Marie-Louises IV - Mission Creep!

The first two battalions are more-or-less finished, but alarmingly more figures have appeared on the painting tray- the beginnings of a third battalion!  

In other news Kawe of Westfalia Miniatures very kindly "exchanged" some of their products for a set of my "To the Strongest!" rules.  He gave me a very generous exchange rate, thanks Kawe!  :-) Consequently I have some lovely new toys, some of which I started to prep last night, including a colonel for the new battalion.

As well as being beautifully sculpted, these are amongst the cleanest-castings I have ever come across (and I buy Aventines!). I struggled to find a use for my file. Much, much better than the quality of the Perry castings. Westfalia also make lovely vignettes which one doesn't come across in other ranges, and their guns and vehicles have no peers.

Marie-Louises III

There's a lot of painting in these, even in a chap in a greatcoat!  I've finished another seven painting sessions, so up to 11 now, with perhaps 4 more to go.  15 sessions seems like a lot of sessions for 39 figures painted from scratch and a little highlighting on another 33.  Id anticipated a much faster painting rate on account of the greatcoats.  :-(  However, I think they will look great when finished!  :-)

Marie Louises II

Four painting sessions sees the Marie Louises mostly blocked in, and gradually converging with the mostly-finished figures from David..  Tonight I need to grit my teeth and paint the crossbelts, and tomorrow start on water bottles and bayonets.  There's a surprising amount of work in a bunch of scruffy guys in dirty macks (that look a bit like Frank Spencer).

Marie-Louises

I've put flocking the Young Guard to one side whilst, butterfly-like, I start work on a couple more battalions.

I recently bought a battalion of Neapolitans from David Davies, but my need for French Ligne is far greater and I've decided to re-badge them as French, reserving the distinctive Neapolitan standard bearer, pioneer and officer for a later project.

The rump of the minis from the battalion have been reinforced by a draft of Marie-Louises, the young, poorly equipped recruits drafted by Napoleon around the time of the defeat at Leipzig.  Following an idea from Guy Bowers, I've made these up using the Warlord Late War French torsos and spare heads in pokelem caps taken from the Warlord and Perry plastics sets.

I'm going to paint the greatcoats on the recruits in khaki and an off-grey shade to give what will now be two battalions an irregular appearance.  

Here are three of the Marie-Louise recruits.  The two on the left have Warlord bodies, and the one on the right a Victrix body which is a good match for the former.  The centre head is Warlord, and the other two Perry.  I've distressed the greatcoats with drill and craft knife, to give them a ragged appearance.  They should be relatively quick to paint!