Marie-Louises V - War of Attrittion

Despite their apparent simplicity, these have eaten up so much of my precious painting time!  But I will not be beaten.  Last night a grinding painting session finished these 81 minis (33 of whom were painted by David Davies) barring backpacks.  I will need to paint another 18 to field 3 battalions. You'll note that I have mounted a GMB standard and two Fanions.

Below are three of the Marie-Louise recruits.  These are Warlord plastics with a mix of Warlord and Perry heads. I have really taken to this set from Warlord, and expect to use a lot more of them in due course.

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!

Young Guard forming up...

Another work in progress shot of my Young Guard Tiralleur Brigade, now on their bases and grouted. The three Batallions of recruits have now joined the veteran battalion in the foreground (based back in 2012). The minis were painted by David Davies with some finishing and weathering by me.

I've already painted a few test minis for a first Guard Voltiguer Battalion; this has to be done! A matching Brigade of Voltiguers would be a fine thing, they have great red flags that would complement the above.

Basing Tiralleurs

I've finished retouching, weathering and varnishing the Tiralleurs, and am ready to base them, so more anon.

Young Guard

After a whole year's delay, I've returned to my Napoleonic project.  Here are three battalions of Young Guard Tiralleur recruits, painted by David Davies, that I'm finishing so that they can join the finished battalion in the foreground.  They are on temporary bases.  Once they are done I'll have enough French minis to fight a division level battle.

Napoleonics are a tricky distraction from my passion for Ancients, but sometimes a little variety is necessary!

Gunners II WIP

Another shot of my first Napoleonic artillery unit; made good progress yesterday, and I now just have the metallics and basing left to do.

Gunners

A WIP shot of the Garde gunners.  I hope to have them ready for a game on Tuesday.  A vicarious mix of Perry, Foundry and Victrix conversions...

Tambour Major

A rare sight; a mini I've painted from scratch!  This Drum Major will lead the massed drums of the two regiments of Chasseurs I've assembled.  His drummers will sound the Pas de Charge, in the event that the Garde reserve is needed to assault the enemy redoubt in our Petit Borodino game on the 30th (scheduled to be my first game in 5 months!).

I repainted the drums, and the drummers.  I was very pleased with how the drums came out; I replaced the Victrix drums with spare Perry drums, which are a little more crisply moulded.  I also replaced the drums on the command stands, which look better for it (not shown).

These chaps have put me somewhat behind, but I hope to catch up with the five mounted command figures I still need to paint, on Saturday.

Raising my standards...

I've replaced the old standards for my 1er and 2eme Chasseurs, with spanking new 1813 GMB Tricolours, which rather look the biz.  I'm taking the opportunity to do a little gentle refurbishment on the figures (highlights, new drums, fixing some minor details I got wrong and revarnishing).

Below are the mounted Generals for the two regiments, the Garde Brigade commander and the Divisional commander for the Dragoons; all at a worryingly early stage!

I'm getting nervous about the timings to get all this finished and based, for a game at the end of the month; it is looking challenging...

I love it when a plan comes together...

At last the majority of my four Garde Chasseur a Pied battalions are substantially painted and on their bases.  There are almost a company's worth of them.  Most were originally painted by Shaun Duncan, some by Dave? and a few, from scratch, by me.  I've added a lot of detailing, though, and most recently mud-splashes a la Burkhard (very easy, very effective, highly recommended).

I still have to paint 5 mounted officers, new standards, and ideally a drum major and some drummers.  The basing is going to take a couple of weeks, and I need them finished by the month-end.  Gulp.

Yet more Chasseurs and some Grognards

Shaun Duncan's reinforcements arrived last week, and I've now got almost all the miniatures I need* for my 4 battalions of Garde Chasseurs.  Two battalions are now on their bases (at the rear), two more are mostly painted at front left and centre, and on the right are two dozen grognard Grenadiers, that I just purchased from Foresight Painting, on eBay, and will expand into a battalion and rebase in April.

*I still need to paint the mounted officers (Perry's)

Even more Chasseurs

There must now be over 125, now, and 42 more, imminently expected  in the post from Shaun Duncan.  A couple still need finishing touches, and they'll all need varnishing and brass buttons, chinstraps, eagles on belt pouches and musket furniture.  I also need to paint 4 mounted colonels/generals to lead them; still 3-4 weeks work, so ready just in time for RTB's game.

Getting Carried Away

I've bought quite a few painted Chasseurs from Shaun Duncan (and earlier some from eBay).  I've started to detail, ink and varnish them to bring them in line with the 36 finished minis at the back right.  Even though most are very nicely painted, there's a fair bit of work to do.  When another 40 or so arrive from Shaun, and with a few more painted by me, I'll have almost enough for a 4 regiment brigade.  

That should put the wind up the Russkies, Roger!

Chasseurs WIP

I've taken a short break from Dragooons, to finish and base another battalion of Chassuers, most of whom were painted for my by Shaun Duncan.   I've highlighted, washed and done a little detailing; I think they will look very nice when varnished and based.  I'll highlight metalwork after they've been matt varnished (tomorrow? Will this chill never end?).

Dragons a Pied

A quick camera snap of the 36 minis of my dismounted dragoon Brigade; still some detailing and varnishing to go, but they are mostly there.  These are the work of 3 or 4 different painters (including Shaun Duncan and a couple of eBay sellers), but I've done a fair bit of over-painting.  I'm pleased with the dismounted elites, which I converted and painted myself, along with the other figures in the foreground.

Dragoon WIP

A snatched shot of the third dragoon regiment I'm working on.  Most of these minis were painted by Shaun Duncan.  The second batch had a slightly different shade of red facings, and I decided to spend a couple of sessions repainting the earlier set to match the later, add some highlights, regimental numbers and so forth, before basing.  I'm about half way...

WIP Dragoons

I've been a bad boy on eBay, and have bought another two dozen dragoons, all fortunately very nicely painted (half by Shaun Duncan, half by Wraith on Wheels), and needing no work.  Here they are, in the process of being re-based to my basing standard (45mm frontage for 2 mounted or 3 foot).  When they are combined with these, my first more-or-less completed higher-level Napoleonic formation looks like being a brigade of Dragoons.  I'll work towards all of the units having 24 figures, but they may remain under strength for some time.

In the background I'm basing three more stands of Garde Chasseurs painted by Shaun, and detailed by me.  I'm hoping to muster three 36 man battalions of these, and two of Young Guard.  Elitist, moi?

Buff Frogs

The erstwhile albino frogs (and their blue-coated officers) have been dipped and are starting to look rather better (phew!).  They need some highlighting, packs and a few details, like rank chevrons on their sleeves, and then they'll be done, which is just as well as they took at least twice as long as I'd hoped.  And worse, I've decided I need to paint a dozen more to make 2 units of 24.

However, they have been so slow that they have been "bumped" from the painting queue, because I need to finish some Romans for Greg's "Big Parade" challenge; I want to deploy my complete Early Imperial Roman Legion, for the first time.

Slow progress: Albino Frogs III

I've been furiously modelling but finishing very little, so far.  Here's my first French battalion, still rather less than half painted.  However the 50% Perrys in the last post have now all been replaced by Victrix (I found that the style of the greatcoats didn't quite match; the Victix are longer and more flowing than the Perrys).  The Perrys are reserved for another project.

A dozen are ready for dipping (below).

Part of the reason for the delay is because I have also prepped another 50 or so Victrix (not shown), out of the 260 I'll eventually need for the 6 battalions I plan.  I've bought a lot more minis along the way, I think around 7 boxes of Victrix to add to the 12 of Perry.  I'm still very impressed with the Victrix French Guard and Chasseurs... very nice quality and easy to paint.

Albino Frogs II

Fair progress today, browns and blacks are blocked in, red pom poms and the flesh highlight.  Next I need to sort gunmetal, epaulettes and the backpacks, which I will paint separately, and attach.  Then I need to get some washes on them, so they look (slightly) less like ice cream salesmen.