23rd Foot, Royal Welch Fusiliers

The Royal Welch Fusiliers were in Mitchell's 4th Brigade and were situated on the British right flank.

1/23rd did not wear bearskins at Waterloo and wore the Belgic shako, like most British Infantry, including the Foot Guards.

The Victorians played fast and loose with history and loved to show troops at Waterloo in the wrong headdress.  I have however shown their Pioneers in bearskins, which may have been the case.  

The figures are at the high end of the 20mm range, largely being Minifigs S Range, some Garrison, a few Les Higgins, and some Lamming.  In the front rank are various plastic conversions and the Airfix set.

The four mounted officers are Lamming, S Range, Qualicast and Kennington.  There is one Strelets officer in a frock coat.

Royal Welch Fusiliers Colour Party

I've completed five squares now - this is proving more attritional than the real battle!

The Battalion did not take an excessive number of casualties, but the Commanding Officer was mortally wounded.

1st Battalion 27th Inniskilling Regiment of Foot

1/27th were part of Lambert's 10th Brigade in the 6th Division. At about 6:30 PM, the French captured La Haye Sainte.  They then brought up several cannon and subjected the Allies to fire at extremely close range. The  698-strong battalion was deployed in square at the point where the Ohain road crossed the Brussels highway. By the time the French withdrew, the Inniskillings had lost 105 killed and 373 wounded, a total of 478 casualties, the highest of any British unit at Waterloo.  The unit was described as "lying dead in a square".

The pictures show an earlier point in the day.  The figures are again a mix of Revell, Esci, Hinton Hunt and conversions.

Two officers in the foreground - one Der Kriegspieler, the other 20:20, a short lived firm.

The officer is an Imex conversion.

The Colour Party are Hat

The drummers are Esci in the rear rank and New Line in the front.

28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot

I have been working out how best to put my infantry in position without attaching them to the main scenery boards too soon.  I have designed the following system which I hope will work.  First, I have taken some tin foil of triple thickness to create a malleable but strong surface.  I have temporarily attached it to a piece of card.  When the time comes it can be slid off and placed on the scenery board like a transfer. The foil has been coated in coloured wood glue and grass attached.

The troops can then be put in position.  The first unit to go through this process are The Glosters.  Lady Butler's picture of The Glosters at Quatre Bras shows the regiment in Belgic shakos, but in fact the 28th still wore the old stovepipe shako with the Sphinx back badge.  

1/28th were in Kempt's 8th Brigade under command of Sir Charles Belson KCB.

Building an army in 20mm raises the age old question: what is 20mm?  I have decided that there is actually no answer - it all depends on whether you measure from the top of the head, the top of the headdress, or the top of the plume (not to mention bottom or top of the base).  Because my diorama is set to be quite large, I have chosen to segregate my figures according to size.  So these Glosters tend to be the larger sort of 20mm and many might say they stray towards 25mm.  They consist of the short lived Falcata and NapoleoN, some S Range, a few Les Higgins, Call to Arms and Italieri.  One or two Strelets officers are in the mix.

There are about 350 in four ranks.  Hope you like them.

An aerial view.  This makes the square more square than it actually is - in fact it was more rectangular.

The light company.

The drummers - mostly Falcata with a few S Range conversions

Strelets officer.

Corner shot.