Spanish Napoleonics

Last of the Napoleonics for a while. These are mainly Fantassin with the odd AB figure thrown in. Probably the most interesting unit, with a nice amount of variation, but still looking reasonably like a cohesive battalion. There are a few head swaps done b the customer for even more variety. The Regiment is Principe as far as I recall.


The Fantassin figures fit well with the AB, but they can be picked out. The detail on their muskets is not very crisp, and that makes painting them a bit more difficult, not knowing what exactly is what, given that the detail has been fudged. I have some 20mm Fantassin Soviets on the table at the moment, and they appear to have the same problem. More on those in the next few days.

You'll have noticed that none of these figures are based. The customer wishes to base them, as most customers do in order to keep them consistent with their existing collections. In one way that's a bit of a relief as I really don't like basing, but at the same time it would be nice to see them completely finished. Nice basing can improve mediocre figures and bad basing can ruin the look of nicely painted figures. Without the miracle of basetex, my life would be much harder.


Overall these guys were probably my favourites, though the variety did prolong the process of painting. There are some nice characters in there, including a guy with a gituar on his back.

More Napoleonics

More pictures form my recent Napoleonic commission. Two units of Prussians; one of reservists in grey jackets, one of Landwehr in blue coats. Nearly all ABs, nice figures, a bit simpler than the French, but their caps require careful attention when free handing the coloured bands around them. Landwehr have some nice touches, like bare feet and clogs on some figures.

It's not all good though; recurring problem with these figures is the weakness of the bayonets. Most figures without them had them snap off in the post on their way to me. Some were barely hanging on and had to be removed, some were repairable with greenstuff. Repairing figures is an unwanted distraction, and doesn't bode well for their actual use.

I suppose its a fault of the sculpting being too accurate for once, the thin attachment of a bayonet does not scale down properly and its a part than needs proper reinforcing. Its a particular problem for these Prussians as they had their bayonet permanently fixed; they can't be passed off as being in their scabbards.



It is worth thickening up the attachments as the minor cosmetic blemish this involves is much better than the loss of the bayonet, or, even worse, it becoming bent.

Napoleonics

Unusually for a professional painter I had never painted any Napoleonic figures until recently. Naps are one of the most popular periods, and indeed one of the most colourful. A painter's dream (or nightmare). I was asked to paint a selection of Spanish, Prussian, and unsurprisingly, French figures from AB and Fantassin, '18mm' in size, which it seems are 15mm figures who ate their crusts. If they grow enough a whole new scale is born.

It was a pretty tough job, these are finely detailed figures, with plenty to work on, but they reward careful painting. Don't think I'd like to be painting them every day, but the provided a break from the steady stream of WW2 stuff I've been doing. Now I need to get back to WW2 to give me a break from shako plumes and cuff linings.


French are the fanciest of the group, the customer wants to decide which figures go into which centre companies so their pompoms have been left black. The flank companies, the voltigeurs and grenadiers have all their finery on. I believe these figs were made by Eureka who produce AB now, intended to be French for the 1815 campaign.