Finally finished Line battalions

I had a day off work today and took the chance to start the Herculean task of basing my 15 French Battalions. I found It quite enjoyable though as you can get quite creative in moving the grass and Glue around to make muddy shapes.

I didn't put down a layer of sand first but went straight for the PVA and flock mix. I find I can make good looking bases without the time consuming sand layer first. I did try a bit of sand/grit basing, but the results aren't really worth the time it took and it all gets lost in the detail of the muddy footprints etc.

March to the sound of the Guns

The last of my French field guns are finished off and brought up to speed with the others. They were painted over five years ago and so were crying out for a few Silflor grass tufts.

Luckily for me I had guessed the size of base needed and they match almost exactly with the Artillery bases from Foundry. A very lucky guess and it saved me a bit of re basing.

Waterloo Wheels

Glue and flock painted with brown paint while glue is still wet.
Static grass sprinkled on to PVA glue.
PVA glue painted on wheels.

Flocked for action

Lead Elves

After finding my entire collection of unpainted figures painted and based to an unimaginable standard, I thought I would leave out some more and find out what was going on.

Skirmish bases

Little Louis is the best shot in my army and I will put him to good use in every game. I have shown him a picture of Alan's head and he knows what to do. No Officer will be safe from this little sharpshooter.
I couldn't resist putting this little scene together. I wanted some more causality figures in my skirmish line, so picked out some figures that could interact with each other.

Come on...chop chop.

Sapper companies

Extras for the battlefield

After reading some great little publications produced by 'Waterloo Wargames', I got around to the idea of knocking up a couple of Sapper/Engineer companies. These companies should come in handy when playing the La Haie Sainte scenario. I would of just painted one in the old days, but by using the dip I knocked up two in the same time, that's the real bonus of using the stuff I think and very useful for producing the huge forces needed for Napoleonic games.

More Cuirassiers on the way

I thought I would paint up another unit of the French Cuirassier to make a brigade of the big brutes. I already have the 1st Regiment and so I'm going to complete the Brigade by creating the 4th. When the ground begins to tremble and shake, better form square before It's too late and pray to God you are not under the command of the Prince of Orange.

Battery in action

The new command puts the Battery to the test, in it's first action.

"What moves there?"

Fresh after flocking they need a bit of a brush down.

Artillery Command

Artillery Command bases

To finish off the Artillery Battery I thought I'd put together a couple of command bases. The good thing about using Front Rank Miniatures is that you could order individual figures separately, which saves money and allows you to Taylor units. I selected a few likely looking lads and painted them up. In the game 'Napoleon' you don't need command for Artillery but I think it will look good on the board. Besides, I do like all the fuss that goes on behind the guns, the extra men and waggons etc and will try to do more baggage detail when i get the time.

I painted these guys up the old way by layering and dry brushing.

Dipped French Battalion

The last of the men have been dipped and based ready for flocking. Over all I'm very happy with the dipped effect. It was quick and easy and brought It's own kind of joy back to painting. Now I have perfected this style of painting I will use It for all of my rank and file troops, although I will still paint up command bases in the old layered way, you just can't rush officers.

I took a bit of a leap of faith with my flags for my 2nd Battalions, after hitting loads of dead ends with trying to find 2nd Battalion flags on the inter-net, I finally came across the 'Flag Dude' in America. I contacted him via e-mail and I arranged for him to make me some 2nd Bttn white Fannions. They took about a week and a bit to arrive but the results were amazing. I won't go into it now for they deserve their own post. It goes without saying I have ordered some more and the results will appear soon.

Gribeauval 6-inch howitzer

All my artillery and their crews are from Front Rank miniatures.

French Field Guns

A Gribeauval 12-pdr field gun

You can't really have a waterloo game with out taking the mud into account. I used this muddy technique while painting up my Roman baggage train and liked it, so I thought I would use it on the French field guns.
The mud was very easy to achieve, I simply painted PVA glue onto the wheels and flocked them. I then painted them brown before the glue had time to dry this way the brown paint and glue mix while still wet. As PVA glue drys shiny and wet looking, it makes ideal fresh mud.