The Skirmish Screen

I haven't been posting as much as I would like to and Joey seems to have disappeared into the ether (i.e. the real world populated with real people rather than little toy soldiers ; ). So as my Napoleonic project progresses I will endeavour to post more pictures and hopefully in the next month or so maybe even a battle report. Anyway I finished my voltigeurs in skirmish order and am very pleased with them, so I thought I would take the opportunity to post some pictures of my collection so far.

The French advance (click to enlarge):


The voltigeurs screen the advance and hold broken terrain like forests:


The voltigeurs make their way through the trees to the edge of a field ready for harvest:


On the other side of the crop field the Austrians wait, positioned on a hill:


French artillery and cavalry are next on the hit list and maybe a couple of the those humongous 28mm miniatures as well.

T.

March of the Austrians (3)

Its been a month exactly since my last post; the blame for this can be fairly and squarely placed on the fine weather we have been having recently. It seems wrong to sit inside hunched over the painting desk when the sun is shining and there are barbecues to go to, so progress on the Austrians stalled slightly. Then the rain came back, I got back to work and have made lots of progress, in fact I have finished painting the little blighters! So.......

Step 7: Now all the white is done I can do all the fiddly bits. First up are the cuffs, collars and turnbacks. Turn backs are easy, cuffs are ok but those collars can be quite tricky. The trick as with all steps is to find the right angle of approach so you hit the area you want. These have been done in the regimental colours for Reuss-Greitz's regiment no 55 and Czatoryski's no 9 as below:


Step 8: Next up is the musket which I do with Mahogany Sand/Brown 846 and GW Mithril Silver.

Step 9: Then its the back pack with Flat Earth 983 and Neutral Grey 992 for the rolled up great coat which is just done by dotting the raised areas.


Step 10: The brass plate on the helmet is done with Gold 996. These details which can be quite tricky are made so much easier to paint thanks to the excellent way these guys are sculpted allowing you to just run your brush along the detail to pick it out.

Step 11: The crests on the helmet are done with Flat Yellow 953, followed by black to give a nice neat stripe. This is the final step for the basic infantry and for me makes them look really smart.

Step 12: Next up I do all the last little fiddly bits like the drums, Officer's mounts, blood and hair colours on the casualty figures which makes a nice change from the production line approach.

The horses are the only stage at which I do more than one layer. I've used GW Devlan Mud wash which seems to work well.

Well that's, that. Quite a hefty amount of painting and from now on I think I will only take on single regiments rather than brigades at a time. However now these are done I have all the regulars I need for a division, so I can enjoy doing more interesting bits and pieces like cavalry, artillery, skirmishers and commanders. As ever if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Happy painting,

T.