My first purchased 25mm Napoleonic unit was from Military Miniatures in Auckland and was 25mm Hotspur French - I picked up 50 odd figures and 12 Chasseurs. Over my 10 year hiatus and the next 15 or so years the infantry dwindled down to 34 odd figures so I looked at finding if any more. I found the sculpter had passed away, some if its other ranges still existed under other companies but the Napoloenic line had dissapeared from the world. I managed to find another 10 figures at a swap meet and I also asked on a few forums if anyone had any (Surely i coudnt be the only person that had them) but no luck - Some NZ war gamers mentioned having them but they were sold.to others and their fate was unknown.
As they are my first ever unit (and my favourite figures to be honest) they are my favourite so I gave up getting more. But a few weeks ago I tried one more time and I asked on the yahoo groups NZ forum if anyone had 4 of the figures so I could finish one of the units and a fellow wargamer replied. The end result is this, 100 or so beautiful little 25mm Hotspur French figures FREE. Thanks to the Brian at the blog Woolshed .
He wanted them to find a home (He had a load painted up himself) and gave them to me free and I am very thankful. (Of course I have his address from the packet so I'm sure something will find its way into his letterbox soon ;) as a thank you).
So I now have enough for 5 Units (plus my existing re-painted unit (Finished last night) which then leads onto another problem - I've been repainted a napoleonic unit every few weeks and that urge to do more is starting again. Considering I have 150 Hinton Hunt Saxons, 40 minfigs,40 Italians and 30 odd cavalry to finish up (As well repainting 6 existing Front Rank units) I could do with a good French Napoleonic phase - (The Russians and Prussians need a rebase and touch up too but the few British I have I might sell). What is the grand total of the French - well its a lot (Too many to be honest but you can never have enough can you).
French - 6 line (@24 figures), 1 Cuirrassier (@12), 1 Chasseur, 2 Dragoon, 2 Lancer
German Allies - 20+ units (@24), 1 Cuirrassier, 2 Hussar, 1 Dragoon
Guns for Africa.......
Prussians and Russians (About 12 units each plus 4 cav each)
I should really have a game with them.
A side note - As part of my 6mm armies I picked up a few aircraft and I have been painting them as I do the ground forces. Below is a Me109 for the France 1940 games I plan to play solo. I quite like how it turned out though I have to say basing them on the stands has been an epic journey. I drilled some holes but my first attempt failed so after about 4 attempts as a last resort I used super glue.
5 comments:
I think Napoleonics are still my favourites. Looking forward to seeing some of your painted stuff!
Quite a collection, Paul. I never realised you had progressed so far with them. My own French Army falls a little short of yours combined with Allies, though I am thinking of building a plastic Saxon 'army' to 'represent' German allies. Given my recent leanings towards an army level game, the Saxons will probably comprise 3 or 4 infantry units (24), a light and a heavy cavalry unit, and a gun or two.
The Russian infantry you gave me will at some point be augmented by a couple more, plus cossacks, dragoons and cuirassiers and two or three guns. They will form a couple of army corps and a cavalry reserve division.
Meanwhile, I am making some slow progress building up my Prussian army. The Prussian dragoons and hussars I bought are really, really horrible in every respect, so they are progressing very slowly. They will end up as a reasonably sizable force of 9 foot units, 4 horsed units and 3-4 guns - an army corps at my standard scale, or 3 army corps at my BB4ST scale.
Taken altogether, my Coalition allies will still present a formidable array: 11 army corps (35+1/2 infantry units, 14 cavalry, 14 or 15 cannon) , not counting my British.
H'mmm. I wonder if perhaps we could look at a sequel to the campaign you, Rodger and I played out over 20 years ago? My Austrian army is now three times the size it was then.
Cheers,
Ion
Hi Ion,
I was thinking along similar lines, every now and again I can get a weekend day for gaming so I was tempted to rejoin CCW and we could have some games there.
Alternatively (and cheaper) as the weather is warming up I could get a table in our garage and we could leave a game setup.
Ill ring you anyway
Cheers
Paul
Cheers
Paul
Sounds good. I haven't been down to the CCW since the DBA tourney in December. Must drop in some time, though I* am no longer a financial member of either Woolston Club nor the Wargames section. Might be high time to renew, maybe!
Got all inspired and started adding a heap of infantry myself, onwards! :) http://chasseuracheval.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/french-line-on-workbench.html
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