The Wreck of the Dred Hawk

My friend Zach was back from D.C. to visit, and what better chance to catch up than on the tabletop! We decided to play a scenario of Sharp Practice using my Napoleonic Era figures. Here are the highlights (at least the ones that photographed well):

The Royal Navy Schooner Dred Hawk has run aground on the French coast. A patrol of Voltigeurs has spotted the stranded seamen.

HMS Sophie Part 4: Hull details

Bowsprit and fo'c's'le

The bowsprit is nested and glued into a hole i drilled at an angle into the solid hull (another perk of doing the hull as one piece). I've attached the upper part using my craft twine, and you can faintly make out two wire loops. These will attach the removable rigging (forestay and fore topmast stay).

Deck detailing courtesy of Starbucks

The actual deck is made of carefully selected coffee stirs gleaned with permission from local Starbucks. I cut them to size with side cutters, then filed the raw edges smooth on an emery board. They are held down with superglue, as I found that Elmers doesn't hold fast enough to keep them from springing back up. One all glued in place, it is sanded lightly, and i drilled holes at the edges of the planks with a pin vise.

Functional Deck Ladder

The gunwales have ladders integrated onto the sides (as does the HMS Surprise on which I've based much of this). These are spaced to hold figures based with more coffee stirs. My officer of Artillery shows functionality of the ladder, and also serves to give some sense of scale here.

Sophie's aft cabin and rudder

Here we have the aft cabin of HMS Sophie, as well as the top of her rudder. I am not entirely satisfied with how this portion came out, and may revise it in the future. The intent was to make a faux leaded glass window using window screen painted as the lead over a dark blue plastic card underneath. This technique has looked good on some scenery buildings in the past, but does not seem to quite do it here.

French Voltigeur 1812-1815

If there is a uniform of the Napoleonic French Army that interests me, it is that of the Voltigeur. I love the yellow trimmed shakos and epaulets. The Perry plastic French came with several Voltigeurs in dynamic skirmishing poses. These will make a visually interesting contrast when flanking the march attack posed centre companies and Grenadiers. The figure seen here is my first tester Voltigeur.

I am excited to get these figures painted, as the would make for a great small warband for a Skirmish level game, and should pair well against British Rifles.

Another bit of fun the Voltigeur figures offer is the chance to dirty up the model a little. In addition to the usual bit of stain at the bottom of the trousers, I've added some dirt stains on the knees to give the impression he's been skirmishing out in front of the main columns and off roads in the wild.

French Officer on Horse, 1812-1815

Being a bit of a lead scrounger, I dug up what appears to be a Wargames Foundry Napoleonic officer in a used bin at a FLGS. With some cursory research, I decided to paint him  to lead my French Line Infantry, though it is difficult to make out what he acutally is. Painting horses is always fun, and I enjoyed the watchcloak as well.

French Infantry, 1812-1815

I have begun to dabble in the Napoleonic period since the uniforms are just so very interesting. My first venture is with a box of Perry plastic French infantry. The build was simple, only attaching packs and heads, and the poses and casts are comparable to the best offerings in lead. I tried to paint toward the campaign look, and appreciated the numerous covered shako options. I'm afraid that my own knowledge of these uniforms is not entirely up to scratch, so things like plume colors and march order may be a bit off. I've left off the ensigns and drummers for now.

The French

I am finding myself more interested than I had originally though I would be in the regular armies of the AWI period. As much as I have enjoyed researching and painting forces like militia irregulars and Indian war bands, the call of the uniformed force kept haunting me.
Having already done a few redcoats, I wanted to try something different, so I ventured into some French soldiers from the revolution. I chose the Saintonge regiment because 1, I could find some good reference pictures, and 2, I really liked the green facing look.
The models I painted for these were Old Glory AWI french soldiers. From certain angles they look fine, but the molds are too narrow, and the men look rather weedy. Some of the faces look good, but others are lacking in detail, anatomy, and expression. Like the whole model, some faces look great from the side, but from the front look squished.
Mass painting has, however, made up for this, and I dare say they look good in a group.
By and by, their charleville muskets are very accurately sculpted.