Wednesday 17 January 2018

From PeterD - 28mm SYW French Infantry (40 points)



These figures had all but the bases finished last week, but didn’t quite make it in time.

Challenge veterans may remember that last year I worked on my SYW project for Sharp Practice, mainly focusing on my British/Allied side of the equation.   For this year I am looking at the French opposition.  In addition, I found that I like the lace wars so much that the scale of the project has ramped up from Sharp Practice skirmish gaming to Black Powder/Honours of War.  

In keeping with what worked last year and my ramped up work schedule, my French will be coming out in drips and drabs.  These are the first 8 figures from the Touraine regiment, which like the rest of my battalions will be 24 strong.  The figures are 28mm from Crusader minis.  (FYI they currently have a SYW unit deal going on).

Interestingly these are a good scale fit for Perry figures but smaller than the beefier Crusader El Cid range figures I’d painted years ago.  They come in packs of 8 with 2 figures each of 4 subtle variants, with the emphasis being on the subtle part of the equation.  The end result gives a good representation of a regiment in step but with slight variants on the head and arm position – much less variation than a Perry regiment but not all identical.

I like the backs of these figures - the pack is very elegantly sculpted.

I added gold lace to the cuffs on Jean a la gauche, to represent an NCO. 

I got these as unit deals (16 privates plus 4 command) plus an extra pack of 8 privates to flush out the units.  The command figs are nice but a little staid so I am getting Front Rank extras to add to the variety.  Update:  my Front Rank package was ordered January 8th and delivered to the frozen Canadian prairies today - one week late.  Front Rank put Royal Mail tracking on it and bingo - it positively flew here.

I left flat spaces at the back for unit labels to be added later.

Touraine Regiment dates back to the 1620s and fought in all of Louis XIV’s wars (maybe including service at Laarden), and the wars of Succession (English, Spanish, Polish, Austrian).  It served in Western Germany through the SYW, fighting well in the losing causes at Krefeld and Warburg.





There are differences if you look very carefully at the sculpts- or are there?

So by my math that's 8 foot figures in 28mm @ 5 points a pop = 40 points Mr Minion please.

From Ray

Excellent brushwork Peter. The 7YW has always and will always have a special place in this Minon's heart! It was the first period I ever owned and painted up many many moons ago!! In 15mm of course! So its great to see another learning to love the period. The only problem I found with the French is sameness of all the uniforms gets a tad boring when painting them, but hey-ho, its just gotta be done.
For this wonderful 1/3 of a unit you will indeed earn yourself a very respectable 40 points!



27 comments:

  1. Great stuff love those French uniforms.

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  2. Be curious to see if they truly were at Laarden :)
    Great job Peter...dribs and drabs towards a Black Powder game - now THAT is an approach I can relate to. Well done.

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    1. I await word form our resident Laarden archivist! Drips and Drabs is the best I can manage painting wise this year, as I've an overloaded work schedule. But slow progress is better than none and the painting gives me a nice sanity break.

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  3. A very interesting period I'd like to jump on at some point in time. Exceelnt painting job

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  4. They look grand, Peter! I like those beefy firelocks they have shouldered. The French do get a little dull with everyone in whitish gray and blue, but then that is a nice color combo! ;)

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    1. Thanks David. To my mind it's better than Napoleonic French when there were two uniforms - Ligne and Legere. I did think that I'd go with visible unit labels to keep everybody straight.

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  5. Look great Peter. Can't wait to see these on the table with some future Sharp Practice!

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    1. Cheers Jeremy - that is the plan and hopefully BP later in 2018.

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  6. Thanks vbery much Ra. FYI this is actually my third venture into SYW - as I previously did Prussians in 15mm and FIW in old school 25mm. My plan is to pick regiments so to get varitaions in Waistcoat and cuff colours, plus including foreign regiments.

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    1. Good idea, there are plenty of colourful foreign regts.

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  7. Nicely done mate, they look spot on

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  8. Lovely french infantry, the subtle differences are just right for this period I think.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain. I like the variety of poses in the Perry packs, but you right that the similar poses work well for Lace Wars.

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  9. Very well done Peter! Also quite like your work on the bases.

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    1. Thanks very much. I credit the Snowlord for pointing me in the right direction on basing.

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  10. Great work Peter - such a grand looking uniform. I look forward to seeing them in a future BP game.

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  11. Very pretty- I like the understated basing as well.

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