Marie-Louises V - War of Attrittion

Despite their apparent simplicity, these have eaten up so much of my precious painting time!  But I will not be beaten.  Last night a grinding painting session finished these 81 minis (33 of whom were painted by David Davies) barring backpacks.  I will need to paint another 18 to field 3 battalions. You'll note that I have mounted a GMB standard and two Fanions.

Below are three of the Marie-Louise recruits.  These are Warlord plastics with a mix of Warlord and Perry heads. I have really taken to this set from Warlord, and expect to use a lot more of them in due course.

Marie-Louises IV - Mission Creep!

The first two battalions are more-or-less finished, but alarmingly more figures have appeared on the painting tray- the beginnings of a third battalion!  

In other news Kawe of Westfalia Miniatures very kindly "exchanged" some of their products for a set of my "To the Strongest!" rules.  He gave me a very generous exchange rate, thanks Kawe!  :-) Consequently I have some lovely new toys, some of which I started to prep last night, including a colonel for the new battalion.

As well as being beautifully sculpted, these are amongst the cleanest-castings I have ever come across (and I buy Aventines!). I struggled to find a use for my file. Much, much better than the quality of the Perry castings. Westfalia also make lovely vignettes which one doesn't come across in other ranges, and their guns and vehicles have no peers.

Marie-Louises III

There's a lot of painting in these, even in a chap in a greatcoat!  I've finished another seven painting sessions, so up to 11 now, with perhaps 4 more to go.  15 sessions seems like a lot of sessions for 39 figures painted from scratch and a little highlighting on another 33.  Id anticipated a much faster painting rate on account of the greatcoats.  :-(  However, I think they will look great when finished!  :-)

Marie Louises II

Four painting sessions sees the Marie Louises mostly blocked in, and gradually converging with the mostly-finished figures from David..  Tonight I need to grit my teeth and paint the crossbelts, and tomorrow start on water bottles and bayonets.  There's a surprising amount of work in a bunch of scruffy guys in dirty macks (that look a bit like Frank Spencer).

Marie-Louises

I've put flocking the Young Guard to one side whilst, butterfly-like, I start work on a couple more battalions.

I recently bought a battalion of Neapolitans from David Davies, but my need for French Ligne is far greater and I've decided to re-badge them as French, reserving the distinctive Neapolitan standard bearer, pioneer and officer for a later project.

The rump of the minis from the battalion have been reinforced by a draft of Marie-Louises, the young, poorly equipped recruits drafted by Napoleon around the time of the defeat at Leipzig.  Following an idea from Guy Bowers, I've made these up using the Warlord Late War French torsos and spare heads in pokelem caps taken from the Warlord and Perry plastics sets.

I'm going to paint the greatcoats on the recruits in khaki and an off-grey shade to give what will now be two battalions an irregular appearance.  

Here are three of the Marie-Louise recruits.  The two on the left have Warlord bodies, and the one on the right a Victrix body which is a good match for the former.  The centre head is Warlord, and the other two Perry.  I've distressed the greatcoats with drill and craft knife, to give them a ragged appearance.  They should be relatively quick to paint!

Young Guard forming up...

Another work in progress shot of my Young Guard Tiralleur Brigade, now on their bases and grouted. The three Batallions of recruits have now joined the veteran battalion in the foreground (based back in 2012). The minis were painted by David Davies with some finishing and weathering by me.

I've already painted a few test minis for a first Guard Voltiguer Battalion; this has to be done! A matching Brigade of Voltiguers would be a fine thing, they have great red flags that would complement the above.

Basing Tiralleurs

I've finished retouching, weathering and varnishing the Tiralleurs, and am ready to base them, so more anon.

A sufficiency of Perry plastics, and a potential swap.

...so I have been making steady progess with finishing the Young Guard, and had been starting to fret that, at the current rate of progress, I would run out of unpainted Perry Napoleonic French plastics some time in late 2019. However I checked the loft and found another 4 unopened boxes, so that should time me over until the early 2020s!  ;-)

I am particularly keen to get hold of the Perry French figures in greatcoats.  Would anyone out there like to swap their spare greatcoated figures, for their Bardin-wearing equivalents, or plastic Victrix?   I can take as many as you want, or can spare... please drop me a line at simonmiller60 (at) gmail.com.

Young Guard

After a whole year's delay, I've returned to my Napoleonic project.  Here are three battalions of Young Guard Tiralleur recruits, painted by David Davies, that I'm finishing so that they can join the finished battalion in the foreground.  They are on temporary bases.  Once they are done I'll have enough French minis to fight a division level battle.

Napoleonics are a tricky distraction from my passion for Ancients, but sometimes a little variety is necessary!