I've now just about finished the Mont St Jean section of my Waterloo diorama by adding another 120 figures. Hope you enjoy the results:



Outside the east gate:










Burial pits:



French prisoners:





I'm reasonably pleased with the brick and mortar effect:







The ground hasn't completely dried out so the white halo effect will go:





Close ups:



Don't like the join in the road:





French prisoners looking doleful:



Dead horses dragged to burial pit:



Side gate:













More on my blog here: http://generalpicton.blogspot.com

Next, I'm going to complete two French battalions assaulting La Haye Sainte.

One word.......amazing! Wonderful work as usual from you and your team. So many figures of all sorts, conversions & rare poses. The brickwork does indeed look good & as for the join in the road, well if its not easy to hide, could it be explained away as a drainage cut in the road perhaps?!

Just one side note;
having sadly had to deal with removing a passed horse out of a field on the equestrian centre I used to work at, I can testify it was extremely hard work trying to move a passed horse. Not easy when they are alive and well being stubborn either!!
Average riding horses the size the cavalry could of used may of been anywhere in the half a ton weight range give or take.
These days we have things like tractors to help, but back then in 1815....no tractors!
So it may be an idea to have a few more men involved when trying to move such a huge dead weight (literally), or even utilise spare limber horses to help drag their unfortunate comrades. I imagine 1 or 2 men would of struggled.

Either way, your scene is wonderfully done, despite the harsh but true topic.

Hi Roger, you make a very good point about the weight of the dead horses. I think we can be sure that burial took place in the days after the battle, but I wanted to tie it in with the work of Waterloo Uncovered. I'm not sure I have any more men 'taking the strain' but will look some out but your idea of a draught horse is a better one. Thank you very much!

I am sure there had to be some spare cavalry horses, officers mounts, limber & wagon horses around following the hours and days after the battle. Such a commodity would of likely been seized regardless what army or regiment they were stray from.
Fit and able survivors of destroyed artillery teams, caissons etc, probably found other uses among the army. Dare say some officers would of requested or even ordered the use of some to get the grim job done as quickly as they could.

Maybe even any farm/land owners who had any "heavy" horses spare to lend a hand or perhaps even a few cattle for pulling?
After all, I imagine it was in the local interest to not only reclaim their battle scarred land back for farming, but also to prevent disease in their area.

As usual, great dramatic shots and superb attention to detail. Always a pleasure looking at the progress of your project.

Roger and James,
An interesting discussion of another aspect of the horrors of war. Moving a dead-weight of 500 kg+ is not easy work even with the help of a tractor is it Roger?! In my case, when our old girl was euthanised, I had to try to dig a hole in hard, dry summer soil too.
A lot of them were likely cut up and eaten, don't you think? The field post-battle was immediately scoured for items of value. Horse flesh would have likely been amongst this?
Civilian scourers of a battlefield were not big memoirists.
Mind you, we have the memoirs from the French-allied soldiers re-crossing the battlefield of Borodino commenting on the stench of unburied bodies of men and horses. Still, that was a specific and different circumstance since the locals had 'vanished' and the invading army went onwards to Moscow to defeat in 'victory'.
Regards, James

The longer I admire the pictures, then I can begin to imagine the emotions of the interactions between the wounded, the medical staffs, and even the French Prisoners. All so real, and would make a good movie, at least a major part of the telling of the story that is this battle! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks Garrison (and everyone), much appreciated. I'm working on two French battalions, about 1200 men, so there will be a short gap before further updates.