Flocking Hell

I've made great progress with my three additional Garde Chasseur Battalions and command stands, but have now reached the point when I need to stick around a dozen clumps of Silflor to each of 33 bases, for a total of 400 clumps (then add static grass and drybrush).  This is, by no means, a small job.  :-(   

OTOH Mrs Bat is out so I can have a clear run at it, the day is young, the sun shining and I have 402 minutes of the excellent 1980's BBC "Fortunes of War" series ready to hit the DVD player!

Tambour Major

A rare sight; a mini I've painted from scratch!  This Drum Major will lead the massed drums of the two regiments of Chasseurs I've assembled.  His drummers will sound the Pas de Charge, in the event that the Garde reserve is needed to assault the enemy redoubt in our Petit Borodino game on the 30th (scheduled to be my first game in 5 months!).

I repainted the drums, and the drummers.  I was very pleased with how the drums came out; I replaced the Victrix drums with spare Perry drums, which are a little more crisply moulded.  I also replaced the drums on the command stands, which look better for it (not shown).

These chaps have put me somewhat behind, but I hope to catch up with the five mounted command figures I still need to paint, on Saturday.

Raising my standards...

I've replaced the old standards for my 1er and 2eme Chasseurs, with spanking new 1813 GMB Tricolours, which rather look the biz.  I'm taking the opportunity to do a little gentle refurbishment on the figures (highlights, new drums, fixing some minor details I got wrong and revarnishing).

Below are the mounted Generals for the two regiments, the Garde Brigade commander and the Divisional commander for the Dragoons; all at a worryingly early stage!

I'm getting nervous about the timings to get all this finished and based, for a game at the end of the month; it is looking challenging...

I love it when a plan comes together...

At last the majority of my four Garde Chasseur a Pied battalions are substantially painted and on their bases.  There are almost a company's worth of them.  Most were originally painted by Shaun Duncan, some by Dave? and a few, from scratch, by me.  I've added a lot of detailing, though, and most recently mud-splashes a la Burkhard (very easy, very effective, highly recommended).

I still have to paint 5 mounted officers, new standards, and ideally a drum major and some drummers.  The basing is going to take a couple of weeks, and I need them finished by the month-end.  Gulp.

Yet more Chasseurs and some Grognards

Shaun Duncan's reinforcements arrived last week, and I've now got almost all the miniatures I need* for my 4 battalions of Garde Chasseurs.  Two battalions are now on their bases (at the rear), two more are mostly painted at front left and centre, and on the right are two dozen grognard Grenadiers, that I just purchased from Foresight Painting, on eBay, and will expand into a battalion and rebase in April.

*I still need to paint the mounted officers (Perry's)