French 25th Line Regiment

My favourite French grenadier uniforms are those in grenadier caps, so it was good to finish a regiment which includes a few more of these nice Perry-sculpted Foundry figures:

Unlike all the other French line regiments I have completed thus far, the 25th weren't at Albuera, nor were they at Fuentes de Onoro, so I'm not sure what my thought processes were with this one, other than I like the look of French grenadiers in caps:

I will have to have a proper look back through my Oman volumes to see whether they did indeed make an appearance in the Peninsular, but I'm sure they will be of use in any event:

Just one more regiment of line and then a couple of battalions of converged grenadiers to complete this part of the project, which I hope to have done within the next couple of weeks.

French 51st Line Regiment

After a few weeks away I have managed to get stuck back into the last three regiments of French ligne, with the first being two battalions of 51st:

Another unit present at Albuera, which indicates I must have been working to a plan when I purchased the GMB flags for these figures seven or eight years ago:

That's sixteen battalions completed now, with another four just about finished:

Hopefully I should have them all completed within the next fortnight, now that my other hobby in  law studies is winding up for the year. Good fun for the most, and it is definitely using parts of the grey matter which have been under-utilised for twenty years or so, but it will be nice to fully concentrate on some Napoleonic French again.

A Brief Interlude

Following Mark's recent posts on his trip to Vietnam, which can be viewed on his blog '1866 and All That' at http://stracmark.blogspot.com.au/ , I thought it might be a good idea to do the same with regard to our recent trip to China, if nothing else than to explain the recent lack of output on the miniature painting front of late.

A week and a half for the wife and daughter number three, commencing with five nights in Beijing and a visit to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City:

And then on to the Great Wall, which was far more impressive than I was expecting. The part we visited was quite steep and the steps were very uneven, so it took a lot more effort to climb than I was expecting:

It also made me wonder why they actually went to the effort to continue it in certain places, as the hills were so steep that I could not imagine an invading army being able to navigate the terrain, even in the absence of a wall:

We also visited the Ming tombs. They were very peaceful at this time of the year and we were quite happy to spend some time just sitting in the well-maintained gardens:



















Then on to the Summer Palace which was full of weeping willow trees, which was a little like walking through a scene on a piece of Spode pottery:

We also spent an afternoon shopping, although we weren't adventurous enough to load up on some of the multi-coloured delicacies that the locals appeared to enjoy:

Then on to Shanghai, which was every bit as Westernised as I had been lead to believe, but with its own unique flavour:

A visit to the zoo, and more shopping:

And a night cruise to round out the trip:

A very enjoyable trip, but it was great to get home and tuck into a nice medium rare rib fillet and it will probably be another month or so before we can look at another Chinese meal. I have managed to get back into a painting routine again however, and hope to have a few more posts up during October.

French 55th Line Regiment

Another one done, this time the 55th Ligne, made up with what I have left of the Foundry march attack figures and a few sundry others that weren't going to find a home elsewhere:

These included a few more "under fire" figures which provide some nice variety:

I have also used grenadiers in caps, which are among my favourite Foundry Napoleonic figures:

The 55th regiment were part of Werle's brigade at Albuera, of which I have completed two of the three battalions and topped them off with the usual GMB flag:

That's seven regiments comprised of fourteen twenty-figure battalions completed this year, with another three regiments nearing completion.

In spite of wavering a little around the halfway mark I'm nearly there with them now and so will get them finished before I move on to something new, which will hopefully be some Empress ECW figures I have prepared and which now have a thin layer of dust starting to appear upon them.

French 100th Line Regiment

After a small lull due to some recent university exams I have managed to get back on track and knock out a couple more units, this time two battalions of the 100th Ligne:

The 100th were part of Gazan's 2nd Division in V Corps at Albuera, where they first came up against the Spanish Irlanda regiment and then the British 57th, losing 267 officers and soldiers from a total of 738, or 36% of their strength:

Zayas had done some extensive work with his Spanish prior to Albuera and it must have been a shock to the French when they stood firm, and then managed to successfully pass lines with the British who were hurriedly redeployed to reinforce them:

I keep trying to take a break from French line and get started on some English Civil War figures I have prepared, but find myself in the groove and now just want to complete the remainder of the Foundry line figures:

That's six regiments comprised of twelve battalions now completed, with four regiments left to go.

French 88th Line Regiment

My pace has slowed a little over the past month due to a combination of work and family commitments, plus some assignments that have fallen due as part of the second year of a law degree that I decided to take up last year for the sake of something a little different. I have however managed to complete the 88th Ligne which is the last of the line regiments that formed part of Girard's division at Albuera, alongside the 34th, 40th and 64th:

The grenadiers in this regiment apparently wore the bearskin caps, so it was a good opportunity to include some of these instead of the usual shako-wearing figures:

These are the Perry-sculpted Foundry advancing figures which are nicely detailed, although there were a few "chunks" at the back of the right arms on a few that were a little too difficult to cut out in some cases, but luckily the French dark blue obscures most of this quite nicely.


That's five regiments or ten battalions completed, so not bad progress for the year so far:

I have a couple more on the painting table so might get those out of the way, and then get stuck into some English Civil War foot regiments I spent a day prepping a couple of weekends ago for a change of pace.

French 64th Line Regiment

The next French regiment completed, the 64th Line were present in Girard's division at Albuera alongside the 34th, 40th and 88th Line:

Since I have already completed the first two regiments, and have the 88th on the painting table at the moment, I have just realised that at some stage it must have been my plan to put together the first division, especially given that Albuera is one of my favourite Napoleonic battles. I can't remember actually deciding upon this which is slightly worrying, and have simply been painting the regiments according to the GMB flags that have been sitting in a drawer for the last six or seven years:

I put some of the Foundry "under-fire" figures, which thankfully I could remember having purchased some twelve years ago, into the second battalion to provide a bit of variety:

I really like these figures and they are nicely animated, even if the one second from the left looks like he has slipped on something unpleasant:

That's four regiments now finished, with the 88th hopefully to be completed before the end of the month.