Perry French line infantry again Napoleonic 63

 Here we go again! After last week's Rhinebund unit, it's back to normal,you know the drill, Napoleonic French line infantry, entirely Perry plastic, advancing not march attack so that at least is different. 

Pleasant diversion, there's a unit at home that just needs the white to finish them off, then there's two more Victrix units, another Guard unit then that will be all the French infantry done, the end is in sight!  There's a fair bit of Austro-Hungarian infantry to do, some needs to be assembled and apart from the  cavalry unit I'm working on now there is I think four more French cavalry units, a hussar unit associated with Lasalle, a unit of chasseurs a cheval , a unit of lancers I got from secret santa a couple of years ago( I know, wrong for 1809 but nice to be given Napoleonic figures! ) and Polish lancers of the Guard, once more they didn't get lances until after the 1809 campaign but I'm not going to build a unit of Polish Guard cavalry without lances am I? Other than that I've got a wagon park to paint up and then it's parade time, I'm hoping for the summer but probably it'll be Christmas!

 

Just to prove to Keith I am in Jamaica here's a couple of beaches, not up to Keith's standard but there you go!
 In the meantime Perry have announced since my last post that they are releasing early peninsular war Spanish infantry in plastic, perfect for the siege of Girona, so I have literally no choice in the matter, I'll have to get some Spanish!

  My wife's coming out now, so it'll be a couple of weeks till my next post.

All the best 

Iain 

Confederation of the Rhine regiment no 6 Reuss Napoleonic 62

 Slight change of pace, still Napoleonic, still on the French side but just for a change , here is Rhinebund regiment no 6 Reuss, a principality in Germany that contributed to this regiment but did not fill it all. It did take part in the danube campaign of 1809 to an extent, and I can brigade them with one of my Nassau units , although they weren't at Wagram or Aspern. They could well be pressed into standing in for Saxons , I do quite fancy a Saxon force, I just don't know if I can make a bicorne wearing, essentially 18th century force, even if it's correct for Wagram as they will have limited use unless I went for revolutionary armies too and while my helmet wearing  Austrian infantry and grenadiers are probably alright, I would have to redo all my French infantry in bicornes, now I like painting French line infantry but there are limits! So maybe Saxon 1810 and onwards? But that's for another time.

A while ago I spent some time working in Girona in Catalonia, which endured three sieges during the war of Independence/ peninsular war the sixth regiment arrived just after the third siege, so I'll need  Westphalians and Italians for that and a characterful Spanish force built around regiment Ultonia (Ulster) and various less uniformed forces, I've already earmarked some Wargames Atlantic Prussian reserve to give me a start and of course I have a medieval town wall and some French artillery! 

 These chaps are mostly Perry plastic Austrian infantry with plastic  voltigeur and hussar heads plus three metal Perry Reuss command, the Waldeck command that came with these chaps have been press ganged into a Westphalian unit that will be along      ( with it's two companions) in due course. I've mainly used Pinterest as my reference, together with the Perry site, the drummer is based on a knotel illustration as is the officer. The metals were, it has to be said nicer to paint than the plastics, they're slightly more exaggerated but you can't argue with either the cost or the easy conversion possibilities of plastic, or indeed the weight taking them back and forth across the Atlantic! 

It's a rather light operatic uniform I think? Nothing wrong with that, nice and colourful in full dress and a nice change from French blue!

The flagbearer is a Victrix figure with the slightly longer jacket than the Perry with Confederate flag arms, I haven't got a flag for this unit yet, there doesn't seem to be an historical one but I've seen a coat of arms so I think I'll just adapt that, I  was inspired by the drum trim on the knotel illustration to treat the flag pole in the Reuss colours which are of course the colours of present day Germany (almost said West Germany, old habits die hard!) Primed in Halfords grey, agrax earthshade wash (except where I wanted black) the black is liquatex artists acrylic ink, good quality and much cheaper than miniatures paint, bit of a sheen sometimes but that's okay for shako,cartridge case and gaiters. I'm pretty happy with my economy Rhinebund regiment and good practice for white uniform jackets, blue breeches and freehand knotwork for my Hungarian and also the Grenzers still to come, probably have the final ( for now) French line unit next, bit worried I'm going to run out of figures out here! 

All the best 

Iain 

French line infantry Napoleonic 61

 Another day another French line infantry unit, just the one this time, entirely Perry complete with command, honour guard and sapper. First here's some work in progress and photos of my travelling kit.

 

This is my hotel room set up , I had to go to the other side of the island so I brought some figures and paints and as I like people showing how they work I thought I'd share how I do it.I tend to paint the blue jackets first, in a rapid wet brush style and then flesh followed by brown for muskets and backpacks, I've used them in this condition before at a push, then steel, gold red, white, company colours, light blue, orange, a kind of wine dregs purple and green and then a couple of lighter brown colours for the varied water bottles then it's just flags and flocking, probably a title of a blog post down the line! I use a cass art sable 00 for detail work, flesh , gold , red and white, a lot of the heavy lifting, blue and grey is done with a super cheap synthetic 1 from a big pack of brushes from the Works, the other older synthetic is also from the Works and is used to apply water rapidly and clean up as I go so I don't have to go back and repaint. I use a plastic takeaway lid as a pallette, I've also got a travelling little lamp that plugs into a phone charger that I usually use in addition to any existing lights. There's no wash or highlights, I'm using the black primer to give me black for boots and shakos etc and to give me shadow and shade so effectively all the colours are highlights and actually better if I don't do a full coat except for white.

Next up will be the last of the French line infantry units I have with me , so you'll get a rest until I'm back on them in April! I'm looking forward to a change, it'll be French dragoons that I don't have bases for, Austrian or Hungarian infantry , Austrian Cuirassiers or a Confederation of the Rhine unit that's all the choices I have out here!

Bedside reading, just to keep me focused, informative and an easy read.

All the best 

Iain 

French line infantry Napoleonic 60

 Here are two more units of mostly Perry plastic Napoleonic French line infantry 1807-1814, command is Victrix in both cases with a Victrix grenadier drummer and two Victrix eagles carried by a Perry elite figure, the other drummer is a Perry elite figure with spare drummer arms and a Confederate drum again, a couple of warlord figures have snuck into one of the units once more.

 

The eagle standards are a bit bent as are some of the bayonets but considering they've travelled across the Atlantic in a file box in the hold with only boxer shorts as packing I think that's pretty good I was optimistically hoping to paint a unit a week, so filled half my second hold bag with figures and paints, in the first week I painted these two units so was a bit worried I would run out but this week I haven't been able to paint as much and for the two weeks my wife's coming out to Jamaica I can guarantee I won't be painting any figures at all, still with a bit of luck I'll get all the figures done before I go home.

Fun and relaxing to paint, like Lawrence said recently on his blog , you get into a rhythm and know what you're doing with Napoleonics after a while, it's a bit like running, once you've got past the painful bit at the start you're just in the zone and can keep going? I'm onto another two units with Perry command, for a change ,  I don't have any flock out here so they will just have to stay flagless and flockless until after Easter! 

All the best 

Iain