Topic: Pax's Waterloo

[PaxImperator]

Thanks for the tip! They have a huge assortment. Unfortunately because they're outside the EU Single Market I might be hit with all sorts of customs levies, handling charges and who knows what else if I order from them. Brexit - still the reason we can't have nice things. Instead I turned to a member of my gaming club with a laser cutter who has kindly agreed to cut me some bases at a reasonable price. I'll pick them up later this month.

In other news, during the weekend I finished the next batch of five. Halfway on the way to my first fully painted battalion. It feels like the pace is gradually picking up, which is a morale boost! Next up another six regular troops and after that the six-man command group. The first half of the battalion took me slightly more than three weeks. I should be able to finish the second half in two weeks if I keep up my current pace.


Group shot, new models up front. Starting to look like an actual unit. Note the soldier with the bandaged eye front left. Characterful heads like these can be nice but if you use more than a few the repetition gets obvious very fast. For now, this soldier can rejoice in being completely unique.


Rear shot of four of the newly finished models. I basecoated the canteens 72.023 Electric Blue and highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Electric Blue and 72.095 Glacier Blue. Will use this method for the rest of the army. I'm tempted to revisit the numbers on the backpacks for the whole unit but in the interests of getting things done I might just have to accept them as they are now. I've not yet seen evidence for numbered backpacks in other units, which is a relief.

[Guildmage Aech]

Oh yes forgot about that ridicilous brexit nonsense for a moment. If someone local will sort thats probably a good shout.

Will there be artillery and cavalry coming with this project?

[PaxImperator]

Why yes!

In terms of cav and arty already in my clutches, I have:

Coalition:
1 British Royal Artillery 6-pounder

French:
1 regiment of hussars
1 regiment of chasseurs à cheval

The chasseurs and gun are from the same Waterloo starter box as the British infantry infantry I've been painting. I can see why they put those in the box because it tends to force the coalition player into the defensive and their infantry into square, as happened at Waterloo. I got the hussars with plans to paint them as Dutch hussar regiment 6 but as you can see (and as I could have seen) the uniforms are too dissimilar for that. So the French will get a hussar unit they might otherwise not have gotten.

In terms of plans for more arty and cav, both the coalition and French armies will get more arty. Victrix make plastic boxed sets for both, so I'll almost certainly be picking up those. I've also been eyeing some Belgian carabiniers for their very dashing uniforms. No one makes them in plastic, but fortunately I can buy plastic French carabiniers/cuirassiers and plastic French line dragoons from the Perries. If I assemble the first box as French cuirassiers, I can use the left-over carabinier heads on the dragoons to make Belgian carabiniers out of them (uniform plates for Belgian carabiniers, French carabiniers and French cuirassiers).

For now, however, it's back to the grind of painting infantry.

[Guildmage Aech]

Wow, those hussars are a fancy looking bunch of dudes. I take it the historical accuracy is an important part of napoleonics?

I don't envy you painting them, my questionable skills is partly why I stick to space machines! I tried high elf cavalry once. Loved how they played, hated trying to paint a horse!

[Myen'Tal]

Nice work - the canteens and the freehand numbers are so crisp! They came together well!

[PaxImperator]

Wow, those hussars are a fancy looking bunch of dudes. I take it the historical accuracy is an important part of napoleonics?

They certainly do look the part! Better yet, every French hussar regiment had its own distinct uniform so I can take my pick from some of the most outrageously garish colour combinations imaginable. A big part of their appeal are the fancy uniforms, just like back in the day. Rules wise they are no different from their maligned cousins, the chasseurs à cheval.

You're right about historical accuracy being an important part of Napoleonics. It means different things to different people though. I think of researching a unit's regulation uniform as the base level for accuracy. Beyond that, all sorts of questions pop up. Do you weather the uniforms? Paint on cloth patches to show repairs (which were widespread)? Paint some items differently to represent (equally widespread) non-regulation replacement items? Use varying shades to account for historical variety in cloth and dye quality? Use models with their shako covers on or off (the latter typically being reserved for the parade ground, not the battlefield)? How much artistic licence are you willing to use in the absence of conclusive evidence? I'm on the more relaxed end of this spectrum because I value pretty uniforms and researching 19th century dyes and fabrics is not my idea of a good time. To each his own.

Nice work - the canteens and the freehand numbers are so crisp! They came together well!

Thanks! You judge them more kindly than I do. I was actually considering trying transfers instead but on reflection I think I'll keep at it with the freehand for now.

I was hoping I'd be able to show you another six finished Yorkshiremen by now but because I did not have enough time, you can have this rant instead.



This really grinds my gears. What were you thinking, Warlord Games? Not only do I need a pin vice to put your flag poles into my standard bearers' hands, but the flag poles do not fit. The weird pointy bit doesn't fit into the standard bearer's hands, nor into the hole in the finial (see picture). I'd cut off the pointy bit but then I won't know if the pole is still long enough to fit the flag I ordered online. And why would you put a weird pointy bit on the end if it's only going to get snipped off anyway? I am disappointed, confused and dangerously close to making a circumcision joke.

I've put the command groups on hold for now while I'm eagerly awaiting the Warlord Games customer service response. (Incidentally, I just realised Warlord Games' acronym is GW in reverse. Can't be a coincidence, can it? )

[Lachdonin]

Hah, this takes me back. My first miniatures were a unit of British Redcoats i picked up from a shop called the Emperor's Bodyguard. It was right next to the home brewing supply store my father got his beer and wine making supplies from, so i wandered in there as a lad one day and was instantly taken by miniatures.

They look absolutely fantastic.

[PaxImperator]

Thanks for the compliment! Do you still have those redcoats? I've very consciously kept the first miniature I ever painted even though it's not much to look at. It's a Dark Eldar warrior from the 40K 3rd Edition starter box that GW staff helped me paint to suck me into the hobby. A very good investment on their part!

In other news, back to flags. Warlord Games customer support gave me a very prompt and helpful reply: just snip off the pointy bit. It's there because the flag staff doubles as a spear in some of their other kits.

I also got my MDF bases.



I blue-tacked some of my models onto them and here they are. They're looking like a proper unit now. It's hard to tell from the picture but I added two highlights on the muskets (72.044 Dark Fleshtone followed by the same with some off-white added). The lines are there to help me drill holes for magnets and to eventually glue the models in place. According to the person I got them from, there's not even any need to seal them. He just glues on sand and paints it and hasn't had any problems. I'll give it a go too then.

For dessert here are two shots of the entire unit, including the six models I finished painting last week and the newly assembled command group.



I need to work on the lighting. The colours are truer to life in the first picture in this post.



I've held off on the backpack numbers on the last six. I think I can get more consistent results if I do all the remaining numbers in one big batch. Assembling the command group went OK. Still not on a fan of metal models but they didn't give me too much trouble.

Next up will be magnetising bases, assembling another unit and probably a start on painting that other unit and/or the command group. I wonder how many magnets I'll need per base, especially the ones with metal models.

[Guildmage Aech]

Looking very cool all ranked up. Are they all goong to be rifles up marching? Or will some be 'action pose' firing their guns?
(Is that sort of thing frowned upon on historial miniature wargaming?)

Oh 3rd Dark Eldar where my first army and first miniatures to paint too. The local club otherwise had 99% Space Marine players who frequently got dismayed to see all their guys sliced to bloody chunks by Incubi. Normally right after congratulating themselves for beating up an 80 point squad of warriors standing around with a sign saying "we are not bait honest!"
Ah,good times! 

[The GrimSqueaker]

In other news, back to flags. Warlord Games customer support gave me a very prompt and helpful reply: just snip off the pointy bit. It's there because the flag staff doubles as a spear in some of their other kits.

Oh, probably for lancer units. That makes sense now.

[PaxImperator]

Looking very cool all ranked up. Are they all goong to be rifles up marching? Or will some be 'action pose' firing their guns?
(Is that sort of thing frowned upon on historial miniature wargaming?)

Yeah, these are the Warlord near-monopose Brits. I've got about 100 more British and French in basically this pose, all from the Warlord starter box. The biggest variation is that some are using their right arm to help support their musket. Apparently, at least in the French army, this was against regulations but officers permitted it because the regulation pose of musket stock in unsupported left hand, barrel resting on left shoulder was hard to keep up on the march. I don't mind the monotony of it because soldiers in Napoleonic line infantry units were incessantly drilled to all be doing the same thing at the same time. It was the only way to get a group of 600 armed men to maintain a close-order formation while marching cross-country without any accidents happening. They're easy for me to rank up too and for Warlord it has the advantage of being cheap to make and easy to fit on a sprue.

All that said, I've got my eyes set on these British and French infantry sets from the Perries for any future units beyond those models from the starter box. The French are still mostly monopose but the British will let me build a proper firing line out of them.

Oh 3rd Dark Eldar where my first army and first miniatures to paint too. The local club otherwise had 99% Space Marine players who frequently got dismayed to see all their guys sliced to bloody chunks by Incubi. Normally right after congratulating themselves for beating up an 80 point squad of warriors standing around with a sign saying "we are not bait honest!"
Ah,good times! 

Judging by the points cost you didn't even give them splinter cannons to keep up appearances. Those must have been some gullible Space Marine players!

[PaxImperator]

To add to my reply above, action poses certainly aren't frowned upon in historical wargaming. Cavalry posed mid-charge are pretty common for example. There is probably less of a flair for the dramatic than you get in Warhammer 40K though. Napoleonics are probably worse at this than many earlier periods because of the existence of evidence of soldiers' poses in action in the form of drill manuals. Combine that with the pursuit of historical accuracy common to all historical wargaming and you get a lot of little army men posed very similarly.

In other news, back to flags. Warlord Games customer support gave me a very prompt and helpful reply: just snip off the pointy bit. It's there because the flag staff doubles as a spear in some of their other kits.

Oh, probably for lancer units. That makes sense now.

Yup. They do other historical periods too like Renaissance and Roman Empire, so plenty of potential uses for pointy sticks.

In other news, I received a shipment of N45 nickle-plated neodymium magnets this week for magnetizing the bases.



I ordered 200 of them. Sounds impressive but they're tiny at only 4x1.5 mm. I borrowed the oversized pin vice from my dad because my own doesn't fit drills larger than about 2 mm.



I daresay the magnets are working! Yes, the models are in fact upside down. No 28mm Yorkshiremen were harmed in the making of this picture.



How many magnets you need depends a lot on how flush you can make them with the base. The base on the left was my first attempt, in which I unwisely used a power tool. I drilled down too deeply without even realising my error, and the result was that I had to drill a third magnet hole by hand. The pictured bases are about equally supported by their respective magnets. Both bases can comfortably support four plastic models upside down against a smooth metal surface.

Through trial and error I've arrived at the following numbers, assuming flush magnets:

• 40x40 mm base, 4 plastic models: 2 magnets
• 40x40 mm base, 3 plastic and 1 metal models: 3 magnets
• 40x40 mm base, 2 plastic and 2 metal models: 3 magnets
• 40x40 mm base, 1 plastic and 3 metal models: 4 magnets

Four magnets under one base is not ideal because you have to pull rather hard to get it unstuck. If you're not careful you risk damaging the models. I'm still happy with the results so far. The magnets should help keep the models safe during transportation.

Next up will be assembling more minis!

[Lachdonin]

Thanks for the compliment! Do you still have those redcoats? I've very consciously kept the first miniature I ever painted even though it's not much to look at.

Unfortunately not. They were at either 6mm or 10mm scale, and i never did paint them. Just red plastic to pair off against blue Napoleonic French. This was back in 1997, and they unfortunately did not survive the intervening decades. I should still have my first painted miniature around though, an Eldar Gaurdian...

Beyond that, love the shot of the lads down in Australia.

[PaxImperator]

Just a small update today. I've finished magnetising the bases for the British 33rd Regiment of Foot. I also popped down to the store to buy new blue and grey paints and assembled 18 French infantry this week. I primed them and the 33rd Foot's command models in between showers today. It's been raining something awful here this past month.



An uneasy truce at the priming station. British on the left and French on the right very awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

I'm rather looking forward to painting the French infantry. I still have a 24-hour wait till the primer has properly dried. The French greatcoats should be much faster and easier to paint than the British uniform jackets. I'll go for a hodgepodge of drab greys and browns to highlight the problems the French were having with sourcing uniforms. Some soldiers by 1815 were actually wearing civilian clothes under their greatcoats due to uniform shortages. These issues are also evident from some of the men wearing forage caps rather than the prescribed shakos. The most glamorous part of the Napoleonic age this was not.

[Myen'Tal]

Can we get some more history lessons to some of these units you're fielding  ! Looking good!