28e Régiment de Dragons

The 28th Dragoon Regiment passed into barracks over the weekend, with freshly issued uniforms and wuth horses groomed.

The 28th and its sister regiment, the 30th, forms Général de brigade Denis-Etienne Seron 2nd Brigade of the 6th Heavy Cavalry Division at Borodino. The 30th is assembling outside the uniform store at this moment and should pass through towards the end of next week.

French 1812 Artillery

With the painting of the last of the French and British in Egypt figures in the lead pile, focus has shifted back to the French 1812-13 project.

 

The first items here are the artillery. In my games one gun set represents a battery so here are two 12lb one 8 lb batteries. These are destined for the artillery reserve for the collection.

 

Once again they are from the Victrix plastic set.

 

The set comes with 15 gunners and since my basing requires only four gunners the three spares will crew one of the remaining two 4lb gun sets that are attached to the infantry brigades. Those 4lb gun models will come early next month.

 

This batch (and the yet to arrive two 4lb guns) completes the field artillery needed for this army. Still required are another five batteries of horse artillery – one attached to the infantry division and four to the cavalry divisions. The horse artillery is scheduled for a September delivery.

 

Next up, two regiments French 1812 Dragoons (mounted and dismounted versions).

19th Light Dragoons

The weekend has seen the completion of the 19th Light Dragoon Regiment for the War of 1812 collection.

I hadn't really intended to make the British Army for this war, but since the Perry Miniatures light dragoon set that I used for the British in Egypt came with all of the figures to make the troops in the later uniform, and since the Perrys sell the horse sprues separately, I figured why not.

Originally raised for service in India, the regiment served there though several campaigns in the 1790s and fought at Assaye with Wellesley. Returning to England in 1806, the Regiment saw no service in the Napoleonic Wars. Sent to North America in 1812, one of three British cavalry regiments to serve there, it fought largely in upper Canada. The Regiment was disbanded in 1816.

Is this the start of a new collection? Well who knows?

14e Régiment de Dragons

After a fairly solid three months working on the British in Egypt (and completing all but two gun sets - that are yet to be ordered) I have returned the French in Egypt with phase one of the extension to that army. This phase is simply a single regiment of dragoons - the 14th Regiment, with rose pink facing, without its regimental standard for the moment.

There were five dragoon regiments in Egypt: the 3rd, 14th, 15th, 18th and 20th.  I have already done the 3rd Regiment (in red facings) so I simply selected next in the order of battle. As tempting as it was to do all five regiments I have resisted the temptation.

Phase two of this expansion, scheduled to be ordered late this month, will see another six infantry battalions, six generals and three gun sets added.

8th (The King's) and 18th (Royal Irish) Regiments of Foot

These two units, finished over the holiday weekend, are the last two infantry units for the British in Egypt collection...Ok, OK they may be the last!

Commencing its existence as the Queen's Regiment and later renamed the King's Regiment, the 8th had a long and illustrious history dating back to 1685 and with honours  for service in Ireland, in the War of Spanish Succession, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, the War of Austrian Succession, the Jacobite Rebellion of the '45, the Seven Years War, the American Revolution and along the Spanish coast during the Revolutionary wars. The Regiment sailed for Egypt in 1801. After that campaign the regiment saw service in the Americas, the Caribbean, India and Afghanistan.  It was amalgamated and became the King's Regiment (Liverpool) in 1881.

The foundation of the Royal Irish predates the King's regiment by a year, and its history was equally prestigeous, counting service in the campaigns of Marlborough, the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary wars, Egypt, the Caribbean, China, Afghanistan and there was a New Zealand connection where the regiment fought in the Waikato and Taranaki campaigns. The Regiment survived the Childers reforms, avioding amalgamation, and continued service through the First World War until its disbandment in 1922.

Above the two regiments, the 8th in front the 18th to the rear.

Something a Little Different - a Woodlands Indian Lodge

For use in the same upcoming War of 1812 game as the recently made blockhouse and stockade, I need a woodlands Indian village that will consist of four bark covered lodges and probably a bit of camp clutter.

 

While there are several nice models on the market from Acheson Designs, I chose to make my own.

 

To start with I took a piece of 30mm polystyrene foam that came with some piece of flat pack furniture out of which I cut squares of about 50-60mm and then trimmed them into a rough dome.

 

Then using my favourite epoxy putty the bark was fixed to the exterior of the dome in overlapping panels.

When all the panels were in place (each layer was one evening’s work and then the material was left until the next day to cure) I added branches from trees to the exterior.

 

Finally I added a base to finish the model.

 

And here is the painted model. 

 

One down, three to go. 

 

Stuart's Regiment

This week has seen the completion of the final émigré unit that I am doing for the British in Egypt. This is Stuart’s Regiment, sometimes called the Minorca Regiment because it was formed at that place from prisoners of war of Swiss in Spanish service. The regiment transferred to Gibraltar in 1800 and joined Abercromby’s expedition to Egypt.

 

In one of the regiment’s most famous exploits, at the Battle of Alexandria Private Lutz secured  the colour of the 21st Demi Brigade Legère. The colour taken in the first place by a sergeant in the 42^nd Foot, but the standard was recovered by a French officer when the sergeant fell. At this point  Lutz shot officer and seized the colour just as a French dragoons charged. Lutz shot the horse from under one of the dragoons, sparing his life and then returned to the British lines with both the colour and the captured dragoon.

 

The regiment left Egypt in autumn 1801 and was renamed first The Queen's Own German Regiment in 1802 and then 97th (Queen's Own Germans) Regiment of Foot in 1805. The regiment went on to fight in Portugal and Spain but returned to England in late 1811. With the conclusion of the war in Europe in 1814 the regiment went to Canada, fighting in the Niagara Campaign and returned to England too late to participate in the action at Waterloo.

 

Renumbered and renamed as the 96th (Queen's Own Germans) Regiment of Foot in 1816 it was was disbanded in 1818, but reformed in 1824 and was posted to Canada, Bermuda and Australia. It also had a New Zealand connection. When when tensions between Maori and settlers increased in the early 1840s a detachment was sent to the Bay of Islands. In March 1845, in what was the opening action of the First New Zealand War, ten members of the regiment were killed at Kororareka (modern day Russell) and are buried today in the churchyard there.

 

The regiment then went to India, then Gibraltar, then Canada again, then England, then the Cape Colony, then India and finally to England in 1875. Amalgamated with the 63^rd Foot in 1881 to form the Manchester Regiment, that has a whole other series of adventures in the Boer War, WWI and WWII.

 

Next up are the final two line regiments, the 8^th and the 18^th, that should be completed over the weekend.