Good morning from the cloudy middle of the United States! As I sit here under a Winter Weather Advisory for a paltry 2-4" of snow I find myself not in the slightest bit upset because it gives me a perfect excuse to stay in a paint. Truly the definition of the proverbial silver lining of the clouds above me.
As the miniatures at hand though, I present to you the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 4th Regiment of Line of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw; or what could also be known as part of the Polish contingent of the Grand Army of France that fought in the Peninsula. They are one of the most heroic of the Polish units in the Napoleonic Wars, and were loyal to Napoleon even after he lost control of Poland. They were a decorated unit both during and after the Napoleonic Wars and so I shall also claim them for Glorantha as Heroes! As will be my style I will talk you all through a bit of my painting process.
What I painted were 50 15mm figures from the Battle Honors line of Old Glory 15s aka 19th Century miniatures, specifically from the range BPO3 (Line Infantry Regiments 4, 7, or 9). The pack I had was an older one that I purchased from Campaign Game Miniatures during their recent holiday sale that had 50 miniatures in it, versus the new Battle Honors packs that generally have 24 figures. So, if you're trying to recreate this unit as I did, I suggest you order 2 packs of BPO3 from 19th Cent. Minis. As far as references for images I split between those in John R. Elting's Napoleonic Uniforms Vol. 2 (yes, I know they are quite expensive, but highly worth it for the Napoleonic enthusiast; by the way the link is for used copies of the 1993 edition, you can buy the 2007 re-issue here), Napoleon's Polish Troops (MAA45) by Otto von Pivka of Osprey Books, and Uniformology's "Uniforms of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw 1807-1815 Part 3" painted by Jan Chelminski. Since each source showed uniforms a bit differently I amalgamated the sources to create something that I was satisfied with as a compromise. It's not exact, but I'm not a button-counter, so there.
I actually started painting these miniatures last weekend, and were able to finish them up over the course of painting an hour or two per night over the week. First after cleaning flash I mounted the figures to craft sticks using a hot glue gun (my preference because of the ease of popping them off after painting) I primed the figures in ultra flat white (Krylon Colormaster 5131507) to reduce the need to paint white pants (because efficiency or laziness; take your pick). And with that I was done for the first evening.
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| That's not too many miniatures, sure this can't be too bad... |
Night two I decided to knock out quite a bit of the blocking. Most of my paints were Vallejo Acrylics, so I will provide reference numbers for those. I started with Dark Blue (70.930) as that would be pretty close to the primary jacket color I've found in my research, then Black (70.950 for the shakos and other hats, and Deep Yellow (70.915) for the jacket lapel/vest. I decided I would finish the night by painting poms and plumes (Deep Yellow again for Voltigeurs, Flat Red [70.957] for Grenadiers, Officers, flag bearers and drummers), cuffs (same Deep Yellow for Voltigeurs and Flat Red for everyone else), epaulets (ibid), and rifles and flag poles painted in Leather Brown (70.871).
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| Starting to look soldiery. |
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| Poms and Plumes really do help make figures pop. |
Night three I moved on to details. I painted the drums with both Flat Red and Deep Yellow, then painted the Eagles, gorgets, and shako plates in Polished Gold (72.055). Backpacks were painted in Leather Brown, smaller pouches were in Flat Earth (70.983), and bedrolls were painted in Neutral Grey (70.992). Lastly I painted skin in a 3:1 mix of Basic Skin Tone (70.815) and Flat Flesh (70.955).
On night four I wanted to finish up the primary coloring on the figures before moving on to a wash. I mixed up a 3:2 of Gunmetal Grey (70.863) and Chainmail Silver (72.053) for bayonets and rifle barrels and slapped that all over. Swords were painted in pure Chainmail Silver, with officers' sword hilts painted in 1:1 of Tinny Tin (72.060) and Old Gold (70.878), and any other sword hilts in just Tinny Tin. Sheathes were painted in 1:1 Bright Bronze (72.057) and Tinny Tin or Chainmail Silver. Drum heads were painted in thinned
Honeycomb (942) from Folk Art paints (a crafting quality paint). I completely forgot that my Voltigeurs needed some green in the plumes and epaulets so I painted on some Flat Green (70.968) appropriately. Lastly I painted crossbelts and other straps in White (70.951), and for some reason I'd totally forgotten to paint hair so I used a 10/0 brush to add a little thinned out Apple Barrel (another crafting-quality paint)
Brown Oxide (20511) knowing full well that my wash will ensure any gaps would be covered.
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| Decent little command element. |
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| They don't look too terrible, right? |
On night five I took my wife out to a concert at the symphony, so the only thing I had time to do after we got home was splash on a wash and call it a night. I used Flesh Wash (73.204) all over knowing full well that I would be touching up the figures in the morning to bring out the brighter colors. Also, I didn't mind the fact that the figures overall would look a little "grimier" as I'm of the mind that soldiers get dirty and sweaty (can confirm: I'm a soldier). Uniforms aren't perfectly pressed and cleaned in war. That being said because I was finishing up the wash later into the evening I didn't take any photos. Oh well.
The following day I was (as I am typing this, still am) stuck in a two day-long Zoom training where I don't have to talk much, and don't need to be on camera. So naturally this gave me the opportunity to finish up the figures. So, next I touched up the whites, yellows, metallics, and some areas of black. I also realized I'd forgotten to paint up the drum sticks, so I mixed up a 1:1:1 mix of Folk Art Honey Comb with Apple Barrel Brown Oxide and some water using leftover paint on my wet pallet. My next steps were basing the figures up on
Wargames Accessories #10 Metal Base Stands (3/4" x 1") and one
Litko 1.25" x 1.25" plywood base for the command stand (these had previously been spray painted green with
Design Master Basil [676]).
The next step was putting down some flocking. So I mixed up some PVA glue with
Apple Barrel English Ivy Green 20756 in order to cover up the white leftover on the individual figure bases, and slapped it on.
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| Not pretty, but it does the job. |
After that it was swishing the figures around in a
BTC Open Flock Mix created by my good friend Doug Kline at Battlefield Terrain Concepts.
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| This stuff is so nice it almost feels like cheating. Almost... |
Et voila, we have two battalions and a command stand!
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| Regimental command stand. |
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| Close up of 1st Batallion. |
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| The Regiment thus far. |
My paint job is what I would describe as just slight better than tabletop quality (meant to be seen from 3' or more away). I'm not very good. More often than not, to be honest, I actually pay someone else to paint my minis nowadays. However, I'm starting to enjoy the process again, even if my miniatures are a bit rough-and-ready, and wouldn't win any contests. I did order some wonderful fabric flags for them from
Maverick Models, but they have not arrived. Please accept my humble apologies for sending forward units sans flags.
Anyhow, this is my entry for the week. Not too shabby I hope. In summation, my points are calculated as follows:
50 x 15mm foot @ 2 = 100 points
Glorantha (Outer Ring) bonus = 20 points
Total = 120 points
Until next time where I think I may try for diving headfirst into the Warp Maelstrom that I skirted to travel from Istvaan V to Glorantha. Millsy, what challenge do you lay before me?
Forest
From Millsy:
You're a man after my own heart Forest. I love 15mm Naps and I love the French and their allies even more!
I'm not sure what is more impressive in this post, the miniatures themselves or the depth of detail you put into the words wrapped around them. Either way, its a cracking entry and well worth the 120 points. I've not painted any Battle Honours stuff myself but they look pretty good and your paint job is better than you seem to think yourself. I'd be happy to have them grace my table any day!