Military Miniatures

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

The Bren Gun Carrier Crew have been painted and fitted into the vehicle. The driver (seated figure) was difficult to fit into position. In the end I took out the steering wheel, glued the figure onto the seat, but without his arms. After refitting the steering wheel the driver’s arms were glued into place. No such problem with the officer standing up and leaning on the Bren gun carrier’s front. After moving the Bren gun to the left, the figure was easily glued into place.

The completed bren gun carrier crew in place

You can’t see in these photos, but the driver has tatoos on his arms!

The French Lancer has also been based. I decided to place the bucket directly onto the polished wooden base instead of on the model’s base.  It gives this model of the French Lancer a bit of individuality.

French Lancer Based

I have a number of projects on the go all at the same time. So, instead of launching off into yet another diorama, I have decided to sort out all the ‘little jobs’ that need to be completed before going further.

The French Lancer  was missing a bucket. That has now been painted with thin washes of various shades of brown for the wooden staves, silver with a number of reddish brown washes over the top for the two iron hoops and yellow/green/brown for the bucket rim.

The wooden bucket

And now complete with artificial water.

A bucket of water

I have used an oblong wooden base from Andrea which I have now stained with wood dye and am in the process of varnishing with a dark, gloss coating. This base is a bit larger larger than the figure’s own base so I am thinking about putting some extra plaster/scenery around the figure to use up the area.

The Infantry Square now has a hand made “L” shaped wooden base of darkly stained and polished wood. This is now ready for the individual fitting of the 40 odd infantry figures, followed by the ground or grass on which they will be standing.  I decided not to add the charging French Dragoon figures. Instead these 4 mounted figures will be put on their own round base with appropriate coloured and churned up ground. That base has now also been stained and varnished. Looking at the picture below, I have just realised that the two separate bases make quite a powerful diorama!

The L base for the infantry square and round base for the mounted dragoons

And I have built and undercoated two 1/32 scale British Bren Gun Carrier crew that I promised to do for someone.

Bren Gun Carrier Crew

A busy few days and almost ready for the next diorama.

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