From MartijnN: QCWk4, Scaling up again..

The past two weeks have been rather hectic and I have been unable to follow the Challenge. I have however just managed to complete a task this week.

First, though, I 'd like to share a memory with you. Last week my father died, rather unexpectedly. My Dad was 81, so I guess unexpected is not entirely true, but somehow you think of your parents as immortal, and there were no signs that he would go so soon. My dad was my best friend. He was not a wargamer in any sense, but he was the one who bought me my first Airfix soldiers when I was a little boy, and he was the one who took me to the only shop that sold tin model soldiers in the Netherlands in 1980, the Boutique De La Grande Armée in The Hague. I think he also bought me my very first wargame figures then, and I still have them. Of course, for a lad of 12 or 13, they had to be the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, and they are Hinchcliffe 25mm. They are still based for the WRG 1685-1845 rules:

The second figure from the left in the front row was painted by my dad as a example; ruining it with a home-made wash was all my own idea, some years later...

Thanks dad for introducing me to a lifetime passion!

As I live in Belgium and my parents in the Netherlands, getting to my parents' and back was not straightforward. Still, both before my journey and since my return I have been able to do some painting.  The weekend before last I had found an unexpected treasure in my pile of shame in the shape of 8 Essex 15mm late Roman clibanarii. I did not remember buying them, must have been sometime in the nineties when I was building an army for the Newbury Fast Play Ancient Rules we then used at our club in Delft.

So I decided to paint them up, using contrast paints, apart from the metallics (which obviously is most of these figures...) which are a mixture of Citadel and Vallejo.

I have based these on a single base, for I am looking into To the Strongest and into Aurelian, the ruleset by Sam Mustafa.

So there you have it. I'll track my way back to the posts of the last week and add some comments here and there!

From PeteF - Old School Napoleonics Finally Get Bases (0 points)

There's a big glass cabinet in my mum's house. It used to hold a good portion of my dad's 100 days campaign Anglo-Allied army. My brother was going to inherit this wonderful collection - there are a few thousand... I haven't yet counted them - but after his untimely passing the "bloody little soldiers" as my mum calls them came to me. Each time I visit I pack some regiments and bring them home. There are still 2 big shelves of the original five full of hussars, light dragoons and red coated infanty. They were painted by my dad in the 1980s and 1990s - humbrol paints with Ospreys for uniform guidance.

Before

These five battalions are from my last visit - the soldiers in the cabinet are lined up in rows with no bases. For wargaming I am putting them four to a 30x40 base, which will do for all the systems they are likely to play (for grand tactical games like Blucher I put 2 bases together - but I'm not sure 25mm is best for these games). I thought about going old school and basing them plainly but decided I like the look of flocking and static grass - so each base gets cat litter for texture and to hide the integral bases, medium brown ballast, blended green flock and some grass.

The troops were collected to represent the whole of Wellington's 100 days army on a ratio of 25:1. I have my dad's index cards - with a card for each unit detailing the models (mainly Minifigs and Hinchcliffe), where the unit was in the order of battle and so on. This has been useful figuring out what's what. Here are three battalions of Kings German Legion line infantry, a battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr and the 14th British Line (the Bucks). I kept the original faded and shiny flags for the 14th.

My Dad's meticulous Index Cards (note the letraset decals)

Some on display - most go to Really Useful Boxes - one day there'll be a wargaming room!

One of my main projects is to paint enough Frenchies to face off against this lot in a really big battle. I doubt I'll have it in me to do Waterloo (over 100 infantry battalions and many many dragoons, chasseurs a cheval and cuirassiers) but I'm slowly assembling enough foot sloggers to recreate Quatres Bras. Whatever happens with the larger project when quaratine is over these troops will be part of a bloody big battle with my wargaming friends. 

For the Quarantine Challenge I'm aiming to complete a hobby project each week - this is one that's been on the shelf since my last trip back to the Old Country in far off 2019.  There are still hundreds of red coats back in England - along with their commander. I agreed with my mum that when the time comes and the last troops leave their original home that Wellington will be the one last out.