From GregB: An Opening Skirmish (35 Points)

28mm Franco-Prussian War French infantry from Eagles of Empire

Greetings to all Analogue Hobbies Painting Challengers! It's fun to be back at the brushes again this year, and I'm pretty excited to get going.  This year we have traveled to our cabin near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario for Christmas, and I was able to bring my paints and some primed figures along with me for the express purpose of getting an early start.  While I can't match Miles for "instant production" I was pleased to crank this opening submission out during a beautiful winter day at the cabin!

A lovely day at the cabin!

Not a great day for swimming, so bring on the painting! Lake Superior in the winter...

These are Imperial French soldiers from the War of 1870, the Franco-Prussian War. These are 28mm castings sold by "Eagles of Empire", a fairly new provider that has brought some lovely castings to a period and setting that is otherwise (compared to subjects such as WW2, Napoleonics and others) somewhat-niche-and-neglected by sculptors and figure companies.

Lots of nice detail on these tall castings

I became very interested in gaming the Franco-Prussian War this past summer, and spent the later summer months and fall looking for rules, books and looking into different figures and approaches to gaming the setting.  While I have a desire to play some "Black Powder" games in this period in 28mm, it will take a long time, likely at least a year, before I have enough figures gathered and painted before I can put on a game for our local group in Winnipeg.  While I hope this edition of the Painting Challenge will help me reach that goal, I still don't want to wait that long for a game, so I thought some 28mm skirmish gaming in the period would be a much quicker route to getting a game going on the tabletop.

I'm not so crazy about how narrow the "true scale" Chassepot rifles are...tricky to paint...

So while I am using the range from Wargames Foundry for my regimental/brigade/division gaming plans, I settled quickly on the range from Eagles of Empire for skirmish gaming purposes.  These castings are lovely - tricky, but lovely. 

The French sure seemed to carry a lot of cooking pans around in 1870...but of course!

What do I mean by "tricky"? Well, as hobby types we all have our own preferences, ticks and quirks - for me, sculpting styles is one of those things.  The figures from Foundry, sculpted by the Perry Brothers, have a sort of familiar and forgiving feel and shape to them. These sculpts, on the other hand, are from a very different sort of "school" of sculpting - these are tall, nearly 30mm tall, with slender builds and a more "realistic" proportion to them. The rifles are very narrow, the fingers very slender, etc. They would not, in my opinion, mix well at all with the figures from the Wargames Foundry range.

A first volley fired...hopefully more to come...

But they will do just fine for skirmish gaming! And I just LOVE the French uniforms from this setting. Red kepis! Baggy pants! And epaullettes everywhere!! These seven figures will give me 40 points - an opening "skirmish" in the Black Powder side duel and inspiration to keep going on this project through the Challenge!

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Beautiful work Greg. The colours are so rich and clearly defined, and I also really like the mixed tufts for the groundwork. I have fond memories of us visiting Les Invalides in Paris and taking in the Franco-Prussian war section of the museum. The uniforms, arms an armour on display were so impressive and I can see you've been clearly inspired it. Like you, I love the French uniform of this period with its kepis, blue pinned-back greatcoats and les pantalons rouges. It's so iconic and can sympathise with why the French kept the uniform pretty much unchanged right into the First World War.

I have some figures for this period on the roster as well, so I hope to be able to join you on this little project over the coming months Greg. In the meantime, have a great holiday break at your cabin!