Wednesday 4 February 2015

From JohnM: 1/55émé Régiment de Ligne (116 Points)


This is the first Napoleonic infantry unit I have painted since last year's Challenge and my god, I had forgotten how difficult painting Napoleonic's is. I just checked and I think this is the 80th Napoleonic battalion I have painted over the last 7 years.

Here we have a pre-Bardin uniformed unit from Crusader Miniatures, these are the only Napoleonic figures they sell which is a pity as they are nicely sculpted and well cast. Very similar to Foundry, I think in pose, but a little larger thus fitting much better with Calpe, Front Rank and Perry lines. I think the mounted officer is from Warlord Games, but I am not absolutely sure.

These 28 mm troops will join my French Order of Battle as the 1/55e. This completes Quiot's 1st Division at Waterloo. They join Jérome Bonaparte's 6th Division, as well as the 13e Régiment de Légère (3rd Division). I think that maybe 24 French regular infantry battalions are enough. I will paint one more Garde battalion to complete Petit's Brigade of the Imperial Guard but that is it for the French blue!




But back to painting Napoleonics, when I started I had no idea what I was doing, I got better after awhile and by last year I had evolved a method of painting thin shades over a white undercoat, applying AP Dark and then finishing with some highlights. It was pretty happy with this method as it produced good looking war games standard troops in a fairly quick time.


The unfortunate bit of course is over the last two years I have started to paint mostly skirmish figures and when having to paint only 30-40 figures for an army, I started to spend much more time on each figure using various shades and highlights. I still used AP as it gives a nice hard coat but I would not shake the tin, so the polyurethane was essentially minimally tinted. I found it pretty hard to go back with these troops. I noticed I was painting much more detail etc etc. They are still not great but they took a lot more work.


The dreaded close up with all the warts!
I have also made some major changes in basing. I was finding storage increasingly difficult and damaging to the troops. I have finally settled on some high grade cardboard 2" high filing drawers, they are quite nice and sturdy, but the troops were moving about in them when a moved the box. A couple of years ago we had a Napoleonic game with Curt and he had brought some of his own troops which were based on low profile metal bases. I really liked how they looked, but maybe it was Curt's painting. With these I can glue in a magnetized sheet in the file drawer and viola the metal bases would stop moving. I really like the low profile over the 3 mm Litko plywood bases.

I have stuck with 40x40mm bases (although Curt tried to persuade me otherwise), but am now going with 4 figures to a base, so essentially 6 bases for a regular battalion rather then the 4 I had been previously using. My friend Iannick, with whom I have played most of my Napoleonics, recently switched to this convention, so I said why not. I have to admit though I somehow doubt whether I will ever get those 79 battalions re-based!


From Curt:

Eighty Napoleonic units in 7 years?! Wow. That is an amazing achievement in of itself John. I knew you had a good sized collection but not THAT large. Fantastic. 

These fellows look marvelous John. I've always had a soft spot for the pre-Bardin uniform and you've done all those tails, turnbacks and waistcoats great justice. I think you'll like the steel bases in the long run (I like the low-profile they afford as well) - just be sure to sand down the edges a bit so they're not so sharp. 

Hey, general question to all who use his stuff: Has anybody been able to get an order filled recently from The Flag Dude? Greg and I have tried these past few months and have had no luck at all. I hope nothing is wrong...

Again, wonderful  work John.

PS: The mounted officer is from Perry Miniatures I believe.

20 comments:

  1. Thanks Curt, that was about 30 minutes from posting to publishing.

    Remember that is 80 infantry battalions, it does not include cavalry, artillery and command stands. No wonder I am reluctant to put a Napoleonic unit on the painting table!

    In respect to Flag Dude, I have learned to be patient. When he does not respond to emails, I phone him. He is always quite friendly on the phone, and will usually push your order to the front.

    I suspect he is fine.

    My last Napoleonic order included all possible flags I may need, but of course famous last words!

    John

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    1. Yeah, I thought it might be just your infantry units. That makes it even doubly impressive.

      I'll try giving the Dude a call. Thanks for the info. (I thought my last order from him included all possible things I may paint - what a foolish thought...)

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  2. Excellent work John. Eighty units of Nappies? That's quite a collection for anyone, especially if it's only taken 7 years to paint them. :)

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  3. 80 units is an outrageous amount given these are larger miniatures. If they are all as pretty as this one it must be a marvellous sight. Can we see them all together???

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  4. Very nice - and that is a staggering amount of Napoleonics!

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  5. My mind is blown by the very thought of that many units. I have 300 french infantry sitting in boxes and don't know where to start. You've painted so much more than that.

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  6. My mind is blown by the very thought of that many units. I have 300 french infantry sitting in boxes and don't know where to start. You've painted so much more than that.

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  7. Excellent work John! I like the look of the unit with the new basing scheme. While the should to shoulder look might be more historical and does look good, I find the 20mm frontage allows to see the painting better. So its appropriate you spent more efforts on painting them than you used to.

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  8. These are great, well worth the extra effort

    Ian

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  9. Oh dear, I hope Flag Dude is still in business - I'm nearing needing a stockup!

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  10. I shy away from Nappys, I just can't be bothered with the intricate webbing and uniforms. But that in no way diminishes my enjoyment of these figures.

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  11. Lovely! Great finish. Hadn't even heard of that company, they look like great figures. Of course everyone should have at least 80 battalions with appropriate support in my view. :)

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  12. Congratulations!
    the details are top!
    great paintwork!

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  13. Fantastic looking unit but the 80th, my word.

    I thought my Napoleonic / War of 1812 collection was good sized at 29 infantry units! - Color my impressed!

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  14. Nice looking battalion of Frogs John! John has a roll of his units on his blog having seen a descent number of them in person they are quite impressive.

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  15. Great painting and pics - really nice

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