From Kerry T - Napoleon Crossing the Alps (30 points)

Morning, afternoon and evening all

One of the nicest things I think you can do on holiday is to visit museums and galleries and over the years I've been fortunate enough to do this. I've really enjoyed some of the paintings I've seen

Its always interesting to look at famous paintings but whenever we get an opportunity to visit a major gallery or museum I'm always keen to head off and look at the military art on show.

One of the first times I came close to seeing an example was on a trip To Vienna where we visited the Belvedere Museum.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps by David

The painting commemorates Napoleon's epic journey leading the army across the Alps in 1800. I read that though Napoleon chose the scene, he refused to attend any sittings. Apparently David was instructed to show him "calm, mounted on a  fiery steed" and consequently ended up asking his son to sit on the top of a ladder in order to capture the pose but was apparently able to borrow the uniform that Napoleon had worn at Marengo.

Typical wargaming tourist that I am I came back with a notebook, postcard and a print that I thought would look great in my games room. 

The notebook

Framing postcards is a cheap way to get Military art in your games room

Somewhere though between Vienna, the UK and NZ I lost the print I'd bought!

Fortunately the story does have a happy ending in that on of my birthdays my son had bought me a replacement, and it now hangs in the hallway outside my study and painting room

Its a little different from the one I saw in the Belvedere though...

It seems that David actually painted five versions (story here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_Crossing_the_Alps )

The link above advises that the version at the top of this post showing Napoleon in the red cloak is the 1803 version and was delivered to Milan but confiscated by the Austrians in 1816 being finally installed at the Belvedere in 1834. 

My hallway picture just above is apparently the 1801 version.

Guess what my son sent me for Christmas this year - As advertised on wargames foundry site https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/search?q=Napoleon

Thus I give you Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David err Kerry Wynn Thomas 😉🎨

Please therefore accept this entry as my "Art or artistic" contribution to the library section

In Summary

28mm Mounted figure 10 points

Art bonus @ 20 points

Grand total 30 points - hopefully I've not managed to repeat the dreadful and embarrassing mathematical error I did last week when claiming my points!

From Millsy: I've always been a huge fan of this series of paintings for so many reasons. All the various things that happened to the individual versions is a story unto itself. Your own execution in 3D is a wonderful exploration of the subject Kerry and I particularly like the composition with the larger base and lack of groundcover forcing your eye upwards onto the subject. Choosing the golden cloaked iteration is a nice change as most are painted red I would think. Points are spot on you are forgiven by the score gods mate.

KentG, 28mm Aztecs sacrifice, Napoleonic light lancers, Napoleon and staff (190pts)

 

Well here we are again, another week has sped by, I had great ideas 

of what I would have completed this week but choosing a bunch of 

highly detailed figures put and end to that. I had another entry 

I was about to take the photos of when my wife popped in and 

said you can't submit that it needs to be on a proper base to set 

the scene so it is now sitting on the desk uncompleted.

Of course she was right.

First up we have a 3D printed Aztec sacrifice set from Wargame Atlantic

This was a really fun paint, the minis are so detailed, these will be added to 

my slowly growing collection of Aztecs

This is my favorite shot, I sent this photo to a friend without thinking

that he had just informed me that the valves in his heart were shot, 

He found my picture a bit to much I'm afraid

I used blood of the blood God by Citadel paints which comes out so good

Next up This French Napoleon set by Perry Miniatures

I had way to much fun painting these Chaps, they are great sculpts 

with tones of detail hiding on them.

Millsy told me I had to get a shot of the map because at one stage

 I thought I had really messed it up while we were on our painting chat

Finally we have 12 Napoleonic French lancers by Perry Miniatures 

they are some of their meatal range once again  I found that I was 

enjoying painting these guys so much that I found it hard to stop adding details

One thing I wasn't looking forward to was making the pennants

 for the lances, then I saw that Piano Wargames have free files for Flags 

and one of those had pennants on them so I printed them 

out repainted them to the correct colors and hey presto we have pennants

This is the first time I have painted this unit, not sure why I've 

not venture into painting lancers before they are so nice to paint.

I have placed 12 more of them into the painting queue, they will be 

Front Rank not Perry  and I have also put 12 Guard lancers on the table, 

so lots of pointy sticks to come.

I don't normally paint all the horses the same but sometimes 

with these Nappy Regiments it just looks right.

And with that we come to points for this week

    First up 6 x 28mm Aztecs @ 5points each =30pts

    crazy skull thingy (should have entered the skull challenge) 28 skulls = 5 pts  no idea ?

    28mm Napoleonic staff set 6 figures and table 5points each =30 pts table 2pts ?

    12 x 28mm French Cavalry 10points each =120 pts

    Total  187 pts maybe

From Millsy: Another cracking collection of Napoleonics from you Kent. The Ogre of Europe and his lackeys are particularly good and a fitting centrepiece for any collection. I presume that's the map you were painting during the chat? It has certainly come up a treat!

Aztecs are not something you see a lot of, possibly because it makes for rather one-sided gaming if Europeans are the adversary? Sets like this are a good opportunity to dip you toes in though and you've really brought out the horror with your brushwork. The skull rack is a nice touch and one I am sure Barks will appreciate.

The skull rack and hand painting on the map deserve a few extra points so I've rounded you up to 190 mate. Nice work!