2nd Battalion, 13th Regiment - French Line Infantry.

Forward March...

The bases are painted and the grass and brush are glued on.  My first battalion is now ready for the battlefield.  Pour l'empereur!  This has been a pretty fun project. Such a different experience painting true 28's to GW's "28s".

Painting around the ankles and boots was bit tough and I had to go back several times to touch up my mistakes. I need a steady left hand. :)

Column March

I think as my battalions continue to grow in numbers I'll probably go back here and there and make adjustments/corrections as necessary but I think the process will work itself out as time goes on.

I'd love to move on to some sweet Hussars but I really should buckle down and give these guys their First Battalion battle brothers and then a command stand to lead them.

Enjoy and a big thank you on Memorial Day to everybody in the USA!

E
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The Long March of the Frenchman- Line Infantry 2

Did we even get spring?

After a three month march we're a bit closer to the battlefield.  With my new job (big smile) I have slowed down a bit on the hobby time but this is ok - everything comes in stride. So now I present a couple hobby updates for the first of my french soldiers:  2nd Battalion,13th Line Regiment.

I found out early that my normal army painting style was not going to work. I had to line them up exactly the way they would be on their bases as order and organization were key to figuring out the colours.

Colours of the French line soldier:

As with all historical miniatures, there comes a bit of research. A big thanks once again to Jason for helping me pour over the internet and loaning some of his "Library of War" to find examples and documentation. :)

Normally I'm a big Vallejo man but I've recently started to using the colour range Games Workshop has to offer. I started with Kantor Blue base paint and added black to get the base coat going. Then I built up the layers with the Kantor Blue and lastly did some minor edge highlighting with the addition of GW Space Wolves grey.

The white pants and straps were simple.  I started with Vallejo Deck Tan and built up with white. Easy to do although lengthy because of quantity.

Shakos and Boots. For producing black I varied the models with different amounts of GW The Fang and/or shadow Grey added to black. I would sometimes do a final highlight with just Shadow Grey.

The Guns were simple with Vallejo Air steel. I found out painting with air brush paints are also really nice just to paint with a brush- especially the metal paints. For the browns- Vallejo flat earth highlighted with Vallejo Desert Yellow. I did one Badab Black Ink wash.

With the brown and yellow pants/shakos I played with a variety of colours including  Vallejo Flat Earth, Leather brown and Burnt Umber.  Most of them I added Vallejo Yellow Ochre or GW Ushabti Bone to build up the highlights. I usually did one wash which was either Gryphonne Sepia or Delvan Mud.

Lastly I should mention that when it came to the Blacks, Browns and Greys (Coats) I did not keep a standard with the colours as I wanted to give the appearance that every man is trying to take care of his business as best he can.

I ordered my flags from GMB Designs and I was very pleased with the turn around time and result. 

Lets get on to the bases! I used SuperT glue and it worked great for both Plastic and metal figures.

Now we need to to fill in the bases to make them natural with the little round raised areas of the miniatures. For this I used Apoxy Scuplt like Jason did here. My Apoxy Sculpt is black in colour.  

After the AS has dried it was time to add effects and the ballast. I decided to wait on adding fallen branches, rocks and/or enemy effects for the first go. I just kept the ground simple.  White Elmers (PVA) Glue works the best for ballast.

Last update for this post is the first layer of paint. The base I decided to use was flat black interior house paint. Since this has to be brushed on the house paint works really well for locking the ballast down and acts as a great primer for the next colours.

Ok, the next post should be the finished Battalion and so it should be up a lot sooner then 3 months. :)

Later,

E
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Magnetizing Napoleonic Bases

Time for a saw dust storm...

It's time to prepare my bases for transport using magnets.  I have been using rare earth magnets for many years and they are just perfect for miniature hobbyists.  The size I get the most use out of are 1/16 thick by 1/4 diameter (0.25'' Dia x 0.0625''). I usually order mine through Amazing Magnets. If you do make sure you add the "free Sample Pack" when you order. Lots of good stuff in there.

The tools I use are a dremel with a rotary mount, a .0625 router bit and a tray to hold the wood. You will also need a good mask preferably with filters and some eye protection. The MOST important thing is that you have a good area to work with some air movement. Really this is best done outside if possible.  Since I live in Minnesota, father winter has proclaimed NO. I set up two fans to get some air flow going and I covered everything near to the project with old sheets.  Don't keep a coffee near the operations...

My good friend Jon made a nice tray clamp to hold the wood in place. He used plastic but you could make it out of MDF or hard board and a couple of slip clamps.  The size of the opening allows me to route 2 bases in a row.  The next step is setting the router brace to be roughly in the middle of the Litko base and by setting the depth of the bit.

I have one of the fans blowing directly on the project to get the dust away while I'm routing. The whole process took me 40 minutes to do 136 holes. Not bad. The clean up is the real task as everything has to be dusted and vacuumed. Luckily this process only happens once in blue moon. 

The last part is getting out the super glue and getting the magnets in. This is messy because wiping away excess glue always ends up on the figures but It's what we hobbyists have to deal with.  Hopefully this has been helpful. We'll cover transport cases and bins in another post. 

Enjoy,
E

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Setting down the Basics

Our current forces in all their glory!  ;-)

Although the Internet, plastic boxed sets loaded with instructions, and an increased number of high production quality and well thought out all-in-one type rulebooks have lowered the barriers of entry into Napoleonics considerably, there is still a lot to figure out before the first miniature order is placed.  I'm not even talking about researching uniform details, figuring out the appropriate figures, or even choosing an order of battle or generic national template to base your force on.

Most rules sets are pretty flexible when it comes to basing and units sizes and figure counts.  They may have a preferred scheme that they suggest, but players personal tastes as well as  resources of time and money can usually be accommodated in most cases.  I've mainly looked at General de Brigade, Lasalle, Black Powder, and Waterloo  We've decided to go with Black Powder of many reasons, but certainly its flexibility is a big plus.  With no official structures dictated to us like some game systems, I spent a good amount of time over the last couple of years seeing what others had done across the blogosphere taking into account visuals, playability, and attainable painting goals.

Line Infantry Battalion in line formation and attack column with skirmish screen.

Although I'll deal more directly with the Order of Battles we're basing our forces on in a later post, I did want to mention a few things before going any further.  First off, unless Eric and I are invited to bring our toys to join in some big battle in the big city reenacting the Big Battle of Suchandsuch, we're never going aspire to reenact a historical battle.  Although some game scenarios we play might be inspired by some actual occurrence, they still are going to be purely products of our imagination greatly assisted by resources like Charles S. Grant's Scenarios for Wargames.  Ultimately history will be our guide, not our master.  Striking a balance between historical accuracy and flavor and more generic flexible organization and playability.

When trying to figure out our basing scheme and miniature count, I knew we wanted our units to look and feel like proper battalions, etc., but not be so large that we would struggle to complete a single brigade.  Also factored in was room for formations and maneuvering on the table top.  For our generic line infantry battalions I settled on 24 figures on 4 bases for our standard size with 6 figures on each base.  Again, I thought 6 figures instead of 4 gave the unit a fuller wider feel, and 4 bases being less unwieldy than 6.

Prussian Fusilier Battalion in line formation and in skirmish.

We can always take bases away to represent a smaller unit, and always add more stands later for large battalions.  Perhaps for militia/conscript units like Prussian Landwehr or French Provisional battalions, I might try going with 5 figures a stand to give these units a slightly understrength and also less ranked up/orderly appearance.  For some light battalions like Prussian Fusiliers, I decided to go with 4 figures per stand to give the unit a looser appearance and to give a bit more room for the skirmishing and firing poses.

For cavalry we're going two per base with 12 models in the standard unit.  To me this represents about 2-3 squadrons, and 16 models about 4. Although I have to do some more research on how artillery works in Black Powder, I'm initially collecting 3 guns and 1 howitzer to form a battery for my Prussians.  Perhaps 2 guns for horse artillery.  Then there's the appropriate battlefield footprint to consider especially behind the guns.  Also, we'll figure out limbers, ammunition caissons, supply wagons, ambulances, etc. etc. as we go, but try to keep all the bases 50mm wide if possible.

 Jager Battalion/Detachment and Cavalry Regiment

Our basic base size is 50mm X 50mm for infantry and cavalry, and 50mm X 100mm for artillery.  As suggested in Black Powder this conveniently makes our frontages universal.  This took the longest to finally determine as we wanted a close order appreance but also a little room to show off the rank and file miniatures.  50mm strikes a nice balance between the cramped look of a 15mm frontage per figure and the little too open 20mm.  Having the base 50mm deep helps accommodate firing lines and other poses.

Other odds and ends such as skirmish line voltigeurs or volunteer jagers will be based in pairs (which is how they operated) on a 50mm X 25mm base with 2 bases (and 4 figures) per battalion.  To help distinguish the more ultra light units such as a Prussian Jager battalion, I will increase the base size to 50mm X 50mm, keeping only 2 figures a base on 4 bases.  If nothing else this will allow me to craft more scenic bases as I'm doing with my Prussian fusiliers (4 figures to a base).  Still, it also helps accommodate the various running, loading, and firing poses, and again help differentiate them from my musketeers on the table top by giving them a looser more open order appearance.

 Brigade and Division command stands.

For command models and such we're keeping to circles and ovals.  Individual mounted messenger type models such as adjutants/Feldjagers/ADCs will be on a 40mm base.  Brigade commands will be 2-3 (mounted and/or foot) figures on a 75mm base with higher commands based on a 120mm x 90mm oval.  Division commands will have 4 while Corps and Army stands will have 5+ as needed.  I think keeping with a simple circles and squares basing scheme really helps with the army visuals as well.  If for nothing else, it doesn't have any odd or non organic shapes that might distract the eye when viewing the table top.

As you can probably tell from the pictures, we're mostly using Litko bases for our project.  They have a nice medium thickness (ours are 3mm).  Not too chunky, but thick enough to help with movement and  protect your minis from handling.  Also, they are quite easy to magnetize which we'll cover later.  The only drawback is that it takes FOREVER for them to arrive when you place an order.  Even going through the local game shop as they have the same headache with Litko.  We ordered 300 but got 200.  Still we should be good for awhile. :-)


Up next (but not nessarily in this order) will be blurbs about magnetizing our bases and army transport, planned army organization and Order of Battles, more about our basing scheme (the painting, ballast, and flock part), and some actual WIP/painted minis. :-)

Immer Vorwärts!
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