Waterloo Project: Treble Top! 180!

Well, you can't blame me for that title!  The expert miniatures-painting-machine that is Kevin East has been at it again. In fact he sent me these pix some weeks ago but I held them back while my Hussarette paintings were fresh off the easel. I know Kevin forgives me but I doubt readers will when they see this lot. It is a generic French Light Battalion that will form part of the 1st Legere for Hougoumont and one of the three battalions of 13th Legere for La Haye Sainte (I have to do one of the latter myself)

In Kevin's own words:
"Here’s another addition for the Waterloo series of games we will be putting on in mid 2015. Completed on time, to my tentative schedule, a French light battalion of just over 180 figures.  I already had 60 figures from my existing collection, which are in battalions of  36 figures, so the 120 that I just completed now make up a complete French battalion representing 558 actual men. All with the correct colour company pompom, the battalion is completed with its own vivandiere who will be playing her part in the  games!

Beyond the 2015 1:3 scale games and at a later date, these newly painted figures will divide into 36 figure battalions. We plan to stage Quatre Bras, Plancenoit and maybe other Waterloo actions at 1:20 scale. This will mean a repainting of the pompoms and also the creation of all the 6 figure command stands that each battalion will require. So the figures will be able to fit into the two different ratio scenarios quite nicely.

Here you can see the two French battalions completed to date, in a ‘10 litre really useful box’ storage tray which I buy from Hobby Craft. 

They are a reasonable price at just over £7 and hold up to 400 foot figures. The box is even tall enough for flags and lancer figures. I now have a collection of 11 of these boxes and they are ideal for transporting the figures to the various venues for the games.

Now I’m onto the next 180 figure French Line battalion! Vive L’Empereur!

Kevin"

Thanks so much Kevin - they are an inspiration to us all.

First Chasseurette - Charlotte

Striking while the iron is hot, so to speak, I'm following up quickly on my post introducing Yara by showing you the "Hussarette" painting I  promised in that post. We'd set out to do our version of "The Chasseur's Lady" based on the 80mm miniature you can see on that post or here at metal-modeles nouveautes. I did a bit more research and found out these beautiful fantasy female figures were bought from UK company Phoenix Models and designed by exceptionally accomplished sculptor and artist Tim Richards. You can see, and buy, some of his lovely paintings of nude females at art gallery.co.uk. So it is a hard act to follow but that's part of the challenge of my Hussarette project. So here is my Charlotte - The Chasseur's Lady.

"Charlotte - The Chasseur's Lady, 1805"
Acrylic on canvas 14 inches x 10 inches

However, it wasn't till I got down to detail in planning the painting and looking up uniform references I realised what a conundrum the original Phoenix Pholly figure poses. I had assumed at first that she was wearing parts of the uniform of a Chasseur a Cheval of the French Imperial Guard - in fact the fur colback, bag, plume and raquettes are all fine. But if so that pelisse should be red, not green, and the boots should be black leather, not red. So we have a real fantasy chasseur here and I thought it better, if one is going to pay homage to a master, to stick with the original colours. Well, we all know French Chasseurs wore green uniforms but if so that should be a dolman not pelisse, unless she is from one of those few Line Chasseur Regiments which wore the green pelisse - some reader will no doubt remind us which they were.

The red boots reminded me of Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. In the style of Legatus Hedlius here's a pic of her

Luckily my lovely Eastern European models seem well equipped wth high heeled boots, so no problem there.

Here is a close up of the, umm,  face

Not a particularly good likeness of Yara, but she was putting on her serious military "Don't mess with me" expression and I found it too severe for a commercial painting. I hope you like this young lady. And if you think she looks too young remember Marshal Massena's mistress, Henriette Leberton, was, accordng to legend, only about 20 when she distracted him from properly conducting the Battle of Busaco in 1810 (fact suggests she was 32 but that spoils my anecdote!).  As an old man painting young flesh, I'm beginning to understand and sympathise with poor old Andre :-). He was 52 at the time!

Just to complete the picture here are the hands, sword hilt and cuff lace.

Comments very welcome.

My Chasseur's Lady stands 210mm, foot to eye, and is priced for sale as a unique original painting at a similar price per millimetre as the Phoenix miniature, only she is completely ready for display and will provide enjoyment for generations. Please contact me if you are interested in this one, or "Natasha", or in commissioning anything to your own specifications.

Wargamers, don't worry, next posting will be back to Waterloo with something equally spectacular - one of Kevin's 180 figure battalions.