French Napoleonic Transport

A few years ago we were going to use a set of Napoleonic rules where there had to be an area of dead ground behind a deployed artillery battery. Rather than simply using the limbers to designate the area I had the idea of using various other vignettes. To this end I bought various models to use. Then as can be expected we did not use the rules ?.

These models have since been in my “pile of potential” ever since as they have no real value on the wargames table. To give me a break from painting ancients and with the Spring Clean Challenge will this give me the motivation to get them done.

The first set out of the pile is the Perry Miniatures “field forge”. The first challenge was assembly of the various parts without gluing my fingers together with superglue!

Now as can be seen it is not just the forge but the farrier and assistant, customer and an interested bystander.

Next steps will be the research into the uniforms for the farrier and also a decision as to what hussar uniforms need to be painted. My French army is mainly focused on the Peninsular War so I need to identify which hussars were deployed and when.

The forge is almost complete started by giving it a base coat of Vallejo Air Olive Green with the airbrush and then dry brushed with the Foundry French Artillery olive green. It then got a coat of Army Painter Soft tone to knock it back.

The next step was to start picking out the iron work was picked out with Vallejo Gun Metal Grey, the wood with Foundry Spearshaft. The iron work was then given a wash with Vallejo light rust. Work still needs to be done on the actual “coals” to make it look like they are working with the forge.

Time to start looking at the figures that came with the forge and starting with the farrier and his assistant.

While looking for details of the uniforms came across two differing descriptions the first is that the jackets were chestnut brown and the second that they were “steel grey” which is a blue grey colour. Looking at my own library decided to go with the references that showed the “steel grey” uniform.

Next it was down to the customers. As most of my army is based on the Peninsular War I needed to find a regiment of hussars who served in the theatre. I have already painted the 2nd Hussars whose uniform was Brown jackets and sky blue trousers so I didn’t want to replicate them.

I therefore decided to go with the 1st Hussars who wore a sky blue uniform.

Finally based the finished travelling forge. So here is the completed model.