More 15mm Essex Napoleonics.

IN my spare time I have been beavering away at the Essex French and having finally made up my mind to use 16 figure line units I have completed the first 5. I added an officer figure as a test paint,  I like the Essex horses. I'm currently finishing off a 12 figure light battalion, these will be just 3 figures per base, 4 bases strong. Commands & Colors remains firmly in my mind as I paint these up, so the possibility of using each base of figures as representing a 'block' is what decided the unit size.

I'll be starting the Brits next and once I have 5 battalions finished I'll do some cavalry maybe. Couple of months and I could in fact have two small armies ready to play with, but I'll see how it goes. I'm finding I can paint these battalions up very quickly now, the Essex castings are perfect for my style and I'm using the magic wash over the undercoat which gives a nice painting surface that does not seem to absorb the brightness of the paint so much, and then again as a varnish wash at the end as I like this  slightly shiny finish. I then touch in light flesh to the faces and hands and strengthen and highlight the belts etc and plumes.

On the commission painting front I'm bang up to date, the priority now is the 300 odd figures left to complete the 10mm AWI project so I'll add some pics of these as I progress.