"Another carriage for Napoleon" Topic

This one is strictly a bit before Waterloo, (more Austerlitz actually) but the Waterloo in 20mm Project is now including Le Caillou and that needs populating. The carriage and all figures are by Black Watch Miniatures and do make for very nice models. My only alteration was to fit larger rear wheels and I tried moving the axle further back, but it proved impractical. It will all look much better when based and photographed in decent lighting.

That is awesome
Always wanted to see a open carrage and a figure for Queen Louise for 1806

Splendid work! Two thumbs up.

Excellent work Mr D.

His Majesty looks very nice too.

It might be the lighting but your chasseur seems to be lacking his braiding on his pelisse?

The camera is merciless as we know.

Best wishes,

Chris

It is the lighting. He has aurore lace and piping and gold buttons. The white balance is awful, but it is so easy to produce some kind of an image with a phone now.

A few years ago I would spend hours setting up a digital SLR, a tripod, lighting, closed shutter and long exposure for depth of focus. Struggling with white balance as no two lights were the same. Setting up backgrounds etc.

These days, no point. All these figures will look so much better in the model of Le Caillou.

The model carriage is no longer on the Black Watch website, so I may have been lucky. The cast detail on the doors and the Chasseur's sabretache, of the Imperial Arms, is superb. It paints itself!

Good news on the pelisse.

I try to use natural light for figures in my conservatory.

A bright overcast day seems to work best as sunshine is too powerful.

If you rest the camera phone on a level surface when snapping.it gets rid of the shakes.

Best wishes,

Chris

That's the sort of thing that breathes life & interest into any gathering of figures. The models are lovely & your brushwork excellent.

It delights me to see such photos.

Excellent job my good friend… as you usually have us accustomed to…

Armand

Very nice job there,Liam! Reminds me that I have to get to work on Massimo's "Napoleon's Kitchen". I have seen him personally inspect every piece that goes into his sets at Dioramica a couple of years ago. Top Shelf each and every one. Thanks for sharing photos of the one you did up!

The Boss has just made a very good point that LBA is the Tactical HQ for Napoleon on 18th and the Staff HQ is back at Rossome. Le Caillou is more then for the Imperial Household and civilian staff. Currently working on a large tent and (if the masking tape and stripes works, then some smaller one. If that doesn't work, then tears)

Napoleon's kitchen is very tempting for Le Caillou. I found it on the Massimo Costa Italian site, but most "Black Watch" takes you to 3D prints. Turns out that the company split.

This is magnificent and will be a delight to have on the model. Many thanks to Liam!

My records show that the imperial treasury was at Le Caillou. I have no idea what a mobile bank looks like but I'm imagining some sort of strong box on wheels with some pasty faced accountants in attendance.

Weren't all those imperial proclamations to be distributed upon arrival in Brussels also there?

Hi.

Franznap have it in preparation.

franznapminiatures.com/SHOP

Look under French command along with the staff which are available now.

Best wishes,

Chris

Massimo Costa on the Italian version of the Black Watch site does a small free standing oven with many staff in attendance. Franznap have been promising us the much larger Cuisine Roulante for about a year now, but it is still "on the workbench". Might just scratch-build that, but must finish the tent first!

Looking for Massimo's website?
Don't know about any 3D prints he has done or about a split of a one man business, but here is where to find his excellent ranages! link

Many thanks. The Boss (bless him) has offered to order a model for me. Black Watch, operating under the same name confusingly, have split from Massimo's version I am told and are doing the 3D work. Google brings them up by default

To see Massimo Costa's amazing work these are the links;

link
link

These take you to 42nd Black Watch Miniatures.

Without the 42nd you get to the BW 3D makers, although they do have some metals for Napoleonic Warfare still.

Confused? Yep

Thanks for that Mr D.

Master Massimo has been busy. A lot of these figures were created for Wolfgang but the death of Duroc and the eve of Waterloo I have not seem before.

Chris

Anyone who might enjoy seeing the state of the 20mm art should attend Dioarmica in Germany. Wolfgang and his friends present what has to be the World's Best displays of museum quality 20mm subjects. Massimo is just one of many who have supported such efforts. Wish we had such a stash of 20mm artists here in North America.

Dioramica.

5. DIORAMICS

Wann:

Saturday, September 26, 2026, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Sunday September 27, 2026 10:00am to 4:00pm

Wo:

Museum of Dioramas, DIORAMICA
Philipp-Reis-Str.13a, 37308 Heilbad Heiligenstadt
Thuringia / Germany

Last weekend I was at our museum again to deliver all the components of the "Master and Commander" diorama there, so that we can finish it on site.

In September it will be the 5th. DIORAMICA to be inaugurated.

Patrick has also been very busy and has almost finished his new samurai diorama. Still missing some characters that are still in the painting phase.

Some dioramas needed some re-grouping. Meanwhile in our diorama museum we have 7 exhibition rooms with large dioramas. Many smaller dioramas will be added to this.

Here are some impressions of a small part of the dioramas on display.

geschichte-in-miniaturen.de

The link did not work and Windows Diagnostics has no idea why not. Sounds like a great site to visit though.

There are now much better photos of the ensemble outside Le Caillou after the box contents (almost) survived postage. We all know that superglue can stick anything not desired, but the more you splash onto any intended union, the more it fails

Hi.

I have have contacted Wolfgang and the site has been closed due to costs.

He is hoping to set up another.

A shame as a lot of fantastic work lost .

He is accessible on Facebook under Wolfgang Meyer.

The HMS Suprise diorama is a tour de force.

Best wishes,

Chris

Hello friends,
I'm delighted to see my painted creations.
A lot has changed over the last few years.
I have my own website, and you can find all my work here:
42ndblackwatchminiatures.com
There's some great new material on the Napoleonic period and much more besides.
Greetings
Massimo

The new site is up.

dioramica-museum.de

Chris

Massimo,

You will shortly see much better photos of the carriage and its attendants. The boss has already posed them outside Le Caillou and the colour, the white balance, is far better. I am working on tents for the grounds and I just know that the finished effort will do justice to your work. The two small tents are now painted and I am working on Linear A French engineers (meant to be bridging the Berezina) to pull on the various ropes.

Not my photography, but a sneak preview to show they are much better than my photos suggest;

Excellent!…

Armand

Tents are done and the converted Linear A figures (they are superb models if pricey) are all off in the post tomorrow. The debate already is whether they are actually pulling down the tents as, by 1800 hrs the choice was move on Brussels or flee to Charleroi, depending on how things turned out up the road

Superb!…

Armand

Very nice Mr D. Very nice use of these, as you say pricey fellows.

The tents look lovely.

The pontoonier set is no good for the Russia but ideal for Aspern.

Best wishes,

Chris

Linear A do make some strange mistakes. Their first set of "engineers" was entitled Storming the Bridge at Genappe and that fits in with the contents. Imperial guard in helmets, doing what is so often shown, removing barrels and chucking bits of wood into the river to clear a barricade. As PMSR have said, it is curious that none carry any ammo, or a sabre and bayonet holder. The real surprise is the box cover, which shows the building of the Bridge over the Danube. The two officers are nicely modelled, but they appear in the Bridging the Berezina second set.

The company maybe have more experience with Ancients but their very limited Napoleonic range is very good indeed (and the resin figures are surprisingly robust and easy to convert)