From Ian: SYW French Infantry (74 Points)

Another SYW entry for me but swapping sides to my son's French army. These are again Lancashire Games 15mm figures and again were straightforward to paint. Prep was a little bit heavy on some of the figures and similar to their turnbacked friends have a slightly miss aligned rear of figure making the tricorne a little lopsided and the cartridge box looking a bit odd. Nothing too terrible but annoying. I also did not do the best cleanup job possible on these guys which was more annoying as I missed a mouldline on about six figures.

The Boy choose the regiments to be represented, mostly based on their flags and when he realised these had no turnbacks and the cuffs were also white he asked me if I could add extra colour. I convinced him to let me paint them up as is and if he still wished for me to make a change then I could. In the end he kept with the historical versions.

The first battalion is from regiment 2 Champagne which had a total of four battalions and on 26th July 1757 fought in it's first battle of the SYW at Hastenbeck where it assaulted a redoubt containing 8 guns and 2 howitzers losing 63 men but the battle was a French victory.

Regiment 3 Navarre was his second choice, these also fought at Hastenbeck as part of a flanking force that assaulted the Hanoverian left wing positioned in a woods. No casualties are listed so it's possible it did not actually come to grips with the enemy.

Both the above regiments were raised along with Regiment 3 Piemont and all three regiments squabbled over which should have preference in the numbering system causing Louis in 1666 to order that each would take turns being numbered 2, 3 and 4 on a yearly basis. This has to have been a real headache for army headquarters.

I was concerned about how the white would come out as I have little experience of full white uniforms and when I added a Nuln Oil wash my fears seemed justified as they went a rather dark shade of grey. Quick overpaint and seemed ok and on to the second battalion I watered down the wash which worked better then like the first I brought the white back in selected areas to give the shadow effect I was looking for. 

Very happy how they turned out and will be doing more hopefully to be ready in two weeks, before that it's back to 6mm Napoleonic's but something a little different. So two units of 18 figures makes me 72 points not too shabby.

Fine upstanding Frenchmen here Ian, your son will be delighted I've no doubt. It tickles me that he appreciates the relevance of historical accuracy over sartorial choices, too. There's something terrifically impractical about all-white uniforms for traipsing about and fighting in.  

Oh, its 74 points with the ever-popular flag bonus. 

Phil