Friday 1 December 2017

The first French battalion

Another Napoleonic unit for the Peninsular War project is now done and in the cabinet. 


This time, for a change of pace, I've painted a French unit. With regard to the question posed in my previous post,  as to why I don't find painting these units that pleasurable, has been answered: It's the piping. It looks great when it's done but, cor blimey gov'nor, it's a chore.

Anyway, here are three more shots of 1st Battalion, 36th Ligne. Next up, the other two battalions of this regiment. I'll start them this weekend.




10 comments:

Jay White said...

Beautifully done sir!

Phil said...

What a beautiful unit, great job!

caveadsum1471 said...

Lovely painting, when I've had the choice I've seemed to go for Italian wars rather than napoleonic in spite of having plenty primed, I think you might be right about the piping!
Best Iain

Jonathan Freitag said...

Striking work, James! I agree with you about piping. Ack!

Unknown said...

That's the main reason I go with 15mm -- it's more in keeping with my patience level (and my skill level!). Your painting is superb!

David said...

A fine looking unit there, have to agree on the piping though.

Lawrence H said...

Lovely work. French piping has to be up their with the worst, but at least it's not yellow.

Gonsalvo said...

They look fantastic, as usual. I love the French line infantry uniform, but it must be one of the most fatiguing to paint - cuffs red piped white, cuff flaps blue piped red, turnbacks and lapels white piped red, red piping on the pockets, collars red piped blue (except voltigeurs, yellow or buff, maybe piped blue).
Yep, it's definitely the piping! At the same time, while having some units or figures in overcoats is fine, doing most of them that way is a cop out, IMHO, of course! - Why bother painting Napoleonics at all?

I've painted well over 1,00-0 French Ligne over the past 45 years, and I have another 100+ to do in bicorne...

Anonymous said...

Excellent James
I've always regarded the piping on French units as being iconic in providing the look so its a must do in my book, which includes painting it in 15mm!
Well done

ECW 40mm Project said...

Sometimes I find it easier to paint a relatively small part of a model, like a cuff flap, in the piping color, and then paint the middle with a quick blob of paint.

So if a lapel is white piped red, I'd paint it all red, then put a blob of white into the middle. The net effect is that it is white piped red, but I did it in reverse.

Also, I use micron pens to pipe things. So perhaps I'll paint the lapel white, then hit it quick with the pen.

I painted two regiments of Hessians, and they were pretty time consuming in 25mm. In smaller scales and small bits, sometimes a blob'll do ya.