Vive La Revolution!

I have been quietly beavering away at my paint station over the last 6 months and my focus has been mainly upon my Napoleonic miniatures collection.

I had always wanted to paint and collect miniatures from the Napoleonic period but could never bring myself to paint so many hordes of troops for battles in the ‘Grand Manner’.

My first (and very likely only) attempt at painting up a full regiment of Napoleonic miniatures. This is the 7th infantry regiment of the ‘Kingdom of Holland’.

I also wanted to be able to paint up a whole plethora of different troops from any and all of the nations who took part, something that neither my bank account nor sanity could handle at regimental level!

The solution…

I am a big fan of the ‘Song of…’ family of games and Drums & Shakos is no exception, it also allows me to buy small numbers of miniatures that can be painted up in short order ready for the battlefield!

In my first blog post (see here) I exhibited the first troops I painted, a Royal Navy landing party of marines. The shore based operations and cutting-out expeditions conducted by the navy are so interesting and using them as the basis for my collection allows me to tie together all the different and disparate nations, as the navy took part in operations all over the world throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.

Over the last few months I have been adding to my  collection…

French Revolutionary infantryman skirmishing

A better view of these fantastic models from Trent Miniatures

Napoleonic French Dragoons dismount to better defend the high ground. (From the Perry Miniatures plastic boxed set)

A Napoleonic French horse artillery crew manning their gun. (Perry Miniatures)

I have already had a few games of Drums & Shakos, one of which saw French Dragoons successfully preventing the rescue of a British spy and another where a landing party stormed a French shore battery.

A successful trip to the  ROBIN wargames show provided me with a new boat, some naval cannons and a troop of Lombardy Hussars from Trent Miniatures, so I have plenty to be getting on with…