Waterloo 2015 - Part 1 - The Allied camp

Blimey! What a day!

As you see we returned save and sound from our trip to Belgium. The trip was really great but pretty exhausting so I used the small breaks during our family Sunday with relaxing the tired and constrained limbs. But the event was worth it all. Two dear friends of me and I spent an interesting, entertaining and wonderful day in Waterloo and collected irreplaceable and unrepeatable impression of the battlefield and the people there. Mostly of course impressions of the actors who brought the scenery to life but likewise of the thousands of interested and affable spectators.

But let's take on thing at a time. After our really early start the journey to Waterloo went really well. The roads were rather clear and the driveway to the parking areas was very well-signposted. Thus we found a good parking space between La Haye Sainte and Belle Alliance. So with disembarking I took the first breath of history. Well... It was about a quarter past nine, weather seemed indecesive and there ware only a few spectators at the site and I caught my first impression of the field of honour: The Lion's Mound.

The Lion's Mound, Saturday morning 09:30 a.m.

First we headed to the Allied bivauc which was set near and around Hougoumont. Luckily the Allies where rather early birds as we and thus we got to see a lot of well-dressed reenactors and overall plenty of kind, hospitable and affable fellows from Germany, Sweden and the UK.  

Please click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Black Watch on guard portrayed by a multi-national group.

95th Rifles on guard as well.

In this early morning not only the common soldiers were on duty. Event High Command was awake and full of zest for action:

Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and ADCs

Meanwhile everywhere came to life and most people were busy with their morning duties or with breakfast:

Prussian sentries.

A gunner of the Royal Foot Artillery cleaning one of their numerous guns.

Our friend Holger inspecting a piece. He was an artillery NCO during active service though.

British hussars and light dragoons.

Female duty.

A British camp site.

Strolling around in the Allied camp we met one of the most impressive, formidable and credible persons I've seen this very day. A seasoned veteran who called himself the 'camp rottweiler' barking at some visitors wearing French uniforms. But barking with a with a wink. Somehow all reenactors are comrades no matter which uniform they're wearing.

The seasoned 'Camp Rottweiler'. My greatest resepct, Sir!

An officer inspecting the camp site.

A pleasantly relaxed day's schedule for the II / 95th

Plannig surgeries in advance appears strange, doesn't it?

Hougoumont as seen from the Allied camp.

A humble visitor in front of a historically important gate.

With respect for those who gave their lives there 200 years ago.

While our first walk through the Allied camp was coming to its end we heard bugles and drums. Obviously there were preparations for a larger parade or exercise starting. First unit in full dress were the black Brunswickers:

Brunswickers receiving a medal for their efforts at Quatre Bras reenactment.

Redcoats in line formation awaiting a speech of their brigade commander.

Indeed the Allies initiated a large parade and marching exercise on the field in front of their bivauc. Actually I missed the Prussians but there were a lot of British redcoats as well es some Belgian troops and a Swedish / Finnish force:

King George's men marching.

Riiiiiiiight Dress !

Black Watch preparing for a photo.

Prince William of Orange inspecting his troops. In the background the Swedes and Finns.

Unfortunately we didn't meet the Iron Duke but it was after noon meanwhile and especially my travelling companions didn't want to miss the French camp. Thus we left the Allies and firstly headed towards the 'Village du Lion', a tent city of merchants, and towards some other attractions. But this part of our journey as well as my encounter with fellow blogger Carl ('Hitting on a double 1') will be told in part two of my report.

Let me end with another picture of the Lion's Mound. Obviously at 01:00 p.m. attendance figure had grown essentially...

The crowded lion...

Follow our way to the French camp in part 2 of my report:
http://montys-caravan.blogspot.de/2015/06/waterloo-2015-part-2-french-camp.html

Off we go !

Finally the great day has come! When you read this I'm already driving to Waterloo to visit the celebrations of the most famous battle of the Napoleonic era. Two dear friends of mine and me will take the crazy trip there and back again in one day but we're full of thrilling anticipation. Just like little boys in the evening before Christmas.

So with my field pack ready, some comfortable boots and my panama head against the - hopefully present - sun I'll take this unique once-in-a-lifetime trip. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to post pictures tomorrow but as soon as I'm well rested more or less I'll sort them out. Anyway I have two cameras loaded and ready to make a flood of picture.

Enjoy your weekend !

Preparing for Waterloo 2015 - Three days left

Actually there's no need to tell you that tomorrow one of the most important battle in European history has its 200th anniversary. For the last months we historically interested fellows have been supplied with new books, miniatures and games about the battle of Waterloo but this weekend the ceremonies will reach their climax. At the battlefield site a great reenactment event will take place and thousands of enthusiasts will recreate stages of the battle.

Official Waterloo 1815 - 2015 picture. Find more information here.

As far as I know the event has been sold out for a long time but luckily we bought our tickets already in January. Unfortunately we weren't able to find affordable accomodation so we'll do a one-day trip to Waterloo. The starting pistol for me will be fired around 06.00 a.m. Then I'll head to Krefeld and pick up my fellows Holger and Bernhard. Then we'll see what Belgium offers and how the Waterloo 2015 event will be.
Anyway we have tickets for the bivouacs as well as for the re-enactment show in the evening so we'll have a full day of Napoleonic madness and after the successful counter attack of the British (Now Maitland. Now is your time!) we'll head home.

'Now Maitland ! Now is Your Time!' by T. J. Baker

You see there's an exhausting day pending. But I'm really keen on the trip and hoping for good weather and not too many problems with parking etc. However therefore I'll not be able to present this weeks Paint Table Saturday but be sure on Sunday or at the latest at the beginning of next week I'll have a couple of pictures for you.

Who else will be at Waterloo on Saturday?

Example ruined wall finished

As mentioned in the Paint Table Saturday post I've been working on some ruins lately. Actually for our Plancenoit club project but more or less for my own collection as well. So finally last Sunday morning I set up the airbrush equipment and spent two hours with spraying twelve horses for two British limber teams and two ruined buildings I assembled last week.

After lunch I started to paint one of the ruined wall pieces to experiment with different colours for the bricks and the plastered parts of the walls. The final result for the first pieve is this:

Actually I'm really happy with the result. I applied Vallejo Model Air (VMA) 'Hemp' as base colour for the plastered areas by airbrush and drybrushed it with Vallejo Model Color (VMC) 'Stone Grey' and 'Pale Sand' afterwards. For the bricks I used VMA 'Hull Red' as base colour and accented with different shades of red-brown tones. E. g. VMC 'Cavalry Brown' and VMC 'Red Leather'. Finally I gave them a light dust of VMC 'Pale Sand' to underline the edges of the bricks and to create a blending to the plastered area.

During the next days I'll work on the other pieces and I'll try to get some WIP steps photographed if you are interested in them.

Paint Table Saturay - Ruins, hussars and documentary

It's weekend again... The best part of the week. Today we have a couple of friends visiting us for an old-school pen and paper RPG session but nevertheless there's some work on my painting table.

First and foremost the walls of the two ruins I'm still working on are finished and I'll colour them with my airbrush tomorrow.

Additionally i digged six hussars from the bottom of my lead pile. I painted their horses nearly two years ago but somehow I took a break after six riders. Thus it's time to finish the unit finally.

And last but not least I worked on my documentary book with my colour recipes. Last week I prepared some material from other authors. Some Artizan painting guides, WW1 painting guides by expert painter Mark Hargreaves and the Vallejo triads by Andrew 'Loki' Saunders. My plan is to collect these excellent material and add my own humble recipes. By now it seems to work rather well to support my week memory this way...