European Forces

Well, this lock down lark is wearing a bit thin now. No theatre, no cinemas, no restaurants or cafes or coffee shops, no catching the bus into York to do some shopping or bookshops, no cricket, no forts to visit, no long walks in the country, no U3A  Military History Group or Silent Film Group, no University Lifelong Learning classes. What is a chap to do?

I could spend some more time in painting and basing figures but first I decided to have a look at the collection. A couple of years have passed since I had all my figures on a table; here is the smaller half of them. These are the European forces, their opponents are a force of the Ottoman Empire. When I opened the boxes I found a couple of casualties; a grenadier's drum and a dragoon's pistol arm had fallen off. That arm is proving very difficult to reattach, so there is an empty saddle whilst I sort this.

Perhaps I should start with an explanation of my collecting. It is mostly old school figures, the kind I bought in the 1970's. It is 18th century, mostly 25mm & regular 28mm, maily lead but also some plastic. I am not trying to build a recognised army or period, I buy and paint what I like when I see them. At the start of my collecting, I bought a few lots of Garrison SYW Prussians on EBay and direct from Garrison, enough to paint a "Charge" sized regiment of three battalions, but I found that painting 60 figures all the same was boring. Since then I have painted in single battalions, batteries and squadrons.

This first photo is of the force laid out in two brigades of infantry with supporting artillery and cavalry.

Left Brigade, a battalion of grenadiers, 3 batts of line, a batt of light and supporting battery

Right brigade, 2 batts of line, 1 light, a unit of rangers, a battery of artillery

In front, 2 squadrons of dragoons and some hussars

In reserve, 2 squadrons of dragoons and mamelukes, 1.5 batts of grenadiers and 1 batt of veterans

The right flank is covered by a squad of jaegers with amusettes and the start of Dixon's Freikorp (in green)

Here is the man in command, General Navarre, with adc, Cptn Bougainville, and his staff and the baggage train

Looking at the photos, I realise first that I am missing flags for my battalions, plenty of flag bearers but not enough flags. Second, the right brigade has only one full strength battalion. That's two areas to work on.

Now to put all these figures back into their boxes and flood the table with the Ottoman army.