Monday, 6 January 2025

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.
















Sunday, 1 December 2024

1st and 2nd Battalions, 1st Grenadiers of the Old Guard

 I have been working on two battalions of the Old Guard, in this case the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Grenadiers.  These two battalions formed the elite, not only of the French Army but the Imperial Guard itself.

The regiment remained in reserve throughout the battle and is shown around Maison Lacoste to the south of La Belle Alliance.

The figures are a mix of Zvezda and Hinton Hunt with a few others including conversions thrown in.  There are about 1,200 figures shown here; this was a huge amount of work and has left me wishing never to see another Old Guard Grenadier ever again!

Having said that, I have now completed ten battalions of Old and Middle Guard, leaving five to finish.


Looking South

HYTTY Band


S Range Band

Strelets Senior Officers

Hinton Hunt




S range Band from the other side

Looking North



Maison Lacoste

Note the Regimental Mascot!

French casualties






Two ADCs












Drinking trough by David Collins





Pioneers

That dog again


Field Forge by Graham




Overview 

Shell strikes the French column - although a long way back we know that shot did land from Plancenoit