Front Rank French 28mm 42nd Line

Hello there! I have realised that I have completed a second battalion of the 42nd French line but only posted parts of the first battalion completed in the post on making flags for units.

These are based on Shako II rules so are three bases of six figures. The flags are from GMB and the standard was replaced with a brass wire.

The second battalion, at the front, probably did not have bearskins, but they look good on the table!

These are for the Maida refight and I have some French light infantry to do next. 

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Line Infantry

Hello there! I recently completed another battalion of Austrian Napoleonic line infantry and decided to put all the completed units together.

These are mainly Front Rank with some Perrys and Foundry to make the command groups look a little different. Althought the other ranks are in the same or similar pose I like to see some variation.

These are starting to look good after some trial and error with the facing colours but these are now coming along well.

These are mainly Front Rank with some Perrys and Foundry to make the command groups look a little different. Althought the other ranks are in the same or similar pose I like to see some variation.

The flags are from GMB.

The Foundry Austrian command pack has a spare figure advancing which does not fit with my 'march attack' pose. Instead of wasting this I used him as a casualty marker and used a Warbases counter as a base.

Austrian 28mm Front Rank Napoleonic Chevau Leger Horse.

 Hello There! Here is another completed unit for the Austrians.I always try to have a cavalry unit in progress in the background. This helps me not to get bored with doing cavalry alone while still having other things getting completed on the production line.

I have included the red comb for the trumpeter and his grey horse. The grey dapple is done by smearing a powder from dark grey oil pastel block and is sealed using the gloss and then matt aerosol varnish.

The castings had a some fine lines on the horse blanket so the painter has a slight guide to include the black and red lines on the edges.

These are the 1st Kaiser Regiment intended for the 1809 period. Using the W J Rawkins offering on the Napoleonic Austrian Army the first squadron carried the Liebfahn while the remaining squadrons had the Ordanfahn. There were one of the regiments that retained the Green jacket.

 

French 28mm Front Rank Voltigeurs

 Hello There! As the weather is drier and clearer today I have been able to take some decent photographs. These figures are intended for the skirmish project and clear the painting table a little bit so I can move things around again!

 These can go with the Perrys voltigeurs that I completed previously. Although they were in campaign dress these guys look much neater.

Here is their NCO however he does need the stripes on the sleeve to be done, but you can see he is in charge as he is pointing!

These are in a variety of poses which suit skirmishing and were all bought as separate items. These were also delayed as I have a couple of problems with my air brush but these were soon rectified. Although you cannot see it from here the lower part of the figure is sprayed with brown paint to give a dusty, marching look.

French and Austrian Napoleonic 28mm Additions

 Hello there! I have had the opportunity to complete some Austrian casuality markers, another line colonel and a French officer for the Napoleonic skirmish project.

Here is the sole Frenchman. He is a Front Rank Light infantry officer who will lead the line infantry voltigeurs against the cowardly Spanish guerillas. I have been trying a few alternatived to the 'French Blue' coat colour. This is Wargames Foundry 65A French Blue shade, 65C French Blue highlight and Vallejo 841. The last two colours were mixed to make the highlight and I am pleased with the result.

Next up the latest Austrian line colonel. This chap is for the 11th  Erzherzog Ranier regiment. He is a Wargames Foundry figure from their mounted officers set. This is a two piece casting, unlike the Perrys version which is one piece which in turn takes longer to paint, is a very good fit with his horse. If I have any critisisms it is that the angle the sword is held at means that when picked up you can push the sword towards the figure and it looks odd. I feel it may only be a matter of time before it snaps off.

Here is the first casualty markers. I intend to use Shako II rules and these measure the effectiveness of each unit by having a number of 'hits'. These go down during the game and reflect how well they can fire and melee with the enemy. These are a way of recording the units status without paperwork. The counter bases are from Warbases.

These figures are again from Wargames Foundry and are very clean castings which required minimal cleaning up. I noticed while cleaning that some were Hungarian so after a quick scan of the order of battle of Eckmuhl and the facings of the required Hungarian regiments were found.

This last figure is from the Foundry German line command set. The position he is in is incompatable with the usual poses of the Austrian drill book version of march attack. This left me with some odd figures which I had no use for and as I had bought a few command sets I had a number of these. I decided to use them as casualty markers and this chap is for the 57th Joseph Colloredo regiment.

I have a further battalion 'on the paint table' and have now got in the habit of turning out the off white jacket and trousers to a satisfactory standard so speeding up their completion.

 

Austrian 28mm Napoleonic Front Rank Infantry

Hello There! This is a short post to show you the lastest progress on the mountain of Austrian infantry I am slowly ploughing through.

Please excuse the first picture which has slight out of focus extremeties as I was rushing as the clouds were rapidly closing in blocking my light!

This is my second battalion of  infantry, the first of the 42nd Erbach Regiment, and are awaiting a reply from GMB for the availability of the flags for it and a number of other battalions. In 1809 many infantry regiments had the regimental number embroided next to the standard pole and this could be quite noticable. GMB have the option to provide the correct numbers for these units but has to be sorted by e mail.

Hope you enjoy.

Front Rank 28mm French Napoleonic Mounted 9th Chasseurs

 Hello There! Another addition to the Maida project are these mounted chasseurs. They are the only complete unit that were present in the battle, the British having some residual cavalry but not enough to make much of  a difference on the battle itself.

The flag is from GMB and I have used brass wire with an eagle from Front Rank. The facing colours for this regiment is pink which shows up really well on the unit.

I have read many time that a trumpeters shabraque may have been in black but have seen a number of contemporary illustration showing the same as the men. I concluded that regulations stated black but that this was not always followed.

The individual figures have company pom poms wnd the officers jacket again stands out in tehe facing colour.

I included the elite 'company', although I have read that it was actually the first troop of the first company only uniformed like this.

Here is the remaining base of men. I am beginning to enjoy painting cavalry and have tried to have a unit of mounted troops always on the go so I do not end up just paintng cavalry figure after cavalry figure so running the risk so getting fatigued.

Front Rank 28mm British Napoleonic Royal Foot Artillery

Hello There! Another addition to my Maida project is a battery of artillery for the British. It does not appear to be clear what calibre the guns present this a 9lbr gun model.

I replaced the sponge/rammer with a piece of wire as I find the white metal fitting usually snaps far too easily when in use. I drilled the remaining ends out with a pin vice and glued back together with superglue.

The rocks are Cotwold Buff stone chipping painted then dry brushed. The vegitation infront of the cannon is an experiment that I decided to try out. I noticed that not all plants grow out at an angle like the commercially available tufts. I took rolled some 6mm long static grass between my fingers and plucked any ends that stuck out either side and put these piecs bac in the centre of the grass. This levelled the static grass so that both ends were relatively flat. I placed a layer of neat PVA on the base and stuck the end of the staic grass into the PVA and left it to dry.

Unlike tufts the grass stays upright and you can cover any area that you like. After a day of drying get a large paintbrush with soft bristles and gently brush from the bottom to the top over a sheet of paper to reclaim any excess. This has made a convincing out crop of plants.

 

Getting the barrel and brass finish is always a problem. It either ends up looking too shiney or has a flat finish. Here I put a layer of brass metallic paint then after that had dries I added a wash of army painter strong tone around the raised parts of the barrel. This did not work too well at first as the wash gathered into globules or just migrated to the lower surface of the barrel. I added a small brushfull of washing up liquid and used the strong tone wash neat and did the upper surface first and allowed it to dry, laying level, and the turned it through 90degrees and wash again. I wanted some more detail to stand out so I rubbed the raised detail with a soft duster and this removed any wash to make the detail stand out a bit more.

I have further artillery to complete and these will be in future posts.