The 1/28e Légère: "Souham's Landsknechts"

Finally, a completely finished unit!  This one was only seven years in the making.  

The 1/28e Légère advances towards the foe.

We had another Black Powder game on the 23rd, which saw the 1/28e Légère make its debut as a full six-company battalion.  

The weeks prior to the game were a mad rush that saw me having to deal with a number of short-notice projects at work, a nasty flu-like viral infection, and almost all the housework as my wife has been working major overtime almost every night as accounting deadlines need to be met.  

On top of that, I was putting in marathon painting sessions that almost had me breaking the paintbrushes in frustration at slower-than-expected progress and stupid, medication-induced mistakes. 

But I managed to get a lot done despite everything.  I made major inroads on a light cavalry regiment, another artillery piece is well on the way to completion, and I was able to finish and completely base a six pdr. gun and of course the 1/28e Légère.

The voltigeur company rallies against circling Cossacks.  The fellow shooting wearing the colpack was a conversion, and the headgear was made of epoxy putty.  Of course, just after I did this Front Rank released proper light infantry voltigeurs wearing colpacks!  Ah well, at least it's unique.

The battalion in line.  

The 1/28e in column, proceeded by voltigeurs and supported by a 6 pdr. gun as Général Bouillon-Cantinat looks on.

I learned a number of lessons after painting these.  First, a black undercoat really speeds things up.  Secondly, paint the crossbelts first, and block in the colours around them carefully to save time and unnecessary painting.

Next time I'm going to tone down the contrasts a bit, and use a less varied palette for each battalion.  

When I started out painting the 1/28e I decided that it would be multicoloured as a result of campaigning and supply shortages- not to mention flagrant disregard for regulations by its proud and eccentric colonel, Col. H-P Debroullier.   All well and good, but using fewer colours will not only mean faster painting, it will also be less of a kaleidoscope to the eye.  For my next unit of infantry I want to work more on varying tones rather than varying colour.

Thus for good reason, the 1/28e will be given the nickname of "Souham's Landsknechts" by the other, more soberly dressed regiments in the 8e Division!

Dulce et Decorum Est...

Soldat Jean le Malchance "takes one for the team"...

The winter painting offensive is going well.  My finished output after a week of let's-get-down-to-some-serious painting.   This is what I have finished and based so far, but there are about a dozen more who are now not so far behind, and then the 28eme Legere will be- gasp!- COMPLETED!  Now there's a thought.  

For the fourth "company" (i.e. stand, for GdB) I wanted a little vignette, so I used a falling wounded figure in the first rank, and as he falls backwards his musket takes the shako off from the soldier behind him.  As the unfortunate M. le Malchance wreaks havoc in the line, the company officer attempts to restore order in the ranks, damn yer eyes...

"Soyez braves, mes soldats!"   
"What's to fear from a little canister?  En Avant!!!"

The startled figure in the back row was a bare-headed infantryman in greatcoat, but I hacked a covered shako off a spare figure (which had lost its bayonet when one of my cats knocked it off the painting desk- grrrr!), and in fifteen minutes with the help of some epoxy, a drill and a paper clip I had modelled myself a guy with his shako falling off.

I'll get around to texturing the bases once all the figures for the battalion are done.  Next up for the finish line is a pair of skirmishers and the third company.  These will be followed by the last company stand, the final two skirmishers for the battalion, and the 6 pdr. gun and crew.

And then it's time for some green; the 7eme Chasseurs au Cheval  with their natty pink facings, and for a change.. Russians!

Teaching "un vieux chien" some new tricks!

Voila Claude Deplussis, soldat of the 28eme legere.

I finished him today along with the rest of the 4th Company.  All have been given a protective coat of strong semi-matt varnish (hence the shine in the picture), and tomorrow, once the varnish has time to dry thoroughly, I'll take them outside for a few passes of matt spray varnish and mount them on their base.

Again, the picture doesn't do the figure justice.  A much darker, richer blue in real life and the cockade on the shako didn't come out very well on my cell phone camera. 

Nevertheless, this particular mini is something of a departure for me, as I tried a different painting technique with the ochre campaign trousers.  I'm pretty happy with the result.

I usually paint in all the shadows and line in the details.  Not as subtle as what some painters out there are capable of, and the "toy soldier" look is not to everyone's taste.   

But it is an effect I like, and it is reminiscent to me of the Peter Gilder and Phil Robinson figures that graced the pages of the early issues of Miniature Wargames.  And it does stand out nicely on the tabletop.  

The problem is that it is a time-consuming technique.  Washes would have made the job a lot simpler, but I have had no luck with using washes in the past.  They always looked terrible once dry; the colours would leach, and darker colours in particular tended to dry a whitish mess whenever they pooled in crevasses.  

I therefore decided to give up with washes, and to just do everything the hard way by painting in shadows, and lining in details such as deep creases and cross-belt lining.

But the method is too slow given the amount of figures I need to paint.   I need to speed things up somehow, and after checking some blogs and posts on line I decided to give washes a second chance, and to try my hand at what I call a "modified dip" method.  

First, I applied a coat of matt (actually satin) brush-on acrylic varnish over the area I want to wash.  When dry, I then took a small amount of the paint I wanted to shade the area with and mixed it in with some more varnish and a little water, and presto- it did the job nicely!

Now I want to experiment a little more with the technique, but it does seem promising.  I'll still keep largely to my traditional painting style with the lined-in detail as I do like the effect, but it looks like I may be able to take some much-needed short cuts when possible, and speed up production accordingly.   

Woo-hoo! Finished figures!

The elite companies of the 28eme legere, under the command of their brigadier,  Général Victor-Eugène BOUILLON-CANTINAT,  as they prepare to assault a manor house.   (Said to contain a large cache of the most excellent pinot-noir- the good general has a keen interest in all matters of logistical importance.)

Merde!  Not a single cask to be found.  The Prussians must have gotten there before us!  We'll go and hunt down some pesky Freikorps instead.

Half of a battalion is finished (indeed a full battalion should I wish to play a game of Shako)- the centre companies are soon to follow, along with a section of artillery- and hopefully a bit of a surprise! 

The third week of September is a long vacation here, and not only can I paint 'til I drop, but I'm also scheduled for an actual wargame!  We'll be playing DBR, but it will be a good chance to promote/ hype/ cajole interest in a game of DBN.

French Legere Officer

Officer of Voltigeurs, French "legere" (light infantry). Converted Front Rank miniature.

Front Rank do make light infantry, but in the 1807-12 uniforms only. This regiment was wearing the more practical (and to me at least, more elegant) uniform of the 1812 Bardin regulations.

But as the "legere" were proud of their elite status, I wanted some officers wearing vestiges of their earlier, more flamboyant uniforms.

In this case, I modelled a busby ("colpack") and bag ("flamme") from epoxy putty- the original figure came wearing a shako- and added a plume from a Front Rank Russian.

With Tamiya epoxy putty or similar, a small drill and a few paper clips you can do wonders!

French Legere Officer (2)

Rear view of above. I'm rather proud of the "flamme" blowing in the breeze!

Amazing the difference in lighting can make on an image. The brown looks completely different. The front view is closer to the original, although the blue has come out considerably brighter than it appears on the actual miniature.

Of course these haven't been varnished yet, which tends to deepen the colours anyway. Tokyo's humid summers mean that it may be a while before I get to spraying them.

French Voltigeur

Voltigeur of light infantry. Wounded, but still more than willing to fight on for "The Little Corporal"- La patrie en dangeur!

I very much enjoyed painting this figure. The smooth surfaces on the Front Rank minis make them easy to paint, and the well-sculpted greatcoat provided a great palette for shading, lining and highlighting. I'm no fan of drybrushing except for feathers and furs!

I have to admit I still haven't decided how best to base my skirmishers- individually would be best for the "Sharpe Practice" rules (recently released by the Two Fat Lardies) that really look interesting, but I want to play "General de Brigade" as well. I'll probably procrastinate on basing them for a little while longer yet.

Carabinier

French Carabinier (as grenadiers in light infantry regiments were known). Those banded shakos are buggers to paint (lots to be said for campaign shako covers...) but do look good when done carefully.

The hardest things to do are the straps around the backpack- these caused considerable grief, but I think I have the hang of them now- paint the straps first, and then the rest of the backpack around them!

French Command Stand- 28eme Legere

Getting that new cellphone camera at last gives me the chance to post a better picture of that command stand I painted last year (!)

Another Front Rank conversion, the fifer is wearing a magnificent white colpack with red flamme. A uniform of pure fantasy, on the rationale that the regiment's well-heeled colonel had the money to spare for outfitting his "tete de colonne" as he saw fit.

I have no evidence that any such uniform was worn by those of the 28th. And if someone DOES come up with evidence to the contrary... c'est la vie, I have no intention of repainting anything. If that bothers anyone- well, tough truffles.

M. le Capitaine's log, supplemental.

It was pointed out to me on another forum that the flag shown here is the 1803 pattern, not the 1812 tricolour that would have been used in 1813. My answer- I know! Most of my infantry and cavalry will have the later pattern flag, but for variety- and because it is pretty- a few regiments will be flying the 1803 pattern, on the assumption that they were not around to receive the new colours or were immensely proud of their old ones for sentimental reasons and were not willing to switch! Stranger things have happened in war.

For the record, I subscribe to what I call the "Roly Hermans" approach to miniature painting. Inspired by history, I like my units to reflect their historical antecedants, but I am willing to turn a blind eye to the occasional artistic touch for the sake of aesthetics (as no doubt were the artists of the time). At the same time, I still like such touches to remain within the boundaries of plausibility (even if stretching them to the limit!).

Likewise, my miniatures are a lot less muddy and dishevelled than they should be after plodding through the wet fields of Saxony! After all, we are already making compromises in that we are using 24 miniatures to represent batallions of 600 or so men.

Command Stand (rear view)

Rear view of that command stand of the 28th legere. Here you can see the "Chef-de-Bataillon" of the first battalion of the 28th, the fearless and much-decorated Jean-Etienne de Bricole, as he urges his men forward for Glory and l'Empereur! Flag by GMB. 

Note the dreaded backpacks and blanket rolls, with all those goddam straps...