Airfix Waterloo Papelotte Farm Conversion (Hobby Post)

Airfix Waterloo Papelotte Farm Conversion

Welcome to the third in my series of blog posts on conversions made from the 1/72 scale Airfix La Haye Sainte kit.

Below: A unit of HaT 1/72 Nassau Grenadiers for scale.

Having done Gemioncourt and Quatre Bras Farm for June 16th 1815 here's Papelotte - my first building for the main event of Sunday June 18th 1815. Next up by the way is Mont St Jean which I built pretty much at the same time.

With Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte anchoring Wellington's right & centre it was Papelotte (along with La Haye, Smohain and Frischermont) that secured his left.

It was garrisoned by Orange-Nassau troops for much of the battle. They ran out of ammunition and the French of Durutte's division were able to briefly take possession before themselves retreating in the face of Ziethen's advancing Prussians.

Papelotte is a fair bit larger than my previous projects and I needed two full La Haye Sainte kits plus parts from a third. I also used some thin plastic brick printed sheets, thin plastic building card and windows & doors etc from my bits box. The big arched doorways by the way are from an old Warhammer castle.

Some new techniques were called for with this more complex model. 'Double deckering" on the house & large barn and also altered roofing for these same two parts of the farm.

By using bits of thin plastic card to act as behind the scenes joining tabs the components came together ok and the trusty Revell Contacta cement did it's usual great job of bonding the parts. To fill any small gaps I used flattened plasticine imprinted with the brick pattern from a spare bit of walling and then sealed it with superglue.

As is the case with most of these historic buildings getting exact details of their layout and colouration in 1815 is not easy. So I have done what I think is a reasonable representation given the limitations of my modelling & painting skills whilst also trying to stick to mostly using bits from the Airfix kit(s).

Papelotte itself was partly burned down during the battle and has been rebuilt over the years into what is present today. My sense is that the 1815 farm was probably a little less grand than it is now. Certainly the tall gatehouse belvedere is a post-1815 addition and hence not modelled here.

All roofing was glued in place on my models but if having a go yourself it can easily be left off if you think you'll want to put troops inside the buildings. A floor could be added to the house model quite simply as well.

Glue was also used to affix the various parts of the Papelotte Farm complex to the mdf base board. But again you could leave them unglued allowing you some degree of modularity and choice for how you use the various sections to create  different farm layouts. The MDF base board I used is 35cm wide x 30cm deep.

Many of these substantial farms had walled gardens and orchards etc... I have not modelled the walled garden on Papelotte but it could easily be added on a separate MDF board.

Below: Photos of the unpainted Papelotte Farm. When taken I had not yet glued the main sections together or glued any of them to the base board. This makes things look a bit disjointed but it was to make painting easier. 

Note: I have subsequently also completed Mont St Jean

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For appropriate figures in this scale you can view the 1/72 Scale Napoleonic section of my webstore here: Napoleonic 1/72 scale sets

Unfortunately I have long ago sold out of the La Haye Sainte Airfix kits but I do still have some of the vac form bases the farmhouse was designed to sit on: Diorama Base

You can view my other 1/72 scale Napoleonic blog articles here: Napoleonic 1/72 scale blog articles

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Thanks for taking an interest.

Rupert - Drum & Flag