45eme de Ligne

I'm getting older, I can't deny it.  The other day I went to a rave and didn't dance at all.  Granted it was held in a shopping mall rather than a warehouse, and I was sober, but nevertheless; pensionable behaviour.

Also, it seems to take me 50% longer to finish a Napoleonic unit than it used to, and that's not even allowing for the reduced amount of free time to dedicate to painting I have whilst doing my Masters Degree.  The unit presented here realistically reflects 30 hours of toil, possibly too little return for the time?

But regardless, the 45eme de Ligne are ready for battle:

Ligne in Line

In column from the rear

 Half way through painting I was almost ready to give up on these, as they looked absolutely awful, but such is the long process with uniforms of this detail, that you have to just stick with it until they're done, it's only in the last few hours of labour that the effort is rewarded.  The converted Colonel came out rather well too.

Converted Colonel

I hope I never have to build and paint another regiment of Victrix French infantry though.  They are just too fiddly!

The 45eme is a regiment with a long and colourful history in the Napoleonic wars, with battalions serving in both Napoleon's Western and Eastern campaigns, as well as finally winding up at Waterloo.  You would do worse than to read up the short version of this at the site of their Re-enactment Group.

With these and the German allies I did earlier in the year, the infantry shortfall in my French force is somewhat resolved, still not enough to exactly match my Anglo-Portuguese, but much closer to balance.

Packed with goodies!

There are now 5 boxes like this, packed with British, French, Spanish, Portuguese and German troops; getting on for over 600 of them.

Probably time to try and get another game arranged, eh?