PAINTED Napoleonic (Dutch) Belgian cavalry.

These were painted a few months ago, but had yet to appear in full colour on the blog.
So here are the 5th Dutch-Belgian Dragoons for my growing allied army for the Waterloo campaign 1815.

There is also the obligatory "wounded" marker base, which from now on is a bit different then before.

As you can see, there is a small square at one corner of the base. That is not a waterwell, but...

A "dice square"! I don't know how to call it otherwise. I discovered these little helpsome things at the site of Warbases . 

All miniatures are Perry Miniatures.

Together with the already painted 6th Hussars, they form the 2nd light brigade. I only have to paint there famous commander, Major-general Jean-Baptiste Van Merlen. Who died at Waterloo.

PS In the title, (Dutch) is in parentheses, because this unit consisted completely out of Belgians.

Next time - soon - it will be ancients again. Gauls/Celts/Galatians to be a bit more precise.

Being away for a while.

Sorry about that. It's been a bit hectic for some time. Having to follow several courses for my work took lots of free time. So much that I was thinking of giving up my blog completely.
In december I had some time to start painting again, but since the new year, I had lots to do for work, again. I'm almost done now, and the deadline is only end of january, so, time for the hobby again!
I have not been playing a lot of games lately. Some card games (Lord of the Rings CCG) have been played. We (our small gaming group) still have lots of cards from the game.
In between things I did paint a bit, but being the butterfly I am, it is a bit af everything.
I will split up between different things painted in separate messages.

In the last week of december 2015 I painted for the first time in my life World War 2 figures. I got a sprue of Warlords Japanese from a friend in our local club. Since my brother (who even got less time then my) is interested in WW2 Japanese, I painted them up for him. I more or less used the "painting clinic" on the Warlord site (See here), but used slightly different paints (the ones I had available).
The pictures are not that wel made. I quikly sook some snaps, half an hour before he came visiting me.

I think they are not bad for a first try.

Next time - soon, I promise: Napoleonic Dutch Belgians. Yes, that cavalry unit I cleaned up and primed on vacation did got painted!

I'm on vacation, and what better to do than clean up a few figures and put them in black primer.

Reading a book maybe?

Lots of reading, in this book( second part of a biography in Dutch), almost 800 pages long. But by far the best read I yet had in 2015.

My vacation is almost over, so I'll soon start painting those Dutch-Belgian dragoons!

A few pictures of recently painted miniatures.

As the title says, here are a few pictures of freshly painted miniatures.
I painted my first Napoleonic cavalry unit ever, the Dutch 6th Hussars. Lots of detail on these, so it took lots of time to paint them.
Following our Black Powder scale, this is a standard 12 fig unit, plus one casualty base.

All are Perry Miniatures, as are all my Napoleonics.

Next , some artillery for my Dutch-Belgians, a foot battery and a horse battery. (1 gun  = 1 battery)

And last for now, the Perry commemorative  model for Richard III, killed at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, and  which body was found under a parking place on 4 february 2013.

At my blister this, model was called "Return of the King", but for some reason this is changed on the website to "Commemorative Richard III". Why should that be?

As usual, all pictures can be expanded by simply clicking on them.

I hope it won't take too long before a new update. I had a bit of a painters block I guess during summer. And the summer is not yet finished...

Visiting Waterloo, 2015.

I don't live that far away from the battlefield of Waterloo, and to avoid the extreme stir that the memorial weekend will bring, I made my visit on 6th june this year.

There is a new museum, just opened a few weeks ago. It is well worth visiting. You can have a sort of ipod with a clear explanation in most languages.

The first part of the museum is all about Napoleon and the changes that France went through from Louis XVI to the republique. A few of his battles are also shortly introduced.

 The second part of the museum is a large display of uniforms from all armies, as you can see from the pictures.

British troops and command.

French troops.

Dutch-Belgians and Nassau troops.

And Prussians.

Napoleon with his loyal Mamluk serf.

French high command.

At the end of this, you can see a short 3D movie about the battle. The best place to enjoy this movie is at the front rows. There are no seats, so everyone has to stand up, which gives as much as possible the effect of actually being on the battlefield. Very well done!

The last part of the museum is about what happened in Europe after the battle, up to first world war (1914-1918).

You can also enter the old Panorama tower, next to the museum.

Some pictures of this spectacular 360° painting:

And while you are there, why not go up the stairs all the way to the Lion?

The panorama you have from there is worth walking all those stairs.

We also made the short trip to Braine-l'Alleud to see the Wellington museum. Thoug a bit dated now, compared to the new visitors centre, I very much liked this small museum, with some special and sometimes strange object on display. A congreve rocket, among others!

We went back a few hunderd meters and at the other side of the street, you can now visit a temporary exibition named "Histoire en Briques". This can be translated to history in stones. All objects on display here are made with Lego bricks, and have something to do with Napoleon. If you have kids with you do make a visit, they will love it, and so will you probably!

There is also a corner where kids can go constructing their own buildings.

One more warning for those that go to the memorial weekend, if in any way possible DON'T COME WITH YOUR CAR! There is hardly any parking place around the "Butte du Lion", I guess around 200, and with 120.000 tickets sold, Chaos assured...