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!