Some Swiss and smarter British!

With the French 40mm's now organised into five battalions of 24 figures plus command I found myself with four fusiliers left over and four unpainted Grenadiers left in the drawer. Having decided that battalion number six was going to be Swiss, I wasted no time in producing this little group being the first figures towards the next unit. The officer was also a spare and he got a repaint. Blue appears a little light here, but suffice to say I'm rather pleased with them.

Some might recall that when this collection arrived in Spain back in May, a number of the infantry were as described by Andy, 'blocked in'. I have since been gradually working through those figures, bringing them up to scratch. This British battalion was built from those figures with additional command figures painted my myself. Basically it involved repainting the white belts and lace etc, working on the faces, repainting the facings and finally giving the trousers a repaint as they had been given a kind of Army Painter dip treatment that did not appeal to me. I used Ivory directly over them, leaving some of the shade showing and I'm much happier with them now.


The Highland battalion is also due for a but of a touch up to those kilts again, while I like the pattern the spacing is too wide and I think a few more lines will improve the look. Some of the faces are still a touch too 'toy soldier like' mostly those painted by myself last year, the command group won't be touched though, I love the piper with his ruddy complexion.

Awaiting regimental Colours.

I have also been giving some thought to the inclusion of the mounted officers and decided they look better without them, allowing the colours to be closed up together. This will free up the mounted figures to create a couple of command bases, 3 figures and two figures. I'll also do the same with the French battalions.

The lovely Spanish gun team with the huge 12pdr based on the 1957 film 'The Pride and the Passion' has had a good dusting, it makes me smile every time I look at it. Andy (Copestake) tells me that it was created from various ranges and is not commercially available as a single piece so it's quite unique.

'A plethora of Eagles' ..... the 40mm French army on parade!

Here is the 40mm French army so far, parading together for the first time following a dusting session! 195 figures in total, 5 battalions of infantry, a skirmish screen of 16 voltiguers, two artillery pieces with 10 crew and 3 x 8 figure squadrons of light cavalry, the elite squadron and 1st squadron of the 2nd Hussars, plus a squadron the 4th Chasseurs. I do plan to reduce the size of the mounted command bases as they are a bit long. The infantry battalions are each of 24 rank and file plus 4 foot command and a mounted Colonel.

I do plan to add more cavalry and want to add a Swiss battalion to the collection this year ( a British formed light battalion is planned first though after the cavalry). The flags are just what I found on the net, more research will possibly be required before I order replacements from GMB in due course for that finishing touch.

Now, if only I could find the enthusiasm to build the terrain for them. This is most inspiring:

https://metal-mercenaries.blogspot.com/2019/02/40mm-napoleonic-salute-best-of-show-2016.html

40mm Chasseur a Cheval competed.

OK, so I'll start this post by admitting that I have gone and done it again, I have sold the 18mm Blue Moon Napoleonics and they are now winging their way from the Costa Blanca to Scotland. The new owner will use them for actual wargames, and I can now re focus on the 40mm collection. Just to fill in a bit more of the story, when Rob became the new custodian on my large Hinchliffe ECW collection before we moved to Spain last year I reinvested some of the spoils into a lot of the Blue Moon figures. They languished in the box untouched until before Christmas when I started knocking them out at quite a rate, I enjoyed painting them, that's what I do these days, but once again the prospect of actually using them became a bit of a headache, causing me to ramble on about grids and rules etc. I'm happy that they will now be used, time to move on once again. Iain, you were right my friend!

I immediately returned to painting the four 40mm Chasseur figures that had been sitting in  drawer for quite some time with just the black undercoat. You see below some progress shots and the finished squadron of eight including an officer and trumpeter in reverse colours. I spent a fair bit of time on the horses. gradually building them up to the highlight and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. With these done I set to bringing the basing of all the British so far to a consistent look with more static grass and a buff dry brush on the stones. Took a few pics of course, the French are next up so that the basing right across the collection is consistent. More will follow.

Who knows whats next! I really fancy painting something different.

Figures by Sash & Saber (USA) available in the UK from Andy at Old Glory.

 

Unit at rear awaiting colours, I might try to hand paint them.

A quick shot to demonstrate the packing method to the BM's new owner on the journey back to the UK. Lots of business card boxes, a perfect tight fit for 6 x 30mm square bases. Strong outer carton.

...And now for the British!

95th rifles .......of course!

Battalions of foot.

Light infantry from the rear.

The French are based, onto the British!

I have completed the basing of the French army and must say I'm very pleased with the results, the ugly washers are gone (seemed like a good idea to begin with), buried under filler, stones and static grass. For the record and future reference, the basing method consisted of the following:

50/50 mix of powdered filler and PVA glue in medium sized plastic container.
Two tablespoons of earth shade pigment. Apply to bases by medium brush, fairly thickly.
Once dry, cat litter (ground to fine stone, size to taste), is added in patches and left to dry.
Shake off any loose stones, apply PVA and drop static grass, give it a quick tap, leave for a minute or so (while applying glue to the next base) then turn the base over and tap off any excess.
A watery wash of Burnt Umber is then applied to the stone areas and once dry drybrush with Buff.

I wanted a quite light finish to my bases as I feel it helps the figures to 'pop' a little more, I wanted some of the filler mix to be left showing. The cavalry bases did need a fair bit of building up due to the large bases and the washers, but they turned out well once finished. The units are all of three 30mm bases for a common frontage of 90mm which will require a 100m grid, be it square of hex. The guns are on large frontage bases of 45mm and I'll probably go with two bases per battery on a 90mm frontage once I get more guns. So the French army to date consists of the following in Commands & Colors terms:

3 x mounted generals.

8 x line infantry (12 figures per unit)
1 x Grenadier battalion
2 x light infantry units

2 x lancer light cavalry. (6 per unit)
1 x Chassuer light cavalry
1 x Hussars light cavalry

3 x Dragoons heavy cavalry
1 x Horse Grenadiers (Guard heavy cavalry).

3 guns and crews.

A grand total to date of 195 figures.

British heavy dragoons. Blue Moon 18mm figures as are all the figures.

The Frenchies!