More GdA items on the workbench

A lovely assortment of Wargames Foundry Austrian casualty figures take centre stage on the board.

Following on from a fairly productive few weeks I thought I would take advantage of the Perth heat t bang out a few more French ADC's as well as some more casualty dials from Warbases for some of the other armies in the collection.

A bit of a selection here awaiting some brown paint and synthetic grass.

Some very nice Front Rank casualty figures as well as some older style Old Glory Early French

I am also now getting close to having enough French ADC's though I would love to have a dozen if truth be told to handle and accommodate some larger battles.


As is my want, I do tend to have differing figures for different periods whenever possible.  Those who have been following this blog for a while will know of my affection for Elite Miniatures figures for the Peninsular and the period 1805-07, the so called "Glory Years".

Perry Miniatures lovely ADC's ready for the post 1812 games.

...and from a different angle.

I do also have a large collection of 1815 figures for both sides and like to use the similar style figures whenever possible.  As the vast majority of my collection for this period is in fact Perry Miniatures, I have a few lovely Perry figures to complement this particular force with a few Wargames Foundry figures sent in for good measure where it best suits.

On the workbench - General D'Armee Aide De Camps

Some old Essex and Foundry ADC's ready for service in the French army.  The beautiful WF figures
were painted by the very talented Scott Wisemen of the Blue Mountains who I wish I could track down.

As you may have noticed in recent posts, I am very much enjoying the excellent Napoleonic rules published by Reiswitz Press and Dave Brown known as General D'Armee.  An excellent aspect of these rules is the use of the command and control system so wonderfully symbolised by the clever use of available Aide de Camps of the various commanders under your control.

Elite Miniatures ADC's including the wonderful figure nearest to the camera which is from their Collectors Range.
Slightly larger however full of character and painted for me by the very talented Nathan from Lonely Gamers
 and Elite Miniatures Australia.  As you can see, the gloss varnish has been out again! These will be part of my
 1805-07 project as opposed to figures that I will use for other battles using Front Ranks, Perry's etc.

There is a requirement to have at least four of these chaps and ideally up to seven for any game where you are basically a division plus a supporting brigade a side in any battle.  It is  my intention to have at least 15 French, ten each of Russian, Austrian, British Peninsular and 1815 allies  and then assorted 10 of French allies such as Bavarians, Wurtemburgers, Italians and Poles.

A British Front Rank mounted ADC as well as two Elite Russians.

These will be once again Dulcoted and then ready for action once all the base work is done etc.

I have deliberately put these on the Warbase oval bases so they are distinctly different in appearance to the rounder style bases used for Brigade Commanders and the other Commanders used in my games.  In this way there can be no mistakes in terms of thinking a figure is a general for command radius and then being disappointed to see it was merely a skulking Aide De Camp looking for the nearest wench to grab a mug of ale from!

First batch of GdA Casualty dials completed

A top view of the finished bases...well semi finished as a spray of Dulcote will totally complete the job.

Well after a lovely weekend listening to the Second Ashes test from Adelaide Oval on the radio I managed to get a few things complete upstairs which left me quite chuffed with myself!  One of them was the final touches to the casualty markers which I have been working on for the excellent Napoleonic General D'Armee rules.

Some Brits and Nassau in this shot look slightly the worse for wear.

A few Dutch Belgians, Brunswickers and French in this shot

I am quite pleased how they have come out and have only a spray of matting varnish needed to finish them off.  I do, as I am sure you have all noticed, still put a coat of Humbrol 35 Gloss Varnish on all of my figures these days.  The reason is very simple and straight-forward in that I do like to protect the figures and find that the old fashioned oil enamel base varnish's give the maximum protection for wargaming figures in action. 


I find it very frustrating to remember back to my earlier days as a student spending hours and hours painting wargames figures only to find them scratched or slightly battered after a trip in the back of the car to the wargames club on a Wednesday night.  Unfortunately in those younger days I never saw the benefit of varnishing.


I do now!


The gloss looks wonderful in my opinion and by the way I must admit to sometimes finding it very difficult to put the Dulcote over the top.  However the level of protection given by using both in the process is second to none.

On the workbench - Casualty Markers for GdA

A few of the lads at the half-way point

After many years of use the old hexagonal casualty markers are being retired and replaced with some of the excellent dials available through Warbases in the UK.  The old style ones were great however they did have several limitations.  Firstly the footprint was quite large on the table and the need to turn the various edge against the rear rank of the unit that it was administering sometimes caused a few issues. 


On several occasions I had moved the unit and then had to struggle to remember whether it had suffered 3 casualties or 4.  No big deal however wargaming accessory technology has developed and has me ready to embrace a change in direction.

A few here however I still have at least another 40 to put together for the Austrians, Russians, Bavarians etc.

A lovely casualty set from Perry Miniatures which is perfect for such a purpose

The same figures on the old style bases

A good example of the larger footprint which I wanted to move away from.

I think this fine cavalry casualty model will find its way onto its own vignette.

Hopefully this weekend will see the bases painted, flocked and tufted and ready for the next game of General D'Armee.

The first of the Austrians for 1805

Elite Miniatures Grenzer - half the figures were purchased pre-painted and the balance matched in.

Though the Russians and the French have been receiving a lot of the focus for this project, the Austrians that fought in the Austerlitz campaign and beyond are still very much in the works.

As always, Elite Miniatures will be the focus of the collection for this period with the occasional Front Rank
figure taking up a position as well as required.

Completed Russian foot artillery for 1805-07

A close up of our hard working Russian friends at the action!

Those followers of this blog would have seen that I have been working on the Napoleonic 1805-07 project for quite sometime.  One of the latest developments has been to base some lovely Elite Miniatures Russian foot artillery in a slightly unconventional way.


I was inspired to do so by the figures of Mr John Ray who several years ago published a fine tome titled "A Military Gentleman".  In it he showcased many of his wonderful, personally designed figures as well as a superb style of basing and capturing our hobby in a wonderful and characterful way.  One such deviation from the norm that John had envisaged was basing artillery in non-rectangular shaped formats so as to maximise the ability to transform each base into an action scene.


I was instantly hooked and have determined that my artillery for this period will also be so based.  I will then replicate it when I kick start the Elite Peninsular project sometime in late 2018.

In this shot you can see the unusual template on the ground and the rough laying out of  figures and
equipment to ensure all marries up reasonably well.

Love the idea of being able to use the wonderful ramming figures in the correct manner

Here we have an angle from just off centre - that's a heck of a lot of firepower!

A very different look however one I am very, very pleased with.

Another angle

Very much like how the gun timber have come out using the Foundry triad paint system.  You can see a
requisitioned wheelbarrow from the old Hinchcliffe ECW artillery range which I thought was perfect
for these gunners to use to help transport their bloody heavy round shot up to their pieces.

I think the battery certainly looks more animated and not "squashed in " to accommodate a base of conventional means

The "Money Shot" - the newly based battery is approximately 10mm wider in frontage than the standard
basing that I have used in the past with General D' Brigade rules. Perfect.

I did post a few shots of these on the Facebook page for the Napoleonic Wargamers Group and received approximately 70% liking the innovation and 30% of those thinking that they could never get used to the irregular edges and shape which is really what I expected if truth be told.  It is different and certainly not something for everyone however for this particular style project, I simply think it works tremendously well.

General D'Armee 1815 battle at the NWS

Rifles advance and reform to the left as the French move on.

After much procrastination and even more busy work schedules the planets aligned for Cookie and I to take our Napoleonic's out of the box and give Dave Browns excellent new set of rules "General D'Armee" a run at the club.


The battle was to be a simple four brigades a side of roughly equivalent style forces so that we could see how well we could get our heads around the innovative command and control system.

Fighting on a 12 x 6 which was also a chance to try out my 13 x 7 cloth from Deep Cut Studios

First British Brigade

Dutch Belgians in reserve situated in the centre

The game requires ADC's to be sent to respective commands to help with orders.

British KGL Light Dragoons

Second British brigade of foot

French line lancer brigade

British light cavalry manoeuvre to meet the advancing enemy

The hamlet is quickly taken by the advancing troops

Lovely Perry plastics and metals combined to give a dynamic battalion

Skirmishers...um...er...skirmish over the fields.

Garrison formed - disordered turn 1 and then ready to rumble after that.

In they go on the British right flank

The French elect to form line and use their guns to try and inflict some damage however Phil
did not elect to use "Artillery Assault" due to a shortage of available adc's.



The British attempt an enveloping action on the flank

Another view as the rifles look to make a difference.  They didn't!

We mucked up the results of the melee and used the withdrawal of the beaten unit and supports
using the "Charge" section and not "Melee".  We will get better.

The mat looks quite good in my opinion.

The Brigade Commander looks to make a difference.

Great job on these guns from Cookie.

The cotton wool (borrowed from an adjoining 15mm game hence the smaller nature of the fibre!) is
used to denote a unit which has lost fire discipline and is no longer as effective as they could
be.  A great innovation designed to stop speculative fire which can waste time in any wargame.

A nice view of the figures on display

The KGL light cavalry get roughly handled by the lancers upon their return engagement.

The veteran leger regiment on the French left receives withering superior volleys from the British lines.

We had a wonderful time of it and have learnt a good deal on the rules and how and where we went wrong, which was surprisingly in only a few areas.  The system is a great one and certainly will be the set of choice for me going forward.


All I need to do now is mount some adc's on oval bases and some skirmishers on the same in small groups of three.