I have been working on two battalions of the Old Guard, in this case the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 1st Grenadiers. These two battalions formed the elite, not only of the French Army, but the Imperial Guard itself.

The regiment remained in reserve throughout the battle and is shown around Maison Lacoste to the south of La Belle Alliance.

The figures are a mix of Zvezda and Hinton Hunt with a few others including conversions thrown in. There are about 1,200 figures shown here; this was a huge amount of work and has left me wishing never to see another Old Guard Grenadier ever again!

Having said that, I have now completed ten battalions of Old and Middle Guard, leaving five to finish.









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Horse trough - thank you Bessiere!












More here at my Blog: http://generalpicton.blogspot.com. Many thanks to all who helped with this!

Breath taking! What an amazing scene.

May I enquire what paints you use, and do you have any special techniques to produce large volumes of such excellent figures please?

Many thanks Graham! In fact, these figures were pre-painted to a basic standard in high gloss and the blue coats were the wrong colour. I started out by giving them a matt varnish to dull the gloss. Then I repainted the coats in Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. The I repainted the black in Vallejo Flat black. I picked out the white in a fresh Vallejo flat white and then did all the gold and silver. Small details like the white grenade on the red patch on the top of the bearskin cap makes the figure stand out. About 20% needed new bayonets which was a pain. I gave the faces a quick wash in Vallejo. If I was doing this from scratch I would have spray painted them in a matt black and then used Vallejo. All figures on the road had to be removed from their stands. Hope this helps.

Wow, that is amazing. Great job.

Bunkermeister

Bonjour à tous,

J'étais et je suis encore une fois admiratif de ce travail. C'est magique.

Merci pour cette démonstration de savoir faire.

Hervé

Merci Herve!

That is very useful and helpful. Thank you for the detailed reply; I have large numbers of WSS to paint and even though I love the end result I find painting a bit of a chore so always looking for tips!

I am as always in awe of your work, not just the spectacle ,but of the amount of time and effort you and your friends put in to this project, this has probably been asked before and forgive me for not remembering the reply, but what are the long term plans for display of your magnificent works ? .

Hi Alan, many thanks for your kind words. The project is designed to be gradual and modular - ie we are not rushing to completion and we can show all or parts of the model at a specific exhibition.

Each section of the model (90cm by 130cm) has its own box and is stored in a dry barn by my house.

Periodically, the model is displayed - perhaps in a school or a museum. Its next exhibition will be at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, UK. This will involve the largest and most ambitious part of the project, namely the French cavalry charges and Allied squares. Because this is such a large undertaking we are focussing on getting the various regiments and battalions ready before constructing the terrain.

The final destination for the model is yet to be decided. We need somewhere that meets the following criteria:

1. Big enough to house a diorama as large as a tennis court
2. Secure enough to protect the model from light, dust, damp, insects and human touch.
3. Relevant to Waterloo
4. With enough footfall for people to see it.

All suggestions gratefully received!

James

Another great piece of eye candy. A great way to start the week. It would truly be something to see the entire project completed.

Thank you , well I have been a regular visitor to the one in the rifles museum in Winchester, yours will eclipse it with ease. A suggestion off the top of my head may be the county museum in Taunton, it has space to house the Somerset light infantry /40th/13th regimental history so the link to the battle exists. Further more like some other museums it has got rather dull of late and could do with a display with the WOW effect. Well done again ,so impressed with all your work.