From MartijnN: Courting small-scale disaster in France (Books)(92 points)

After Württembergers and WWI Germans, I have the generation in between for you today. I have always been fascinated by the European wars of the 19^th century, the Franco-Prussian War among them. Once again, a book I picked up in my early teens was the main culprit: Cyril Falls’ Great Military Battles (or, rather, its Dutch translation, De Grote Veldslagen).

 

I first found this book as a schoolboy, on the bookshelves of one of my uncles, who still lived with my grandmother, and whenever we would visit I withdrew into a corner with a book like this, of which he had quite a collection. De Grote Veldslagen had a chapter on the battle of Gravelotte, which may well be the first I heard of it. I next began to recreate the battle using Airfix ACW Union troops as French, and Airfix WWI Germans as Prussians. I suspect some of you may have been doing the same at some point😉. It has remained one of my interests ever since, and I have been fortunate in having had the chance to walk the battlefields of Gravelotte and Vionville- Mars la Tour several times.

 

 

Look what I found inside the book! Must be at least 40 years old...

However, that is not the book I have chosen for this studio, for that it this:

 

La Debacle by Emile Zola. It is part of his Rougon-Macquart series, and first appeared in 1892. It vividly describes the (mis)adventures of the main protagonist, Jean Macquart, while serving in the French army, ending up at Sedan, where he is taken prisoner. I found it a great read. I don’t think it has ever been adapted for the silver screen, but it should be!

For this theme, I have painted up four brigades of 6mm Prussian infantry and four artillery batteries. Actually, there are probably going to serve in my 1866 Prussian army first, as I do have painted a sizeable force of Austrians but my tiny French are still in their bags. However, they are useable for both conflicts.

They are 6mm Baccus figures. Obviously, they are painted for the wargames table, so I skipped as many details as I could (even though these sculpts actually have lots of it, should you be inclined to strain your eyes to the max). Even so, I find painting and basing these take a lot more time than you might think. I tend to spend a little more time on the tiny Picklehauben, as that is what you see most, but that always seems to take forever. Nevertheless, I am happy about the way they came out. The flags are Baccus too.

The artillery are also fine, although these are the older models where you have to glue the wheels on. At this scale, that is a royal pain in the backside I can tell you. Luckily, Baccus has since replaced them by one piece castings. Still, even the old models look good don’t you think?

Progress so far:

So:

136 x 6mm foot @ 0.5 = 68 points

4x 6mm artillery piece @ 1 = 4

Books studio bonus = 20

Total 92 points and a squirrel! 

The Franco-Prussian War is an interesting period with colourful uniforms (at least for the French), but it doesn't seem to be as widely known as the earlier Napoleonic Wars nor the later World War One, despite the fact that it was influenced by the former and had a big impact on how the latter would be fought. 

Great work on these Prussian units, with troops like those you'll soon batter the French into submission.