are two different poses, with one shooting and the other looking as though he's about to draw another arrow from his quiver:

I did a few less sashimonos for these, primarily because they would only sit correctly on the shooting figure:

I initially gave tried out a few bowmen with the traditional red and black hoops on the bow, which took me ages to do but ended up looking too busy so I painted over them and reverted to a basic red. At least the red bow is itself a traditional colour:

The figures are again from Eureka and have a nice amount of detail for "true" 15mm sculpts:

I'm keen to get stuck into some samurai cavalry, but will complete another regiment of 28mm French dragoons before I do. I've grown a little tired of waiting for the replacement flags to arrive so will use a spare chasseur standard which has roughly the right battle honours, just to finally move them off the painting queue. 

15mm Samurai

While awaiting the arrival of some flags to replace an order from February which appears to have gone astray, and which I need to complete the last ten regiments of French cavalry, I thought I'd get started on a 15mm Samurai army for DBMM starting with twenty-seven elements of samurai foot:

I went with Eureka Miniatures which are a true 15mm, so look quite small next to my other Xyston DBMM armies but will fit in nicely alongside my Khurasan Tibetan army:

That said, the details are certainly still there:

I found them quite fiddly to paint, not because of the sculpts which are very nice, but because of all the lace on the samurai armour:

I stuck with a few basic designs for the sashimono banners to keep try to keep things somewhat muted, essentially just black, white and red:

There are six different foot warrior designs:

Plus a general and standard bearer figure for the command stands:

 

That's a total of 110 figures in all, with two left over for a camp:

Next up, some samurai bow.

French 1st Chasseurs

While I await the arrival of a GMB flag order to complete the last of the dragoon regiments I remembered I have a few chasseur flags on hand, so thought I'd get stuck into the first of three chasseur regiments with the 1e Chasseurs:

Probably not the most exciting of French cavalry uniforms, but no French army would be complete without them:

The reverse trumpeter at least adds a little bit of interest, and the GMB flags always look effective:

That's fourteen regiments now completed since January. Not as many as I had hoped for by this stage, but at least I am over the halfway mark in terms of French cavalry:

Next up will be the dragoons. We have been subjected to a short four-day (so far, anyway) lockdown here in Brisbane during which postal deliveries have been suspended, so I am hoping  next week will see their arrival. Having said that it has now been four months since they were posted so I may end up just using one of the spare chasseur flags, if I can find one with roughly equivalent battle honours.

French Grenadiers a Cheval

While I have only one dragoon regiment to go, I thought it was time get stuck into another Guard regiment with the Grenadiers a Cheval:

I purchased these in around 2008 and undercoated them two and a half years ago, so they have been patiently awaiting their turn:

The figures are from Foundry, and the flag again from GMB:

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That's thirteen regiments done, so over halfway to the twenty-four I have planned:

I ordered a bunch of GMB flags back in February and am still eagerly awaiting their arrival so I can complete the last of the dragoons. I fear it has gone astray, but am clinging to the hope it might still turn up. 

French 2nd Dragoons

It's back the red facings of the 2e Dragoons for the third of four regiments, this time with Perry figures:

The flag is from GMB as usual, and I have again included the elite company for a bit of variety:

I'm not quite sure what I did with the camera settings on this one as they came out looking a bit shinier than they are in reality, having had a couple of coats of Testors Dullcote (which seems to be in short supply here in Australia at the moment). I always seem to magically find a new setting on my phone camera each time I use it, just to keep things interesting:

I have the last exam for the semester coming up this Friday before a four or five week break so I am hoping I'll be able to step up my output, for the next month at least.

French 20th Dragoons

 The second of four dragoon units, I had to include one with yellow facings:

These are the Perry "at rest" dragoons, and I particularly like the way they appear to just be standing about waiting for the order to charge. I also purchased the bearskin figures to form an elite company for the next three units:

Even though they may be over-represented in a twelve-figure unit, I can never resist a bearskin cap:

The command stand:

And a couple of close-ups of the troopers:

Two down, with two to go:

That's the 20e Dragoons completed then. Next up the 2e dragoons.

French 4th Dragoons

The first of four line dragoon regiments, I had originally intended these to be 1st Dragoons. However when I remembered that regiment had been converted to lancers in 1811 and that all my cavalry flags are 1812 issue I switched them to become 4th Dragoons:

Not that switching them involved any additional work as the only difference between the two regiments is that the 1st had vertical pockets whereas those of 4th were horizontal. Thankfully none of the pockets on these Foundry charging figures are visible (well, apart from the officer, but cavalry officers were notorious for doing their own thing anyway):

My third attempt at attaching a flag and a label to this unit has worked, which is just as well as I would have run out of spares again:

That's ten French cavalry regiments now completed since Christmas, a much slower rate than previous years:

This has been for a variety of reasons, including getting the house ready over the best part of a month for a Christening party for grandchild number one and also an increased study load in an attempt to hasten the completion of a part-time law degree I undertook for "fun" five years ago, but which I am now keen to finish. Next up, the first of three Perry dragoon regiments.