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| French voltigeurs - the first batch of Napoleonic troops. Figures are by Front Rank. They were painted, by me, in enamels. |
Given that I was invited up to Scotland by the League of Gentlemen Wargamers I thought it might be a good idea to take a small contingent of troops to join the fray. Rather than paint up a unit or two I decided to paint up some French voltigeurs. I did this because the LoGW use units of 36 figures, (where I will use units of 24 figures), and skirmish stands would 'blend' in better with what was there. I painted up 24 in campaign dress. These will be the skirmish stands for the six units of line infantry I have in campaign dress (another six units are in full dress and will have voltigeurs dressed likewise).
It seems I've also decided on a basing system for infantry. Line will be based four figures per stand on 40mm x 40mm (six stands per unit), skirmishers will be on the same size bases but with just two figures per stand. Under Lassale rules, French line infantry have a skirmish factor of two, so two stands per unit. Now, I know what you are thinking. In Lassalle most units have four stands, not six, and stand width is important. I've decided to base for use with a lot of different rules and, for Lassalle, I'll make a 'frontage stick' marked with four graduations and I'll fudge 'large' units.
I was quite pleased with how they came out, though I'd forgotten just how much work is involved painting Napoleonic French. But, given one batch is now under my belt, the next lot should be much easier.
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| I like these figures very much. I painted them in lightish blue coats because they were prone to fade quickly in the Spanish sunshine. Finding information on unit distinctions (pompom colour, shako bands, etc.) was a bit of a pain. It seems this was down to the whim of individual colonels: In the end I chose to use the unit distinctions for 1815 and poetic licence. The green sword scabbard wrappings are, apparently, shako cords. |
6 comments:
As I wrote on TMP, another project, another triumph!
Very nicely done. Thanks for the note on the green scabbards, at first I thought it was the monitor settings. They (the green cords wrapped) are a neat touch. These figures are commonly needed troops but very much more fussy to paint than one realizes.
They look great!
Nice work! We also play LaSalle and we are working on a way to play with 6 stands "standard" units (French just look better with 24 figures in 6 stands).
I think a thin stick graduated in base widths is probably the easiest thing to do. For larger units (Lasalle 6 stand) I think I'll just fudge it and count the extra two bases as actual width, one added either side of the core four.
My biggest problem with Lasalle, As I said in an earlier post, is the size of artillery batteries. To my mind, given standard unit frontages, they are too large. I've not made up my mind yet but I think another fudge is in the offing. If my infantry are on 40mm width, I think I'll do artillery on 60mm width and have three gun batteries for 6 - 8 guns. I'm not sure if I'll give 8 gun batteries an extra dice as I'm not sure of the worth of the extra strength, which would mostly be the effect, of being shot at by artillery, on morale. I've already decided (I'll be playing quite big battles) to ignore separate dice for howitzers as too much detail.
I like the look of Lasalle very much. I'm just not going to put all of my eggs in Sam's basket.
Wonderful figures, again! I adore your painting style, each time I visit your blog. Thanks for sharing such beautiful masterpieces!!
Peter
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