On the painting desk (2).

Having rebased all of the 40's I found another 8 unpainted highlanders in the drawer, and with 4 left over from the re organisation of the battalions I decided to add another 12 figure DBN base to the 92nd regiment. This will bring them up to 36 figures on the display shelves, but for DBN purposes each base of 12 represents a larger formation, I like to think in terms of battalions. Moving the three bases as a 'formation' gives a nice appearance of mass on the tabletop.

One thing that I have noticed about the highlander castings is a tendency toward weak bayonets where they join the barrel, quite a number were broken and have required repair. No real problem though but of course the 40mm's are expensive figures.

Basing for DBN rules.

I seem to be caught up in a lot of basing at the moment, as I decided after much thought to organise my 40mm Napoleonics for the DBN rules. I purchased a copy and after only a couple of read throughs was hooked. I just think they will work for me, and will allow me to game with these large figures on a modest  size table as movement rates, ranges etc are quite modest. I will expand on this in due course, but in the meantime here are a few shots showing the new basing method. Of course I was not prepared to remove all of these from existing bases, but rather to put them onto sabot bases, which comply with the standard size DBN frontage and make handling these figures so much easier.

DBN stipulates 40mm frontage bases, with the game played on a 2' square board (12 point games. I have gone for 120mm frontage bases featuring 12 foot, 4 cavalry or an artillery battery. The beauty for me is that one can deploy up to 5 bases as a formation- march column, attack column or line- and the figure mass looks really impressive in this scale. A formation can be activated by a single CAP (Command Action Point). I won't go much farther yet, but you get the idea below, I still need to sabot base the cavalry in 4's (120mm frontage). The other thing is that I won't be trying to squeeze these into a grid, I could just not make it work without breaking the units down into too small groups of figures to fit!

DBN :  Ms = muskets, 12 figures   Fs = Foot skirmishers, 7 figures  Jg (Jagers) 6 figures, includes British rifles ...... mine of course are the 60th Regt. I also plan some British Light infantry down the line. cavalry of course are heavy or light.

Finally, how refreshing it is to read a set of rules that don't cost £30 + quid, and are not full of images of beautifully painted figures! The download cost £12.00 and I was happy to pay that for a set of rules that I know I'm going to enjoy using and very easy to cross reference with example diagrams at the rear.

On the painting bench this week are .......

... another 40mm British Peninsular command set, and more 15mm ECW horse for Steve the Wargamer. I fancied painting some of the ECW's and a reciprocal arrangement was reached involving beer! Only 16 mounted figures, 8 are done with 8 undercoated for this week. I'll leave it to Steve to show them in full on his blog once they arrive back home, but here is a quick sneak preview, an absolute joy to paint.

Early stages yet.

These 40mm's are the last of my stock of figures,( well I do have numerous Highlanders but have no plans for them as yet as I already have the 92nd,) so it's time to stock up, Andy is holding more for me. I spent an enjoyable hour or so last night working on these 4 whilst listening to The Napoleon Bonaparte Podcast, number 19 'The Peninsular War - part 1'. I was introduced to these several years ago by 'Foy' and they greatly enhanced my understanding of the Napoleonic Wars so I plan to go back through them once again whilst painting. The episodes relating to the Russian Campaign of 1812 were particularly good I recall.

I'm still trying to work out how best I can use my 40mm's on the tabletop without having to deploy a huge table and tons of terrain. Recently I came across the DBN rules (see below), and the more I learn about them the more I think they could work. A 6 x 4 table with all units on standard 120mm frontages (12 foot, 4 cavalry, 1 gun and crew), would be very practical I think, no  re-basing, just sabots to test this out. I really like the way they play, very simple but that suits me. Rather than me trying to describe how these rules work a good introduction is this 12 point battle in 15mm scale, victory goes to the player who destroys 5 enemy units and they play with just a single D6 per player. I'm giving this serious consideration.

Tarting up the British cavalry + command bases.

As I have been working through the 40mm's dusting and cleaning them I decided that the Light Dragoons could do with a touch more highlighting here and there. And having seen a fine 40mm LD unit on the Napoleonic Facebook page I wanted to give the trumpeter a reverse colour jacket to add a touch more colour to the regiment. I repainted straight over the varnish - have never found a problem with this in the past - and felt it worth the effort. The Heavies were up next for a wash and brush up, and they required no further attention, they are among my favourites. Should add that these 24 cavalry were all painted by myself last year and I still intend to bring the heavies up to 16 figures shortly. Still not sure what to with the LD making the rude gesture toward the French, he was going be a standard bearer but as they were not carried in the Peninsular he may have to become another trooper by adding a sword or maybe carbine.

 

The two command bases are statement pieces, I could not resist making them! They are bloody huge and heavy, but will look 'nice' on the table I think if nothing else. The large bases are CD's which took the extensive texturing without warping, what more can I say, I like them.