With hindsight the poor wee chap - as he was then anyway! - didn't stand a chance. His slightly deranged father was going all megalomaniac with Napoleonics, games of Napoleonics were being played, The Son & heir was getting involved in them as a participant and the sheer spectacle of Napoleonics can cast quite a spell over the unwary. And so the day came when The Son & heir declared that he would like to paint a Napoleonics unit.

The Bavarians

The medium blue of the Bavarians slowly accumulating in the collection of von Peter himself provided a magnet for the younger son & heir. The current thinking at Neu Schloss von Peter is that the medium blue selected for the Bavarians is most likely too light but the damage had been done and some Bavarians were acquired.

2/7th Infantry Regiment

Once the urge to paint Bavarians had been expressed and discussed a battalion was procured from Frant Rank Figurines to became the 2 battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment as was to be found in Generalmajor Maillot's brigade of Generallieutenant Raglovich's 29th (Bavarian) Division as part of Marshal Oudinot's XII Corps in 1813. Pretty in their rose coloured facings. But the detail and equipment on the figures was a never ending. There seemed to always be something else to paint! But they were completed, based and a GMB Designs flag added.

The photo dates from January 2012.

The Italians

What is it with the young? Don't they know that conformity is good? The son & heir wanted to paint some French. But he didn't want to paint them as French! After some research - mostly farmed out to von Peter himself! - Italians got the seal of approval. Oh well. It could've ended up a lot worse!  

Befreiungskriege 2012 Limited Edition Figures

Martin Kelly from the sadly long dormant Befreiungskriege 1813-14 blog wanted to celebrate five happy and successful years of blogging. Being blessed with a close relationship with Peter Fitzgerald of Calpe Miniatures notoriety Martin was able to commission the  sculpting of four custom figures as his Limited Edition Figures ...

1.  a bare-headed solider of the artillery train taking a drink and holding his shako in his other hand.

2.  a second soldier of the artillery train, this time wearing a covered shako, smoking a pipe and carrying an item of equipment – probably something like a horsewhip, a coil of rope or a trailspike.

3.  a foot artillery drummer wearing the Bardin Imperial livery and standing with a foot resting behind his drum on the ground in front of him. He may be doing something interesting like pointing into the distance with his drumsticks.

4.  a “Marie-Louise” infantryman wearing a greatcoat and pokalem. This casually posed figure will be based on a fusilier shown in Knotel Band XII, Plate 24.

Additionally "A camp fire with a “marmite” on the boil over it" was also provided as part of the set though this has yet to be pigmented.

And so to The son & heir's Italian renditions from left to right in the image below ...

1.  The “Marie-Louise” infantryman was converted via the paint brush into a member of the Italian 2nd Line Infantry Regiment … though the pokalem may be an unofficial creation by this particular infantryman.

2.  The foot artillery drummer was painted as a drummer of the same Italian 2nd Line Regiment. The source for the drummer is an image from the site http://www.histunif.com/italie/publications/ligne/ligne27.htm.

3.  The artillery train figures translated quite easily from Francais to Italiano care of careful selection of the paint colours..

The Prussians

Thankfully The son & heir does not derive all his mental facilities from his mother's side so it was inevitable that he would eventually come to his senses. Choosing the Prussians is a reflection of this coming to his senses.

Having played a game or two of Sharp Practice - Napoleonic skirmish rules - The son & heir came over all enthusiastic and firstly  investigated von Peter's pile of unpigmented Calpe Miniatures Prussians and then raided said pile. (To be fair he did request and receive permission to do so but a man must complain whenever he gets the option to do so!) This netted for him most of the figures required to form a unit of Volunteer Jager. Jagers can be great fun on the table top! The officer was missing but was soon procured from Calpe Miniatures.

Then discussions were had about whether to model units from a particular historic brigade and if so which one. After a little mulling over brigades, their constituent units, uniforms and flags a decision was reached - the 11th Brigade of Generalmajor von Ziethen circa 1813. The yellow facings of the Silesian troops were a winner.

The photo dates from August 2013

Silesian Volunteer Jager

Having decided on the 11th Brigade the designation and uniform of the jager figures was ordained as they would be the Volunteer Jagers of the Prussian Infantry Regiment Nr. 10 (1. Silesian). The green jacketed uniforms would require the yellow facings of Silesia and the white shoulder straps denoting the first regiment of the province.

The figures are individually based on circular bases which is great for skirmish type game. But these individual bases can be placed in rectangular sabot bases which match our normal basing for those non skirmishing games.

Prussian figures from Calpe Miniatures. The Bavarian casualty is from Front Rank Figurines.

The photo dates from June 2014.

1/1st Silesian Infantry Regiment

The regular infantry regiment in the 11th Brigade was the 1st Silesian. Officially it was Infantry Regiment Nr. 11 (1. Silesian) until the 19 June, 1813 after which it became the Infantry Regiment Nr. 10 (1. Silesian) when the Garde zu Fuss regiment was removed from the line regiment numbering sequence.

A speed painting effort saw the vast majority of the unit painted and based in the two days leading up to the Battle of Gross & Klein Badsdorf. A record not likely to ever be challenged at Neu Schloss von Peter.

Figures from the resculpted Advancing Musketeers range from Calpe Miniatures. GMB Designs flag.

The photo dates from July 2014.

Command

You've got to have a command base to direct the traffic and these are The son & heirs for his Prussians

Figures from Calpe Miniatures. The photo dates from June 2014.