Quatre Bras 1815

As I know how popular the four days in June 1815 are to most Napoleonic collectors I want to put here some photos which I found in my archive. I can't remember who did this diorama.

But as it is not the small village 18 kilometers south of Bruxelles I thought it worth showing the photos here just to have something different to the usual red squares attacked by cuirassiers:-)

More from Alfreds collection

This time it is a French and Austrian army for the 1859 war in Italy. It is really funny to see the Austrian line converted from Airfix British infantry. Nearly better then the crap we got from Waterloo 1815....

The real thing are these Tirallieurs Algerien from Hong-Kong Japanese infantry!!! Same goes for Zouaves.

 The Grenadiers are just a paintjob which I made myself in the past. I like these red trousers.

And at least some Austrian Ulans in Kittel.

So with French lineinfantry and other units available from Emhar and Strelets and several plastics as well as the good Bersaglieri from Waterloo and Italian line from Lucky-Toys the realisation of such a diorama comes closer. Just good Austrians are still needed.

Adowa

You know I am always interested in the lesser known colonial campaigns. The Italians are one of my favourites here and the battle of Adowa as the largest defeat an European army ever suffered against "savages".
Here a link to the best book I ever read about this subject. I just finished it last week. Hingly recommended!

http://www.naval-military-press.com/campaign-of-adowa-and-the-rise-of-menelik-first-italo-ethiopian-war..html,

Other wars as the war in Lybia (actual topic eh?) are another subject of interest to me.
There is a great blog about Italian military history in my watchlist, but just to show it to you directly, take a look here.

And as he has not all the plates of this series on his blog, here are the rest.

French in Indochina

Hi guys,

searching my favourite blogs and homepages today I came over this link which I want to share with you as I think it is time again for this campaign:-))

Mysore masters

And because it is fun posting here the latest photo I got from the Sculptor. The next two figures will be musketeers.

BTW, if anybody wants to buy figures, the price is always 80 cent for a figure. I got the Anamites, Bengal lancers, Viviandrines and Egyptian infantry last week.

Just send me a mail to wild-heindl@t-online.de

Imperial Mexican infantry 1867

And here my first try to create a regiment for Maximilian. This is an easy conversion, just remove the feather from a Bersaglieri's hat and the rest is a simple paintjob. it will be far more difficult with the Austrian legion..

A collector's paradise

The last two days I had the chance to visit my old hobbyfriend Alfred Umhey. On Wednesday there was one of the usual meetings with around 15-20 people in his house, sharing the news, showing around figures, books, etc. At night we had some beer and wine and in the end around 1 am we went to bed.

Strange, but in this house I always have a very light sleep. Who wonders with all this books and figures around. So after five hours I went up, took my camera and visited the cellar where he has thousands of figures in vitrines.

Do you remember the good old days when we had just Airfix and maybe Esci? When I started collecting figures with my own money the first Esci-sets appeared on the market. We had not much figures these days so we had to make conversions. Alfred is a master in this, he has such great stuff which I want to show you over the next postings. And of course I want to begin with the Sikh wars.

For the Aliwal diorama we made, more than 80% of the figures were from Alfreds collection.. In the meantime we are all reinforcing our armies with the Newline range. Hopefully we can bring another Sikh war diorama on show in the near future.

See here some of Alfreds conversions for the battle of Aliwal.

Skinner horse

 Bengal light cavalry

 16th lancers in close combat. Great conversion ideas which you could make from any lancer in any period.

 Well, this brings "Life" in a diorama....

 Strange Afrika corps conversion eh?

 A great melee

 This he casted in metal because you can't have enough marching and standing on a battlefield

Ok, more will follow soon. But first as next the promised mexican I painted

Mexicans from the vinkhuizen collection

I am sure most of you know the Vinkhuizen collection of uniform-plates.
If not take a look here.

Here are some of the Mexican army in 1862.

Much more regular than just milicias with Sombrero and machete, eh?