Fench army video update

I managed to finish off the video this morning, showing the tabletop muster I did the other day for the French army. Hope you enjoy...

So what's left to paint? Well, there are plenty of units I'd like to add, but in terms of what's actually in the lead pile, it's looking like this:

• 4 x horse artillery and crew
• 18 x empress dragoons
• 9 x chasseurs a cheval
• 9 x line lancers
• 24 x line infantry
• 24 x middle guard infantry
• A few generals and line colonels

I'll probably add the horse artillery next, followed by the empress dragoons. If I'm going to expand the army proportionally I'll need to paint up more infantry units, but for the sake of variety I might add some French allies. I'm thinking maybe Bavarians, Wurrtembergers or Polish (all of which Newline has ranges for). Or I might choose to paint up some French line infantry as Swiss allies, which I believe used the same uniform. Decisions, decisions...

I finished basing my first unit of Prussian dragoons this morning, so I'll post some pictures of those next.

The French army so far...

I finally had some spare time to muster the French army onto the tabletop during the week for a quick photo and video. It was quite satisfying to see how far the collection has come since I started it, and I'm looking forward to adding more units, especially some more cavalry (although, horse artillery is probably going to be next on the 'to do' list).

I did shoot about 4 or 5 minutes of video with my phone, but I still need to process and upload it, so I'll stick it on YT as soon as I get round to finish it off.

In the meantime, I've just finished painting a unit of Prussian dragoons, so once the bases are done I'll share a pic of those. With that unit now done, both my Prussian and French armies are of an equivalent size, which is approximately 190 infantry and 27 cavalry each, plus 4 foot artillery and some commanders. Definitely large enough now to play some games, so my focus this weekend will be to crack on with building some terrain. More of that in a future post!

Marshal Ney

This is the Marshal Ney figure from Newline Designs, which I finished a while ago but hadn't got round to basing. I was originally going to add a foot soldier or perhaps another general to the base, but in the end I used some small, circular mdf bases covered in filler (with a hole cut in the top one) to create a kind of water trough. Not a very grand feature for a general's base, I know, but it's something different I suppose, and done partly for the sake of trying out the Woodland Scenics resin water I bought recently (which turned out well, but you can't really see it in this photo). I found pictures online of rectangular stone water troughs from the early 19th century, but I'm not certain there were circular ones. Seems plausible though.

None of the books I've read so far on the Napoleonic Wars has covered the life and exploits of Marhsal Ney in any great detail, and I would certainly like to read a good biographical account of this legendary soldier. There are a few to choose from, but nothing recently published in English that I have found so far. I like the look of A. H. Atteridge's book, Marhsal Ney: The Bravest Of The Brave, first published in 1912 but reprinted by Pen & Sword in 2015. It looks like a good place to start, so I'll track down a copy of that.

I'll do a big French army update in my next post!

More French...

Most of my time lately has been spent on painting more line infantry for the French, so there's not a whole lot to share that's different from some of the photos I've already posted. However, here are a few different bits and pieces...

Grenadiers and voltiguers. Same figures, painted differently.

Lying down on the job. One of the French line casualty figures from Newline.

Another general, on a smaller base this time.

I've almost reached the end of what I'm calling 'Phase 1' of my French army. I have one more mounted general and a one base of infantry to add, then it'll be back to the Prussians. There's still plenty more to paint in the lead pile (and more planned purhases, besides), but both armies are now pretty well big enough to give me a reasonable sized game, so I'm looking forward to finally trying out some of the rulesets I've picked up over time.

I'll do an overview of the French collection next time before posting some more updates on the Prussians. After that, I'll be spending more time on adding to my terrain collection and thinking about some scenarios to try out.

French line lancers

I finally finished this first unit of French lancers for the 20mm Napoleonic project. It ended up being on the painting table for a week or so longer than I'd hoped, but I don't like to rush these things! As always, the miniatures are by Newline Designs and (as always) they were very enjoyable to paint.

I replaced the separately cast lances with wire spears from some 28mm Gripping Beast miniatures, and they are a good fit size-wise. I made some paper pennons and glued these on, but subsequently realised that 1) they are probably a bit too big, and 2) the colours should be red over white, not the other way round (oops!). Never mind, I may go back and fix them at some point (which probably means I won't!). Next up, more French infantry...

French line infantry so far...

I'm a little over half way now towards my initial target of painting up eight line infantry battalions for the French. The latest unit is the one pictured here on the left with six figures per base instead of the usual four or eight. I like this basing better, so I'll probably stick with it for future units. Each base is 35mm wide and 25mm deep, so a slightly narrower frontage per figure compared to the 25x25 and 50x25mm bases. The plan is also to get each battalion up to 24 figures, so a few of the ones shown here need to be topped up.

There's a short video below to show the miniatures more closely. The next battalion is undercoated, but I will probably take a break first and paint some more cavalry or one or two generals.

At last...some flags!

I suddenly (and finally) got round to start adding some flags to my 20mm Napoleonic collection this weekend. I've been putting this off for ages, but it was annoying me that I had so many painted infantry units that were not really finished.

I haven't had any success looking for places to buy Napoleonic flags for 20mm scale minis, so these flags are courtesy of Alan Pendlebury from the excellent www.warflag.com - thank you, Alan! The designs are very well done, and look great on the tabletop. Unfortunately, my printer didn't do a great job in reproducing the colour of the red flags, so I painted over them, which helped a lot. The blue flag of the rearmost regiment printed ok.

The size that I decided to print them at are maybe ever so slightly bigger than they should be, but I preferred to give them a bit of height on the tabletop. All in all, I'm pleased with how they look, and relieved to have finally solved the problem of what to do for flags, thanks to warflag.com. I'll probably add flags to the remainder of the Prussian infantry battalions quite quickly now.

Meanwhile, I'm turning my attention back to the French. The collection is a bit further behind the Prussian in terms of painted units, and I really need to add more line infantry, so I'll be doing those next.

And the lead pile just got a bit bigger this weekend as well, with the arrival of another wee purchase I made from Newline Designs for more 20mm Napoleonic goodness. Lots to do!