Sunday 7 December 2014

Waterloo Project: RHA at 1:3 .....well, almost!

I'm delighted to have the privilege of showing you Kevin East's latest efforts for his contribution to our La Haye Sainte scenario at 1:3 scale next Summer. This set is a bit special being an artillery battery rendered as a compromise between full numbers (should be about 60-70 figures representing about 200 men) and a suitably busy battery on the wargames table. Kevin tells the full story in his own words:

"Hi all, here’s the latest endeavor from my paint brush for the 1:3 Waterloo games we are putting on during next summer. A Royal Horse Artillery battery at our figure ratio. OK, I know I am missing a third limber (which will be coming from a different collector) and also Chris will be supplying another 6 mounted RHA riders and also a little ‘horse holding’ vignette similar to the one you see here. So once the other collaborators' figures are there then we will have the complete scene we intend.  (Ross's battery sited near the crossroads - CG)



Of course not all the figures will be on the wargames table at the same time,  unlike the complete group photo, as some represent the RHA limbered and in motion (i.e. mounted crew and limbers with cannon) . Horse holding will be there when the artillery are unlimbered and firing ( i.e. the crew dismounted and cannon removed from the limbers). Obvious really, but interesting to note the group photo could never be possible in the game. 



The figure manufacturers are mainly Foundry with pose conversions on a number of them, holding different items, moved arms, etc. This helps the overall look as otherwise too many would have had similar postures. There are also Perry figures; the smithy (which you will have seen before (kevin-forges-ahead)), one of the limbers and all the horses in the horse holding vignette – the latter being converted British Light Dragoon horses at standstill. I removed the reins and carbines by grinding and added strips of a ‘tomato puree’ tube flatted out for the Foundry rider to hold their reins. In this case the mix of the two manufacturers are fine I think. I managed to find an ammunition caisson made by that fantastic company  of all things that are wagon -   Westfalia Miniatures, which has three altered Foundry RHA crew with it. I need to gain a second one for the 1:3 Royal Foot Artillery I will be doing soon – more postage from Germany!

There is also a converted RHA officer rider as a casualty on a home made base similar to the ones that Warbases manufacture with a rotating numbered dial for casualty clarification. I showed this design to Warbases back in 2010 but felt that the 6mm depth (necessary for the 3x 2mm roundels) of stand they required was too deep for my use, and they then put the idea into manufacture. I am delighted they did so. Cool! However, I continue to manufacture my own at 4.5mm in depth!

The recent abundance of figures at 1:3 is doing little for my 1:20 ratio that I am used to! But I have worked out a cunning plan to gain use of the figures for what would be two 1:20 RHA batteries (that is six guns with four figures per gun). Fortunately Foundry’s provision of 3 free guns came when I purchased multiples of the same pack of RHA command…….very useful!  My two limber crews will do just  fine for this situation. I really don’t need another……honest!

I also include a couple of vignettes of rocket troops that were at Waterloo. Being lovely figures from Warlord games. I just couldn’t resist them so here they are. I will base the rocket ladder eventually after our games this summer. (A section of Whinyates battery with the small rockets will appear in our LHS scenario - CG)



Hope you like the photos!
Cheers. Kevin"

Yes, Kev I certainly did and they will bring our game an even more majestic feel once those guns come into action!
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Addendum - another addition to the set , Kevin has done a wrecked cannon to represent a damaged gun temporarily or permanently out of action, that's when we can use his field forge vignette!

12 comments:

  1. Stunning work on this, all the extras really add something to the usual presentation of arty batteries.

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  2. Agreed! Wonderful painting and modelling.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. Beautiful vignettes and units here, great job!!

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  4. Absolutely awesome! Fantastic painting and modelling!

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  5. Lovely! Nice to see someone giving artillery units the attention they deserve!

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  6. Thanks chaps for the words of encouragement. This particular aspect of napoleonic scene is often overlooked. Although I have seen a french foot arty
    battery with many wagon vignettes in support once but never a RHA. So thanks again for the nice words........got to do the RFA next!
    Cheers.
    Kevin

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  7. Wonderful brushwork Kevin! Can't wait to see these in action...

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  8. Lovely work...has inspired me to get the boys out for a rumble again!!

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  9. Simply superb Kevin. Love the fellow aiming with the non-plussed nag!

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  10. this 1:3 tabletop is going to be AMAZING!

    You simply MUST have two or three dedicated photographers or video running of the whole action!

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  11. Thanks to all for the enthusiastic comments. We will do our best but it is only a domestic production in my wargames room and the 1:3 will only be two "slices" of Waterloo. The plan is that Kevin and I will support each other in joint umpiring and rapporteur/photographer roles for Hougoumont and LHS respectively. The overall scope will be no better than a big club game but we hope the big units will give it a more authentic feel, and because of the scale I want to do better than average on customised terrain. Consequently we have scheduled the conventional Waterloo refights for June, LHS for July and Hougoumont for September to give plenty of time for "scene changing". Test game coming up in March might give us a feel for what it might look like, everyone is working on more units..

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