Thursday 1 December 2016

Brunswickers - Quatre Bras 2017 Project

Wonderful Perry Miniatures Brunswickers take a defensive stance in Belgium


As most wargamers know, we are constantly taken off our focus by "another project".  I, my loyal followers, am "Most Wargamers"!


Being a member of John Rays wonderful AMG Forum has enabled me to "meet" quite a few wonderful gentleman gamers who are much more focussed than I am.  They inspire and terrorise me at the same time with their wonderful output and concentrated energies.


Wonderfully though, I accept my weaknesses as a man and progress happily through the hobby cognoscente of my foibles!


Chris G and Kevin E, whose figures appear on the wonderful blog are preparing a series of refights of Quatre Bras in a scale only a few people could ever attempt to undertake.  This has inspired me to get the same project going over here in Perth, Western Australia in the New Year.  Both Cookie and I have been building our forces for this refight for a decade and so it should be one which simply needs to have the mechanics worked out.


We will be using the wonderful General De Brigade rules however would love to give Dave Browns new "General D'Armee" rules if they are published in time.


As a lead up I thought I would post a few photographs of the units that will be taking place in the battle.


Uhlans and Hussars led by Ranschenplatt if memory serves me correctly



The great Horse artillery limber team looks very much the part.  Now rebased to avoid the
lift off plastic card (what was I thinking!) as can be seen here.


Gorgeously designed command set showing the Duke observing the flank - lively green gloves on the foot staff officer!


Another gem of a sculpting job by the Perry brothers with this command stand.


Black can be so hard to paint - the shading on these is as good as I have seen and very much
justified the commissioning of the painting on this force.  Unfortunately beyond my skill set.

This is one of the Veteran units in the Brunswick force and comprises two bases of Advant Garde and two
of Jaegers.  They look great together and generally fight very well in my games.

A close-up of the figures.  This unit made its way into the GdB Deluxe rule set - thanks DB.


Another view of that appalling plastic card...oh...and the horse artillery!


Slightly out of focus Foot artillery.  I know...plastic card...grrrrrr.


Battle lines are drawn


Always think of Rudyard Kipling when I see this photograph.


Close-up of the Brunswick Hussars


Always have liked this unit of Light infantry advancing at the trail.  Certainly think the enthusiastic officers with
shakos on swords are superb sculpts once again.


We use drummers to represent a unit that is rallying

The hexagonal pieces are casualty markers however I am about to replace these with the smaller warbase dials
which are excellent,.  Decreasing the paraphernalia footprint on the table is a focus at present. 


GMB make beautiful flags for this period though I know Mark Allen hand paints the very best metallic based flags that any wargamer could possibly ever hope to have!


Foot artillery in action

Great shot showing the "Firing Line" pose of the Perry figures.


Another view of the firing line


Great rear view showing off the black technique.


More pictures of the rest of the army units to follow in the next week or so.

29 comments:

  1. Very nicely done! Thanks for the great photos.

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    1. Thanks P - I think the light is just so important for Napoleonic's and especially when looking at photographing troops in black.

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  2. Replies
    1. Cheers Nathan - always love looking at the Napoleonic collection and these are a favourite of mine...and Alex ...at present!! Will need to fight hard to use them when he is involved as he loves the idea of the Black Duke!

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  3. What a terrific force, I paint the full corps up a couple of years ago aside from the artillery limbers and 2 line battalions. I then switched to 18mm and sold all my 28mm figures, but I could not sell the Brunswickers so I gave them away to my friend who got me into wargaming. You posting these pictures reminded me what a great force it is. I miss them so much that my next commission in 18mm will be the Brunswick Corps from AB.

    Terrific figures.

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    1. AB figures are just SOOOOO sensational John and I am sure your collection will be beautiful. They are certainly a nationality where it is fantastic to be able to collect their entire force.

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  4. Lovely looking Brunswickers black is difficult to do well and these are splendid.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you Iain. Yes, the black is extremely difficult and I didn't have the skills to do them myself so the lads at DPS sorted these for me all those years ago.

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  5. Looks huge and spectacular!

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    1. Thank you Phil.

      You are talking about the Brunswickers...aren't you? lol.

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  6. This looks excellent. Love the table and good light on these wonderfully painted minis.
    Never got any Brunswickers myself but might for my Peninsular collection.
    Best wishes,
    Jeremy

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    1. JJ I am amazed - figures you don't have! I am stunned as your battles are very, very grand and spectacular.

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  7. Outstanding mate. Now you are inspiring and terrorizing me.

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  8. OK Carlo. We are packing up and keeping quiet now. If you are doing the same project in 2017 ours will pale into insignificance - everything is bigger in Australia, I know I've lived there! This is an eyewateringly beautiful force of yours and even the great Kevin E may not match them, though I know he will try damned hard to do so. Maybe we will better you on the terrain, who knows? :-)
    best wishes
    Chris G

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    1. Hi Chris and thanks for your kind comments. I know you have me covered on the terrain as your tables have to be almost museum quality. Always stunning.

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  9. Fantastic stuff Carlo. Simply stunning and superb in all aspects.could do with some advise on how you do the black techinquest for the Brunswickers. Aso nice use of limbers which we are discussing in our group at the moment on how to depict unlimbered ground space for artillery. Keep it coming Carlo! All the best. Kevin

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    1. Hi Kevin and great to hear from you. Yes we like representing limbers at all times as they look great and they should take up space on the field. Your limbers are still my inspiration by the way and I have traces and other paraphernalia just awaiting a spare weekend to be applied to all my teams.

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  10. Superb collection, Carlo.
    @ Joe (Pancerni): We have to give Quatre Bras a whirl sometime; I know you have all the figures needed! :-)

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    1. Thank you Peter. Just need to get the right terrain and have the scenario clearly outlined and we would have a great game.

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  11. Can one ever have too many wargames projects? Surely the spice of life is to be had via multiple wargames projects. One day I might get over to Perth and we can philosophise the topic over a nice cool beer out in that Western Australian heat!

    Anyway another great collection underway I see. And I did see ... by painstakingly opening every photo for a better look.

    Salute
    von Peter himself

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    1. Peter let me assure you that a visit to Perth from Von Peter himself would be worthy of the red carpet treatment and ...maybe...some heavy duty red wine treatment as well! Yes another project indeed though to be fair we have 99% of the figures already painted and based for Quatre Bras...however 1805-07 is still growing strong.

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  12. You got a most wonderful collection!
    I'm trying to build armies for Quatre-Bras myself, but as most wargamers, I am so easely distracted.
    I'm a bit jealous now...

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    1. We are all so easily distracted Wim however the great thing is that we get just as much joy by simply getting castings out and looking at them.

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  13. Cool looking game Carlo, loads of eye candy!!

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    1. Thanks Ray - certainly one of my favourite armies mate and as you know, black is difficult to capture well.

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