This week has been a bit of a change from all that Prussian Blue! I have on the go some 6mm WSS, 20mm WSS, the last of my 18mm Spanish Napoleonics and 3 more Prussian Generals for the C&C set up so individual bases. I started the week by finishing off two more Spanish line infantry bases followed by the last 10 militia figures which cleans out my supply of AB Spanish. With the last four Dragoons base coated I'm also out of Prussians now until my order arrives from Eureka who are waiting on a delivery from Australia where they are cast. No problem as I have plenty to keep me busy.
It had taken me a long time to get my eye back in on the 6mm's, Gerry has been patiently waiting for about 10 months now to add to those I sold him, again using up packs of Baccus castings from my drawer. The addition of the second painting lamp was a gamechanger, and I really enjoyed being able to paint these delightful little figures again. I was able to match the basing perfectly using the same materials and Gerry is very happy with them. I only have enough foot for two British and two French, plus a couple of additional cavalry units per side, but at the moment Baccus figures are like gold dust!
The 20mm Hagen's for John will be finished today. I have been experimenting with the white uniforms, starting from a grey base coat followed by a carefully controlled dry brush, taking care not to obscure the button details wherever possible before adding stronger highlights of off white as the final finish. I think this works well and avoids that flat white look. I have more of these to follow up with next week.
I'm particularly pleased with the Prussian horses. I started with my usual Flat Brown over black followed by a 50/50 mix of FB & Japanese WW2 uniform (!). This time I added final highlights of pure Japanese uniform which really works well as I hope you can see. This will be my go to method for my future lighter horses.
I'm now considering ordering an Austrian DBN army from Eureka, still not sure but they are very tempting.
Battle news.
If we get a bright day over the weekend ( for photos), I'm planning a DBN battle on the card table, 1813 French v Prussian roughly 12 points per side. I have already sorted out the two armies in line with the rules army lists which are as follows:
1813 Prussians. 4 x Muskets (Ms), 2 x Jagers, 3 x Militia Muskets* (Landwehr), 1 x Heavy cavalry, 2 x Militia light cavalry (Landwehr), 2 x Foot artillery. (Plus command base and baggage)
*Should be minimum of 4 but I only have 3 so far, ½ point per base.
1813 French. 2 x Young Guard (Elite muskets), 4 x ‘Marie Louise’ (Militia class muskets), 2 x Allies* (Militia class muskets), 1 x heavy cavalry (Elite) ** 1 x Light cavalry (Elite) 2 x Foot artillery (1 is Elite) Plus command base and baggage.
*Swiss for now until I get the Bavarians painted! **Dragoons.
This time I plan a start to finish battle report as it's about time this blog featured some actual wargaming!
Lovely job and I like the result on the horses. I have just bought some specific horse colours in the Coat d’arms range from Black Hat, but have not had a chance to try them out yet.
ReplyDeleteCheers Norm, I have been trying for some time now to improve my horse painting and range of colours. Works well on the AB castings. Coat d'arms was a good range and I used to buy them on my visits to the Essex Miniatures Shop.
DeleteLove your horses.. lovely paintwork. Looking forward to the game as well - trying to get DG interested in the Plancenoit scenario from the DBN website - it looks interesting!
ReplyDeleteCheers Steve. I must take a look at the Plancenoit scenario.
DeleteBeautiful paintjob, lovely figures!
ReplyDeletemany thanks Phil :)
Deleteyet again wonderful painting , my sincere compliments , my WSS lads looking great as always , well done mate
ReplyDeletestay safe
cheers Old John
Thanks John. I'm onto the next bag of Hagen's now CC1 with red facings.
DeleteAll looking very good and inspirational. Even for my 15mm horses I’ve gone back to oil paints - paint on /wipe off.
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to the battle report, a bright day? I think you will be lucky (not)
Hi Graham, you are right about the weather, grey skies and a dusting of snow....so far!
DeleteThat old oil paint wipe on/off method produced some great horses back in the day.
Great painting Lee. Not sure if tge weather's gonna hold out for you though?
ReplyDeleteCheers Ray. We're not that far apart so I'm guessing you snow too now? Not too bad though yet :)
DeleteAlways a pleasure to get to admire your handiwork.
ReplyDeleteGood lighting does seem to get ever more important as the years roll by. I presume they aren't making it as bright as they used to.....
Luckily my ancient desklamp died recently so I will be shoppping.
Thank you Ross, I get so much pleasure from painting soldiers as I'm sure you do.
DeleteGood lighting is essential of course but I like lamps to be quite streamline as my current two are.
I went looking for the Prussians, then read your opening sentence. Ah well, at least I have your coming game report to look forward to. You did 'sneak' in those commanders though, plus the Spanish. Not that I do not appreciate the other lovely figures, just that they are not Napoleonics!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Many thanks James :) More Prussians when they arrive, some reservists in short grey jackets will add a splash of colour to them. Also some Bavarians on order and more French Guard. The Austrians are also very tempting, last time I painted Austrians was the Victrix set 10 years ago just before I started this blog, I was not keen on them but the AB's look great.
DeleteLee.
Lovely big range of figures, I can only cope with one scale! Austrians sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Cheers Iain, it's my anti pandemic solution, keep painting the soldiers!
DeleteLee.
Inspirational as always, Lee.
ReplyDeleteHow do you represent Ms/LI? (Musket/Light Infantry) These were commonly used by the Republican French forces.
Option 1: Duplicate bases, so you have 10 figs/base when they're in close order, and 6-8 figs/base when they're skirmishing. This requires painting and modelling nearly twice as many figs/bases for the infantry.
Option 2: Combine skirmish and close order in the one base, e.g. 3 figs skirmishing in front of 5 figs in line behind. This saves painting, but...where to put the command figs? In the 2nd line? Or officer in front skirmishing, with standard and drummer in second line? And then the larger problem: how do you know whether the base is in skirmish (LI) or close order (Ms) mode? Use a separate figure marker alongside or behind to denote one or the other?
It's a tricky one. What would you do?
Cheers
Paul
Hi Paul. You have given me something to think about here! I must admit I tend to just use a base of Legere to represent Ms/LI, but as you say there is the issue of close/open order to be considered. I may well have to duplicate a few bases to represent both now so I'll have a look at the AB range to see whats suitable. Cheers, Lee.
DeleteI confess it's doing my head in. :)
Delete:)
DeleteAnother option I suppose is to depict all Ms/LI as Ms. Then have an extra skirmishing figure on a small base alongside/in front/behind if the formation is 'skirmishing'. The only issue I see with this is having the room for these extra little bases on a potentially cramped table with a Republican French army dominated by Ms/LI (not the 50% of Ms as per rules; I've discussed this with Alex; the Republican French army list needs a rewrite.) Cheers, Paul
ReplyDeleteI think you have the solution there Paul, a thin additional base stood in front with 2 or 3 'skirmishers' Note that as I'm using 50 x 35mm standard bases I decided to adopt a ground scale of 1.5" = 100 paces and I have a measuring stick marked up as such. My DBN folding card table is also slightly bigger at 2'6" x 2' 6". I did find the game a bit 'fiddly' and tight otherwise! Cheers, Lee.
DeleteYes, maybe 1.5cm deep for that thin depth base with 3 skirmishing figures on it. I don't think the extra depth to the 'unit' overall would be problematic in the game, do you?
ReplyDeleteCheers
Paul
Can't see a problem with the additional thin base in game play terms Paul, sounds like the solution to me :)
DeleteLee.
Cool. Thanks for your thoughts. :)
ReplyDeleteLee, I forgot to ask you why you appear to have switched from rectangular bases for DBN commanders to round bases - or are the round bases just for C&C and not DBN? Cheers
ReplyDeletePaul, the single figure command bases are for C&C where you might need 3 commanders per side, the circular 50mm bases for DBN just because I have always liked round command bases :)
DeleteCheers,
Lee.
I see. (I'm sure I'll have some more questions for you shortly...)
ReplyDeleteCheers
Paul
And here it is! When you flocked your roads and rivers etc, to match the cloth and terrain from S&A Scenics, what particular flock (make/colour) did you/they use? I'm drooling over the terrain made by Miniature World Maker and wondering if it can be made to all tie in with some of the products from S&A Scenics that you've shown to such great effect.
ReplyDeleteCheers.