Sunday, November 29, 2020

Hanoverians and some buildings

 

I finally got the Hanoverians finished this weekend. Happy days. They took longer than they should have (I see a theme developing there), but not due to any lack of enjoyment in painting them. Quite the opposite in fact. I like the simple standing pose with these ones - there’s a certain classic toy soldier charm to it, and it made getting in about them with the paintbrush nice and easy. The landwehr-style caps seems to be how Hanoverian Naps are generally depicted these days, but from what I understand there is a strong case to argue that they wore shakos during the 1815 campaign, which is broadly the time I’m building the Anglo-Allied collection for. Either way, I preferred painting them with the caps, since it always makes a refreshing change from shakos.

Finding the right flag for the unit proved to be quite a challenge. Napflags on the excellent warflag.com website doesn’t have any Hanoverians, and my internet searches didn’t turn up anything readily useable. In the end, I went with one of Warflag’s Hanoverian flags from the War Of the Spanish Succession. I know, it’s probably not the done thing, and I’m stretching the artistic license by about 100 years, but in my defence I would say that not a lot is known about the Hanoverian flags at Waterloo. It’s yellow and red and has a white horse, so it’ll do these lads just fine.


The buildings you see are by Total Battle Miniatures, from their 15mm range. After using their 10mm buildings for a while, I decided the size just wasn’t quite big enough for my 20mm minis. These 15mm buildings on the other hand are an excellent fit for my purposes. As you can see from the officer leading the Hanoverians to church for a quick prayer before battle begins, the buildings are just tall enough to look realistic, but the footprint is not too large.

I’m not the best at painting model buildings. In fact, I often find it a chore, but these TBM models look great on the tabletop. I’ll take some better photos when there’s a chance to use my DSLR again. These pics were all snapped using my tablet, partly because of my own laziness tonight and partly out of consideration for our greyhound, Mr C, who has a rather bizarre fear of the noise of cameras shuttering. The sound of it is enough to leave him trembling in a corner somewhere. We’re not quite sure why.  I suppose like many rescue pets, there’s probably a tale or two that we don’t know about him. Chased once too often by paparazzi, maybe?

This photo is going back quite a few years. Mr C has a lot more grey hairs now than he did back then (a bit like me). Note the black cat. That’s Dewey, our other rescue pet. The look on his face is telling you in no uncertain terms that this seat is well and truly taken. Note also the funky carpet (this is our old house), which we inherited from the previous owners. It somehow survived most of the 10 years we lived there, even though we decided it would absolutely be the first thing to go after we moved in. I later learned it was an Axminster carpet. Probably cost a fortune. I remember it had this special ability of being able to camouflage cat puke and other such nasties for long periods of time. I would occasionally drop wargaming paraphernalia on it, never to be seen again.

Anyway, I digress...

8 comments:

  1. Lovly Hannovrians, buildings...and animals!

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  2. Great models, Osprey men at arms do a book on "Hanoverian Army of the Napoleonic Wars 1789-1816" but I do not know if any flags are shown.
    As for buildings I discovered that Helion Books do a series of paper cut out books for wargamers by Peter Dennis. Of interest to you may be European Buildings. I downloaded the book and can make as many as I need. I have reinforced all my buildings with card (cereal boxes). The buildings are designed to match their 28mm cut out soldiers. I downscaled to 85%.

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    1. Hi Mike, yes I picked up Peter Dennis' paper buildings book a while back and made up a few of them. I think they're great, although my printer doesn't do them justice. I used a paper weight of about 190gsm, which I found was sturdy enough to make the buildings. I think I prefer the TBM ones (even though I don't especially enjoy painting buildings), but I'll probably use a mix of the two.

      I got the Osprey Hanoverians book just before starting on this unit, but unfortunately it doesn't go into any detail on the flags, only that after 1814 Hanoverian militia units were no longer considered part of the British army and had their own emblems on their flags. I'll keep looking though. I might downsize some 28mm flags if need be. Cheers, Kevin

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  3. Ha!!, just seen a photo of yours with Peter Dennis' paper buildings so disregard above message lol x

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  4. They look great. The caps are fun and it's always nice to have a bit of variety on the table (and to paint), as you say.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks James. I completely agree - the more variety the better. It think it also helps to distinguish them from regular British line and KGL, too.

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  5. Great paint Job. Yep tried to research for the flags myself and very limited info. So just went with facing colours and either the Han Horse in Red circle like yourself or the Han Royal Symbol and had a go making the flags myself but not really a patch on NapFlags etc Im afraid. Also mixed Caps and Shako for the two Brigades I did for Waterloo and they look the part.



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    1. Yes, going with the facing colours always seems like the right choice. At least the lack of information on the Hanoverian flags means that no-one can ever say you're wrong! Once all the figure painting is done I tend to be impatient to get everything based and finished off, so the flags are often a late thought. Maybe I'll try starting with the command group and the flags next time.

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