Dragoons in progress

My now very dusty Cuirassiers. I plan to go over all of these old figures and retouch the painting. Five years ago I had no knowledge of Silflor grass tufts for example and these will be used a lot on all of my old bases.
These four extra Dragoons takes my unit up to 16 figures and makes It a full strength Regiment of four squadrons. Notice my Trumpeter is now sitting on his nice new grey horse, If It's worth doing something, It's worth doing right. Next up are the Lancers.
Taking these Macro photos can be really helpful when It comes to painting. It allows the eye to get really close in, I have already noticed several things I will go back to on these figures before I can call them finished. They are just little things like the odd Black wash here and there, but now I have noticed It, I have to do something about It. It's the curse of a perfectionist...and It's not a good one.

Charge!

A French Cuirassier.

The Lone Cuirassier

Heavy cavalry doesn't get much heavier than this, a huge Cuirassier mounted on stallion from Normandy. They were known as Napoleon's 'big brothers' for good reason.

Like many cavalry horses of the eighteenth Century, this one has lost chunks of his ears from sword cuts by both friend and foe alike.

A hard fall

I have been researching the numbers set by the 'Napoleon' rule set into why Light cavalry units are 12 figures and Heavy Regiments are 16. I have found that there isn't really any reason for this as all Cavalry units (on paper anyway) were about four Squadrons. Both Light Cavalry and Heavy Cavalry were the same, even Hussars were formed of four Squadrons. I know that by posting this post and spending three hours researching, I have gone too far. I have stumbled off the track of gaming, like many a war gamer and started to wade into the bog of facts and figures. I'm sure it's just be a game mechanic to increase game enjoyment and give a taste of the era, but It bugged me that I couldn't find the reason for It.

Of course, none of this really matters for numbers on the field were all over the place and the figures for units at Waterloo are very varied indeed. Some poor Cuirassier units could only field two Squadrons on the day.

As It stands at the moment I have increased my 'Heavies' to 16 per Regiment (four Squadrons) and my 'Lights' stand at 14 per Regiment, putting them just under full strength. As I am building a Waterloo based Army, I was relieved to see many Line Lancer and Chasseur a Cheval Regiments of four Squadrons were present on the day.

Painting French Dragoons

I have started to increase my Cavalry regiments to fit with Foundry's 'Napoleon' rules. They state that Light cavalry should fielded in regiments of 12 and Heavy cavalry in regiments of 16. Were the Heavy cavalry regiments bigger? I will have to research that and find out.

I was also pleased to find that my mixed Dragoon green I painted over five years ago matched exactly the Foundry Dragoon colour, a little thing but it made me happy. It means my new figures will match my old and cut down on repainting time. I find the new Foundry Napoleonic paint colours a God send in saving time.

Another thing of note Is that I found out that Napoleonic trumpeters were mounted on grey horses, so they could be easily found by their commanders and help in sounding out orders on the battlefield. So I quickly had to repaint my Dragoon musician who had been sitting on a Bay for five years. There is so much to learn with a period like this and I find it just as enjoyable as the painting itself. I will put up pictures soon.

Bored!

The fallen Hussar

The Hussars were the most colourful branch of the French army. Ironically their main role as light Cavalry was to seek out and spy on enemy positions.

This is a member from the 9th Hussars, 1807.

Thanks BRB

To my complete surprise today I received a dead elephant through the post. Simon of BigRedBat fame has sculpted these to use in his up and coming 'Zama' game, which will see a huge Roman army take on Hannibal and his war elephants at this years 'Salute' event. I was amazed at the fact he had created these himself and even got them professionally cast in lead, after I left a message saying how impressed I was, he kindly sent me one. Thanks Simon, It's even better close up and I remain deeply impressed at your new found sculpting ability.

Where are my Armies!

Another French Division marches out

"Get me an Eagle Sharpe...I want an Eagle"

Infantry of the Line

To my surprise I managed to cobble together four Regiments, not three. The last one was a real rag tag bunch but It has become one of my favourites as It captures the feel of a true thrown together 1815 regiment.

I need to paint up two standard bearers to finish the last two regiments then that's the Infantry of the Line totally finished...hurrah!

Only one more 'Light' Infantry Regiment to re base.

The last of my French Line Regiments wait to be rebased

French skirmishers completed

I will have a busy day the day I come to flock my entire army. Now my table is clear again, I can start on another four French Dragoons, to bring my unit up to sixteen as called for by the 'Napoleon' rule set for heavy Cavalry.

Merde!

A French Voltigeur of the 45th finally escapes the swords of the Union Brigade and makes It back to his own lines. What a story he will have to tell his grand children.

Almost there

Not long to go now with just a few more highlights and the white straps on the backpack to go. I decided to paint a few Shako covers in linen to add some colour variety to the unit. These are Front Rank figures and are mostly the early French range. I prefer these sculptures to the later post 1812 ones, they are just better done. They must have been a later project as I think he must of improved along the way. They will fit in fine for my Waterloo army so I'm not too bothered and I do like the variety.

French Blue on the brush

Next up, I carefully painted in the blue around the white straps and belts. This was easy to do as most of the figure was infact white. I painted the red and other details before finally painting on the blue highlight, using it to cut back any mistakes.

Let there be White

I found the Grey a pleasure to work with and It made shading the white a doddle.

Something new

After looking through the excellent Blog of Saxon Dog, a true master If ever I saw one, I thought I would run off and try some of his techniques. I went straight to Halfords and bought myself a can of Grey spray paint to try out something new, I had seen the way Saxon Dog had used It to paint French in greatcoats. At first I was worried It would go on too thick but It worked a treat and actually made the detail easier to see. I would love to say the spray paint was cheaper than usual ( GW, Warlord Games etc), but it wasn't.

I have to admit after starting this Blog and looking and learning off other painters, my own technique has improved quite a bit. I only released this when I looked back at my old painting.

French skirmishers

French Skirmishers push out in front of the attack columns.

Skirmishing Celts...sorry Nan

Another group of skirmishing Celts join the throng. I have decided to dip all my Celts from now on unless they're somebody really important. It just means I can produce hundreds of them in a month. I'm also impressed with the quality of the stain If painted on with a brush rather than dipped. The shading looks good and in some cases, even looks better than some of my old paint work...sigh. I may use this technique for my ancient Germans and ECW ranges as well.
One tip I use is to spend a little time on the shield, the detail helps to take the eye off the simple paint work on the figure. Little Big Man studio shields are a big help here too. As you can see, I am making the most of having loads of freed up bases now the French have been moved on to bigger ones.

Another red morning

Almost there on the basing front.

Just over half the army is re based now and looking good in their new formations.

I shudder to think of the day I have to flock these guys, that will be a long day. Best not think of It yet, instead look at all the new french units...joy. Lucky for me my four Cavalry units will not need re basing and should pass muster. It's so good to have them organised at last, as I mentioned earlier, I created these units in the hope of a 28mm War hammer game. After years of waiting their are now two to choose from which fit the bill, Foundry's 'Napoleon' and Warlord Game's 'Black Powder'. I like the look of both these games and they both have their merits. At the moment we are leaning towards 'Napoleon' because it is based solely on the correct era and it has army lists and point values.

It's like waiting five years for a bus, you wait for a good 28mm Napoleonic game to come along, then two come along at the same time.

French 'Lights'

I think this unit to me represents the turning point in my Painting career back in 2005. Before, I had rushed through Regiments at lightning speed and with eras like the American Civil war, you could. However, with the Napoleonic French army and all It's detail and amazing colours, I had to stop and take my time with the painting to get things right. Painting Romans and Celts is great fun because you can use your imagination but with these guys you have to research and read. Two different types of enjoyment and satisfaction in one hobby, very rewarding indeed.

French Light Infantry

Again, this unit has been re based into a 24 man Regiment. This is one of my favourite Units in my French army, partly because of the time it took me to paint with all the detail. It is an early Light Infantry Regiment from Front Rank Figurines.

Unlike the other units, this one was tricky to base because of all of It's levelled muskets. The bases were difficult to arrange and I pushed the men presenting as far back as I could on the base, so they wouldn't stick out too much at the front. Even with my best efforts I'll have to leave a slight gap in between each rank when they're in column. At least the British will be in Line most of the time when they are on the board and won't suffer too much from this annoying problem.

Rebased for the 'Napoleon' game

The two large Regiments are now rebased into three 24 man units for the 'Napoleon' rule set. I had 10 figures left over that will be added as soon as I order some more expensive bases from Foundry...tut.

New Line Design French

These two 36 man Regiments are from New Line Design and are rather fine. At the time I remember them being cheaper than other makes and was surprised to see they were of high quality. They are quite fine featured and seem to be better proportioned than other, larger makes. They also match the Perries plastics in size and have a range of positions. A very good buy at the time.

Voltigeurs finished at last

The last bases of Voltigeurs are completed which finishes off the five regiments of French Line started over four years ago.