Back to the Napoleonics...

...and a bit of success with the camera! Huzzah! I am quite pleased with the way these look. Having started this whole thing off trying to do Victors IX corps but of course, there are always things getting in the way. Like those Wurttemburgers for a start... Sigh... pointless, but bloody lovely. Anyways, I have been quite on message recently. This is my provisional regiment as per the OOB, made up of bits of the 36th, 51st and 55th rgts. Should they have an eagle and flag? Well no. But there we are. Worse things happen at sea. The figs and flag are by AB. The flag is actually the 11th rgt, but who is going to get close enough to see that. Apart from me... and everybody who picks the command stand up.

I really like the command figs here, but not the basing. I am going to fiddle round with everything... Again... And somehow get the drummer into the front rank. I really like the green imperial livery. Obviously it looks rubbish on here, but in real life it looks much better! I'm not sure imperial livery is correct, but then I'm not that fussed. I like it and until somebody shows me all the drummers jackets from this composite unit, its staying green!
I am a bit worried though to be honest about all this. Firstly (and maybe this is some wierd 6mm thang), my 15mm units just well, don't look like units. This is 24 men (basically 3 packs of AB figs) and they just don't feel like units. I'm going to 36 man units with the Wurttemburg rgts, so maybe I will do the same with the French. They just look a bit small and week. Of course with the new napoleonic plastics, the whole 15/18mm metals are not that fashionable so its not as if anybody will notice if they are 24 fig rgts, 124 or 12.4 per rgt. Although, just how I would do .4 of a fig I don't know.

I will put my next set on a board, rather than the table cloth. Lets try and make an effort eh?

FPW listings done... to do... time...

tick tock tick tock...

F**king hell. Will I ever get anything finished. I have a confirmed date for my mate coming over. I have a sh1t load off stuff to do. Instead of picking up the brush, I've spent my free time watching red vs blue and shouting "bow chikka bow wow"! And talking of bow chikka bow wow, my better half caught me looking at the lovely charms of Anna Semenovich on television again yesterday. Eye... Pencil... Pencil...Eye. Thankyou. See below... Lovely... Lovely... Lovely...

I have made some progress. Everything is based up now and as a minimum, undercoated. Well on the way then. Like nack we are! I've got 17 French bases of infantry done, as I had some kind of cosmic spurt on them, but only 8 Prussians and not a bloody sign of the Bavarians!

The French OOB for our little mini campaign is as follows:

C-in-C experienced

1x12 pdr, 1x4 pdr

Engineer Asset

1st Inf Div. Imposing General (12 inf bases) in 2 brigades made up of:

4 Vet (elite) SK1

4 Vet SK1

4 Vet

1 Light Cav Vet

1x4 pdr, 1 Mit Trained

2nd Inf Div. Confident General (15 inf bases) in 3 brigades made up of:

8 Franc Tireurs Trained SK2

5 Trained

2 Raw
1x4 pdr, 1 Mit Raw

3rd Inf Div. Confused General (8 inf bases) in 2 brigades made up of:
4 Raw

3 Trained SK2

1 Zuave Vet SK2
1x4pdr, 1 Mit Trained

Cav Div. Confident General (3 bases)
2 Heavy Trained Elite1 light Trained
1x4pdr Trained

As you can see its quite a formidable force (if it weren't for the fact that it was French)! I will be getting them finished in time for my friends arrival. Here are the raw infantry of 3rd as a work in progress. As you can see they are coming along. Faces done, main colours done. All the backpacks etc done. What I like about this is that you get 96 figures for under 5 quid. In 28mm you get about 8 figures if you are lucky. I know 6mm isn't everyones beast, but for me I like it. I just wish wish wish Peter Berry would do everything in a range!

This is them at eye level. As you can see, I don't do the dry brushing style. I paint the main colours on direct then do a wash on them. It makes the details stand out enough for me, and on the board you still see the colours. I think dry brushing especially Prussians, in this scale, doesn't give enough detail. Of course, I would be interested in what others think!

The board itself is made up from 2 boxes of kallistra hexagons giving a 6ft by 4ft table, which is good for me in 6mm and of course the only 28mm I have is Arthurian figs so thats fine as well. The river just becomes a stream. Genius! And at 6mm it gives plenty of room. Effectively both sides get a couple of moves in before they get in range. So no doubt more as I keep going with this.

Polemos FPW Almost There!

So, I am almost there with the paintbrush. I've bashed on with the French, and the Prussians have come together nicely. Of course its been a bit of a devil with the paints. I learnt the hard way about 6mm painting:

1) The law of diminishing returns. I look at some 6mm figs on blogs, galleries etc and they are mighty (I said mighty) fine! But why? Why why why put so much effort into the finite details? I spent much too long on my GNW figs (which if I can be arsed to photograph I will) and really once I started shoving them about, it seemed pointless. For me, the beauty of 6mm is that on my board I can have a f**k off load of little men! And because I don't wargame with my eyeball 3cm from the figure bases, it really (start the shocked face) doesn't matter to me if I go over the line a bit wiv me painting! I did it with colour books when I was a child. I would probably still do that know if I did colouring books...

2) Reading Vallejo paint charts, are not for me. I'm 40 years old. My best years are behind me. And they were pretty good in parts. So now, I'm not going read paint colour charts. Am I painting my French line infantry with lemon jackets? Of course not. What you think I'm some sort of c**t or what? I'm doing it in a blue. That I like and in 6mm I think its good enough. Once I've washed the jacket wi' some black, it looks cock on. My Prussians have been done in Prussian Blue. Don't know if its right. I've never met a Prussian from 1870 in 6mm or otherwise. Frankly I like it.

This is a bit of a ramble now isn't it.? I've been off the cider for about 10 days and I think I am starting to crack up. Right without further waffle (having discussed FPW French & Prussians) here is a Mecklenburg battalion as a WIP. I don't do the bases until everything is finished. At least that way there is some attempt at making every thing look like they are in the same army.

Figures by Peter Berry (the man who basically rips food out of my kids mouth by making me spend my child benefit on little bits of metal). Table cloth by the other half. Blurred crap pictures by me. I really REALLY wish I could figure out how to work my b*****ding camera! I will get the thing sorted and get the rest up.

Wurttemburg. The Descent into Madness

Okay, I will admit it. I like crested helmets. Specifically Napoleonic era crested helmets. I also like Cider. What I don't like is people coming round my house on a saturday when I am trying to find out if Rotherham had won or not. Living abroad, like what I do, is quite depressing on a saturday. Things in miss in no particular order are:
1) Bacon
2) Rotherham United
3) Tragically I think its just about it. I should have said my family as well maybe?

Anyhoo... On with helmets and cider. Oh if only there were a way to combine the two things! But there probably isn't. I am also NOT going to fill all this blog up with some old guff about cider. So thats just the crests then? Austrians, Bavarians... Wurttemburgers. Smashing. But... Painting all that white? I get snow blind just going to the shops here, so all that white? No its not for me. The Bavarians, well thats just a crested helmet too far really. Its just too wierd!

So that leaves plucky Wurttemburg. Of course, bearing mind my original project was to do Victors IX corps of 1812, Wurttemburg troops are an unwelcome diversion. I've looked at the OOB. Twice... And in IX corps? Nothing. Not even a bugler. Or is it a cornet? 99 please, with hundreds and thousands. I love them. Anyway lets put the ice cream down and get back to the Wurttemburgers. At this point I need to say that I don't need them... So in true wargamer fashion, I went and got a load of 'em! Huzzah! Its madness, sheer madness. Its also taking my time away from the important stuff (i.e the FPW an IX Corps). This is what happens when I am unsupervised. So out came the paints and we were off like a greyhound out of a trap. There is also a fantastic website about the army during the napoleonic era. Link below:

http://www.histunif.com/wurttemberg/wurttemberg1/wurt000.htm

I have become so enthusiastic about these, that I even got the Nafziger book as a Christmas gift. It really is smashing, and top notch work from Caliver Books it getting it to me before the big day. So here is the progress so far. I am quite pleased with these. Although for Napoleonics, maybe a little dark? But it breaks up the French blue a bit. I'm doing 2 regiments in crested helmets, 1 in Shako and 2 light infantry. Each rgt will eventually be 36 figs on 9 stands. Except the lights. They will just be 24. Looking at Nafziger and doing a quick 1:20 calculation I think I should have maybe 32, but with my basing that gives 8 stands, and I don't like that. Also, this way I can have more of them! I like to move it move it! Lets Start with a standard unit. This is a command stand from AB miniatures.

I got over excited and as you can see, its not finished. I hadn't wanged up the flag (is wanged a real word)? onto the pole, and the officers plume isn't done yet. I don't have any of the foot officers, because I didn't know that the main source of AB figures (Eureka in Oz) have foot officers as singles. Doh! Anyway, I will change things round a bit long term and put a couple of these horsey types as staff officers. Always need ADC fellows in Shako II. I am also starting to not like the basing. hhhmmm...

Here are a couple of pics of the unit en masse. Well en masse minus a third of them. On the plus side they are in the right uniform (1811 pattern). On the downside I have helmet and shako together in the same unit. I thought it would look okay. It looks shit. That will be fixed.

The next pic is one of my attempts with the camera at home on the dining room table, to show the unit as is (avec flag). The unit represents 1st Rgt (Prince Paul). The flag is from the AB set and is positively scrummy. And I think it really sets them off very nicely. I am a bit baffled at the helmet though. In part the black helmet and black crest don't have enough definition for me. I think I will piss about with some grey highlighting in order to see what can be done. I sense a pigs ear maybe in the offing!

I have swapped the stands over for this shot, removing the offending shako types. This gives more of the look I want. Obviously 3 more stands will be added. The other units are a pair of a jager rgts. Only 24 figs, but including a hornist (paaaaarp)! They are also much more dynamic with a firing line, which I like. Here is the command stand.

The Shako furniture needs finishing, I thought the cords were green or something, but it seems they were white. I will have a look at the Nafziger before I whack some paint on them. Also I need to do the pompoms correctly and put some yellow V shapes on the sides (I think). Should have all that done by 2012 no problem! You can see on the main pic I've at least now marked out where the cords will be. I really like the green uniform though. Sexy as you like. But I am not sure about the blue. Not only do I think it might be too dark, I am not even sure they had the blue lapels in 1812. Essentially I could have dropped a right ricket with these. That will teach me to go swanning off like a giant swan doing things I shouldn't!

Here come the Saxons!

Not with shields ready to bend King Arthur in half. No these are far more civilised. These are the excellent ones from AB Miniatures. These are really the best figures around I think, although I cannot do them justice. And also the price can be a bit painful. The codes, if you want them (and who wouldn't) are SAXC01 for the lads and SAXC02/03 for the command.


Here is my command stand. I really like the uniform. I was originally going to go with Rgt. Jean de Saxe, but I went with Prince Albrecht instead. Here is my command stand, based for Shako II and Napoleons Battles. I know Shako II isn't everyones cup of tea, but I like it.

Command

They represent Saxon Chevauxleger from 1812. I think they are quite a nice little unit together and if you are building a French Corps its better to start with something totally obscure, rather than a main force! I think on the downside they would become a little bit repetitive after a while though, with only 2 poses for the regular troops. looking forwards or looking left. Also the commander when formed, looks like he is trying to stab one of his own side!

This is the unit formed up ready for action!

And here we are in close up.

Whilst the figures look better in real life, I am still unhappy with a few areas:

I am going to rework the horse furniture. I thought it stood out wel enough, but I'm now not sure sure. Maybe go over again in black. I am going to add detail to the horses. I like the general look of them, but I am going to add some socks and white noses etc to break things up a little.
I also don't like the plumes on the men. From a distance they are okay-ish, but I need to do something. White really messes with my head. So, maybe I will take that paint off, do in grey and then highlight in white. Also, I am not 100% sure about the flesh tones on the men. What do you think?

Off We Jolly Well Go!

Howdy all!

Well I am finally committing pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards), to share my successes and failures in my wargaming, painting and generally collecting huge amounts of unpainted lead hobby.

After I moved to Switzerland, motivation to complete stuff, or even pick up a brush fell away. I've no opponents, and the other half doesn't count really ("what do the men on horses do again"?)

But suddenly I'm enthused again. The main blogs will be covering my 6mm Franco Prussian War project. These use the bang on figures produced by Pete Berry. Reviews will follow. The other part will cover my 18mm Napoleonic stuff using mostly AB and Fantassin figures. But there will be other stuff. Just like most other gamers, I cannot keep focused. Right now, I am desperately trying to avoid buying the new "must have" 25mm plastic napoleonics. So, we're off! The only thing I really need to be able to do from this point is figure out how to use my camera!