This is the Marshal Ney figure from Newline Designs, which I finished a while ago but hadn't got round to basing. I was originally going to add a foot soldier or perhaps another general to the base, but in the end I used some small, circular mdf bases covered in filler (with a hole cut in the top one) to create a kind of water trough. Not a very grand feature for a general's base, I know, but it's something different I suppose, and done partly for the sake of trying out the Woodland Scenics resin water I bought recently (which turned out well, but you can't really see it in this photo). I found pictures online of rectangular stone water troughs from the early 19th century, but I'm not certain there were circular ones. Seems plausible though.
None of the books I've read so far on the Napoleonic Wars has covered the life and exploits of Marhsal Ney in any great detail, and I would certainly like to read a good biographical account of this legendary soldier. There are a few to choose from, but nothing recently published in English that I have found so far. I like the look of A. H. Atteridge's book, Marhsal Ney: The Bravest Of The Brave, first published in 1912 but reprinted by Pen & Sword in 2015. It looks like a good place to start, so I'll track down a copy of that.
I'll do a big French army update in my next post!
