Here’s a rather bucolic scene sometime during the Napoleonic Wars, with British infantry and cavalry relaxing in camp.
These are all Perry Miniatures figures from their 28mm metal Napoleonic British range. They come as separate sets depicting various scenes of camp life.
The fun with these sets is arranging them on a base to tell a story. Here a couple of soldiers and a female camp-follower tend their large cooking pot. Behind them another soldier chops wood for the fire, whilst his mate makes a welcome arrival carrying a goat he has caught to add to the broth (tastier than the rats on the crates!).
This bases tells the story of the changing of the guard. On the left a sergeant directs his men who have just come in from patrol duty to remove and stack their heavy packs.
Meanwhile a portly young officer inspects one of the relief party heading out on guard duty. This officer figure doesn’t actually come from this particular set, but I thought he added a nice touch to this scene.
In the background another of the incoming patrol wipes his brow tiredly whilst his mate stacks their muskets.
The last of my vignettes shows a group of dragoons playing a game of cards, surrounded by their discarded helmets and even a saddle.
In contrast to the dragoons’ campaign uniforms, the two hussars ambling into camp are very ornately dressed.
These figures exemplify the amazing talent that the Perry twins have for lifelike anatomy and naturalistic posing.
They are all painted in my usual rather impressionistic style – they don’t bear too close a look, as you can see if you expand these photos! I used GW Contrast paints exclusively for all these figures.
The bases are MDF coated with real sand and dotted with a few pumice stones, roughly sprinkled with static grass and clumps of long grass. I don’t paint my base terrain – it is all ‘au natural’, as I think why paint your sand when that is what real terrain is made of!
Whilst these figures won’t play much part in any wargame other than for decoration, they are still a welcome addition to my Napoleonic British army.
DRESSING THE LINES 
Simply lovely! These will add lots of character to your games.
Very nice indeed and I like your bases very much, totally agree about no need to paint , neither do I.
A fantastic display of modelling and painting, thanks for the inspiration.
Willz Harley.
Xo nice painting
And very good ideas
Keep going Roly
Lovely figures, each stand its own little story. I was not tempted before, but…..
Very nice work, the groupings look very natural and are full of character
Marvellous vignettes. Such things add greatly to the overall look of the table, I reckon, as well as being great fun to paint and to arrange, as you say.
Regards, James