French foot artillery

Bit if a gap since my last post, but not because I've been idle. Having undercoated the latest batch of minis for the 20mm Naps project, I suddenly felt the urge to take a break and ended up spending a few weeks on a couple of other projects.

Suitably refreshed, I'm now back on the 20mm wagon once again. I decided, first off, to get the French foot artillery finished. I had previously painted all four cannons but only half the crew, and the figures were individually based. I decided I wanted to keep the basing consistent with my Prussians, and this week I finally got round to painting the remaining 10 crew and getting everything rebased.

That done, I turned my attention back to the undercoated dragoons I mentioned in my last post...

...only to discover that they weren't just your average dragoons!

They were, in fact, the Empress' Dragoons! No wonder I thought they looked a bit more ostentatious than expected when I started putting the paint on. So, it seems I had picked the wrong bag out the lead pile back in May. Plainly, I wasn't wearing my glasses at the time, but I'm quite pleased in a way, because I was planning to get started on the guard element of my French army sometime soon anyway.

These are not just dragoons...these are the Empress' Dragoons

With a bit of luck, I'll get this group of 12 finished this weekend, but it depends on how much I get distracted by what dropped through the post earlier today (more on that in a moment). Also, there is the small(er) matter of some 10mm guys to get painted, as you might be able to see in the background there.

Although I haven't posted much besides my 20mm Napoleonics, I do, like most wargamers, have more than one project on the go. One of those projects is 10mm Napoleonics (as if I didn't have enough to paint already). It's a bit of a slow-burner - a collection that gets added to on impulse every now and then - but it's steadily getting bigger and gathering pace, so I'll start posting some pics of this project in due course.

Staying with Napoleonics, you probably know by now that I'm a fan of the Commands & Colors system by Richard Borg, and was rather pleased to hear recently that another expansion is planned for the Napoleonic series. The new expansion will be number 7, and will feature a number of La Grande and Epic scenarios, along with some new rules and units. Certainly something to look forward to if, like, me you enjoy this particular series of games.

Here's the link to GMT web page if you want to know more. Hopefully it won't be too long before it reaches print.

GMT C&C Napoleonics expansion 7

Which bring me back to today's earlier postal delivery...

It's been far too long since I got a game in of something, so this weekend I may well take a break from the paint desk and have a go at the new Medieval expansion for C&C. Should be fun! Tonight's entertainment will involve knocking back several hundred cups of tea whilst fixing a few stickers to blocks (I mean the other way round, of course), but that's ok - I am one of those oddballs who enjoys that sort of task.

The Spanish expansion for C&C means I now have the full set of Napoleonic expansions, although I have to admit I haven't had a chance to play through them all yet. My goal to replay all of these expansions using miniatures would probably take me several lifetimes, but it's nice to dream and plan nonetheless.