Painting update

 

So, firstly, while I resolve blockhouse roofing, these fellows have crept into the painting queue.Some of them have separate parts (swords, muskets and so on) that need to be added and so, technically are not quite complete.

Meanwhile, maintaining a firm-ish focus on the main body of work, these fellows are getting closer to being done. Just another four figures. I recall at la Belle Famille, the French column was noted to have a couple of white ensigns at it's head, thus the solitary (so far) brave officer out front of the burgeoning unit.

Please enjoy.

Building the Gardes Francaises

 So, here's the thing.

I know I am building a French Army for the French and Indian War. Set in stone. No chance of deviating from that; I have finished building the three line regiments that were my goal, so it's done and dusted. I am actively looking at the British castings that I have and so far there are enough for most of the first unit and parts of a second**. So, it's going to happen.

But... I found my old Willie*** Arquebusiers de Grassin in a box a few weeks ago and counted them back and forth and I seem to have half a units' worth of them. Then a Drummer from the Gardes Francaises mysteriously appeared on my painting table and I was compelled to paint him in the Grand Livery Lace.

So much lace...

Which in a round about way brings me to my topic. If one was to have a middling diversion in the direction of building the Gardes (I am sure the exchequer could spring for a birthday present), how would I do it? The current establishment for my line regiments is in the nature of about 50 figures and each represents a battalion. The Gardes were a brigade-sized unit of six battalions. Now, I may be silly, but even I am not going to spring for 300 figures. So the question is "What to do?".

Currently I am mulling two solutions. The first is just to make a single battalion and leave it at that. And there is merit in that. In the case of bath-tubbing a battle like Fontenoy*, it seems quite reasonable to have a battalion stand in for a brigade on the wargame table.

The other thought that crosses my mind is that my battalions all break down into two Grand Divisions, so, why not simply add a third? The unit has a fair bit more heft, it won't break the bank and it'll look good on the table.

What would you do?

*Fontenoy? Well, I'll have a pile of French infantry and artillery already. Will it kill me to add some cavalry? And I will already also have a number of British infantry units including the 42nd Highlanders out of the FIW project. And, dash it all, I have castings for half the Arequebusiers de Grassin already.

**It will be rebasing time for my RSM British. There are enough already-painted castings to create a full regiment.

***And lets face it, the Willie French and British are based off Fontenoy, Culloden, Carillion and Quebec.

Grand Parade

Everyone likes a parade and I thought this was a good moment to take a breath and see how my FIW French army is looking. So, and without further ado, the infantry:

Here we have the "Bearn" and "La Sarre" Regiments. I have had various figures of these in my collection for years and they have represented all sorts. They are now settling down into their proper identities, although you mau still note the occasional inconsistency in their uniforms!

Here we can see progress on my version of the "La Reine" Regiment. It's currently at about the 60% mark, however I expect a delivery of figurs in the near future which will allow me to get to the end of the unit in pretty short order. I am choosing the same castings as I used in the "La Sarre" - kneeling at the ready in the front rank and giving fire in the second. Not really according to the drill book, but they do give the impression of a firing line. I will be using Davids' flags.

What's an army without it's brains? Successful? Perhaps? Who can tell! Nonetheless, this is my small collection of staff and hangers on that no 18th Century army should be without.

Le Corps Royale de la Artillerie. Heavy metal indeed.  I probably should supplement their numbers with more gunners in infantry uniforms to do the grunt work. 

I have another 20 or so resin Gabions that I need to paint up.

And finally, the Noble Savages who live in man's natural state, uncorrupted by civilisations' influence and ready to set the frontier ablaze... if it suits their own purposes. Ah, Rousseau.

The Etat-Major

 

I want a fort here. And another here and a battery there.

A gruff old Mestre de Camp lays it all out for a young colonial engineer.

Do you think anyone is watching?

At least it's shady under the trees.

The Kings' Artillery

 I've been quietly pecking away at a few more gunners and just about have enough to crew my guns.

About to open fire on my monitor-and-keyboard. The gabions are resin from a local manufacturer.

So, here's the question, taken in the context of Field artillery, nothing much was doing in the French and Indian War and so these are probably more suited to be siege pieces. That of Fort William Henry comes to mind. This raises the question of whether I need to make up a permanent battery position I can drop the guns into?

The question pretty well answers itself, does it not?

Splashing Some Paint Around

 I managed a little painting over the weekend. 

You may recall the pair of guns I was refurbishing. They had been hanging around forever. One had started to fall apart from neglect. So, it was out with the paints and superglue and we were good. I got some gunners either painted or, in a coupe of cases, merely based. Simple stuff, and lo and behold I had my first gun crew. The officer in the background is meant to be an engineer officer, but I have another casting who will get a red coat in the fullness of time.

One of the remodelled range of Willies ( an ADC, I believe) reports to my very old Soubise. In my wilder youth he wore a pink coat, turned up in yellow. Since those days he has changed his ways for a more sober - yet not unmilitary - garb. He may well do duty as my Montcalm. I believe I have a dismounted version from the remodelled range who may yet stand in the entrenchments on the heights of Carillon.

The Bearn Regiment

 

The colours are a little washed out by the photography, but these are the flags of the Bearn Regiment from David's website.

The rest of the regiment is based up, but I am short about 9 minis to get it over the line. Here's hoping they are here by Christmas.

It took a little more than the weekend...

 ...but the basing of the La Sarre regiment is finally done.

The bases are Renedra and the flags were David's: https://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/2011/08/colours-of-french-la-sarre-infantry.html

There is acrylic gel modelling on the bases and numerous tufts and flocking galore.

Willie French Guns

I have been enjoying refurbishing these. Using one of the GW "Technical" paints for the verdigris on the gun barrels.

Not too far off the mark for la Valliere 8 pounders.

Pretty good effort by Mr Suren from the late 1970s.

And kudos to GW for the "Niklakh Oxide" paint.

Marching Out

The dawn is quiet, as the poet once wrote. Quiet but for the crack of cannon fire as Bombardier Jolicoeur screams obscenities at the cloth-headed soldats of the troupes de terre who are fumbling clumsily over his eight-pounders.

"Sponge out you thick sons of bitches! Out!" He slaps his palm against his forehead in dire frustration.

Load that Cartridge, Number two! No, not you - you're number Four. Number two! Yes, you!!! Now the wad, and the ball. You'll need another wad to hold it in... oh, start again! Get the worm!"


Meantime, the Languedoc Regiments' piquet company leaves the fort and enters the woods. Every man a picked man, quick nimble and active. They are the Regiments light infantry.

Jolicoeur is happier to scream at the gunnery trainees; better that than spend night after night in the woods with them.

What's this? the Grenadiers, too? What's going on? Must be some operation. Still, it's nothing to do with him.

"Run out!" ah, the mad music of the wheels on the boards of the platforms.

The whole regiment is on the move South, marching in Grand Divisions. Must be a big one.

"Fire, you sons of bitches!"

Marechal de Camp

It's surprising what you can accomplish between feeds at odd hours of the night and day.

This figure is my first post-baby creation. He's the general officer from the RSM French range; I'm sure you all have examples of the figure in your collections.

I have painted him as a Marechal de Camp (or Brigadier) with the idea that he will be my French and Indian War "de Levis", surely one of the more attractive personalities among the French fighting for New France.

I have painted him in the standard version of the French general officers' uniform, straight out of the relevant Osprey.

I will do a command diorama eventually representing Montcalm and an ADC or two.

Battalion Structure for Drums of War

With my up-and-coming French and Indian War antics in mind, I have been looking at unit organisations for my French and British Armies.

My favoured RSM miniatures come in three main poses for the infantry; marching, advancing with the bayonet forward and a stand- and kneel-and-fire pose. I've been thinking of how to make this work for me.

In the "Drums of War" rules, a batallion is made up of two or more "Grand Divisions" and small five figure "elite companies. I had been thinking of how to make the figure poses work for me to help identify units by type on the table-top and came up with the following:

Centre Company troops (to use an anachronism) would be represented by troops in a firing-line pose.

Grenadiers would be represented by figures in the stately "march attack" pose.

Skirmishers or light troops might be represented by troops in the advancing pose.

The uniformity of pose means that there might be no gross dissimilarities of pose when elite companies were formed into ad hoc Grenadier or light batallions. Furthermore, I very much like the idea of one day being able to do the defense of the hieghts of Carillon with the Lights forming their historical piquet duties, whilst the Line fire over the log entrenchment and the Grenadiers stand steadfastly behind them, ready to seal any breach that might be made in their order. Note here that at the left of the line is the light company.

At the right are the Grenadiers.

The battallion from above; the "hatmen" or centre companies have been grouped in two Grand Divisions, flanked by the elite corps.

The sharp-eyed among you will note that the centre companies are in a three-deep line with the induvidual figures offset to allow the rear ranks not to perforate the skulls of the front when offering fire.

Introducing the Regiment de Berry

Here is the first company (plus a few extras) of my new regiment, that of Berry.

Note that I have finally (!) gotten around to making a start on terraining the bases. I'm using a gap-filler, plaster-in-a-tube sort of a preparation - it's easy to use, dilutes with water and requires only a wet sculpting tool or finger to shape it.

I'm using some GW "Scorched Grass" for vegetation; I just pop a dot or two of superglue on the base and dunk it in the pot and it's ready to go. A quick zap with the spray-on varnish and it's (hopefully) there forever. I think that the varied colour of this mix looks rather better than the electric green also available from GW. I definitely think that "less is more" with this material.

I am painting another company currently and hope to have them finished off for the weekend. At the same time I'm also terraining the bases of my large company of Compagnies Franches de la Marine. Furthermore, I'm thinking of converting the fairly useless French NCO figure into something a little more NCO-ish.

You know, looking at the lads as I am just now, I really want to do a 2-3 figure command vignette.