French line units

Managed to get 3 line units finished, I now have 12 units of which only two are legere. These are Old Glory but one command base has Fantassin command figures. The pose is that of  '1815 advancing' although you may have spotted that one base is '1815' march attack because I did not have enough to make up four bases. I will start on the line lancers and chasseurs cheval sometime soon in 2010.

Happy New Year

Ken

December update

Hi,

After a very long delay I've posted some pictures of terrain and the lead pile. December has been very quiet on the painting front because a good friend of mine took ill and died. It was a complete shock and he did not suffer too much. However, as they say life goes on.

Here are some pictures of river sections I painted with the help of my kids. I didn't want to spend too much on terrain but didn't want to use blue felt because I dont like the look of it. I was looking at one of the blogs I follow http://smallworldproductions.blogspot.com/ blog and the guy used these hexs for roads and rivers. So you can basically create your own multi-shape roads and rivers. They are a bit rough and ready but do the trick for me!
Here are some with a ruler to gauge their size.

here they all are again with a base of infantry

Here we have assorted trees - I bought a big bag from modelzone (Newcastle, UK) for £15 a couple  of years ago. I chopped them up and pruned them back to get different sizes. Thet are based on poker chips (as are my command figures), I got a box of a hundred or so for £2 from ASDA.

I also bought some other trees from  my local hobby shop a while back, these can be seen on the far right - they aren't too good compared with the modelzone ones.

Below is the lead pile and below the lead pile is a batch of three french line units partially painted.

 Below is a batch of 20 french line lancers and 20 french chassuers cheval, these have just been primed using GW chaos black spray. I think I prefer Vallejo black spray primer as it has a better matte finish. I only got the chaos black becuase my modelzone ran out of vallejo primer. The GW chaos black is a bit too shiney and some paints dont stick well to it.

 Here is a close up of a lancer (AB figures), for painting purposes I blue tack them to milk bottle tops. As you have probably seen from the other pictures I use the giant craft lollipop sticks for the infantry - which rather neatly accomodate 8 figures, which is the number I use to a base.

Well, I guess thats about it for the moment.

Cheers

Ken

French Line and Legere

I have 9 'units' painted up so far - 2 Legere and 7 line. The Legere are AB's and seem to paint up quite well. The line are Old Glory with two units having Fantassin commands. I'm still unsure about the Fantassin quality but may buy some great coated units (Marie Lousies) to identify raw or conscript forces.

First item today is a pin vice and drill set which I bought today from my local modelzone store.

The price was ok I think and will mainly use these for drilling out the barrels of cannons and howitzers.

Here are some shots of the legere, I have made some skirmish stands based two to a stand of 30mm x 20mm.

and now for the line.

 a view from the rear - I find painting the white straps
on the greatcoat rolls a bit awkward.

another view

some group shots of the brigade

finally

Currently on the workbench

I've a few units of French line infantry that I'm painting up. These are Old Glory 1809 dress uniform march attack and 1815 full dress advancing. To give all my french units a 'uniform' look to them I decided to paint the 1809 lot with white gaiters rather than black. They won't look too different I hope from the trousered 1815 infantry. I've never liked the black gaiters reminds me of stockings and suspenders - I'm sure Freud would have a field day with that one!

Another pet peeve is the different flags used by the French i.e.1804, 1812 and 1815 patterns - I've decided to go with the 1812 pattern for conformity sake - as you can see from the box of french in the picture. I've also used self-adhesive magnetic sheet material under the bases and stuck ferro material insidethe box file. The little men are now as steady as rocks and won't be damaged during transit, not that I've yet joined a wargames club or anything so far.

So thats another 5 units to paint. You can also see my combined lens and light - now that was a godsend, if you cant see it you cant paint it.

Some Prussians - all arms

I've been painting and basing these guys for some time. The Dragoons are by AB, the Uhlans and Landwher cavalry are by Warmodelling (Fantassin). I can't fault the AB's (apart from my painting) but I'm not too pleased with the quality of the fantassin range so far. The fantassin poses are ok but the metal job leaves a bit to be desired, some parts such as sword hilts were not fully formed.

  here we have a group shot of the uhlans (yellow and blue pennants) and the landwher

close up of Uhlans, based on 60 x 40 stands.

close up of Landwher - all were easy enough to paint, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

another regiment of uhlans

The Dragoons

Some line arty (AB), I have a bag of Old Glory prussian guns that need painting up.

Some AB landwher infantr, these are on 30 x 30 bases, you can comfortably get 6 marching castings in place.

Here we have two basings sizes, my new 40 x 30 style and the old 30 x 30. I have a mixed bunch of based Prussians, all the French are all on 40 x 30.

The bases are MDF from East Riding Miniatures

5th hussars yet again -finally

I based these a few months ago, the old way using superglue for the horses and then white PVA glue for the sand and rocks. Now I borrowed a tip from somebody (can't remember who now) to use "no more nails". Its some sort of adhesive from Unibond, I got mine from B&Q, not only does it glue them into place but you have plenty of time to position them. Also, the adhesive is thick enough to be moulded or contoured. The problem is not to put too much on though otherwise the figures look as though they are marching through a deep plouged field. I got some grass tufts from Ancocetis workshop and some usual static grass. 

Thanks for  looking

Ken

5th hussars again

oops! forgot to post some different views of them. They are AB figures bought from Ian Marsh at Fighting15s. Splendid chap, provides an excellent service and excellent products but of course at a price.


I must say I'm really impressed with the work of 'craig' - he posts some beautiful pictures of his AB's on the General De Brigade and other sites now and then. I copied his idea of basing them on 40mm x 60mm bases in groups of five. This allows for some really spectacular charging poses, full of action and elan!

Another painter I admire is Paul Provan - you can see one of his works on the TimeCast webpage - I but OldGlory 15mm from them.

Hello!

This is my first post and will try to upload some pictures I took a while ago. I'm not the best photographer to say the least but will try to improve both quality and quantity of my output.


These pictures of the 5th French hussars were the first 15mm figures I ever painted and the pictures were taken a while ago, they have been based since then. My son painted the elite trumpeter by the way.