Deploy Skirmishers!

Just a quick post to promote the new year's painting challenge at La Bricole, our small (but friendly!) forum dedicated to Napoleonic wargaming.  

The theme this time is light infantry or cavalry of any description, in any size and scale and in any numbers from vignette to brigades, depending on your productivity and ambition!

So if you have any eligible unit lying around unloved and unpainted, now could be a good time to get it down and to share your success with others!

More information can be found here.

Newcomers always welcome. Deadline for completed entries is February 10th, 2014.

 

The Salamanca Summer Painting Challenge!

Just a bit of advanced notice to those who may be interested, this summer the la Bricole forum is having another group painting effort.  After the marathon efforts participants put into last year's competition,  this time we're going "small"- who wants to spend too much time under the painting lamp in the summer heat?

So the theme is vignettes, including any kind of command stand, casualty marker, supply, or just simply ornamental stand of miniatures related to the Napoleonic wars.  

The contest starts on July 22nd, the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Salamanca, and closes at the end of September.

If you are interested in participating, competition rules can be found here.

Voting has begun on the la Bricole painting competition!  

Nine members were able to meet the (ambitious!) targets set out in the competition rules, and you can see their entries here ranging from 18mm to 28mm miniatures.  Some of the contributors are well known in various forums and in the wargaming blogosphere, and their artistry has not disappointed!

There really is some fine painting and basing in evidence, as well as some great work-in-progress by those who were unable to get past the finish line.  

I have my favourites, but I ain't telling yet...

Any registered member can vote in the competition, so drop by and show your appreciation.  I know a lot of people have been burning the midnight oil on this one! 

Voting is open for 14 days, until April 17th (Tokyo time).   I'll keep the counter on top of my blog here running until then. 

"And what of your Wurttembergers...?" I hear some people saying.  

My own entry stalled in March (surprise, surprise...not!), due to real-life interference, over-ambitious targets, and haste in ordering miniatures before checking to see what I would actually need.  I ended up having to do a number of conversions, which actually turned out quite well.  But more of this in a future post.

Grand Strategy

Hope all of you who do celebrate Christmas had an enjoyable one.  Mine was very relaxing, with good food and (of course) wine. 

I've already posted my painting target for the la Bricole painting competition on the forum, and I'll share it here.  It's a fairly tall order, too- at least for me.  Three separate tasks to the project, which means trying to get about one done per month.  

I'm almost sure that getting all three done by the end of March is unlikely to happen.  But if I can get at least two out of the three finished and out of the way, I'll be satisfied. 

TASK #1: For the French, more cavalry- the 4e Regt. Chasseurs a Cheval. These are in the 1812 Bardin regulation uniform, and are very nice figures. Along with my 7e Regt this will give me two regiments of light cavalry (not including my Guard lancers). They will look sharp in dark green with yellow facings.  Twelve miniatures.

 

Painting cavalry (especially the harness) is always a laborious task for me, so including these as part of the painting target should give me the motivation to grit my teeth and get on with it for the sake of achieving a personal victory over my perennial foe, procrastination.  I mean there are only twelve of them, right?  How hard can that be? 

TASK #2:  Wurttembergers! These excellent new figures from Front Rank will be the painted as Regt Nr.4 (von Franquemont).  Four stands of seven figures, with three stands of two skirmishers. I've yet to order the bases and flags, but no immediate hurry on those yet. 

 

These hard-fighting fellows will be sporting the latest in fetching pink facings!  Which should make for a great looking unit, especially as they are to be brigaded with the 1st (Leib) Regiment in their yellow facings.

The 1811-pattern uniform for the 4th Wurttemberg infantry is on the right.

(Image clipped from the Histofig plate.)

I've added a new page to this blog where I will post uniform, flag and other related information about the Wurttembergers. 

TASK #3: Not related to the French, but I thought I would post it here anyway.  I really need to get moving on my battalion of Nassau-Ringgworm Freikorps.  Never heard of them?  Not surprising,  seeing as they are completely fictional!  

You can find their "history" here, with that of their leader, the Black Landgrave.  This is to be their flag, which I modified from a design provided from Not by Appointment, David Linienblatt's excellent blog on 18th C. flags.

They are actually Lützow's Freikorps figures from Calpe Miniatures, with some metal Warlord Landwehr thrown in the mix. They have been cleaned, primed, and undercoated for about a year, but as the allies have been outnumbering the French, allied troops have been put on the back-burner. 

However, all those figures mounted on bottle caps really take up space, and I really need the more room on my painting desk.  Therefore I want to try and get them finished in the coming months.   

They are all in black with orange facings, so what could be simpler?  Well, they're not so easy to do convincingly.  Some time back I had painted a test figure, but I wasn't really happy with it; since then I haven't been quite sure how to approach painting black uniforms. 

'La Bricole' Painting Competition Launched!

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you out there.  It's been a pleasure chatting with everyone over the last year, and being able to take part in sharing the enthusiasm we all have for this wonderful hobby. 

This season marks a number of milestones for me.  As I mentioned, I celebrate my fiftieth birthday on Christmas Eve; and if memory serves, it is now forty years since receiving my first plastic Airfix Napoleonic figures as a present from my parents back in 1971. 

This month also marks the end of the first (tumultuous!) year of my stewardship of the La Bricole miniatures forum, having taken over from our honoured founder, Iannick Martin.  The good Archduke had gotten the whole thing going as part of his Clash of Empires blog. 

Last but certainly not least this happens to be my 100th post on Serrez les Rangs!  Let there be rejoicing, followed by the copious consumption of turkey, stuffing, fine wines, and mince pies.

And of course, what better way of celebrating all of the above than by the official launch of the La Bricole Painting Competition!

If any of you out there feel inclined to participate, please do, you'd be very welcome.  Starting Christmas day, the contest closes March 31st, so hopefully that will leave plenty of time for everyone to get their entries in.  The theme is common-and-garden line and militia units, so a good opportunity and incentive to add that solid and necessary "meat" to your wargaming army.

Although I obviously won't be contending for the prizes, I'm looking forward to it.  For my part, I'll most likely be entering some French cavalry and Wurttemberg infantry, which you will be pleased to know are still untouched in their box (largely because I haven't had the time to open them).