Sharp Practice at Britcon 2018; Change Of Command

Breaking news from Divisional HQ, there has been a change of commanders for the Britcon event!!And here they are...but why?

After my previous post I had sat down to write up my force list to send to Hunter HQ. Whilst doing this necessary piece of paper work I had had to shuffle my leaders about to fit the points limit and noticed that one of my sergeant figures, who was to command the Voltiguers, had been a bit battered about and was in need of repair. Being a bit of a lazy bastard (which conflicts regularly with my desire to make stuff and leads to a lot of procrastinating and faffing about) I decided that rather than repair him just now I would leave this chap out and replace him with a junior officer; a simple figure swap was done.
 

my original Sous-Lieutenant Emile Anhour (Leader i) Showing his age

I decided to justify the act of having a junior officer, a fresh faced, young sous-lieutenant, "commanding" such a unit as a decision by the senior commander, who being lumbered with him before setting off on his mission, by placing the sous-lieutenant with the Voltiguers, who are canny, experienced and somewhat independent minded troops who are more than able too look after themselves and, at the same time, able to cope with having such a junior officer "in charge".

So far so good but I needed a characteer background for this new Sous-lieutenant (it might be an idea to pause here and get yourself a cuppa before reading on; I'm going to spin of in a few different directions before all this make any sort of sense...if I can make so bold a claim.....got your cuppa; good..brace yourself, here goes)
Now I like my characters to have a wee bit of background and, hopefully, a humorous name to givve my opponent soomething else to smile about besides my awful dice rolling, to make them easier to remember in the heat of battle and to give me something to build on and develop in future battle reports.
I had a vision, if you like, of this young officer in mind. I wanted him to be young obviously, somewhat foolish and out of his depth in the army. I also wanted him to be one of those jammy gets that we have all encountered at school as teenagers; that randy guy who all the girls fancy and, it always seems,is constabtly beating them off with a shitty stick. At the same time as that they are usually receiving the attentions of older women who want to "mother" them (issues!! me? Never!! ;D ) I then had a happy inspiration, well I think so. Being somewhat fond of Mozart and his works I recalled the character of Cherubino from The Marriage Of Figaro. For those one or two of you who might not be up to speed on the plot of The Marriage Of Figaro I suggest you Google it but for  our purposes here's the briefest of intros: Figaro (servant) is preparing to get married to Susanne (maid). The Count Almaviva (master of both Figaro and Susanna) is bored with his wife and is planning on exercising his rights of Droit de seigneur (google that too) with Susanna; cue much operatic comedy capers and wonderful music and singing.
Also part of his household is the young nobleman, Cherubino, a randy young fellow who can't see a bit of skirt without falling for it. In particular he has the hots for the Countess and, as this rather annoys the Count, he decides to send Cherubino, away to the army which leads to one of the most famous songs in opera, Non pui andrai in which Figaro mockingly sings to Cherubino about how glorious it will be to be  soldier, especially in battle.
Since this opera was first produced in 1786 I then thought, since the play was originally written by a French chap by the name of Pierre Beaumarchais (I know what your thinking "For goodness sake, tell us something we don't know!!") it might not be too far a stretch to imagine that Cherubino would actually be French and have served in the Royalist Army before the Revolution. Which is exactly what he did before joining the Revolutionary Army. And in his campaigning (he was a dragoon officer in the Royalist and Revolutionary Armies) he managed to sow his oats and my new Sous-Lieutenant was the result of one such seed sowing. At least that is how I imagined it.
The young Cherubio grows up not knowing who his father was beyond that he was a great soldier and hero of the Republic. Cherubino junior's mum is a bit of a romantic and Cherubino senior filled her head with all sorts of tales of gallantry and heroics (and let's face it, we've all done that to a greater or lesser degree ;D ) has grown up in a small town in France. his head full of romantic notions of glory and battle and positively aches to join the army. He has inherited his fathers looks though he has more control of his breeches and is more concerned with soldiering than rogering. Though he does a fair bit of that too. Finally able to join the army, his ability to read and write has helped him gain a commission and he has been sent to the 30th Legere in Spain.
So far so  good. But when I looked at the figure I had originally intended to use he looked too old. And none of my other figures would fit this character I had created, so, to cut a long story short ("at last" I hear you cry) I put together and painted a new one. And here he is; his full name is Charles-Augustine "Cherubino" Carion de Notte

Sous-Lieutenant Charles-Augustine "Cherubino" Carion de Notte

Well,  having created that character I go somewhat carried away and decided to replace Capitaine Coq Sportif. In his place came Capitaine Richard D'Astardly, a former breeder of game fowl including pigeons and his company's most senior NCO, Sergeant Moutley, another who seeks glory and it's rewards, persistently.

And. last but by no means least, another inspired character. This one inspired by Alexander Dumas and his father, General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, former slave and the French Revolutionary General who also once served in the Royalist Army...as a dragoon.....makes you wonder, doesn't it...

Meet Horatious-Hannibal Dumas-de Winter, yet another of my characters born out of wedlock, this time too a headstrong, passionate young noble woman,the Lady de Winter, who cared not a jot for the scandal of it all.

Unlike Cherubino, young Horatious-Hannibal did know his father, who kept in regular touch and, who, when Horatious-Hannibal was old enough, was able to pull strings even though he personally had fallen foul of the Emperor, and get HH a commission in the 14th Dragoons, who he is serving with in Spain. 

Horatious-Hannibal Dumas-de Winter (leader II) on horseback and on foot

As well as creating the character for HH, I also had to put together the figures. Fortunately I had the Dragoons sprues at hand so it was just a case of ordering a Zulu sprue from Perry Miniatures and choosing two heads that looked fairly similar.

I then had to cut and trim the spare dragoon officers helmeted head as well as a Zulu one till one fitted the other. A bit of green stuff was used to add hair to both heads as well as chin scales to the helmeted head.. a couple of painting sessions later and they were done. And I must confess to being very happy with them too.

So, there you have it, my new commanders for my French force. Still much to do for Britcon but hopefully, these chaps will see some battle this week and give me a chance to build their characters.

Time for elevenses and my nap,

pip pip for now,

General Jimbob