From RafaelO: More Napoleonic French and some Warmaster bonus (193 points)

 

Hello everyone!

Two more weeks of hobby progress and some fresh units added to my army. Last week I managed to paint quite a lot, but… I completely forgot to write the post. Yes, yes, I know — I deserve some kind of punishment for that 😅. This week, however, I not only finished a few more units but also remembered to actually write the post! Hurrah!

Let’s start with some heavy cavalry. First up is part of my French Cuirassier Cavalry for the Heavy Cavalry Division. I painted eight figures, mounted on four bases, so I can field them as one or two units depending on the ruleset.

Next, we have some Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard for my Imperial Guard Cavalry Division. Same story here: eight models on four bases and a commander, ready for flexible deployment on the tabletop.

Now it’s time for the infantry. This week I managed to complete four bases of Fusiliers-Grenadiers from the Middle Imperial Guard.

And finally… something a bit different. I wrapped things up by finishing a Warmaster unit: a unit of Terradons for my army.

In summary

3 x 10 mm Mounted figure @ 3 points = 9 points.

17 x 20mm Mounted model @ 8 points = 136 points.

12 x 20mm Infantry model @ 4 points = 48 points.

Total 193 points.

More updates next week — hopefully without forgetting the blog post next time!

Rafa

Oh man Rafa, now I do not know which figures to like best they are all sooooo well painted! I have always had a soft spot for the Zvezda French Cavalry and have plenty of both the lancers and Cuirassiers to paint still, but your level of quality is omething different all together. That said I do think those bright oranges you chose for the Terradons really win me over for those as pick of the litter awesome entry indeed! 

From StuartL - Les petits Français - 72 Points

Hi all,

    So, after taking a week or so off from the challenge and painting to deal with some real life stuff, I managed to get back behind the brushes a bit this week. Todays post was largely inspired by minis painted by fellow challenger GregB. When I first joined the challenge back in 2018/19, Greg was working on some Franco-Prussian War minis in various scales. I had not previously heard much about this conflict, and I was rather impressed by Greg's fine work. 

    A couple of years ago, I was browsing My Mini Factory, and came across a 3D designer there by the name of Turner Miniatures. He was just starting to add some FPW minis to his tribe, so I subscribed, eventually getting everything that he released. I got some minis printed out in time for last year's challenge, but as I was unable to enter, they just sat there gathering dust. 

    So, with my entry to the challenge this year, I resolved to get some of these chaps done. Turner Minis are somewhere in the 6-8mm scale range normally, but these were printed at 135% so should be a bit over 10mm. The figures come in strips of 4 and I based them as full battalions.

   

    Each of these units is made up of 24 soldiers mounted on a piece of plasticard roughly 9cm by 4cm. The flags are all hand made. No-one I know locally is going to know what they should look like, and sourcing flags for minis that are not at any exact scale seemed like a bit of an effort.

    Normally, only the 2nd battalion of a regiment would carry a full standard with an eagle, and the other battalions would have fanions. But again, no-one I am going to play with will know or care about that. Simple French Tricolore make it easy to determine allegiance on the tabletop.

    I'm not a huge fan of painting smaller scale minis. I tried these at 6mm and didn't enjoy it. Even at 10mm, it felt like a huge departure from my usual style when I do 28mm. Perhaps these will grow on me if I do more of them, I'm not sure. I have a bunch more French waiting to be painted and after that I will need to arrange printing out some Prussians to oppose them.

    Scoring wise, there are 72x 10mm minis, at 1 point per model, so that should just be 72 points.

    My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 206 (+0)
BSRoD - 16 (+0)
Squirrels - 11 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans, Undead, 10mm FPW French

    Hopefully life will stop getting in the way and I can work on some more substantial entries for next week.

From Millsy:

Good to have you back on the tools Stuart!

Despite what you say about not enjoying smaller scale stuff these look great. I know next to nothing about the period but I like what I see and may have to dig a little deeper now. Probably a bad idea as we all know where that leads.

Such fine fellows all deserve their own eagle despite what the button counters might say. Anyone as well turned out as these chaps wouldn't leave home with a mere fanion.

Great stuff and another 72 points added to your tally mate.

Cheers,

Millsy

KenR - 28mm French Napoleonic Command - 50 pts

 

The older I get the less I seem to actually read stuff and make some interesting "mistakes", last year I left a load of painting to the last minute, finished it off and went to post it only to find the Challenge finished the day before !

This is (or was !) my Empire Bonus Round which I was convinced ended on the 21st January but in fact had passed last week 😆 

These are for my Plancenoit Project and are part of Lobaus French Corps, normally I complete a project and realise I haven't done any Command Stand and this time I was determined not to be caught out, so I've started with them.

Here is the first base, 3 28mm mounted figures on a 80mm round base, all the figs are from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Range and this is the make up for my Division Commanders, there is a General de Division accompanied by an Infantry Colonel and an Adjutant. 

The second base is a Brigade Command and consists of 2 mounted (ish) figures, an Infantry Colonel and another Adjutant. I love this figure and it's one of my favourite in the range, the Adjutant has dismounted and is using the horse as a place to rest his telescope (great pose but not convinced it would be that steady)

So that's 5 28mm mounted figures at 10 points each for another 50 points, half the amount they would have been if I read to the end of the sentence 😆

Fine print?  Who's got time for that nonsense.  I missed the empire round altogether.  Well I am sorry not to see these fine command stands in the Empire theme round, I am quite happy to minion them here.  I also really like the guy with the telescope, but share your doubts as to the steadiness of the rest.

Ready. From ScottR Early War French for Flames of War

 A couple of years ago I was fortunate to be given an Army Box of the Flames of War, Early French.  I spent the next few years tracking down the metal and resin tanks, trucks and extras.  So over time I have managed to collect everything that was available from Battlefront.

This is a pretty Big project and I had planned to get it all done and post up.  But life and work soon take over.  So in order to get a post in before the first deadline, I have to do a Part 1 and Part 2.  So Part 1 will be all the the trucks and the first half of the tanks.

To get the project rolling I did open every blister, cleaned them up including sanding and removing as much flash as possible.  It included 164 infantry figures which included the gun crews, mortars and HMGs.  Plus 71 vehicles made up of Trucks and tanks.

The blisters to be opened for cleaning and prep.

So this took a couple of days to open, clean and glue together.

The work begins, Day 1.

So two days and all the blisters are now cleaned, built and undercoating.

Day 2, final build and a mahogany brown base coat.

So pulling out the trusty airbrush I undercoated the whole collection with MIG paints Mahogany Brown. This was a slow process doing each piece individually.

Next up was choosing a base green that would suit the French Armour vehicles of the period.  One of the things about 15mm is colours tend to darken too much so i wanted a colour that would add a bit of brightness to the overall look.  So I chose Gunship Green from Vallejo as the base for the vehicles.

Base Gunship Green for all the vehicles and British Uniform for the French Infantry and crews.

So next up was choosing some suitable camouflage patterns for the vehicles.  I decided that all the transports i would keep as the base green with just a highlight to help them stand out.  

A bit of brown camo for the recon vehicles.

Detail work done, wheels, canvas, crew, tools and seats.

Now the final wash and clean up with a Matt finish.

Last step Decals and another varnish coat.

 

Next up the tanks and reconnaissance vehicles, tankettes etc would have a camouflage pattern.  So checking my bookshelves, online for inspiration I got started on the tanks.

Base Camo down for the armour.

Decided to do the guns as well.

Along with the detail work, I magnetised all the tank turrets.  Well I magnetised the small turrets on the recon vehicles as well.  With a gloss varnish after the wash I added the decals.

So the downhill run. 

Last of the decals for the armour is done and the final Matt Varnish coats to finish off Part 1.

Ok so here is Part 1 complete.  Just ignore the mortar crews at the top, never got them based so they will be in Part 2.  When Part 2 is done i will do a small final post worth zero points just as a photoshoot of each platoon.  But for now hope you enjoyed Part 1.

So ended up with 52 x 15mm vehicles for Part 1.  (Points ?)

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Hi Scott

Oh wow ... this hurts my head! What a whole lot of little vehicles which must have been tedious and fiddly to prep and assemble and then to do camoflage and then add decals ... madness! 

Full disclosure, I know nothing of Flames of War  and even less of French Army vehicles, but these look super good.

8pts 15mm vehicle x 52 = 416

I do see that there are seated figures in the vehicles, but as no 'body count' provided I will just round up to 450 points. 

- Sarah

From KenR: 28mm Napoleonic French Artillery (120 points)

I've got three Project trains running side by side this year and it's Napoleonics time again, I'm alternating French / Prussian etc so here are the next reinforcements for my French Plancenoit build.

This represents a Battery of 3 x 6pdr guns plus a Howitzer which was attached to the Young Guard Brigade I am building. It consists of 16 figures with 4 to a gun on a 60 x 90 base. I was keen to keep base frontages consistent throughout this project and depth was just what looked right.

The figures are from Elite Miniatures and are sold as a Battery in one pack. For those who follow Yarkshire Gamer you will know that this has been a bit of a nostalgia dive for me, I painted a load of these for the Wargames Holiday Centre back in the day and after 25 plus years without doing any it was like putting on an old pair of slippers. I love em.

Points wise, 16 x 28mm figs at 5pts each make 80, plus 4 Artillery pieces at 10 each give me a grand total of 120 points.

These are getting posted on Saturday for the next Thursday so I would expect at least another ship before then. I'm working on some Spanish Heavy Cavalry for the Italian Wars at present whilst the next Napoleonics will be Prussian Landwehr.

TeemuL: I like your big ships, but I like these 28mm minis even more. Strong colours and neat finish is a strong combination. I also pay attention to your bases, it seems that is somekind of idea how the ground actually looks like and not just gluing random tufts here and there (and mostly trying to hide something...). Good job, and we will meet again today!

From RaulM: Black Seas 1st Rate, Xebec, and Cutter (60 points)

My second post for the challenge is even more Black Seas, covering a spread of vessels that all could have been found in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars. A Spanish 1st rate, a Barbary Pirate xebec, and a French cutter. 

The Spanish 1st rate is one of the generic resin Spanish 1st rates that Warlord offers. I didn't like the white metal masts provided, so I took the yards and the fighting tops and attached them to masts I made with brass tubing. The paint scheme is based on the Santa Ana, who fought in several fleet actions, notably surviving the Battle of Trafalgar. 

The Xebec is another Warlord resin model, the large xebec. I kept the metal masts for this as they are chunkier and therefore not as prone to bending. The paint scheme is nothing special, very similar to the official box art that Warlord uses. 

Finally, the cutter. This is a metal model from Hagen Miniatures, with quite a bit of conversion work done to it to add the 12 guns on the deck and the square topsail. I used the Renard for reference, as it was the first thing that came up on google search when I was looking at French cutters.

For points I based it on the small brig being 10 points and the medium frigate as 15 points, so a 5 point up or down based on the size the vessel is given in game. 

1st Rate (XL): 25 points

Xebec (S): 10 points

Cutter (T): 5 points

For a total of 40 points. 

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Stunning work Raul - anyone who has dabbled in the majestic art of naval warship modelling (the creme of the hobby obviously, apart from Miles that is) knows what fine work this is. Wonderful lines, dynamic flags and billowing sails. Stirring stuff!

I'm awarding 20 bonus points for the conversion work, scratch building new masts, the lovely ratlines and taut rigging work - beautifully done!

Fair winds and following seas to you Raul!

-Paul