15mm Napoleonic Hessians

by Grahame Horwood

Hi, my name is Graham as I have a problem. I collect 15mm figures and have done so for about 20 years. This has resulted in me having quite a few armies, both painted and unpainted.

I am not a great painter but tend to paint to a “Wargames Standard”, which allows me to paint armies fairly quickly. I am probably not as quick as Mike, who tends to beat me in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge most years, but I can get quiet a few done when I set my mine to it.

In the middle of last year I decided the units in my Napoleonic armies were too small, having only 24 Infantry figures and 12 Cavalry figures per unit. Therefore, I decided to increase the unit scale to one figure representing 20 men. This seemed like a good idea at the time but it has taken me year to finish, well nearly, the French and Austrian armies only.

A couple of weeks ago I started on the Hesse – Darmstadt Brigade. Obviously this being me, it turned into two brigades, when I found I enjoyed painting the older type of uniform.

The first photo shows the two brigades together with a battery of artillery. I tend only to paint one limber per battery. This is because I hate painting limbers and AB Limbers for every gun would cost a fortune.

All the figures are AB.

As mentioned, I liked the older Hess and uniform so these are Prussian Early War figures painted as Hessians for the 1809 Austrian Campaign. Each Infantry Battalion consists of 32 figures and the artillery Battery three guns. I don’t have any cavalry as yet, but do have other Confederation of the Rhine cavalry, so I’m not in a hurry to paint them as yet. The uniforms are painted using W. J. Rawkins books.

Each Brigade consists of two Battalions and a Light Infantry Battalion. The first Brigade consists of two battalions of the Garde zu Fub and the

Photo: - Two Battalions of the Garde zu Fub Regiment (in blue uniforms) and the Garde Fusiliers (in Green)

Following Photo: 1st Battalion of The Garde zu Fub

 

Following Photo: Garde Fusiliers

 

The Second Brigade consisting of two Battalions of the Leib Regiment (in the blue uniforms) and a battalion of the Fusilier Leib.

Following Photo: 1st Battalion Leib Regiment

Finally the Foot Artillery consisting of two field guns and a howitzer. The limber does look a lot smaller that it actually is, although are AB figures.

I am currently working on the Baden Brigade, the Dutch Brigade and the Italians. Although I am awaiting some more figures to arrive before I can finish the Italians. So the next entry to the blog should be the Baden and Dutch Brigades.