This entry is my first steps towards a Blucher army in 6mm. I've painted up loads of 6mm Cold War before, but the prospect of a Napoleonic army was quite daunting. Reading a few tutorials online, and taking onboard some advice from my mate Steve to 'paint the unit, not the figure', I actually managed to paint this lot up in a relatively speedy manner. I've played a few games of Blucher, and love the grand scale it gives, along with the usual innovative mechainics we've come to expect from Sam Mustafa's rulesets.
This is the first base of my Russian Army for 1805-1808. I decided to paint up Russians as I like the look of this early period army, with the grenadiers in large
busch plumes, brightly coloured flags, and these guys, the Jagers, in their light green uniforms with 'top hats'. I'm building up a force aligning with the rules, but have based it on the Advance Guard of General Pytor Bagration, which faced off in the North of Austerlitz fighting bravely while the southern flank of the army was decimated by Napoleon's 'Sun of Austerlitz'.
So, this is the 6th Jager Regiment, under command of Colonel Ivan Petrovich Belokopytov. The relatively subdued Jager uniform and lack of any battalion flags is set off by the orange and black national cockade and the regimental distinctives, namely 'flame' coloured collars and cuffs.The Jagers were light infantry, and so I've based some skirmishing troops as a visual reminder. I'm also trying to replicate the historical strength of Bagration's component regiments by varying the troops on each base. The 6th Jager totaled 922 men, so I went for two battalions of 28 men - there is a logic to this, , e.g. the weaker 5th Jager will have 24 figure battalions. I hope the effect will be to give a visual representation of Bagration's command as it was on the morning of 2nd December 1805, before disaster struck.
I love the massed look of a 6mm Napoleonic game, along with the large Blucher bases with give you an opportunity to make what amount to small dioramas. I kept it simple with this base, as it was really a bit of a test - just a road and a few shrubs.
These are the lovely Adler figures, and anyone who is skeptical of 6mm should have a look at the animation and detail in these little works of art. I currently have the 6th's 'sister' regiment, the 5th Jager with their rather fancy turquoise facings, along with a foot artillery battery, next in my Blucher painting queue, though i'm not sure that i'll get to them this challenge.
By my reckoning, that's 62 foot and 2 mounted figures, so should net me another 33 points towards my goal.
Next up it will be back to WW2 and 20mm, with some German armour and panzer crewmen.
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Stunning work here Ben! While I have the lack of detail on 6mm and the lack of painting opportunity they provide, there really is no downside when they are all ranked up like this. While individually they don't compare to 28mm, when ranked up 6mm looks stunning, especially when done well like these are.
Your basing also adds a ton to these and is wonderful! I really hope to see more in the near future.
-ByronM
