Behind the Lines

 I've been working on the section of road heading south linking Mont St Jean farmhouse to the crossroads.  When first built, the Mont St Jean section was to have been a stand-alone part of the diorama, which meant that  the road ran vertically up the section as shown in this photo:

The road actually runs in a north westerly direction.  

To correct this, I had to remove the section in the manner of a facelift and reorientate it to its proper position as follows:

With that done, I could start to add figures for units back from the front line.  To that end, Liam has worked his magic with a series of waggons and caissons which are shown congesting the road.  My feeling is that given the mud, these would have avoided moving cross country until absolutely necessary.

Flanking the road on either side are Trip's Dutch Belgian Heavy Cavalry brigade to the West, consisting of the three regiments of Carabiniers and to the East Ghigny's light cavalry brigade consisting of the 4th Light Dragoons and the 8th Hussars.  Each regiment is shown with just two squadrons - the remainder of each regiment will be shown on the flanking sections when they are built.  These are painted by Andre.  He paints in exquisite detail and in huge numbers - they are a real pleasure.

2nd Belgian Carabiniers

The shading of the road needs further work.

I have more work to do in order to hide all the bases

1st Dutch Carabiniers

4th Light Dragoons

8th Hussars

The sections then join to the la Haie Sainte part of the battle. This is an earlier photo before completion

An old photo of the road heading south to La Haye Sainte

My plan is then to link up the north and south of battlefield and show the full distance of the road - nearly 15 metres.

 

Caisson Convoy

 Liam kindly painted a battery of Foot Artillery of the Old Guard a few months ago.  The battery consisted of the usual eight pieces but did not have its caissons.  

The sad demise of Westfalia Miniatures means that, along with Schilling, these wonderful figures will no longer be available.  Taking advantage of the huge generosity of Thomas Mischak who bought up most of the remaining stock, Liam has painted eight An XI caissons and ancillary vehicles to give this Guard battery the ammunition and spares it needs.

Space is short at La Belle Alliance so the caisson convoy is sitting further back, a little north of Rossomme and south of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Grenadiers shown in my last post.

The pictures show just how much space Napoleonic artillery needed to deploy.  Napoleon had 254 guns at Waterloo and this shows the caissons needed to serve just eight of them.