French Turco Battalion

This will be my last post for a little while as too busy with work. Here again are some models i painted a while ago, these ones about a year ago.
anyway as usual this is a full strength battalion of 16 models (800 men) consisting of north african/algerian troops and ncos with french officers. The men are dressed in their traditional dress of baggy trousers, short zouave jackets and fez. The dress for the turcos and zouaves was virtually identical except for the colours used which were dark blue with red piping for the zouaves and sky blue with yellow piping for the turcos

Bavarian Artillery 1870

here are 2 bavarian guns i painted quite a while ago for my franco-prussian war collection. again they are foundry casts and i agree with matt that these are some of their best models. i dont have a lot of bavarians but i might get the few infantry i have painted up soon as well
anyway both guns appear to be 6lb guns although with the steel krupp guns its very difficult to spot any difference between the 6 and 9lb fieldguns anyway
the artillery crews are dressed in their dark blue uniforms which differ from the infantrys cornflower blue (i did paint 4 batteries of 15mm ones in sky blue once before i realised, presumbly this reflects the dirtier job these guns are expected to perform and theirfore keeping their uniforms more presentable

3rd East Prussian Cuirassier Regt

here are some foundry cuirassiers i painted back in June. I have painted them as the 3rd East Prussian Regt with their traditional white waffenrocks and sky blue facings. I chose this regt for no particular reason other than i liked the facings, simple as that. otherwise the cuirassier regts were all similarly dressed.
i have done a very minor conversion for the trumpeter model as foundry dont make any for the germans. I simply used a perry plastic trumpeters arm from their ACW cavalry boxed set
as stated previously i use a 1 figure = 50 men ratio. so this 12 model regt = a 600 man full strength regt
also i should explain how i base my models, i use a 50 x 50mm base for 2 cavalry men and 40 x 40mm for 4 infantrymen. i tend to glue my models to the base add the premixed plaster allow to dry, then i add sand mix and glue this on ebfore undercoating the whole in black. i know that this can sometimes make the finer details of uniforms difficult to get to but generally especially for 19th century models it is not a major issue and allows me to paint quicker than doing each model individually and then basing them

French Dragoons 1870

At last here are my first FPW figures in about 9 months.
i thought to get back in the swing of it i would do a relatively simple unit so french dragoons came top of the list.
i use the ratio 50 men to a figure for all my FPW units so a regt of cavalry for france or prussia will be 12 figures (600 men). A French battalion of 16 figs (800 men) or a Prussian battalion of 20 figs (1000 men)

The dragoons were quite easy to paint really although i must admit i hate painting cavalry as i really do find painting horses boring. although it is a necessary burden to get all those really nice units done. i havent done any socks or flashes on the horses mainly im sorry to say because i couldnt be bothered. i might add some at a later date if i feel like it.
a note on the models, these are foundry models which i quite like but i have t admit they are starting to look a little tired compared to some of the brilliant stuff that is coming out these days, especially from helion and the perry twins etc. i wasnt a 100 per cent sure whether the dragoon officer should have silver or gold epaulettes. i went for silver in the end based upon an old foundry painting guide but i dont know how acurate this really is
anyway it was good to do some FPW stuff again and i think i will have to put some more effort into some more, probably some prussian infantry and prussian hussars would be next.

4th new york continental infantry regt

finally uploaded are the 4th new york in their resplendent white uniforms, coouldnt let an american unit of the awi look too neat so have added a wounded character and a variety of different tricorne variants. i just dont believe that a new nation could have clothed its troops consistently well except for thje initial enrollment. any campaigning would have shown up the flaws in a new commissariat immediately
i had a bit of trouble getting this regt to look right, i find it difficult to get the right mix for white uniforms. eventually i kept it simple with an undercoat of black followed by a vallejo stone grey coat then covered with 1-2 coats of pure white. i thought about adding more weathering to the lower legs etc, but decided against it in the end. they may a look a little stark but they will form a great contrast with the rest of the blue coated continentals


next up will be the french francoprussian dragoons, riders done just need to do the horses followed by all the other things i mentioned in the last post. unless i get distarcted again!!!!!!
aside from painting i have been reading the rules of engagement set for ww2, i have plenty of german wehrmacht and ss in 28mm and hope to take these against hals american soon. on the face of it these rules look very familiar as they incorporate many elements of warhammer and flames of war, both sets of which i have used a lot. i hope they will live up to my expectations as i have been looking for a goos playing set of ww2 rules for some time

so much for new years resolutions

well not done very well on the resolutions, which is probably typical
anyway at last have posted again
not a huge amount to say except to update on how things are going on the painting front.
first off painting wise have been really rubbish but have succeeded in rebasing an entire ECW army which took most of the winter. i have a few things to finish for them such as a saker gun and a couple of command bases
next up are the usual 4 battalions of AWI contientals and militia (2 of both) and 3 regts of ACW rebs charging.
i have also based and put together the 40 models (for £15 i might state) from perry which i have to say despite being a bit fiddly to put together, they took me over a week in between baby cuddles and work. however they are beautiful models with plenty of range of character whihc i have based individually for now, but any further sets i get will be based on 40 x 40mm bases to use in larger scale wargames
also due to a regt of french dragoons which i have been stimulated to paint by matts repeated superb brushwork.
hand in hand with this goes the new delivery that arrived on saturday which was a battalion of beautiful austro-hungarians from helion. these are the first i have bought despite drooling over the figures they produce for some time. again matts constant updated website (better than mine) has inspired me to branch out from the franco-prussian war. i will be basing these as a 20 man unit (ratio 1:50) to give a regular 1000man battalion. i hope that i will be able to paint these fairly quickly (although on past form that may not be the case).
finally i wanted to advertise one of my christmas presents from the lovely wife. This is the book by andre jouineau part of the LRT editions range in France. this book is labelled as number 1 so hopefully that means they will be expanding the range to cover other elements of the army of Napoleon III. this first volume covers the grenadiers and voltiguers of the garde. at 64 pages with 55 colour plates in the now familiar computerised format covering all ranks and troop types. overall i am very impressed with this book it is produced in a very clear format with clear illustrations to help the wargamer and painter. however the most fantastic feature of this book is the fact that it is written in both french and english, allowing for a clear understanding of the complex details often part of military history books. for those interested the book is available for £18.50 from caliver books. ISBN 9782917747049

New years resolutions

well a good christmas and new year was had by all. some nice things were in my stocking (mostly bought by myself on the behalf of relatives)
new arrivals included a box of the lovely new Perry miniatures wars of the roses platics, the new Battlefront vietnam range, some lovely pre-painted rivers and a few books, including the 1859 ruleset from bruce weigle and the new garde imperiale grenadier and voltiguer book by andre jounieu.
so with the new year it is customary to make some resolutions, so here we go
1. complete projects before starting new ones (although as far as i am concerned no army etc is ever totally complete)
2. make a concerted effort to dig into the lead mountain
3. game more often, including going to wigan wargamers club whenever possible
all this obviously has to fit in around a fulltime job and 6 week old baby but hopefully i will be able to achieve some of these goals