Slow progress: Albino Frogs III

I've been furiously modelling but finishing very little, so far.  Here's my first French battalion, still rather less than half painted.  However the 50% Perrys in the last post have now all been replaced by Victrix (I found that the style of the greatcoats didn't quite match; the Victix are longer and more flowing than the Perrys).  The Perrys are reserved for another project.

A dozen are ready for dipping (below).

Part of the reason for the delay is because I have also prepped another 50 or so Victrix (not shown), out of the 260 I'll eventually need for the 6 battalions I plan.  I've bought a lot more minis along the way, I think around 7 boxes of Victrix to add to the 12 of Perry.  I'm still very impressed with the Victrix French Guard and Chasseurs... very nice quality and easy to paint.

Albino Frogs II

Fair progress today, browns and blacks are blocked in, red pom poms and the flesh highlight.  Next I need to sort gunmetal, epaulettes and the backpacks, which I will paint separately, and attach.  Then I need to get some washes on them, so they look (slightly) less like ice cream salesmen.

Albino Frogs

These are the grenadiers from 4 of the French Battalions I'm planning for the Peninsula, at the end of their first paint session.  The grenadiers will generally be detatched, and fight in a composite battalion (or possibly 2...).  Mix of Perry and Victrix plastics.

The careful observer will note a remarkable lack of blue; my intention is that almost all of the 250 minis will be wearing long, off-white dust coats.  White coats, white helmet covers, some white trousers... I think you can see where I'm coming from!  I reckon I can paint and base 2 dozen of these in a week.  Be very afraid, Wellington...

I'll hopefully post a couple more progress shots this weekend.

Conscription

I've been a bad boy!

These are the plastics that have arrived, so far.  I still "need" some Dragoons, and some more Guard.  At the moment, only the artillery and a few command are metal.

Every lunchtime I prep a dozen or so minis, but it is going to take quite a while to get through these!

First French Battalion completed

This is my first Napoleonic unit, a post-1812 French line battalion.   They are painted but I've not flocked the bases, pending a decision on basing style.

 

 

They are rather untypical of the French I'll be painting next, who will be rather earlier in period (1808-12) and equipped for the Peninsula, and probably based on a very light coloured, dusty soil.   I can't decide whether or not I'll base this unit the same way, or give them darker brown bases for Northern Europe.

I bought 30 of the figures, painted, extensively retouched them and painted 12 more to match (6 of the line and the voltiguers in march pose).  Mine blend in well, except I went too light on the flesh tones.  I made a few minor slips on details like the cuffs, but am overall I am very happy with how my first Napoleonic unit came out.  They did take a lot longer than I'd imagined though; much harder painting than ancients.  The voltiguers can be deployed in either march or skirmish mode (below). 

I really like the Perry figures, which I find very nicely designed and sculpted.  This is just as well as I have 10 boxes of them, so far... more on my "plastic mountain", anon.

WIP Froggies

The stately progress towards the completion of my first French Battalion continues.  Here are the 42 minis, after dipping.  The 30 I have re-touched are in the front, and my own paint jobs lurk behind.

I've just Dullcoated them, and will shortly add some finishing touches, such as the Pom Poms and some shiny metallic bits.  Hopefully they should all be on their bases, later tonight.

Yet another whiff of Black Powder

We played our fifth practise game tonight.  I think we now have a pretty good grasp of the rules, which work well, now that we are more familiar with them and have found various online summary sheets.  One of my friends has even summarised the rules, which I still believe are verbose and poorly edited.  But do give a good game.

Here are some shorts of tonight's game.  Again we have the Mexican Civil war...

Above; heroic republicans, under yrs truly.  Most of these infantry sat on their baseline for the first 3 turns, on account of failed command rolls.

Dastardly Imperialist adventurers, preparing to advance.  In the event, we took the battle to them.  Note my new (not yet entirely finished) hills.

The French cavalry in the foreground were charged by twice their number of Republicans, but had rather the better of the encounter.

Luckily the Republican cavalry managed to roll well on Command, and retired far, far away (36"!), to lurk on their baseline and lick their wounds.

Brave Republicans assault imperialist lackeys in a building.  Buildings are very tough, indeed, to take, as the defenders get a +2 morale save.  Three times the number of attackers had their work cut out, but were making reasonable headway.

But on the other wing the French rout one Republican battalion, and force another to retire, disordered.  We then ran out of time.  Honours were broadly even, and it was a great game.   We have decided that we really need to start a campaign.

My farourite moment in the game ocurred when, in the very first turn, the French's Indian allies who had caused me so much grief last week, fumbled a Command roll, ran off the table, and refused to return!