Military Miniatures

See a video of my British Infantry Square at Waterloo on YouTube

Both the British Infantry Square and the charging French Heavy Cavalry have had the scenic dressing added to their bases, completing my diorama of a corner of a British square at Waterloo.

The French dragoons and the British Infantry were kept on different bases, and the final shapes I chose for the bases has worked well. Even though these are two small dioramas, they capture the movement and feel of a real cavalry charge in Napoleonic times. I am very happy with how they have turned out and how well the two separate dioramas combine together to tell one story.

The corner of a British Infantry Square at Waterloo

The charging French Heavy Cavalry

French Heavy Cavalry charging a British Infantry Square at Waterloo

I have been giving some thought to the final layout of my interpretation of a corner of a British Infantry Square at the battle of Waterloo.

The infantry figures are small (25mm tall) and therefore the base will have to be thin so as not to overwhelm the figures. Normal sized bases would reduce the impact of the diorama.

So I have decided to mount the infantry figures onto thin card which, in turn, will be mounted onto stained and polished wood some 3 to 4 mm thick.

The picture below shows some scrap card with the infantry, officers, drummers and trumpeter on it so that we can get an idea of the final size of each side of the British Infantry Square.

Final layout of the British Infantry Square Diorama

After trial and error I have taken off the mounted figures as these detracted from the impact of the figures in the sides of the infantry square.  The square ‘hole’ could be filled with scenic grass, footprints and maybe another single foot figure, or, the final wooden base could be cut to the shape of the white card. This would make an unusual base.

Once glued to the thin base, the figures should look like this:

The corner point of the square

Now comes the easy part. Gluing down 40+ figures close together, putting wet plaster between the figures, painting it a muddy colour, add scenic dressing, and all without getting it on the figures!

Today I have painted 4 French heavy cavalry figures, an officer, a trumpeter and two troopers.These will  be charging one flank of the British Infantry Square, but their final position will be trial and error.

French Heavy Cavalry figures

One of the troopers has been slightly modified. I have bent his head backwards and have also bent his sword arm. This is to simulate him being shot and you can see the result in the picture above (top right figure).  The trumpeter’s face has been painted to simulate a young boy or youth and I have to say that these plastic figures from Italari (6003) are of excellent quality.

And here are the 4 French Heavy Cavalry figures mounted on their horses and charging the British infantry square. The effect of the ‘shot’ trooper can be seen better in the picture below. Note the horses legs have also been slightly bent to give movement to them. Perfectly upright horses do not give an impression of galloping.

French Heavy Cavalry

After a mammoth painting session the British Infantry Square is almost there.

The problem I have is stopping myself from adding more (extraneous) figures. My original intention was to have a small number of mounted dragoons in the middle of the square, but to be honest, the middle of my corner of the square is full enough as it is.

So I have decided to stop with my current layout. The infantry square will have 2 part sides. Each side will have 1 front rank of infantry firing and 1 rear rank of infantry loading or preparing to fire. A Sergeant with his ‘halberd’ is keeping one side of the square in line. Each side will have its own officer, trumpeter or drummer. I will retain 1 senior officer on foot and 2 senior officers on horse.

Layout of the Infantry Square showing the last 3 figures to be painted.

The layout is roughly as shown here, with the three figures still to undercoat and paint in their final positions.  If you look at the left of the picture you can see the Sergeant using his halberd to keep the rear rank in line where one of the infantry has fallen to the ground, wounded.

The final shape of the base has not yet been decided. Although I favour the square shape shown here, I wanted to bring in some movement by means of having 3 or 4 French heavy Dragoons charging one face of the infantry square. To have the Dragoons very close to the square would not be so realistic. Putting the Dragoons some way away, charging one flank of the square, would lead to an unusual and off balanced shape. Nevertheless I think I will undercoat and paint up some French Heavy Dragoons and try them in different positions to see what works best.

The British Infantry Square seen by French Cavalry