The 'Lockdown project' 6 months on!

Had a bit of a revue today, mainly to see if there are any gaps I need to fill. The total is now 600 figures painted in 6 months, which is not bad going. They are a mix of Blue Moon and AB figures of course. I must admit I quite like the idea of using 4 base 'brigades ' as 40 infantry do give a good mass effect, I wonder if there are any rules that would allow me to do this? I quite like the idea of being able to play with fewer, larger units. Anyway, I have identified a few more bases that need to be painted, currently I have 6 Chasseur a Cheval on the go together with a couple of 6mm WSS battalions for Gerry. Another order is in to Eureka and in the pipeline is another box of 20mm's for John, which he tells me will contain a lot of white uniformed Spanish troops.

Johns box finished plus more AB 18mm's.

So another 10 days have flown by and more figures have been painted. I'm keen to keep Covid and politics away from my blog as much as possible and just focus on my love of model soldiers, but suffice to say as one who has followed daily politics for at least three decades the current situation is causing me much anxiety and has certainly depressed my mood. Good thing is that I get to spend a lot of time focusing on my painting and I try to get something finished each day which helps my motivation.

The 18mm Napoleonic collection has - rather like the virus - grown exponentially recently and all three drawers of my storage unit are now stuffed full. Whilst I have no intention of stopping painting Napoleonics -after all I have a full Prussian army and most of the Imperial Guard still to paint - I have been casting around to see if anything else takes my fancy as a little side project. 

10 days on from the last post here I have quite a few newly painted bits to show on 18mm and 20mm scales. The box of 20mm figures for Old John is now finished and John is preparing another box for me. Meantime I have some 6mm WSS units to paint for Gerry, who purchased my 6mm collection several months ago when I made the switch to 18mm. Having a fair stash of unpainted Baccus WSS figures I offered to paint them for him and he has been extremely patient while I have been bashing away at the 18mm's so with the decks now clear I'll be getting into production on them next week. I don't want to start on my Prussians yet, they will be my Winter project.

So, we have a base of 10 Marines of the Guard, a base of 3 French hussars (wearing the pellise which makes a nice change), a base of 4 Horse Grenadiers of the Guard, General Dorsenne, 3 British Generals and an additional base of 4 British Dragoons featuring a couple wearing watering caps. For John this week I painted 6 Les Higgins French artillery plus mortars, 4 French cavalry and 2 lovely Minifigs Danish Grenadiers. I remarked to John how nice the sculpts were on these figures and they were an absolute joy to paint and I'm really pleased how they turned out. 

Photos show the last 10 days output, plus Johns completed box, a comparison shot of an 18mm AB Prussian beside a Les Higgins foot figure for a scale comparison, a comparison shot of AB Horse Grenadiers and Blue Moon Horse Grenadiers (I have now replaced all of my BM cavalry with AB's) and finally (because I could not resist it) the 3 bases of British Dragoons together!

I plan to do something with terrain over the next couple of weeks, as while I do like the plain green cloth covered table I think I would also like something a bit more textured, only on a modest 4 x 3 scale, but a bit more realistic maybe.

Les Higgins 20mm beside AB 18mm.

AB (left) BM (Right).

Another weeks painting.

Very much enjoying my painting right now. The freedom to just paint single bases for my DBN/C&C collections is liberating and allows for some diversity whilst working in Johns wonderful WSS 20mm figures. This last weeks output has been four more 18mm bases of AB's and 4 cavalry and 4 infantry for John (Papal State infantry Les Higgins & Austrian Cuirassiers, but I'm sure John will provide full details on make of figures etc).

I had the French Guard Lancers in the drawer for just a couple of weeks and simply could not resist painting them, and as I begin to gradually branch out towards campaigns beyond the Peninsular I have plans for the Imperial Guard in full. Also added another base of French cuirassiers (in blue coats) and another base of British Guard infantry. Next up are some WSS artillery for John and a base of Marines of the Guard (AB) for myself. 

As usual, plenty of pics!

More for John and another DBN game.

Some progress on Old John's 20mm figures and another run through of DBN on the card table. French v British, attack columns v line defending a ridge. I was really just working through the scenario and the mechanics. British line firing as 'elites' (+1), French columns getting the same bonus in melee combat. My main reservation remains the fire and melee combat dice off (1D6 each side added to the basic factors with very few modifiers) and the CAP roll generating between 1 and 6 CAP's which just seems to be such a random result. Still, I'm sticking with it for now.

John's figures include Les Higgins, Lancer Miniatures, Hinton Hunt,  Warrior Miniatures.