Paint Table Saturday - Week 13

Apologies - a day late and a dollar short as my brother in law used to say.

So Week 13 - and a drop in output. Last week I said I'd start logging my numbers again and managed 23 figures, and as I'd lost count of how many I had painted earlier in the year, I'd start from scratch. So, 23 from 120 left me 97 figures behind schedule. This was even more embarrassing as I've bought a huge number of figures this year (even by my standards). And next Saturday is Salute when I'll be picking up some more AB Spanish.

So Week 13 and I've completed 18 more figures:

4 French Legere Carabinier

4 French Line Fusiliers in Greatcoat

10 Spanish Militia

I'm thus 89 figures behind schedule as of this week.

The French Legere chappies, along with the couple from last week gives me enough for a stand - so I'll add to the battalion as and when while tackling the Erb Prinz. I've also made a serious start on the Erb Prinz, painting their trousers, facings, hair and knapsack. I have an early finish tomorrow so I plan to put a dent in them then - before the new series of Game of Thrones begins (despite my general dislike of "dungeons and dragons / fantasy crap" I'm rather enjoying this show) - I've been catching up over the last few weeks on Sunday nights. I'm not sure if it is because the "fantasy" elements are fairly dialled back (so far at least) or because every time you see a good looking woman you can be fairly sure she'll be naked within the next five minutes.

I've also primed some more French Legere and the last few Spanish Militia to complete the battalion. As you can see, my clearing the decks plan is failing dismally. I think it is about time I had another stocktake so I can list just how many 15mm Napoleonic figures I own - I'm fairly sure I have more ABs than Ian Marsh at Fighting 15s. 

This week my big moan was about Amazon - I buy a lot of books from them (at least one order a month plus what I buy elsewhere) and my moan wasn't about the pricing, or the deliveries or anything like that. My moan was about their "if you like that, then you'll like this" feature that "recommends" books for you to buy. I'm being pigeonholed by Amazon's algorithms - just because I buy one "whodunnit" doesn't mean I want to buy the entire output of the crime fiction writing community. My recommended reads include so many sword and sandals books you'd think I read nothing else (okay I enjoy the "Oathsworn" series, and the Harry Sidebottom "Warrior of Rome" books - but really, Conn Iggulden? Do me a favour.).

If they are going to do a "if you like this..." recommendation then how about working on the corollary? "If you tell us you hate this author we won't recommend X, Y and Z authors" 

Paint Table Saturday & More On The Erb Prinz

Apologies for no posts for almost three months - I had a busy work schedule for the first few weeks of the year that has now abated and then we had a domestic disaster that stopped me painting for a week or so.

As you can see - the room was in a state of disarray. We had a major toilet problem and our hall had a small flood (our tenants in the flat below had a rather bigger flood) - this was the incentive we needed to finally replace the carpet throughout our flat (Archie and Toby had pretty much trashed this over the last seven or eight years). And so, some of the junk scattered throughout the flat made its way to my room (the carpet in here is fine, I like it and it would mean disturbing my soldiers so this room kept the carpet it has).

I'd like to say I'd been a busy bee over the past three months but it wouldn't really be true. I've done a few bits and pieces but not really done much. I lost my painting mojo - and generally had a sense of ennui. However, I finally got round to priming my first batch of AB Jena Prussians (along with a couple of other bits), which are standing in for the Hesse Darmstadt Erb-Prinz Regiment of Laval's Division in the absence of any real alternative. And they do look the business - each variant has an individual face with real character, the detail is as well defined as you'd expect from Mr B and they will look great en masse.

So my plan for the last couple of days was to sort out a few odds and ends (I've slightly undermined my "clear the paint table" resolution with these chaps but I'm planning to keep on at that) and paint my trial figure for the Erb Prinz. I took a look at the calendar and the end of Week 13 of 2014 falls tomorrow - I can't believe the first Quarter of the year has ended already (so next week more BS reports to do at work). Anyway my painting total for last week (Week 12) was as follows:

2 French Legere Grenadiers
2 French Line Voltigeurs in Greatcoat
4 Hesse Darmstadt Erb-Prinz
15 Spanish Militia

So 23 figures. I didn't keep a proper count at the beginning of the year so forgetting those figures from January, I should have painted 120 figures by now. So I am a mere 97 behind schedule!

The Hesse Darmstadt figures for the Peninsula have been giving me a few issues (not painting - they seem quite straightforward) - you will recall that the troops were originally organised in the Prussian manner (the German states seemed to think that following the lead of Frederick the Great in all things was the route to military success) with a regiment composed of three battalions - two line and one light. The Line infantry had blue jackets, while the Lights had green - each battalion had a four company organisation.

Prior to the march across France to get to the Peninsula the three battalions were merged into two - my problem is that I've seen two conflicting descriptions of how they were organised. The first says that the Light battalion troops were simply mixed in with the Line battalions to give stronger four company battalions (which I guess would have the advantage they didn't need to learn new drills for battalion deployment). And that the un-military mix of green and blue uniforms within each company caused the French to insist on new uniforms for them - this wouldn't be a huge issue except it would mean each company would be very large in GdeB terms - which isn't ideal.

The other story is that the Erb Prinz adopted a six company organisation with the Lights being mixed in with the Line. While mixing blue and green uniforms on each stand has some attraction, I'm going to go with a variation on this - the flank companies will be dressed in green and the centre companies in blue; my rationale being that, should I ever need to field units for an 1806 game I can reorganise the battalions into three 24 figure units. Such is the kind of mental pickle you get into when adopting a slightly "alternate history" version of the Peninsula!

One thing I noticed after undercoating the AB Jena Prussians is that some figures seem to have axes hanging down at their backs - were these issued to particular companies?

Speaking of trial figures - here is my trial figure for a private from the Irlanda Regiment of the Spanish Army - by the time of the Napoleonic Wars there probably precious few Irish soldiers in the regiment but many of the officers were descendants of the Wild Geese. I'm not too sure when I'll paint his colleagues (the regiment wasn't at Ocana) but I rather like him.

Finally, I'm taking the plunge (literally) on the 12th April in aid of the Stroke Association - I'll be "zip-lining" in a generally downward direction from one side of the Oval Cricket Ground to the other. If it all goes horribly wrong I'll be hitting the pavilion face first (a prospect some of my staff are rather looking forward to I suspect):  http://www.justgiving.com/Malcolm-Rose1

For those of you wondering - I booked a 10.30 slot so I can still make it to Salute in time to fill my shopping bag (assuming all goes well and I don't wind up in A&E).

Ocana Frankfurters...

Ok, I know it is a juvenile title for this brief post. But then I'm a 52 year old who plays with toy soldiers, so what do you expect?

In my last post I looked at the order of battle for Laval's German Division at the battle of Ocana in November 1809 ( Laval's OOB, November 1809 ) , and had a few thoughts about what troops would work for the various components. 

Looking at what unpainted lead I have it looks like the Baden contingent (two battalions with 992 men) will be AB Wurttemburgers - largely because I already have some! Although as ever - not enough...But two battalions of 24 should see me through.

Which leaves Frankfurt and the Dutch. The Frankfurt 1st Prince Primate Regiment evidently can be represented by the Battle Honours Pack - BCO1 LINE INFANTRY (ANHALT, COBURG, HILDBURGHAUSEN, 

SCHWARZBURG, FRANKFURT, LIPPE, GOTHA, MENIGEN, WALDECK & WURTZBURG).

I asked on TMP if anyone had any reviews or pictures of these models (Timecast's website lacks any illustrations of the figures) and John Baxter kindly pointed me to an old issue of Wargames Illustrated that had a Battle Honours advert.  And here it is:

The figures at the bottom in shako are the ones in the pack evidently. Now, I imagine they are quite small compared to my ABs but as they will be serving in separate battalions I don't think I'll mind too much. As there was just one battalion with 450 men present at Ocana I'm assuming I can use just one bag (some of the BH bags are packed in what seems to me to be a random fashion!).

So, in summary, my General de Brigade Laval's Division will be made up of the following:

2nd Baden Line Infantry - 2 battalions of 24 AB Wurttemburg figures (I'll probably have a look at other OOBs to see whether it is worth painting extra figures).

1st Frankfurt Line Infantry - 1 battalion of 24 BH Confederation of the Rhine Infantry

4th Hesse Darmstadt Line Infantry - 2 battalions of 36 AB Jena Prussians.

2nd Nassau Line Infantry - 2 battalions of 30 CGM Nassau infantry (of course, should Mr Barton produce some of these as part of his Waterloo project then I'll revisit this choice)

2nd Dutch Line Infantry - 2 battalions of 24 ??????

Hesse Darmstadt Artillery - 2 guns with 8 BH Confederation of the Rhine crew.

Clearly, the Dutch are a problem - irritatingly their uniform had changed by 1815 so the AB figures are of no use. The Dutch had their pom-poms on the left side of their shako rather than at the front.

The above OOB (including the mystery Dutch contingent) totals about 260 figures plus a couple of guns (plus skirmishers) - at my rate of painting I'll need to definately up my production levels in 2014. So, my general plan will be to alternate a battalion of the above with a battalion of Spanish during 2014.

Laval's Division at Ocana & Desk Tidy Part II

Not much to report this week. As I said a couple of posts ago my December resolution was to tidy my painting desk and begin to clear up some of the half finished projects that have been languishing there for some time. Hopefully if you compare the picture above with the picture below (the fact I need to point out that the above is "before" and below "after" rather indicates how little I've achieved!) you'll see a bit of a difference.

One of the things I've resolved is to work through my paint jars a bit before painting more - I was taken aback at just how many colours I had.

Unfortunately I had to go to work over the Christmas break - Archie came with me and here is a picture of him supervising me at my desk. He was very well behaved indeed whilst on the Tube and at work - all the girls in the office were saying to me "but you said he was a little b*****d and he is adorable" (they missed him sneakily tearing open a box of chocolate biscuits that had been left on a shelf at home the following day and tucking in). I'm also willing to rent him out to any young single men seeking a girlfriend - Archie is an absolute Babe Magnet on the Tube with lots of good looking young ladies chatting to him and petting him (I was quite jealous) whilst I was on my way to and from work.

I also spent a fair bit of time on the last post about 15mm artillery. The result is that I've only finished about a dozen Spanish provincial militia, and a couple of French voltigeurs marching in greatcoat (these two will allow me to finish off another French battalion). I've done a bit of this and that to various figures but nothing is completed.

I did succumb to the urge to buy some more lead (it was one of those "well I need 4 Highlanders in march attack and 4 skirmishing to complete a unit - what else do I need while I'm buying" moments) from Fighting 15s - so I added some Spanish colonels (as he is one of the few figures not pictured on their website I've included a front and rear shot below - in the flesh he is a very characterful looking Spaniard). One question about the pictures below - on his hat there is a vertical band at the crown, my first thought was that this was a mould line but I don't think that is the case - any ideas on how I should paint this?

My other purchase was brought about by a mixture of lust and frustration. The lust came from my desire to own some of the AB Jena Prussian infantry - these are some of the best figures Mr Barton has sculpted in my opinion but I can't really justify starting yet another army, so I've just yearned for them for several years. The frustration comes from the paucity of figures suitable for Laval's German Division (who fought in the Peninsula as French allies) in 15mm - as far as I'm aware, the only maker that covers all the units that make up the Division is Warmodelling (or as I still think of it - Fantassin). I find this quite remarkable - ok you only need a battalion or two from each country but I'd have thought there were enough people building armies for the Peninsula to make this viable - and several of these little nations contributed troops to Napoleon's armies in other theatres as well.

Laval's German Division at Ocana 1809
2nd Baden Line Regiment (2 battalions) - 992 men (121 casualties)
Frankfurt Line Infantry (1 battalion) - 450 men (40 casualties)
4th Hesse-Darmstadt Line Infantry (2 battalions) - 1,432 men (75 casualties)
2nd Nassau Line Regiment (2 battalions) - 1,201 men (71 casualties)
2nd Dutch Line Regiment (2 battalions) - 968 men (150 casualties
Hesse-Darmstadt Artillery - 4 guns

The above gives a total of nine battalions with 5,151 men - that is just over 250 men at the 1:20 ratio GdB uses.

Long time readers of this blog will know that my opinion of Fantassin is that some of their figures are really nice and some are horrible (quite frequently within the same pack), and that the metal they are made from is a b*****d to clean up. So, I'm dismissing Fantassin out of hand as a contender - probably unreasonable I know but I just won't have any more of them in my armies.

Of course this leaves a lead snob like me with a quandary. Few of these figures are available from "acceptable" producers ("acceptable" includes AB, BH, Eureka, Xan, Khurusan and CGM....and I can't really think of anyone else - I might buy my guns from Blue Moon but I wasn't wild about their infantry). And large (or small) scale conversions are beyond me, I'm afraid, so all the figures will have to be "out of the box".

Campaign Games Miniatures (CGM) specialise in the 100 Days campaign of 1815 so normally are not of much interest to me (although their French cavalry, whose uniforms didn't change much during the later Napoleonic Wars, are quite useful). But they produce some Nassau Line Infantry, and I don't think their uniform changed very much between 1809 and 1815 - so that is two battalions (60 figures) sorted.

But the rest are a problem. AB don't produce Badeners but do produce Wurtemburgers and Bavarians, both of whom have the right sort of helmet (more or less). The only other option is Battle Honours who do a pack of Baden Line Infantry advancing but I haven't seen these.

The AB Jena Prussians have pretty much the right uniform for the Hesse-Darmstadt troops if you are willing to make some (admittedly big) compromises. The unit started out their march from Germany to Spain wearing the bicorne and pack on left hip that you see on the AB Jena Prussian figures - however, whilst in France they swapped their bicornes for shakos and left hip packs (I've no idea what the right term for this item of equipment is) for French style packs. I'm sure there are probably some other more minor differences too - however, in the absence of credible alternatives, I'm going to ignore all that rubbish and paint them as they were when they left Germany.

I was very much inspired in this by the following photo from "Bryce / Greystreak" who painted a Hesse Darmstadt brigade for the big Wagram game a few years ago (before you ask the units in Germany retained their old gear and organisation until after Wagram). I saw these figures in the flesh then and would willingly have stolen them had Bryce turned his back at the right time! If mine turn out half as well as these chaps I'd be a very happy bunny indeed...

One interesting thing is that a regiment in the Hesse-Darmstadt army up to 1809 was made up of three battalions, each of four companies. There were two line battalions which wore dark blue jackets with (in the case of the Erb-Prinz) yellow facings, and a light battalion (also of four companies) wearing dark green jackets. Together these made up a regiment. On the way to Spain, as well as exchanging their equipment for French style items, the Erb-Prinz changed to a six company style battalion organisation - I'm assuming that two companies of the light battalion were subsumed into each of the line battalions as the grenadier and light company (and is probably the explanation for these two battalions each having over 700 men). I guess this means that both battalions will include both blue jackets and green.

Unfortunately, I simply bought a battalion pack from Ian at Fighting 15s without really considering the consequences of the above ie; that I should have bought two battalion packs of 32 figures, plus a bag of infantry in march attack, plus two bags of Jena Prussians skirmishing (for when they throw out the light companies as a screen) and probably a bag of casualties too (most of which will be absorbed into my Spanish army - I think at this scale you can probably get away that kind of substitution).

The Hesse-Darmstadt artillery battery will be crewed from my old Battle Honours Confederation of the Rhine figures (dark blue uniforms, faced black, trimmed in red) - above is another photo from Bryce's collection - he used AB Saxon artillery crew. Only two guns for Ocana in GdeB terms but that will use up a few figures in the lead pile at least - I have quite a lot of these figures.

Obviously, that still leaves several other nationalities to consider.

15mm AB / Blue Moon / Xan French Guns

The Query
So this post is (slightly) a warning to myself to do proper research before buying figures. Back in April when I began my (slow) Spanish project I started out by buying a Spanish Line Infantry brigade from Fighting 15's - this gave me four 32 figure battalions of Spanish Line Infantry fusiliers (the grenadiers are assumed to have been detached) but my Spanish infantry needed some artillery support. I went to the appropriate page for Spanish artillery and there were crew with a comment - "For suitable guns, we recommend French 6pdrs (AB-F42)". I had some AB guns so just bought some Spanish gun crews at Salute (a pre-order packed by Mr Marsh at the last minute!).

I think AB's Spanish gunners look fine - but they needed French Gribeauval 6lb guns to crew - Spanish artillery adopted the French Gribeauval system in 1783. AB make French artillery pieces (including a 6lb Gribeauval) but there seems to be a consensus that the "track" (the distance between the wheels) is too wide. I've got to say this is a view I have some sympathy with. So when I saw some nice Blue Moon British guns on JJ's blog I thought I'd investigate further.

I had some AB French guns already, and had bought the Xan Miniatures French Artillery piece from Empress Miniatures (along with crews - packed rather oddly in sixes; there are only four crew figures - you get a couple of random doubles as far as I can tell) at Salute. So, I dragged poor Giles ( Tarleton's Quarter ) over to the Old Glory stand to get a set of Blue Moon French 6lbers. Obviously, what I should have done, was do some research, and then bought some guns.

On the basis that figure manufacturers cannot agree on what "15mm" actually means when it comes to their figures, it isn't surprising that scale models of artillery pieces should vary too. The situation is complicated by the fact that the French made several changes to their guns during the Napoleonic period (starting out with the Gribeauval system, introducing the An XI system from 1803, and a bastardised version incorporating elements of both shortly thereafter - where the Gribeauval didn't soldier on unaltered).

French 6lb Gun History
The Gribeauval system of field artillery essentially specified that there should only be four calibres of tube employed: 6 inch howitzers, and 4lb, 8lb and 12lb field guns. Further, the components of each gun, carriage  and limber within it's calibre should be standardised - the first large scale instance of the use of replaceable parts. Other changes included assigning gun crew to a particular gun (previously gunners were part of a pool - so could be assigned to a six inch howitzer for one campaign and a 12lb field gun for the next) and battery.

The system was a big success and French artillery was equal to or superior to their rivals across Europe from 1780 onwards - but the system was subject to some criticism within the French army. It was said that the 4lb gun was too small for firing canister, and the 8lb gun was too heavy for mobile field artillery. In Italy, in 1800, Marmont utilised 6lb guns cast locally, and made changes to standardise fewer wheel sizes for the carriage and limbers. Upon his return, Marmont sent a report to Napoleon, who decided to appoint a commission to look at the subject.

In 1803 the Commission made a number of recommendations that were incorporated into a revised system (called the An XI, or "Year Eleven" system in English). Field artillery would have larger guns - the 6lb gun would replace the 4lb gun, and the short 12lb gun would replace the 8lb gun. Alterations were made to the gun carriage - the most visible of which was the removal of the travelling trunnion and the change of shape to the end of the trail (the "ski" kicks up more on the An XI).

There was fierce debate about the changes (not least because there were hundreds of 4lb and 8lb gun tubes cast, and literally millions of rounds of ammunition in storage). In practice, the 6lb cannon was liked but the carriage wasn't (it was alleged it had a tendency to break up on campaign).

As you can see from the above, very brief, version of events, the really anal wargamer can have a field day with French cannon (and you thought it was just shakos v bicornes and long tailed coats v Bardin jackets...).

So in summary, the anal wargamers guide to the French use of 6lb guns:

1789 - 1800: No 6lb guns in your Revolutionary War French Army (if you are intent on 6lb guns you will need to argue for the local use of captured artillery tubes).

1801 - 1803: Limited use of 6lb guns with Gribeauval or original foreign carriages.

1804 - 1808: 6lb guns with An XI carriages - according to the sources I've looked at Napoleon ordered construction of new An XI carriages suspended in 1805 after criticism of the new carriages. So there would also be 6lbers with older Gribeauval carriages serving alongside the new carriages.

1808/9 - 1810: 6lb guns with adapted Gribeauval carriages (1810 saw official re-adoption of the Gribeauval carriages).

So, this is one of those areas where the "official position" and the reality clearly differed.

The Models
Before we go any further the grid on the photographs is 5mm - also as I don't possess calipers I just used a ruler for the measurements and did them by eye.

Anthony Barton: AB-F42 - French 6lb Gun @£2.60*
This is a 6lb gun on a Gribeaval carriage. So some basic measurements - the outside diameter of the wheels should be 4 feet 6inches (146cm) and is 15mm in the model (so bang on 1/100), and the iron axletree should be 6 feet 5 inches (206cm). There is a 20mm "track"in the model (from one wheel to the other) so 6 feet 6 inches - now the question arises, did the measurement of the axle include the wheel and linchpins? I'd submit that it should - on this basis the model measures 27mm at it's widest point. The wheels have a slight indent (which is wholly accurate) but the hubs are much larger than in real life with the result that the wheels look (and are) too far apart. I'd surmise this is one of those moments where the anal wargamer has to decide whether he wants a playable piece or a wholly accurate model. The strapping on the cheeks of the carriage all looks in the right place - this is a very nice model, if one can get over the overwide look of the gun.

Blue Moon: 15 FE 02 - 6 Pound Gun @£2.00 (Six models for £12.00)
Looking at the carriage, it seems fairly clear that this is a 6lb gun mounted on a An XI carriage. Irritatingly, I can't find the detailed dimensions of the An XI carriage but it's size would appear to be closely related to the Gribeauval 4lb carriage. The diameter of the wheel on the Blue Moon 6lb gun is 16mm (5 feet 3 inches), the "track" is 20mm and the axle is 22mm wide including hubs (the indented spokes are more pronounced than on the AB gun so the effect of the wide hubs isn't so pronounced. So, the diameter of the wheels is possibly a tad big but on the width issue the Blue Moon carriage is much better. The carriage looks bang on in terms of shape and details - this is a nice model and is the equal to the Anthony Barton gun. Packaging six models together in one bag seems a bit odd though

Xan Miniatures NFA10 - Cannon 6 & 8lb @£3.00
Back to the Gribeauval pattern carriage - although this one has a wider trail than the AB or BM. 15mm wheels, 17mm track and 22mm wide including hubs. On this model the indent of the spokes is barely there, if at all. The hubs seem much smaller with the effect that, of the three guns, this looks most like it should from the front. In terms of the carriage itself the detailing is less exaggerated than on the BM model. I'd use this gun nevertheless, it looks "right" except for the width of the trail - if an opponent were rude enough to point this out I think I'd just suggest this was one of the multiplicity of captured guns in the French arsenal, and that Spain appeared to regularly draw the short straw in supply terms for the French army. If you look closely, you can see that the trail spikes are still mounted on the carriage. One comment I'd like to make - I bought this gun eight months ago and it has been sitting on my desk unassembled for most of that time - I'm embarrassed to say, I'm unsure whether this is the 6 or 8lb barrel!

*Unusually, the price of AB has been falling over the last year as the Sterling to Aussie dollar rate has moved in our favour - AB guns were £3.00 in January 2013 (I'm slightly disturbed by this as it means my leadpile has dropped in value over the last 12 months - although as I've been supplementing my stocks that should make up for it, I've been adopting the same attitude to my pension plan over the recession).

Spanish Use Of 6lbers
This exposition has clearly drifted away from what guns I should offer my Spanish crewmen to serve - logic would indicate that they should be serving a gun with the Gribeauval pattern carriage - I'm unaware of any evidence that they switched to the An XI carriage and there weren't many instances of the Spanish capturing French guns - generally it was the other way round! Furthermore, as I actually started to research this a bit (I bought a couple of very nice books on Napoleonic artillery while searching for information), I couldn't find any evidence the Spanish actually used 6lbers - at this point I felt confident enough to email Ian Marsh and ask what sources he'd used to back his suggestion, I also posted a query on TMP.

I got a very prompt response from both. Dr Steven Summerfield who said on TMP that the Spanish didn't use 6lb guns until 1811 - and Ian Marsh also quickly replied as follows - "The issue is largely that AB doesn't make 4pdrs, so to have a small looking gun you have to use the 6pdr. It's a long time since I made the suggestion on the site, and I suspect I assumed the Spanish, being somewhat prone to losing their materiel, would probably make good losses at some point with captured French guns after successful British actions and sieges.

However, your email has encouraged me to read around, and I will change the advice on the website.

As for limbers, you are currently stuck. Ideally you'd want oxen pulling a French limber, and that isn't a possibility." 

I'd asked what Ian what he suggested for Spanish limbers and caissons etc - logic would indicate French pattern equipment but the limber riders would be an issue. He responded as an afterthought that Eureka do oxen pulling carts, but that as he didn't have the moulds in the UK he couldn't offer the oxen separately.

This would rather disqualify the Blue Moon AnXI guns from service with my Spanish army - which is a shame as I actually liked the look of this model the most in just about every other respect. So, given the options, I could use AB guns and just have to try and overlook the overwide look of them - which will bug me, I know.

The question of guns therefore went into a hiatus for a few months - about a month ago I looked at the Blue Moon website and the French 4lb and 8lb guns both have Gribeauval carriages - I emailed BM and a very kind lady, Teresa, forwarded my question on to the designer (Gregory) who confirmed this was the case within a few hours of my asking the question (so top marks for customer service to BM). I therefore bought some 4,8 and 12lb French guns from Old Glory UK (if you have been counting, you will realise that this post has caused me to buy 25 guns of one sort or another!) which took about a week to arrive and very nice they are too.

Blue Moon 4lb, 8ib and 12ib Guns

Ok, so here we have the BM 4lber gun (BM reference 15-FE-01). These fellows appear in several GdB OOBs being served by French Horse Artillery crews, and also by the Spanish (so the guns that I originally thought would get least use when I ordered these a few days ago will probably be used the most, initially at least). I used an Osprey, Napoleon's Guns 1792-1815 (1) for the measurements quoted below.

The first thing I thought when I saw this model was "gosh that looks small" - and the first thing I measured were the wheels which are 11.5mm in diameter (so, at 1/100 that is equivalent to 1.15m or a shade over 3 feet 9 inches) - this is small as the Osprey quotes 1.35m (or 4 feet 2 inches). And in 15mm scale a couple of millimetres rather stands out. The carriage is 25mm long (and the Osprey gives a "cheek length" of 235.5cm) so not too far off the original. Now the common problem with gun models is that they look too wide, so how did the BM 4lb gun do? The Osprey quotes the iron axletree length as 197.4cm (or 6 feet, 5 inches give or take a fraction of an inch) - measuring from the inside of each wheel (so including the inner hub) gave me a figure of 1.5cm so way too narrow (remember those mm stand out at this scale) - the equivalent of 19 inches. If you measured to the outer hub (so at the gun's widest point) it would be pretty much bang on.

So, overall, this gun is out in a couple of respects - height of the wheels and possibly the width of the track and length of the carriage. But if you are looking to represent the smaller guns on the table this model works well overall - one of those instances where the look of the thing is better than the sum of the parts.

Next up, the BM 8lb gun (BM reference 15-FE-03). At first sight this gun and carriage is very similar to their 6lber. The most obvious difference is the "kick up" at the end of the trail of the 6lber is more pronounced (although not as pronounced in the book "Napoleonic Artillery" by Duncan, Duncan and Summerfield, page 71 - I'm surmising that the BM 6lb model is an M1808), and the Gribeauval 8lber carriage has two trunnion positions rather than the single position on the 6lb An XI carriage. The 8lber has the same size wheels as the 6lb carriage (so 16mm diameter, or 5 feet 3 inches), and the track is 18mm. The axle is 22mm wide including hubs. Frame length is 26mm.

Finally, the BM 12lb gun (BM reference 15-FE-04). My first thought after putting this thing together was that it is one big carriage (36mm long) dwarfing the other guns. Wheel height is again 16mm. Track is 20mm, and hub to hub width is again 22mm. My next thought was that the "kick up" at the end of the trail was quite pronounced making it look like an early An XI gun (the 12lb An XI retained the travelling trunnion so this isn't a point of difference like it is on the 6lber). Actually - re-reading my correspondence with the BM people, I didn't actually ask about the provenance of the 12lb gun so it may well be a An XI.

A few general comments about the BM guns: The castings were pretty clean - I didn't do any preparation to any of guns before assembling them for this review. One minor issue I noticed with all the BM barrels was that the mould looks to be poured via the righthand trunnion (as you sight down the barrel) and the casting is a little rough here which means that the barrel doesn't fit cleanly into the carriage "pulling" the barrel to the right as it sits on the carriage. But this is nothing that a few minutes with a file won't fix.

I'd also point out that all the guns came with ammunition boxes despite my neglecting to photograph them!

And here are a couple of pictures of the guns lined up together:

Ok, From left to right: Xan Miniatures, AB, BM 4lber, BM 6lber. 

From left to right: BM 6lber, 8lber and 12lber.

From left to right: BM 6lber, 8lber, 12lber and a BH 4lb (?) gun I had laying around.

From left to right: Xan Miniatures (and before anyone comments I haven't stuck the barrel on this one), AB, BM4lb gun, BM 6lb gun.

In conclusion, I'm sure I've made some errors in terminology and detail - if anyone wants to comment on my ignorance feel free and I'll make the appropriate edits! Anyway, I hope this is useful. 

Addendum

I was asked on TMP to add some more manufacturers guns - to be honest I'd thought about doing this but the above post was originally started about eight months ago and I'm now pretty fed up with it! Anyway, I've looked though the Bollinger LGA (that is La Grande Annee - not La Grande Armee) box where all the unpainted French lead is stored and I found some more guns.

Old Glory 

Now, I think these are OG (long time readers of this blog will be aware that several years ago - back when the US Post Service still let their citizens send goods by surface post - I bought a very big box of French, Austrians and Russians from a chap in California and these guns are from an unmarked bag from the box). Looking at the website of the current UK agents, TimeCast, just shows labels such as "Foot Artillery, Full Dress" with no mention of gun size or carriage type - so its difficult to review how close they are to the original. Both guns are cleanly cast with good levels of detail (I'm not really sure if that big barrel goes with the carriage to be honest - there were also some howitzer barrels in the bag too). So here are a couple of photos with some measurements.

Gun "A" - wheel diameter 11mm, track 16mm, hub to hub width 22mm, cheek length 25mm.

Gun "B" - wheel diameter 12.5mm, track 17mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 26mm 

Fantassin (Warmodelling)

After saying on TMP I didn't possess any Fantassin artillery I found a gun and crew. Again, I'm unaware of what calibre it is supposed to be (I bought a "division pack" from Dermot at CGM in Spain a few years ago after hearing good things about their figures from TMPers - and that was really poor advice...) as it is in an unmarked bag with some French foot artillery figures. I'll do a photo and give measurements - but frankly this was the worst casting of any of the guns with softness and flash in the area below the trail spikes on the left hand side of the carriage, more flash at the front of the carriage, and rough areas on the wheel rims (which also didn't fit neatly to the axles). The transom appeared to me to out of true giving the carriage a slightly twisted appearance. Finally all the other guns had an indent at the mouth of the barrel - not the Fantassin gun. Also the two wheels were of different thicknesses. All in all, it was a chunky mess! 

Wheel diameter 15mm, track 18mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 28mm.

And just to show how awful the Fantassin gun is here are two shots - the first from the rear showing (hopefully) how the transom is out of true. 

And secondly how the wheels vary in thickness.

Battle Honours

Now this is from a really old pack (back when they were Kitney & Company and included a cardboard stand along with the gun and figures) labelled ART5A - I looked back through my earliest Wargames Illustrated magazines and I think this a French 8lb gun. It is much smaller than the 6 or 8lb offerings from BM (or AB) but then so are the crewmen - this gun is much closer to the BM 4lber in terms of the carriage size. There is a clear mould line running horizontally down the middle of each cheek which is a bit obvious but apart from that is a very clean casting. I think it is one of the nicest guns of the lot - there is detail but it isn't exaggerated. I guess if you pair it with the appropriate figures it would look fine. 

Wheel diameter 13mm, track 17mm, hub to hub width 23mm, cheek length 24mm.

  

The above are from left to right: OG Gun "A", OG Gun "B" and the Fantassin Gun.

Left to right: Battle Honours, OG Gun "A" and BM 4lber.

Army Painter Undercoat & Some Spanish Militia

So, having resolved to empty my painting desk of half finished units (see my last post) I've made a start. This is likely to result in figures being finished in a somewhat random order - as I have a lot of random half-finished units where I ran out of steam / was enticed by some new figures before I could finish older ones.

Back in March 2011, I had the urge to splurge on eBay and was lucky enough to pick up a couple of bits and pieces including some 15mm AB French horse artillery crews. At about the same time, I came across the Army Painter dark blue undercoat. Essentially, the AP argument goes that one can paint one's army quicker by spraying your figures in the main uniform colour undercoat, blocking in the other colours and then dipping the figures. My eyes glazed over as I looked at the pile of French Legere in the big box and suddenly this seemed like a wonderful idea. So at Salute 2011, I bought a can.

On the basis that I wanted to test out the theory before plunging into battalions of Legere I thought I'd do a French Horse Artillery battery first. My first thought was that the AP Dark Blue went on a little heavily (my normal undercoat is the Evil Empire's Skull White spray (it's expensive but I've never had a problem with it). The picture below shows the figures right after they've been sprayed.

Now I'm slightly underwhelmed by their argument for reasons I'll go into  - first, because the spray seemed rather thick I was loathe to to work the can like I do with the GW sprays - this meant that there were a couple of areas that didn't get great coverage and I had to go in with a paint brush (and this was prior to the Army Painter people bringing out pots of paint so I had to touch up with some mid-blue from Miniature Paints - which seemed close enough in tone to work). My next issue is probably because I'm used to working from a white undercoat - I found it quite hard to get good coverage for things like flesh over the dark blue base. My other problem was that I'm used to painting things like jackets up to the edge of the colour, and leaving things like crossbelts white - I just come back at the end and touch up where i've slopped over. Obviously, with this method I had to reverse my normal practice and maintian a steady hand whilst painting the white belts. To be honest, I'm not sure if it actually saved that much time painting these figures - possibly I need to try a battalion of Legere after all to see if it is any easier when one does a lot of figures.

Below is a picture of the gun crew after they were given a coat of AP Dark Tone (I went a bit too heavy on at least one figure and the AP pooled on the brim of his shako). Apologies for the poor picture quality. And before anyone says anything, I know they are manning an unpainted gun - it was all there was to hand (cannon are going to be the subject of my next post) and I didn't want them to be standing around an empty space. The flash has made them look a bit paler than they are in real life - they're actually a quite dark blue.

And the final pictures are of the other unit finished this week (apart from basing, and the flag being added) - a battalion of Spanish Provincial Militia (32 figures) wearing the M1805 uniform. As with my previous Spanish these were sprayed white, colours blocked in and then Army Painter Dark Tone was brushed on - they still need the flat varnish to be added. Figures are again by AB.

Ocana 1809 & Desk Tidy

So, a couple of weeks ago I was looking at my painting desk, and for obvious reasons decided to have a bit of a tidy up (there is also a shelf you can't see that has various figures primed but not yet painted). My next thought was that I should clear up the numerous half finished projects (in 15mm alone there are Spanish ABs, AB French artillery, some AB early Austrian Chevau-Leger waiting to be painted as Spanish cavalry, AB Austrians and a few OG French).

As I returned some figures to the Bollinger box where they belonged I resolved to have a clear out. So a few figures were despatched to Paul ( Napoleonics In Miniature ). And since then I've been fitting in a bit of time whenever I can painting up odds and ends. One thing that has irritated me no end is the number of Citadel Paints (particularly the new pots) that have dried solid over the last few months.

I've also been admiring one of my new acquisitions - the French Histoire et Collections volume, Ocana 1809, this is a very nice English language volume in the same style as Hourtelle's books on Wagram, Austerlitz and so on. It has maps, reports from French officers after the battle, and the very useful uniform plates we expect. 

The other book (in Spanish) is also called Ocana 1809 and has better maps and some uniform plates - it also has an OOB with numbers for each battalion. It is an Osprey style of book - they have quite a selection of books on other subjects too - I picked up two of these while in Valencia in late September (Medellin 1809 and Almonacid 1809) but my Spanish isn't good enough to make much out of the text. I think if Guerreros y Battallas were to publish these books in English they would do really well - many of the subjects aren't covered elsewhere at all. 

Ocana was quite an interesting battle - at the end of 1809 the Spanish, emboldened by their success at Bailen, made a dash for Madrid with an army of 53,000 men. The French, taken by surprise, managed to concentrate 40,000 men under Soult - although smaller in numbers, the French units were mostly veterans, whereas many of the Spanish were freshly raised units. The French attacked against a strong Spanish position (there was a ravine across the front of much of their position), their dragoons drove in the Spanish cavalry on the flanks and the French infantry attacked, the Spanish broke, thousands were captured and Madrid was secured for Joseph for some years. Ocana was one of the pivotal battles of the Peninsular War and, because the British weren't there, mostly ignored by English writers.

I've started working on more Spanish infantry, and have bought appropriate flags from Adolfo Ramos, and recently a couple of sets from Pete's Flags - both of these produce very nice flags. I've also been looking at 15mm artillery for a review (this little project has turned from a short post into a very long post - but hopefully I should have something up next week), and now have a glut of guns to join the excess of everything else in my leadpile!

Have a very happy Christmas everybody!