I've been running this project since 2013 with the intention of producing a complete diorama of Waterloo showing the action at 1800hrs in the evening - the moment I consider to be the crisis of the battle, at which point French troops were engaged in a continuous arc from Hougoumont up to the ridge, past the La Haye Sainte cross roads, eastwards to Papelotte, La Haye, Smohain before turning south to Frischermont and on to Plancenoit.

Since those early days, the project has attracted a huge range of support from the US and Canada, through UK and other European countries and all the way East to Australia and New Zealand.

The model has had various outings at the National Army Museum, and various schools and halls.  Its next big moment is coming in June when it will take up residence in the Exhibition Hall at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds.  At this point, a major new part will be added to the diorama, namely the cavalry charges and squares.

For loyal followers of the project, I attach below some slides made by me to explain the project.  I hope they are of interest.

 

The next stage of the cavalry charge build will start in ten days when a team of volunteers convenes at an industrial complex in Somerset.

Finally, we are building St Joseph's church in Waterloo and Wellington's headquarters.  Like Le Caillou, this will be a standalone scene.  The church is scratch built by my father and will be magnificent when complete.

Chasseurs a Pied of the Old Guard

 My diorama of Waterloo currently consists of Hougoumont, the Smohain area, Plancenoit and the central 'spine' of the battle, running from Rossomme past Maison La Coste, through La Belle Alliance, past La Haye Sainte, the Crossroads and on to Mont St Jean.

This spine is very long and follows the Brussels chaussee. Half of the sections run alongside the road in open country and don't have very many figures attached.

This weekend I attached a battalion of the Chasseurs a Pied to one of these sections.  Because it was raining I had to complete this inside so I couldn't put the section next to other completed parts of the model, but to help orientate you, the section would be just West of Maison La Coste (see picture below which already shows two other battalions).

Maison La Coste and the two existing battalions

And now for the new figures, which are a mix of Zvezda, Hinton Hunt, Les Higgins, Garrison, RSM, Airfix, Italeri, New Line, Kennington, Hat, Art Miniaturen, Strelets and various conversions.

Attaching this number of figures inevitably takes time and I need now to conduct some snagging - notably to hide any visible bases.

Tete de Colonne

The band is scratch built, largely from Hat Saxons.

The rare Linear A Guradsman with casualty