Staying in the Iberian peninsula, here is the unit of Spanish line infantry that I mentioned in my last post, and finished painting this weekend. As ever, the figures are by Newline Designs. Newline added some new codes to their Spanish range last year, including these remodelled line infantry. I hadn't originally planned to add any Spanish to my collection until a bit later, but I couldn't resist painting these without delay.
With all that white to paint, I decide to change my usual approach of using a black undercoat, and instead used a light ivory colour covered with a brown wash. It worked quite well, I think. So much so, that I might stick with this new approach for other armies and stop using black undercoats altogether. My eyes will probably thank me for it!
I'll add another base of 8 figures to the unit at some point, to take the unit to 32 figures. My long-term plan is to build a small brigade of Spanish infantry to use alongside my British and Portuguese, but I need to add more units of British before I painting anything else.
With plenty of lead in the Napoleonic pile, I should really knuckle down and focus on the British this year, but like most wargamers I'm considering doing the exact opposite by starting another period! More on this in a future post, no doubt, but don't be surprised if you see 20mm ancients popping up on the blog (in between Napoleonics, of course!)
Another fantastic unit Kev! The white shading is brilliant, I like the look of the new Spanish lights in their Tarletons I tend to love Napoleonic infantry in helmets for some reason :-D
ReplyDeleteI do hope to see some ancients on your blog your paint work will have them looking amazing!
Thanks Tony! The white shading was surprisingly easy to do. Going with a light undercoat definitely helped. I used an off-white colour from Vallejo, and Pure White for the belts. Seemed to worked ok. I know what you mean about infantry in helmets. I'd like to add some Bavarians at some point to give the French a bit of variety.
ReplyDeleteYou'll be pleased to hear I finally took the plunge and got myself some ancients from Newline. I went for some Macedonians and later Persians in the end - just a few packs to get started with. I reckon it'll be a good place to begin, since I can then expand forwards into the Successor wars and backwards into the Greco-Persian wars. I'm looking forward to getting started. It'll be nice to have something other than muskets and shakos to paint!
Interesting I'll bear those shades in mind!
DeleteYes very pleased to hear you grabbed some ancients they didn't do as well as normal on the last sale (I haven't bought any in a while either) but hoping a boost will encourage some new sculpts. Late Republican Rome and some more Hellenistic lines wouldn't go wrong for me!
Sounds like a solid plan you can cover lots of wars with the same handful of units with Persian units probably fighting for one of the successors also.
Yes Bavarians got a load of plastic and had to get a few Newline ones too also keep eyeing up those Wurttembergers! Must be the neo classical style.
Yes, it's a big range but there's certainly scope for adding more. It would be great to see more early medieval stuff, too - I'd love to do early Byzantine armies one day - Justinian's wars etc.
DeleteWurttembergers will definitely be added to my collection one day!
I have a few of the late Rome range and it would be good if some of those 28mm late antiquity early medieval range was scaled down Arthurians, Saxons, Normans! The Mrs wouldn't be happy though!
DeleteLol. I know what you mean. Smuggling new miniatures into the house is becoming more difficult these days with my wife working from home. To be honest, though, she doesn't mind. We have a happy arrangement where she buys wool and I buy miniatures, although my lead pile is bigger than her wool pile. :-D
Delete😂 sounds ideal!
DeleteThe Spanish army is really colourful and interesting and you have done them proud with this line unit. Great stuff. I'll look forward to seeing more (and the ancients too!).
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Thanks James. I'm looking forward to adding more Spanish units for sure. Very colourful as you say, and should look good on the tabletop. Cheers.
DeleteVery nice, just embarked on my own 20mm Napoleonic project. Lasalle 2nd Edition looks insteresting, thanks for the heads up didn't realise a new version was due.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes, the new edition is out now. I picked up the PDF copy and have read through it once. I didn't have any experience with the 1st edition, but from what I gather it's pretty much a completely new game. I'm looking forward to giving it a try out once I finish my rebasing project. Good luck with the new 20mm project.
DeleteHi Kevin hope you are well I’ve just caught up with your blog seems an age since I had a browse your recent projects are looking good as usual I’ve just got an order through from newline a 24 man Nassau battalion and 8 Brunswickers just to taste ive just painted some 28mm Brunswick and I’m going to try the same painting system on these I really do like the look of those Spanish mmm more food for thought and an increase in the lead and plastic mountain look forward to the next post regards jay
ReplyDeleteHi Jay, great to hear from you. Thanks for stopping by the blog. Sorry my 'recent' projects haven't exactly been recent. I'm hoping to get back to more regular posts soon. The Spanish were a real pleasure to paint. One of my favourite units to date. I'm jumping around a bit between different armies at the moment - thinking about painting up some more Portuguese next - or possibly British. Who knows! I'm tempted to get some Nassau as well. I'm sure you'll enjoy painting those. Brunswick infantry are nice and straightforward, of course. I have some Brunswick uhlans that I'd also like to paint soon. Would be nice to see your Nassau troops when you get them painted up. Cheers, Kevin
DeleteI’ll get them painted up and send some pictures over to you I’m a bit all over the place at the minute can’t settle on a subject I’ve done some Prussian and British pendraken 10mm seven years war some 28mm nap Austrians and even back to the old school 1/72s I just can’t make my mind up and now your tempting me with bloody Spaniards 😩 take care thanks jay 🍺
DeleteCheers, yeah I know the feeling, jumping about between projects. I'm still fairly focused on Naps, but I've been stuck trying to decide on base sizes for ages. I'm rubbish at trying to make my mind up. Pendraken's SYW range is nice. I have a very small force of Prussians and Russians. I keep meaning to build them up a bit. Like everything else, it's on a very big 'to do' list.
DeleteThis is a very nice looking unit! The ivory undercoat worked well. I did an experiment a while back, and primed some figures white and their horses black (black primer is my usual approach), and in the end found that the white covered much easier with the light colors, and in the end I couldn’t tell much difference. And, as you say, the white is much easier on the eyes (you can see the detail easier. The next experiment will be to do a first coat of black primer with a second coat “highlight” of white primer, so that the black stays in the crevices, but white picks up the detail for ease of painting.
ReplyDeleteOh, and a Happy Battle of Quatre Bras Day (206th Anniversary).
ReplyDelete