Friday 29 March 2013

An introduction to Reject Smiffy

We're at it again, carrying on with the Reject profile shenanigans, and still stolen from Phil's blog. Today as the title suggests I'm profiling Reject Smiffy, while Fran's ripping the pish out of Reject Ian.








The other members of the Gang
Reject Postie
Reject Richard
Reject John

Its all about Reject Smiffy

What the wife thinks he does?


Oom pa oom pa

What he likes us to think he does at work?


What he really does at work!.


A quick stir and two sugars please.

                                                                   A day in Smiffy's life.
              

You may guess that Smiffy likes to dress up??
or 


 Hmm? ok then........

How he sees himself.


He thinks he used to play for West Ham!

How we usual see him.


Smiffy's usual game plan.

If he was in Kelly's Heroes he'd be..... the German tank commander aka Karl Otto Alberty, didn't know his name, but everyone knows the face.



Lastly there's loads of Blog Givaway's floating around at the moment, in no particular order:


A Birthday Give-Away


Ian's got loads of prizes so take a look at his older posts

Ann at Anne's Attic

The Mad Irishwoman giving away lots of figures!



Wednesday 27 March 2013

25mm Napoleonic Generals & Officers


Both me and Postie have been painting up some Napoleonic Generals to sell for Battleaxe Painting Service.
The figure above is of Stapleton Cotton, I seem to remember he's a Foundry model, but I could be wrong.
The French General below is a Perry figure while the next pic is a Front Rank Spanish Dragoon Officer.The last pic is again a Front Rank figure of a Chasseur a Cheval of the Guard Officer. They'll be up for sale on ebay soon for approx £10 each.
I will be [posting a few more pics of the same figures over on the Battleaxe site in the coming days





Monday 25 March 2013

RP No 127 NYW - Col John Mitchelbourne's Foot




Mitchelbourne's foot was originally raised in approx 1688-89 as Viscount Massereene's regt of foot as a regt of Ulster protestant volunteers, they were commanded by the Viscount's son and heir the most excellently named Clotworthy Skeffington. Then later in 1689 they were sent to garrison Derry and were merged into a newly-formed garrison regiment under the command of Colonel John Mitchelbourne.

John Mitchelbourne served at Tangier under Percy Kirke, 1680-83, he was commissioned as major by Prince of Orange, 5 Feb. 1689 and  was involved in Carrickfergus landing of William III, he commanded Skeffington’s foot at Cladyford and in the City of Londonderry. He was made the deputy-governor by of Londonderry by Henry Baker, on the 17th June 1689 and  acted as military governor throughout the siege, becoming governor with George Walker at Baker’s death, and sole governor after the relief of Derry in 1689. He also apparently refused a bribe of £10,000 from the Jacobite leaders to join their fight. His regt fought at the Boyne and at the siege of Sligo in 1691.

These troops were entered into Curt's Challenge back in the beginning of March with some other Nine Years War figures and earned me a combined 126 points. The flags and uniform are both pure conjecture, but I'm quite pleased with them!












Thursday 21 March 2013

RP No126 Gripping Beast-Andalusian Horse & The Challenge



Well the Analogue Painting Challenge is now over for another year. I wasn't a winner this year but I'm very pleased with my 4th place. I made my quota of points which was 2500, but as the reigning champ Curt put me up to 3000, so technically I suppose I didn't. I'd have needed a couple more weeks to get to the 3000 mark.
I did originally reach the lofty heights of 3rd place, knocking KevH down to 4th, but I noticed a clerical error made by our sleepy Canadian host. Curt inadvertently gave me an extra 148 points!!! So back down to 4th I go. I'm just pleased I made the top 5, which was both my and Fran's plan.
I've already said it on Curt's blog, but I'd just like to thank him again, its been a hard 3 month slog, but I've got a hell of a lot of figures painted up, some of them probably would still be in my lead draw for quite some time if it wasn't for the Challenge. Its such a great motivator. I do hope I'm able to devote so much time in the next Challenge, but that depends on my job, if I even have one at Christmas that is!!!!
Well done Curt and well done to all the other Ronin, apart from Fran!


This was my entry into the Analogue Painting Challenge on the 14th March, these 12 Gripping Beast Andalusian Horse gave me 122 points to my total. They've been at the bottom of my unloved lead drawer for far too long, I do infact have another almost identical unit all cleaned up and ready to go, perhaps I should save them for the next challenge though????
I gave these figures just a basic paintjob, mainly to match in with my older El Cid figures that were painted years ago. I found the banner online, on the Grimsby Wargames Society website, there are some great free flags, go take a look.
I'll be posting more of what made it into the challenge over the coming weeks, as well as the rest of the Rejects profiles on both my and Fran's blog.








Wednesday 20 March 2013

An Introduction to Reject Richard







Carrying on with the Reject shenanigans, and still stolen from Phil's blog. Today bought on another  toss of the coin this time between Rejects Richard and John.(Click for Fran's post)

The other members of the Gang
Reject Postie

Its all about Reject Richard

What the wife thinks he does?




What he likes us to think he does at work?


What he really does at work!.


Bore the kids shitless!

                                                                   A day in Richard's life.

                                                              

 Its fun to stay at the YMCA

How he sees himself.

 The Gentleman Reject

How we usual see him.


Stuck in the corner with crap troops, but all the grub!
Can't be too bad!


If he was in  'allo 'allo he'd be..... Rene Artois


As he likes ALL things French........


Wonder who's next?????
It could be you!!!!!

Monday 18 March 2013

The Battle of Uccle 1815- A Napoleonic fictional batrep


The Battle of Uccle 20th June 1815

At the Battle of Hal yesterday all eyes were on Prince Frederick of the Netherlands as he prepared to fight a rearguard action against the French 2nd Corps under Reille. After a crushing defeat the French pulled back to re-organize for another assault on the Anglo-Allied position. Fearing an out-flanking move by the French, Frederick evacuated Hal and headed towards Brussels, where he would be closer to Wellington, which also brought Wellington some valuable time to reorganize his army.
The Game
Frederick has halted his tired army at Uccle a small village 2-3 miles south of Brussels, knowing the French are following, Frederick sent urgent messages to Wellington for help. Can the young Prince win another great victory and secure the future of the Netherlands?
Napoleon furious with Reille has reluctantly sent more troops to help him out and no doubt he has only one more chance left to succeed, before he will be replaced. Napoleon is unable to overview the situation in person as he is preoccupied with the Prussians, who have been giving Grouchy the runaround on the right flank. (Could this be another scenario?) The game begins with the young Prince Frederick awaiting the French onslought, can he hold on or are the French going to be victorious?????



The initial set up, the French on left the Allies on the right.



The French
Fran - Comte Foy, 9th Div, Smiffy - 6th Division - Prince Jerome Bonaparte, 
BigLee- Kellerman 3rd Cavalry Corps, Ian-5th Division, Gen Baron Bachelu


The Allies
Surj - L/Col HH Mitchel - 4th Brigade, Clint - Col Olfermann - Brunswick C/O, 
Brian (Lead Legion) - L/Gen Colville 4th British Division


Me - Prince Frederick of the Netherlands C/O. I was in-between
Clint and Brian


Brian's command The British and Hanoverian's on the Allied left.


The village of Uccle, in the centre.


Contractual pic of Stalin himself!!!


The Allied right. On the extreme right are the two heroes of the Battle of Hal.
The Breman & Verdun Hussars and the Prince Regents Hussars.


The dirty French advance in the centre.


The Breman & Verdun and the Prince Regents Hussars 
move out to try and slow down the French advance.


Clint's Brunswick 1st brigade including the Avant-Garde in front
arrive and start to move to the hill.


My view of the Battle, The Dutch and Belgian line and Militia units 
this was our weakest point (thanks Postie!!) The white flagged units were line class, while the 
orange, white and blue flagged units on the right were the Militia. Each time I went to move the units I had to throw a D6, on a throw of a 1 the unit would become disordered, hence the two goddam yellow markers!!



The first charge of the day, BigLee's 3rd Cuirassiers charged the Breman & Verdun Hussars. The Cuirassiers were in column and the Hussars took the charge at the halt.
Surj threw well and beat the French column.


Another charge this turn, the Prince Regent Hussars charge the guns, who both ran off before contact could be made. This left the Hussars in a bit of a precarious position. Standing in front of two regts of French Heavy horse and with a line unit in its flank. We all though Surj could kiss the unit goodbye. Ian fired into the flank of the Hussars, he threw 8 D6 needing a only a 4,5 or 6!!!
he only got 1 kill!
Thank you Dice Gods!


Lunchtime
Bloody pig!


Decision time for me??
I moved down off the hill with two Dutch units, the 1st and 5th Outer East Indian battalions just to try and slow down the French advance, hopefully giving time for our  reinforcements to turn up. Probably a bad idea?


The wasn't much going on on our left flank, Brian was taking pot shots at Fran's infantry knocking a few hats off. BigLee's 11th cavalry division moved around to their flank. Our original plan was to move the two British line regts to village area. But we received a message saying the French had been sighted on our left flank.....so they stayed put.


A fluke artillery shot blew the head off of the French Divisional leader causing a brigade check, which Lee duly failed. That was good news for Surj, as it only left the1st Carbineers to challenge the Prince Regents Hussars. Surj threw well but lee threw better. Th Hussars were killed to the man!!!!


I'm not liking this at all, there's a lot of  French coming this way!!


The Dutch 1/5th Outer East Indian battalion, were charged by two French columns under Ian's control ( they were actually Smiffy's troops, but Ian was taking charge!!) And what made it worse was that Smiffy was listening for a change!



Oh thank God!!!!! Allied re-inforcements!!!
The Union Brigade and the 2nd Brunswick line Brigade
But are they in time or not???


The 1/91st have their flank threatened, by Fran's Legere sneaking through the woods.

Oh crap!!!!
Smiffy fired his first shot into the village of Uccle with his newly arrived heavy artillery.
Major-Gen F d'Hauw the leader of the Dutch 1st Division was killed and buried 
under the rubble of two houses.
This caused a brigade check.


And this was the result.
The whole 1st Dutch Division ran!!!!


Here's the whole they left?
As the commander i decided our position was untenable, we were cut in half.
So the trumpets were blown and the Allies left the field in good order, ready to fight another day!! 


Smiffy received the MVP, for a very accurate artillery shot!


At the end of the game Postie presented Clint and Brian with a little memento of the day


Brian the Scot & Clint the Brit!