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.

Foundry Napoleonic developments

New Foundry 1806 Prussian fusiliers

I expect quite a few other people are subscribers to the Wargames Foundry e-mail newsletter like me. The latest one hit my in-box today and it had me bemused. They’ve just announced the latest extensions to their range of Napoleonics sculpted by Mike (no, definitely not Perry) Percy – more early Prussians. Plus yet another rather unsubtle teaser for their forthcoming and er… imaginatively titled “Napoleon” Napoleonic ruleset.

That’s all fairly non-controversial and if you’re into that period of the Prussian army, the figures may merit a closer look though, if they’re like Percy’s earlier Portuguese sculpts, then they’re not to my taste. No, the thing that has me scratching my head is the rumour about what’s coming next. Now, fair enough, it is only rumour so we shouldn’t set too much store by it but…

The next two releases are alleged to be 1809 Saxons and 1805 Russians. This seems an odd combination to me. I guess 1805 Russians could still be used for 1807 but how much of the remnants of the Prussian army fought in that campaign? So those two ranges don’t really complement each other. Also, the Russians were no-shows for 1809, weren’t they? So how does doing 1809 Saxons fit with that? Or is this classic Foundry spoiling tactics to steal a march on the Assault Group ranges of 1809 Saxons and Austrians? Oh, as an aside, check out the latest sculpts of Austro-Hungarian hussars for that range (you may need to register with the TAG forum first).

Perhaps Foundry are just aiming to provide a variety of French opponents but it seems more like a WTF range than a WF one.

Pre-holiday wrap-up

As of tomorrow night, I’m off on my holidays for two weeks so don’t expect much action here. By way of compensation, I thought I’d give you a few things to chew over in my absence.

Firstly, I’ve picked up on some stuff going on over at TAG. They’ve already started on a Richard Ansell scuplted range of Napoleonic Austrians which look nice from the pictures I’ve seen (pity they weren’t at Salute in the Spring for me to see these figures in the flesh). Now it sounds as though work has begun on some 1809 Saxons to complement the Austrians. In digging around to find out more I discovered the TAG Forum (another fine example of me being unable to see what’s right under my nose). If you register for this and go into the Napoleonic forum there’s quite a few treats in store including several work-in-progress shots on the sculpting for both the Austrian and Saxon ranges.

Meanwhile, a muckle big beastie is stirring north of the border (see, being married to a Scot means I know how to speak the lingo). Messrs. Imrie and Hilton have teamed up again and they’re in the throes of a new Napoleonic project that promises to be of epic proportions. Some early painting photos have appeared on Steve Dean’s forums but David and Barry have set up a sort of blog to document their progress in the League of Augburg site. At a 1:5 figure ratio, the size of some of the units will drain the blood from your faces – David is in the middle of painting one French battalion of over a hundred figures. Needless to say, I’ll be following this closely. To think I’m having trouble finishing a 30-odd figure unit!

Lastly, I just wanted to pick up on a couple of comments/requests:

@Phil (and others): it’s Summer hols for Calpe too. When we’re all back to normal in September I’ll bring you an update about the infamous vulcanizer problems and the 1813 Saxons. If things work out, I might even have a special photo-story posting to share.

@Simon: I haven’t forgotten your request about jaeger pictures. It’s just that life’s been hectic in the run-up to the holiday. What I hope to do is take some new pictures with the new camera using the lamp shade light box idea I mentioned recently.

If you’re in bonnie Scotland over the next two weeks, look and for me and say hello. Also, I’ll be at Colours 2008 next month but probably on the Saturday rather than the Sunday this year due to a social engagement diary clash.

UPDATE (8 Aug 2008): I knew there was something else I meant to mention. The latest Foundry e-mail newsletter has announced that they’ll be having an open day in the Autumn. No actual date has been sent yet but they are look for volunteers to bring along their own armies of Foundry models and put on games upin Nottingham, especially if you have forces for Foundry’s 1644 English Civil War rules or Medieval Warfare rules. Not Napoleonic, I know, but it might make a fun outing.