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| Old School Battalion |
Old school Napoleonic Minifigs are one of my favourite things to paint - I love gaming with them too - but get to do so only rarely. I'm building up the French Minifigs army so that it can take on the Anglo-Allied army that I inherited from my dad and brother. Waterloo at 100ish French infantry battalions seems too much of a stretch but Quatres Bras at 30 battalions is within reach. I'll need a total of10 light infantry battalions and this one, the 2nd/2nd, is number 7 (the other 3 are primed and ready to paint).
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4th Company and Voltigeurs
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Most of these minis are from a batch I got a few years ago from someone who could no longer wargame and was breaking up their collection to pay medical bills - an aspect of US society I'll never get my head round. Technically FN68 is a Croation infantryman advancing - but their trousers and pom poms together with the rest of their equipment makes them look a lot like 100 days campaign legere.
The 2nd/2nd was a pleasure to paint - I tried a new recipe for light infantry blue, which worked and a new approach to doing the buttons, which didn't. I'm still experimenting with highlights - I want to like the way they look close up and 3 feet away. Not sure if that's compatible.
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| Carabiniers with Sapper |
Santa was good and managed to fit a lot of 7litre Really Useful Boxes down the chimney - some of them color coded blue for the Frenchies. Each one can hold about a division - around 10 infantry battalions of 24 Minifigs each.
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| Really Useful Boxes of Fun |
I was lucky this year and hit the French Napoleonic Minifigs mother load when a wargamer moving away from the state decided to let go of his mostly unpainted Minifigs. I think there are enough for around 2 infantry divisions and there were a bunch of cavalry too. Maybe I can get started on Waterloo after all.
24 Infantry for 120 points.
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| The Challenge XI shelf begins to fill. |
I’m really happy to see this project again Pete. Love these old skool Minifigs and the Legere Uniform is always a fave. iIRC the Croatian regiments wore the legere uniform but in green. If not, Curt will nail me to the wall shortly.
ReplyDeleteSplendid work, splendid project, splendid target to do Quatre Bras.
Prompted me to look up their history - like many of the allies the Illyrians went to Russia in 1812 - wearing green - and mostly didn’t return.
DeleteExcellent progress on a superb project!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful stuff Pete. Always happy to see this project move forward every year.
ReplyDeleteLovely looking French, and very colourful headgear. Looking forward to seeing more as the challenge progresses.
ReplyDeleteThere is something wonderful about Minifigs Napoleonic figures, brings back memories of so many great games. Great to see you bringing them back to life 👍
ReplyDeleteRegards KenR
I'm on a mission to find unpainted collections and get them table ready!
DeleteWow Pete, these are inspiring! I think my 2021 will be expensively filled with small scale napoleonics now haha!
ReplyDeleteSplendid looking minifigs Napoleonics! Lovely looking battalion of Legere!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Nice work Pete. Are we gonna see more of these throughout the Challenge?
ReplyDeleteThat’s the plan. If I paint everything that’s primed I’ll have one battalion and two cavalry regiments left to do - I need one officer and a handful of chasseurs and lancers from Calivers.
DeleteGreat work on these old fellows Pete.
ReplyDeleteGood to see some old school minifigs! They look great and seem perfect for French light infantry. The sapper is a nice touch!
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone - now working on some Minifigs cavalry which probably won’t be finished until sometime next year.
ReplyDeleteThis will be an impressive collection!
ReplyDeleteVery nice work on those old miniatures Pete
ReplyDeleteCheers
Matt