[General Slade]

I always used to use 0.8mm ply bases that I bought from Litko.  Recently, to save money, I started cutting my own bases from sheets of ply I bought from an eBay supplier.  However,  it is a job I hate doing (I seem to cut myself as much as the wood) and if I could afford it I would go back to ordering from Litko.

[General Slade]

That”s an interesting question and one to which I am afraid I can only guess at an answer. I’ve seen it suggested that the colonel’s flag as carried by the first rank and the regimental flag was carried by the third so that it was possible to tell from a distance which way the battalion was facing.  However, this seems unlikely to me since if you were far enough away that you couldn’t tell then the flags would not be a great deal of help. The distance between the first rank and the third rank is relatively small and if you were looking from any kind of angle it would be hard to tell which flag was at the front.

I think it is more likely that the doctrine was always to carry one flag in the first rank and one in the third and the only reason that the colonel’s flag was used int he first rank of the first battalion was because it was the most valued standard of the regiment.

All of which, is a long-winded way of saying, my guess is that the 2nd battalions also carried their standards in the first and third ranks.

Incidentally, do you know if the Russians followed the same practice?

[General Slade]

The first commandment of old school is “Thou shalt not flock”.

[General Slade]

Favourite: Napoleonics; Hyboria-style fantasy

Least Favourite: Modern, Ultramodern, future modern,

[General Slade]

I haven’t got a great deal of stuff by present day manufacturers to compare them with but I would say in general the 2nd gen range are smaller and the detail is ‘softer’.  What I like about them is that they are well-proportioned (they don’t suffer from the big hands and big heads syndrome; flagstaffs don’t look like tree trunks) and the poses are straightforward (marching or advancing, looking straight ahead).  The 2nd gen horses are almost all in walking poses and are elegantly proportioned (I think sculpting horses is an art and a lot of contemporary sculptors don’t appear to have mastered it).

The current Minifigs range (commonly known as 3rd gen) is rather different. The proportions of the figures are still very good and the artillery crews, officer groups and figures in firing poses are very well done.  Unfortunately, the rank and file (marching and advancing) can be in quite weird poses and the horses are very different in style.  They look rather like the horses you see in 18th century paintings, where the heads are quite small and the rumps are quite big.  They are also often in exaggerated charging poses, which I am not very keen on.

 

[General Slade]

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to have a naval forum and a time to refrain from having a naval forum.

 

[General Slade]

I guess it depends on what kind of miniatures you are contemplating.  Fantasy figures for skirmish games seem to be moving in that direction and there does appear to be a market for one-off, highly-detailed miniatures.   They don’t work for me though.  They take up too much space, they take too long to paint and anyway I can’t paint them well-enough to do them justice.

[General Slade]

When I tried to find information on the period it seemed a bit thin on the ground.  Uniforms of the French Revolutionary Wars by Philip Haythornthwaite (published by Blandford) is okay but it is one of those books that tries to cover a lot of ground and so may not give you the detail you need.  L. and F. Funcken do a book on the uniforms of the revolutionary wars.  I haven’t seen it and I think it is only available in French (and is likely to be expensive).  I know these days the Funckens attract some flak on the accuracy front but in the absence of anything more up to date I would get hold of it if I could afford it.

[General Slade]

I really like these.  I’ve always been a fan of Porcs.  The early Minifigs ones were among the first figures I bought.

[General Slade]

That is a really beautiful set up you’ve got there.  One of the nicest tables I have seen.

[General Slade]

There is also Rastlworld Minis: http://www.rastlworldminis.com/

They seem to have gone down the peculiar route of starting their range with scantily-clad Russian horse artillery women (I know the web caters for every taste under the sun but this one seems to be more niche than most).

 

[General Slade]

Back to the original question. Were you thinking of the Countess Sandra range by Eureka? http://www.chronofus.net/wargames/eureka/sandra/index.htm

I’m not sure whether it is still being produced but I have a feeling they never listed it on their website (I think you got it with a nod and a wink and a say no more and they handed it to you from under the counter in a plain brown package).

[General Slade]

Was it Eureka’s Countess Sandra range? http://www.chronofus.net/wargames/eureka/sandra/index.htm

[General Slade]

Was it Eureka’s Countess Sandra range that you were thinking of: http://www.chronofus.net/wargames/eureka/sandra/index.htm

I’m not sure if it is still available or for that matter if it ever was released.

I’m pretty sure there has also been a Kickstarter for female Horse and Musket figures but I can’t remember the name of the company.  What I do remember is that the sculptor didn’t seem to have much talent and the figures looked like men with breasts (and ugly men with breasts at that).

[General Slade]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

  Fun. Remember fun?

I know how to have fun; I just don’t want to.  That’s why I do Napoleonics.

[General Slade]

I use the ivory and white technique on 15s and it works very well.  So if it works on 3s and it works on 15s I think there is a good chance it will work on 6s too.

[General Slade]

Maverick’s cloth flags are printed on fine cotton.  I tried some of the 15mm ones and I didn’t think they worked very well.  The weave of the cloth can be seen and the printing is a bit less sharp than on paper.  Some people really like them but I much prefer the paper ones.

[General Slade]

Maverick are second to none for service – they will re-size the flags for you free of charge (so if you use 15s rather than 18s you can get the flags made smaller)

However,  my favourites are by GMB, which are little works of art: http://www.gmbdesigns.com/

[General Slade]

Welcome to the fray John.  It is great to have someone with your knowledge on board.

[General Slade]

Much as I like Minifigs even I have to admit they never really mastered the female form.

[General Slade]

Yes.  They’ve changed.

Or maybe they have just come full circle?  There certainly isn’t much surface detail on this Minifigs Valka Spacewoman.

[General Slade]

No Jonathan, they are not ‘hobby’ issues.  In the way you have couched them they are all TMP issues. You launched the thread about the Warlord painting guide to mock Sparker for posting a link to it on TMP, your comments on Kevin Kiley aren’t about his Amazon review they are about his participation in a discussion thread on TMP and  this ‘indigo’ thread is a response to what you presumably regard as misinformation posted on TMP.

TWW isn’t an adjunct of TMP; it is a separate site.  So why not start a discussion about something that isn’t on TMP?

[General Slade]

I  am really unhappy about what you are doing here Jonathan.    If you want to take part in a debate on TMP then do it on TMP.  If you are going to post here then try to do it without making snide remarks about people who post over there.  The reason this site was set up was so that we didn’t have to deal with that kind of crap. You are doing it in two threads now. Don’t drag your agenda over here.

[General Slade]

Hi curlerman,

I hadn’t heard of these before but I checked out the pictures on your website and they really do look remarkably good.  I wouldn’t have thought it possible to make such finely-detailed figures from wood.  To my eye they look better proportioned than Adler and Baccus (they don’t suffer from big head syndrome).  I love the paint jobs you have done as well.  Inspiring.

[General Slade]

Have you tried Tradition of London? I don’t know how good a match they are but they might be worth a look.

[General Slade]

Jonathan, this is the second attack you have made on Sparker. This time you have started a thread purely to criticise a link posted on TMP. If you want to take part in a debate on TMP maybe it would make more sense to actually post your reply there rather than here.   And when you do post here try to remember that Wheaton’s Law applies.

[General Slade]

Mike wrote:

I was tempted to go and edit the OP so that alter became altar..

You mean you actually can put words in our mouths? Scary.

[General Slade]

Superb brushwork.  I’m particularly impressed with the faces.  The women actually do look white with fear.

[General Slade]

I think Stonewall Figures now make them in the UK but I don’t know whether the Vivandiers are in production: http://www.stonewallfigures.co.uk/shop/index.php/page,shop.browse/category,Warmodelling+Miniatures++15mm+Napoleonics/category_id,ea251c89210797490021fa4bebeba044?ps_session=e9288c1a1f454838b005c6b4f78a7880

The Minifigs ones are nice too but are quite small.

[General Slade]

I’ve remembered the name of the other manufacturer.  It is Warmodelling and they do a a couple of nice vivandieres: http://images.campaign-game-miniatures.com/shop/warmodelling/vivandieres-detail

[General Slade]

Minifigs makes a vivandiere’s cart that comes with a seated female driver and a woman walking (carrying a basket if memory serves): http://www.miniaturefigurines.co.uk/Catalogue.aspx?ScaleID=2&CategoryID=11&SubCategoryID=81

I know someone also makes a 15mm vivandiere/cantiniere riding a mule.  The figure was given away with one of the wargaming magazines a few years ago but I’m afraid I can’t remember the manufacturer.

[General Slade]

I think the S6 would make for a pretty striking book cover. I think just that on a plain background could be really effective.

[General Slade]

William Harley is right.  The respirator is a more iconic image of the siege.

[General Slade]

To be honest I think all the designs are a bit hard on the eye. I wouldn’t have the photograph showing through into the sections of text, I would use solid blocks of colour instead, and personally I would use brighter colours rather than these rather muddy tones.  However, I think your real problem is that the photograph is a bit boring (it could almost have come from the window of an upmarket London estate agent).

I assume that you can’t use pictures of the siege itself for copyright reasons but rather than use the current image I think you would be better with no photograph and just the image of the gun.

[General Slade]

I saw that thread too.  I don’t know Franklin’s work but I do think he would have done himself a favour if he had ignored the people who posted negative reviews rather than engaged with them. If you attempt to argue with a blowhard you will inevitably end up looking like a blowhard. The same is true of arguing with an idiot.

[General Slade]

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/offas-dyke-path

When referring to a trench or earthwork it is perfectly acceptable spell dyke with a ‘y’. It’s not archaic and is still in common usage.

[General Slade]

Why is it that I think playing with toy soldiers is an admirable pastime for a gentleman of leisure but dressing up in a uniform and pretending to be a soldier is just a bit silly?

[General Slade]

Nice battle report.  And I’m impressed that you got this project onto the table so quickly.  It was only a couple of months ago that you were asking about suitable figures (the Minifigs look the part by the way).  I wish I was as focussed as that. I always start new projects with great enthusiasm but things generally grind to a halt somewhere in the planning stage.

[General Slade]

Whoa indeed!

That is absolutely stunning work.

[General Slade]

This is from 1805: Austerlitz by Robert Goetz:

Infantry of the Imperial Guard

1st Bde (Grenadiers a Pied) – GdB Pierre Auguste Hulin (Hulin was absent, commanding in Vienna, so I assume – but don’t know for sure – that command fell to Colonel-Major Jean Marie Pierre Francois Lepaige Dorsenne)

2nd Bde (Chasseurs a Pied) – GdB Jerome Soules

3rd Bde (Italian Guard) – GdB Teodoro Lecchi

Cavalry of the Imperial Guard

Gendarmerie d’Elite – detached to Brunn

1st Bde (Grenadiers a Cheval) GdB Michel Ordener

2nd Bde (Chasseurs a Cheval) Colonel-en-Second Francois Louis Morland

Artillery of the Imperial Guard

Commander Francois-Henri-Eugene Daugier

According to Hourtoulle (Austerlitz: The Empire at its Zenith) the Chief of Staff of the Guard was Roussel and Bessieres’s ADCs were Cesar de Laville de Villa-Stellone, Lebrun, D’oullembourg, Louis de Seganville, Leinsteinschneider, Desmichels, Lapeyriere and Barbanegre.

I hope that is some help.

 

[Author]

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