The Hatwiki project has started

From Mrs. Jones the soul of the HAT forum page

"The Hatwiki project
http://hat.stikipad.com/hat
is wiki-like page where anyone can edit or post information. We started the hatwiki project because we saw a lot of helpful information and links being posted on this forum in response to questions, but due to the nature of forums, the links or answers were lost as newer threads were posted.
You can use the hatwiki as an online "favorites" page which anyone else can access.
Our thanks goes to Mr. Bert va Hal, who has seeded the page with the first hundred or so links! Please feel free to add more. (E-mail HaT to get started)"

A very interesting idea!

Painting horses

After a long and stressing week I'm to relax myself painting some cavalry figures.
The color of horses depends on the type of unit: heavy cavalry (dragoons, cuirassiers...) usually had a greater percentage of dark horses, whereas the light ones were reserved for light cavalry (chasseurs, hussars...). Therefore I use the following approximate percentages:
Heavy cavalry horses: 60% reddish; 30% light brown; 10% dark brown
Light cavalry horses: 30% reddish; 60% light brown; 10% dark brown
Light grey horses are reserved for trumpeters, and I paint also some odd horses: light grey, dark grey or blacks to increasing the variation.

Below there is a scheme of the painting in the order Base color/First light/Second light. When Idem appears it refers to the same mix with a greater proportion un the lighter color. All the numbers are from Vallejo paints

Reddish Horse
814 Burnt cad. Red + 950 Black / 814 Burnt cad. Red + 982 Cavalry Brown / Idem

Light Brown Horse
875 Beige Brown / 875 Beige Brown + 981 Orange Brown / 875 Beige Brown + 981 Orange brown + 955 Flat Flesh

Dark Brown Horse
872 Chocolat Brown + 950 Black / 872 Chocolat Brown + 875 Beige brown / Idem

Light Grey Horse (Trumpeter)
992 Neutral grey / 991 neutral grey + 990 Light Grey / Idem

Dark Grey Horse
994 Dark Grey / 004 Dark Grey + 992 Neutral grey / Idem

Black Horse
950 Black / 950 Black + 975 Hull red / Idem / Idem (some more higlights are required)

Enjoy!

Slightly Off Topics

I have finished the book "The battle of Albuera -1811" , written by Michael Oliver and Richard Partridge (Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2007).

The authors use noy only the habitual british sources (Napier, Oman) but also the spanish accounts of the battle: Burriel, Schepeler, Blake.... so the result is a narrative not biased against the spanish, i.e. no more cowards, no more uniformed rabble, etc...

The role played by some spanish units (the Zaya's Division for example) is fully acknowledged and the faults of all participants (british, spanish, french) are described.

Summarising, a fresh aportation that I recommend to all those interested in the 'Guerra de la Independencia' or 'Peninsular War'

Near contemporary maps

I have found, through the Forum of Napoleon Series, a very useful site:

Collection "Wilhelmshöher Kriegskarten" presented by the Digital Archiv of Marburg (DigAM) in Hessen
44 volumes with nearly 3000 digital war maps, plans and drawings from the 16th century to the Napoleonic epoche.
The vol. 33 has some interesting maps for the Leipzig campaign down-loable as pdf documents

Enjoy!

And now some cavalry

I'll paint some cavary figures this time to avoid the boring!.
Some of the cavalry of Leipzig Campaign need new heads, for example the Bavarians and Wurtembergers chevaux-legers (no plastic cavalry figures in the market), but also the Saxon hussars. These last wore a French-like uniform, but I have run short from the best alternative: the ITALERI/REVELL French hussars. However, I own a surplus of REVELL 02575 - Prussian Hussars and French infantry heads (ESCI 227 - French Line Infantry) so I made a non-expected new head exchange.

Bavarian chevaux-legers

Wurtemberg chevaux-legers

Saxon hussars

The Wurtemberg infantry

I finished this week-end the painting of the Wurtemberger infantry, both Line and Light. I shot some outside photos taking advantage of a bright and sunny morning sunday (no rain this time!)





See these and more at mi web page The Wurtembergers at Gross-Beeren

Some diorama pages

Looking for inspiration in the web, I found these sites with some superb dioramas about Leipzig campaign:
Der Neuaufbau des Völkerschlachtdioramas
Markkleeberg Diorama
Croebern 1813

The pages are in German but a picture is worth a thousand words.... and the one below is from the Croebern 1813 site

Wurtembergers in the pipeline

No much painting this time.... The Wurtembergers are in the painting bench after application of the main colours: deep blue and grey and yellowish-grey trousers for Line infantry, and deep green coat and trousers for Light. The backpacks and muskets were painted in various brown shades and the rolled overcoats in royal blue.