A game of musical figures

At some point in the next day or two I’m going to remove the link to The Assault Group and replace it with one to Alban Miniatures. Why? Well, rest assured, it’s not because I’ve had a tiff with the boys at TAG. Nope, rather it’s because TAG has just sold its Richard Ansell-sculpted range of Napoleonic 1809 Austrians and Saxons to Alban, so they won’t any longer have anything of relevance to BfK in their product range.

To be honest, this change ownership doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me. Progress on new releases for the range has been painfully slow and the fact that Ansell also scuplts Napoleonic figures for Alban makes this a natural move. I wish all concerned a fruitful future.

Perry French Imperial Guard horse artillery greens

Perry French line horse artillery greens

Meanwhile, one range that seems to keep growing faster than a weed in a compost heap is the Perry Napoleonic range. The latest additions are set to be French horse artillery of both the line and Imperial Guard varieties. I do have a soft-spot for artillery, especially if the crews offer a good range of poses and all those little extras like caissions are covered. I’ve included a couple of shots of the greens for your enjoyment.

Of course, I’ll be resisting this particular temptation because Calpe Saxon artillery is on my horizon.

September already!

And, for me, that brings thoughts of Autumn evenings and picking up the paint brushes after a Summer of family activities. With that in mind I’ve resumed watching wargaming related happenings on the Web and preparing for a couple of forthcoming hobby-related outings.

First on the list of things I’ve noticed is a relatively new company’s plans to make Napoleonic decals. The idea of making Napoleonic decals is something I’ve mused about here before but a couple of obstacles prevented me progressing any further. Now Alban Miniatures has dipped its toes in the water with some decals for Peninsular War British starting with the 95th Rifles. Each pack contains 51 back pack decals and 48 canteen decals. And, according to the announcement on TMP, they have plans to add further decals for more British regiments and French campaign dress. I wonder if these nice people can be convinced to produce some Prussian decals? It’s always worth asking, the worst they can do is say no…

Next I’ve noticed that Crusader Miniatures has ventured into the increasing crowded market for 28mm French Napoleonics. At present, the first packs in the range look set to tackle the stalwart march/attack pose for French line infantry. So far, five packs have been announced:

• RFH021 – Napoleonic French – Centre Company (eight figures)
• RFH022 – Napoleonic French – Flank Company (eight figures)
• RFH023 – Napoleonic French – Grenadier Company in Bearskins (eight figures)
• RFH024 – Napoleonic French – Command in Shako (four figures)
• RFH025 – Napoleonic French – Command in Bicorne (four figures)

It’ll be interesting to see how these figures turn out in the flesh. I know plenty of people like sculptor Mark Simms’ Seven Years Wars range.

Moving on, I’m in the throes some three-cornered post-holiday e-mail correspondence with Peter F. at Calpe Towers and Grahame at GMB Flags. With the forthcoming Calpe Saxons in mind, Grahame has been working on flags to match and he’s nearly finished the artwork. I’m hoping to persaude him to let me post some preview pictures of the flags here (but they’d obviously be fritzed in some way so naughty people can’t download and use them).

And I’ll leave you with a couple of great examples of the 28mm Napoleonic figure painters art from recent threads on Steven Dean’s forum: check out this Perry French officer painted by Carl Robson (brother of Martin) and this is Sascha Herm’s first ever complete painted Napoleonic unit (hard to believe, isn’t it?). Enjoy the artistry.