A journey begins with the first step.

I have fought hard against it, turned my back upon it, closed my eyes and ears to its delights. I distracted myself with other projects, English Civil War, Wars of the Roses, American War of Independence, all in 28 mm. I even embarked on, and completed, a huge American Civil War project in 6 mm. Over 6,000 figures painted and based.

But I have finally succumbed to the allure of Napoleonics. It will be my 63rd birthday later this week, and I asked for French and Russian armies in 10 mm. The box of figures arrived, not everything ordered is included, some items are currently out of stock, but will be posted on to me once they arrive.

My choice was Old Glory figures. I had seen the excellent figures painted up by some friends and decided, with my limited space, that this was the way to go, to get large armies on my small table. I have no photos to show as yet, as once the box contents had been checked, it was stashed away, to await the great day. But that will all change on the next post, as I break into the box of goodies, plus a mystery army bought for me by a good buddy.

I would, in the course of time, like to add as many armies of the period as I can, I expect it to surpass the amount of figures in my 6 mm ACW armies. But as of this moment in time, not a single soldier has even been primed, this blog will document my journey. One step at a time.

                                                                 * * * * * * * * * *

It is almost three weeks since I wrote the above words. The parcel contained the basis of both a Russian and French army, my buddies surprise army turned out to be the British, which I was hoping it would.

French Army
3 x bags of line infantry (300 figs)
1 x bag of line infantry command (50 figs)
1 x bag of artillery crew (50 figs)
1 x bag of medium cannon (not yet arrived)
1 x bag of Hussars (30 figs)
1 x bag of Hussar command (9 figs)
1 x bag of Lancers with command (30 figs)

Russian Army
3 x bags of line infantry (300 figs)
1 x bag of line infantry command (50 figs)
1 x bag of artillery crew (50 figs)
1 x bag of medium cannon (not yet arrived)
1 x bag of Hussars (30 figs) not arrived yet.
1 x bag of Hussar command (9 figs)
1 x bag of Uhlans with command (30 figs)

British Army
1 x bag of centre company (100 figs)
2 x bags of flank company (50 + 50 figs)
1 x bag of infantry command (50 figs)
1 x bag of artillery crew (50 figs)
1 x bag of heavy cannon
1 x bag of Hussars in busby (30 figs)
1 x bag of Hussars command (9 figs)
1 x bag of Heavy Cavalry in helmets (30 figs)
1 x bag of Heavy Cavalry command (9 figs)

So lots of figures for me to get my teeth into, of course others need to be added at a later date, to round out all three armies, but for now I have more than enough. I took one five man stand from each army, and stuck them to a stick to paint up as test figures.

That was as far as I got, a mixture of real life and a nagging cold have prevented any further work since then. However, a delivery in the mail from my good friend on Tabletop Commanders provided
me with a full regiment (30 figs) of Russian Grenadiers.

And a full regiment of French Old Guard Grenadiers.

Steve had painted them up, my paintwork will not be as superb as this! I stuck them to the 30 x 30 mm bases which I will be using for all my units. The plan is for regiments of 30 figs or two bases as shown above. This can of course be expanded to four bases, or indeed, reduced to a single base for small table battles.
The rule set of choice is 'Blucher' by Sam Mustafa.

So the first step has been taken, I shall continue to record my journey in this blog.