En Avant - French infantry on the march.

With all of the 40mm's now based on standard 120mm bases it is time to start getting some bits together for a wargame. Before we left the UK a year ago I sold off or gave away almost everything I owned by way of terrain, overwhelmed as I was then at the scale of the logistical challenge of packing up a home of 14 years and shifting everything 1000 miles to Spain.

Those who have followed my blog for some years will know that this is the point where I often get fed up and give up with projects, with the result that after one trial game everything ends up on eBay! But I do feel very different this time, I have just the one collection to focus on and there is so much more I want to add to it. I outlined in a previous post the units I will be adding over the coming months, in the meantime I have a little present from my daughters of 10 Perry Miniatures infantry on the way, I got to choose them and they consist of 7 x British infantry (a skirmish infantry base) and 3 Voltiguers to add to the 4 Perry's I already have painted here from the original collection. Whilst my rifles are based 6 to a base my LI bases are of 7 figures and look just about right, these are of course DBN classifications. A further LI base is planned, next time to represent the 43rd regiment with the wonderful  officer wearing pelisse.

As my intention is to play scenarios from One Hour Wargames (to DBN rules) I have been giving a lot of thought to the basic terrain board I will use. In order to be able to create the different terrain layouts illustrated in the book I'm going to go with a heavy cloth suitably shaded to represent the typical shades of Spain, this will enable me to make hills by simply cutting them from 2" foam (as sold here in our version of B&Q - Leroy Merlin) and laying them beneath. This will be far easier than having make numerous sizes and shapes of hills that would also require texturing to match the boards. I will then only require suitable trees, buildings, roads and rivers.

Meantime with plans underway the French infantry have been out on manoeuvres this morning, a most pleasing sight to behold. Of course there are photos and a (very) short video. All  are the excellent Sash & Sabre 40mm range of which I have a lot more planned.

Currently on the painting desk are these 1/72nd scale (?) French Peninsular infantry I am doing for Tony. These are old Les Higgins figures and very enjoyable to paint. I'm using a mid grey undercoat for the first time and it's working well, you can slightly thin the paints for improved flow and they appear a little brighter. I'll bring them all up to the basic standard of those at the rear and then work through to finish and detail them all together.