My first ever terrain piece and some Guard Chasseurs a pied

 We've got a big game coming up end of April - so called Borodino light - or an excuse to get the toys out! To this end we needed a big hill on which to place the Russian batteries. Please see above for my first efforts at terrain construction with an old / new French guard chasseur battalion.

 Most of the unit was painted about two years ago but I got hold of the above about six months ago.

 They have now been painted bringing the unit upto 36 figures. There is a problem though: my painting has improved and I also forgot which blue I had used for the old figures. Oh well, I think they look ok!

 Here's the completed board with a Russian battery on it for scale.

 Close up of the battery.

 From a bit further away showing the slope.

 Construction was based on a 4x4ft square board I acquired from somewhere. The "hill" is made from some old car matts from my old Alfa Romeo (the garage screwed me on price and didnt include matts on my new car so I took the old ones out of spite!) that have been glued to the board.

The "grass" is constructed of matting from a garden centre that is used to fill hanging baskets.  I think it looks good.
Yes, those are tomato plants; I even picked ten more tomatoes yesterday! 
Hope you like.

Front Rank Bavarians

 Front Rank Bavarians painted as a commission last year.

 Bit too over fed for my tastes but nice figures all the same.

 These arent display shots but rather ones sent to the client for him to check over

 He was very pleased with the figures although we did have issues with DHL / US customs....

 Hope you enjoy the pictures.

The best laid plans of mice and men.................

Well, 2011 was a massive year for painting for me.  I completed 5 very large commissions (over 2,000 figures in total) as well as painting quite a bit for me.  One of my regular clients (who I am completing some work for as we speak ) reckons I am getting better!  Seeing as I am charging him the same he is getting some value there.

The pictures arent very good, with very poor lighting but I think you get the drift.

 Naples Chasseur trumpeter now in Texas.

 Naples general

 Front Rank Polish fusilieer - an experiment really to see if I could still paint the Foundry way.

 French light infantry for a client

 6 x 36 battalions of them!

 Same client's Russians.

One thing that is going really well, and I hope to have painted figures up soon, are my Poles that Paul Hicks has sculpted for me. These should be available for sale Mid Feb as I want some painted for me first!  A reminder of what they look like:

And on a final note this wargaming malarkey is rather contagious isnt it?  From not being interested at all four or five of us (inlcuding Ken, Simon - Big Red Bat - Miller, Will "The Belgian" ) are planning a quasi refight of Borodino at Chez Blaireau end of March. So, if you live near Edwalton in Nottingham pop along and throw some dice!  If you are competitive, tee-total and gamesy however the offer is withdrawn as there will drinking, eating, cigar chomping, cat spoiling (my cat has Ken trained to open doors at her whim) as well as some very bad jokes.

2nd battle of Murowski-Staag

 Marshal Ney leads the French cavalry to doom.........................

 My new (metal) French Cuirassier unit

 Side view

 Evil Russian horde - part of the new painting commission

 My jaegars out front but the rest are now Ken's.

 French cavalry brigade that obviously got wiped out

 French in L'Ordre Mixed..........for all the good it did them

 Artillery and Bavarians

 Into the valley of death road the slaphead....................

 Right, as many of you know I am no wargamer, but I am confused.  Please see picture above. The French got 11 dice but teh Russians got 16. How?  Same number of figures, same number being able to fight.  If I continue with this wargaming malarkey I dont think I'll use Blackpowder.

The result was as expected. In other words I lost all my cavalry but my infantry were pretty much holding their own but my entire left flank was about to be rolled up by the victorious Russian cavalry division.

Hope you like the pictures.