Napoleonic figures and stands

Dated: December 13, 2001.

Napoleonic figures and stands by Cpt James Hallmark of Crockett, Texas (USA).

Intro: Here are 6 pictures of several of my 1/72 Napoleonic figures and the system of stands I use for displaying and wargaming purposes. I will try and send some later mass wargaming pictures in the future.

This is 4 bns of whitecoated Westphalian Grenadier Guards, c1812 (Esci Guards). Each company of 6 figs is lightly glued on a square piece of painted cardboard, which in turn is "magnetically" attached to a 6-inch (15cm) long piece of wooden lattice, which holds the whole battalion. By taking the four companies off the wooden stand, you can represent a battalion in disarray or confusion. You can see the "magnetic" strips I use in the fourth picture of this series.


This is 8 bns of French Line Infantry in mass. (mostly Esci and some Hat & Italeri figs) Nothing special here, but this one goes well with the next photo.


This is the same 8 bns of French Line Infantry in the famous "mixed order" (half in line, half in column). (Esci, Hat & Italeri figs) My wooded battalion stands you see are designed in a way that allows you to "swivel" the battalion from line to column in moments -- very convenient in the heat of wargame battle. See the next photo for detail on this design.


Here are 4 bns of infantry in a variety of battalion formations (line, column or square, and column of march for roads etc). Also seen are the wooden stands and cardboard stands without the figs (for display). The little thin "magnetic" strips can now be seen on both the wooden stands and the cardboard ones. I usually spray the whole stand green, which camouflages the magnetic stands quite well -- but I did not do that to these. You can also see the method for making the wooden battalion stands "swivel" from line to column. All it takes is a pretty sturdy strip of cardboard, and two #4 thumbtacks (smaller thumbtacks tend to break). I also prefer not to paint these parts since it tends to mess-up the "swivel" action for some reason. You also do not want to "pre-drill" the tack holes, or else your stand will be annoyingly loose and flimsy! Just use a small tack hammer and a little muscle (great for your neighbors and sleeping wife). It might also take you a little while to learn exactly where to place the "swivel" arm and tacks in order to get a perfect alignment of the two halves -- but these are minor details. For flags, you can either use a flag figure, or drill a small toothpick-size hole in a variety of places around the wooden stand -- which you might be able to see in this picture. See how I treat cavalry and artillery in the next photos.


This photo is of 3 squadrons of whitecoated cavalrymen, each squadron subdivided into three parts (I suppose 3 troops), each lightly glued to a cardboard stand, which in-turn is "magnetically" attached to a larger wooden stand (the right-hand squadron is overturned to reveal the underside of the cardboard). The squadron stands are 4-inch (10cm) long strips of wooden lattice, painted green. Just rotate the 3 stands if you want the squadron to be marching up a road in column.


And finally, here are several batteries of artillery -- both foot and horse (2 guns and 4-5 figs per battery)(Airfix, Hat & Imex figs). The horse batteries obviously have several more horses attached to the guns. Sometimes I eliminate horses altogether from the foot batteries -- in order to avoid confusion. I also use the "magnets" and "swivel" mechanisms on these type of stands as well (as seen on displayed upside-down stands). This allows the battery to travel back-to-back in column down a road. (it just looks better!). When firing, the battery "swivels" into firing position with all of its guns facing the enemy (I put the smoke on this picture for kicks). I also use clear plastic stands instead of cardboard for artillery and commander (not seen) stands. It doesn't really matter, but the clear stands look better for photos, especially if the battery is split in two. I also have the artillerymen attached "magnetically", though lightly gluing them is just as well -- I'm always experimenting. I've thought of replacing all the cardboard stands with clear plastic ones, but the clear plastic comes from "take-out" containers that I bring home from my many hot-dates at the local restaurants. We eat out a lot, but not enough to supply my whole army with clear plastic stands -- thus the artillery and top commanders are the only branches to get clear plastic stands for now. As far as smoke, I normally buy the large bags of pillow-type stuffing, then use tons of it during the wargames and pictures. Add a "smidgen" or "touch" of orange spraypaint to parts of the smoke, and it looks even better -- especially for the burning buildings. You can see some of that kind of stuff on future pictures. Hope you enjoy all of these. Happy wargaming!


Many thanks to Mr. Hall. Any comments can be sent to Cpt James Hallmark.

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