Östereichische Jäger

While these were actually painted in February, I only got around to basing and photographing these guys now. Some of you might ask why I am painting Austrian Jäger right now, while I am in the middle of doing Prussians and French for my Möckern project and why I only painted four instead of a whole unit. Well they are for my Möckern project.

When looking at the first day actions at Leipzig, most people perceive the Prussian avant-garde to be on the flank of the allied units, but this is only partly true. In a tactical sense they were with their right flank hinging on the swampy terrain formed by the myriad of rivers and creeks near Möckern. But in a strategic sense they were not since there were the Austrians to their right behind said swamp. Now the allied plans called for some Austrian units to move through said swamp to surprise the French, which was a failure, since they did not know their way and their local guides were anything but local. Prussian after action report about the battle at Möckern all talk about a unit of Östereichische Jäger, roughly company sized, appearing in the Prussian rear shortly before the assaults began. While none of the reports mention the unit they came from, most say that they were separated from their parent formation and got lost in the swamps. Technically this faced the Prussians with a problem. They did not have the resources and time to get them back to their parent formation and indeed they even lacked the knowledge where exactly those Austrians were supposed to be. So they offered the Austrians a choice. They could sit things out behind Prussian lines till the evening or the next day when the Prussians would try to march them “home” or while they were here, they could join the Prussians in the assault. The Austrians chose the later and were attached to the 4th battalion of the 15te Schlesische Landwehr for the day.

Tyroler Jäger-Kompagnie beim Lützower Freikorps

Now choosing minis became my first problem. Believe it or not… There seem to be few companies doing Austrian Jäger, the best choices I found were Foundry and Front Rank. Since Foundry Austrians generally are pretty small, I went for Front Rank. While those might seem large when compared to Victrix and Perry, which eventually will make up the bulk of my Austrians, it will not be so bad to make them stand out when placed in separate units. But they will look good when mixed within a unit of my Prussian Landwehr by Calpe.
The bigger problem was their uniform colour. Most illustrations you find differ in colour… and by a large deal at that. The official colour was called a light Hechtgrau, which references to the fish pike. You get anything from light grey to virtual slate greys. The best reference I found was for a Tyrolian Jäger in the Lützower Freikorps. While Prussian the uniform was greatly inspired by the Austrians, but I did not want to settle with this.

So I did what every good wargamer does. I asked around. The most valuable information came form Iannick (aka. Archiduke Charles on most fora) who pointed me a great study on his own blog. There I found out, that Hechtgrau actually refered to a light blue-greenish grey, which was even lighter than the one shown in the above painting. But I have to admit, that the colours proposed, although without doubt correct, were a though too blue for my taste. But the advantage of having a couple hundred colours is, you just need to move a bottle to the left (I arrange the darker colours to the left in my cart) and you have what you want. So in the end I used Dark Blue Grey (VAL 904) highlighted with Blue Grey Pale (VAL 905). And I am more than happy with the result. I would also like to express my thanks to Jason (aka Der Feldmarschall) for providing me with photos of Austrian Jäger equipment, which helped a lot with the details.)

The minis themselves were a joy to paint, and from a sculpting point of view I was more than impressed by the quality and detail on these Front Ranks. The only gripe I had was, that these minis were actually quiet boring with their grey uniforms and black belting. Unfortunately, Front Rank created them without Brotbeutel, which would have added a little touch of white, but if this is my only complaint, I think I should really shut up and show you some pictures!

Östereichische Jäger

Östereichische Jäger

 

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion

1tes und 2tes Westpreussisches Infanterieregiment
[Knötel, Uniformenkunde, Band II. Nr. 45]

After a few weeks the Prussian Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion for my Möckern (Völkerschlacht of Leipzig) project are finally finished. All minis are Calpe in 28mm (with the exception of the French casualty on the skirmisher base, which is a Perry plastic).

While the Knötel print to the left depicts the Musketiere from both the 1st and 2nd Westpreussische Infanterieregimenter, these can be seen as good representations of the minis painted here, since the only difference was the colours of the swordknots.

Now the regiment had quite an illustrious career during the Befreiungskriege seeing action at Möckern (the one in April 1813 not the one I am painting for), Königswartha, Groß-Görschen, Bautzen, Dresden, Culm, Wachau, Leipzig. In 1814 they ended up in Paris after long campaigning and were called up in 1815 once more to fight at Ligny and many of the smaller battles leading to it and later on into France.

At Möckern (Leipzig) they fought with 582 men, which translates into 29 minis and four skirmishers at Republic to Empires 1:20 ratio.

I have to admit, that while this is not the largest Napoleonic unit I ever painted, this is the largest I painted in one go (as opposed to small batches) and this was a huge mistake. When painting every single colour takes at least an hour, you start to lose interest somewhere along the route. Anyway… they are now finished and I am happy with the results. But as a result though the next things on my table are smaller batches. Already finished four Austrian Jäger (they are awaiting their varnish and basing) and next are Prussian and French officers.

As you know I have been painting units from von Yorck´s advance guard at Leipzig for some time now, but this is the first regular unit with a flag for me. All the others have either been Landwehr and Reserves with non-regulation flags, or Schützen and Fuisiliere without any. It is strange what a change something like a different type of flag can be, but it really was for me when done. Together with the posh (at least for Prussian standards) grenadier uniforms, it was a real joy to see them done. I hope they will do me proud on the table. One thing that left me slightly irritated was the colours of their flag, yellow on blue, which I would rather associate with Silesia. If anyone can shed some light into this I would be more than happy to hear why this is so.

Now photographing these mini gave me a huge headache. With their muskets in front of their bodies, I arranged the minis in a way, that they would not interfere with one another no matter in which formation I placed the bases. Unfortunately, this also meant, that I would always end up with at least two faces being obscured by a musket. In the end I gave up, so the majority of photos will by group shots this time. Hope you can forgive me, since you will be able to click them for larger versions!

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (skirmishers deployed)

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (command base)

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (first coy base Nr.1)

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (first coy base Nr. 2)

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (skirmishers)

Westpreussisches Grenadierbattalion (top view)

 

Légère drummer WIP

After all the hassle with the telephone and internet in the house (plus the fact that I chose to install new lighting in the games room yesterday) I started work on another French unit for the Möckern project. This time it is the 3rd battalion for the 37eme Légère. While you might have noticed, that I am not much of a “work in progress” man, I spend some time on the drummer for the unit today. All the piping on the French musicians usually drives me bonkers and today was no exception, but I am happy with the results, so I decided to show a little WIP.

French Légère Drummer

The mini itself is a Perry plastic with the cuff flaps cut off to turn him into a Légère. This battalion will feature an all plastic line-up, since I already had the minis cleaned and primed and simply wanted to get started. The other battalions will feature a mix of plastic and metal.

 

Some notes on Napoleonic Russian uniforms

Now my recent review of the Perry brothers latest plastic offering has caused some feedback from a TMP member (Seroga) from Russia. It all started off with a few comments regarding the uniform information on the sheet included in the box. He stated that much of the information on the sheet is based on Vislovatov, which has been disputed by Russian historians in recent years or in his words (all quotes in this post are copies of his posts on TMP):

The problem with the Vislovatov (basis for almost everything about sub-unit distinctives until recently) was initially surfaced about 12 years ago by the authors of the 300-years History of the Russian Marines.
The had found something “non-standard” for the Marines in 1811 – not according to Viskovatov. Upon further research, they found that Viskovatov was really quoting a proposal that was not formally adopted until early 1817. And the correct distinctives were as I have given them (very slight modifications from the 1809 order, to accomodate the new organization).

Their work was publicized first in a symposium in Kaluga (maybe about 2002) and then publihed in Tseykhaus – and also appeared in Vol. 1 of the work on the Marines. As a sidenote, one of the authors was the very same guy who had, in the early years of Tseik, publsihed the Viskovatov version.

Other reasearchers, for example Ilya Ulyanov, author of the 3-volume Russian Infantry series and his more recent Russian Infantry at War, have agreed.

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So here we go (please note that I can neither confirm nor deny the information given, but it is everyone’s own choice what to make of it anyway):

The painting instructions could use some corrections/editing. For examples ….

The pompoms are partially wrong:
1st battalion is shown correctly
2nd battalion
grenadier platoon and marksmen platoon : OK as shown
center platoons : green with yellow center [correction]. However, the green with white center shown was correct per the prior regulation of 1809 and would again be correct from late 1816 or early 1817. It is possible that some units did not correctly follow the change to green with yellow center in 1811.
3nd battalion
grenadier platoon : red over yellow [correction]
marksmen platoon : yellow over red [correction]
center platoons : red with yellow center [correction]
Note : 1st and 3rd battalions typically served together as “the regiment”, with the 2nd battalion typically serving elsewhere in various “combined” formations.
Note : The NCO’s pompom is shown as quartered orange and white, but the orange part was really a mix of black and orange and would likely appear darker than shown.

The shoulder straps have 2 errors and 2 omissions:
– The division number should be in yellow [correction] for the green piped red shoulder straps.
– The division number should be in yellow [correction] for the blue shoulder straps.
– Grenadier regiments all had the red shoulder straps, with a letter (in vintage Russian cursive style) from their name instead of a number. [omission]
– If there were more than the usual 4 Infantry regiments in a division, the fifth Infantry regiment of the division by seniority had the blue shoulder straps, like the junior Jäger regiment, and the sixth Infantry regiment had drab tan-grey shoulder straps. [omission]
Note : The numbers also should be vintage Russian cursive style, although you would have to be a great painter to really capture this – see link for a sample.

Rankers in the center platoons of Jäger regiments were not equipped with infantry short swords. If musket-armed (as they were supposed to be), they had only the bayonet. So, you might want to slice off the short sword for them, if all the sprues have included it. [possible correction] If someone in the lower number Jäger regiments was using a left-over rifle, it would be shorter than the musket and would have a longer sword-bayonet. Some higher-number Jäger regiments were recently converted Infantry regiments. They could still have white belts, and even “incorrectly” could have kept their short swords for rankers in the center companies.

All elite companies were called Grenadier, including for Jâgers. [correction]
Center companies were called “Fusilier” in Grenadier and Marine regiments, except in the Life-Grenadier regiment, where all companies were callled Grenadier. [omission]

The company numbering shown is correct only for the 1st battalion. The 2nd battalion had the 2nd Grenadier and 4th, 5th and 6th center companies. The 3rd battalion had the 3rd Grenadier and 7th, 8th and 9th center companies. [omission]
The forage cap bands for Grenadier companies did not have any letter or number per regulations [correction]. This likely included all the companies in the Life-Grenadier regiment. Center companies had the company number followed two dots, then the Russian cursive letter for “R” (for “rota” or company) and two more dots. Something like ” 1 : Р : ” ” 2 : Р : ” ” 3 : Р : ” – if you can paint this, that is. Also, the number should be yellow per regulations. [correction]

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Jäger Grenadier company cartridge boxes had the regiment number, like center companies (and there were no Carabinier companies or platoons …. there were Karabinier regiments, but only after 1815).

Jäger musket slings are black, others had “red” (vermillion based dye/paint)

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This goes to the sculpts ….

The rolled greatcoat lower end, where it is tied together, should correctly lie to the front of the leg, so that the right hand holding the weapon at “attention” is behind the greatcoat and its tie, close to the leg.
However, images drawn from life show that putting the tie of the greatcoat at the side of the leg, behind the right hand at attention, was tolerated in some units (we assume more easy-going company sergeant-majors).
It is actually easier to get the cartidges from the box if you wear the tied greatcoat correctly (I have tried it).

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Flags …,

For Infantry, Grenadier and Marine regiments :
1st battalion : 2 different flags, which are often called in English “colonel’s” and “regimental”
2nd battalion : 2 identical, “regimental” – used with the center companies, which typically took the field with smaller 3-company organization
3rd battalion : 2 identical, “regimental”

Combined Grenadier battalions : composed of three 2nd Grenadier companies taken from the 2nd battalion of three regiments : no flags
Jäger battalions : no flags

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Forage caps ….

This is more of a clarification than correction.
Note that the were two bands of piping : one around the top edge of the band – “lower”, one around the crown – “upper”.

For all center companies (including the Life-Grenadier regiment) :
1st battalion : both white
2nd battalion : both green (easiest to paint – it is the same color as the crown, not lighter)
3rd battalion : both blue

For Grenadier platoons in Grenadier companies :
1st battalion : both red (although I am sure some regiments did upper white, lower red)
2nd battalion : upper green, lower red
3rd battalion : upper blue, lower red

For Marksmen platoons in Grenadier companies :
1st battalion : both yellow (although I am sure some regiments did upper white, lower yellow)
2nd battalion : upper green, lower yellow
3rd battalion : upper blue, lower yellow

In general, as forage caps were a fatigue/undress item, and were made locally from scaps and worn-out uniforms, greater than normal variation vs. the regulations was possible.

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Swordknots ….

If you look at the painting instructions, the sword knot is shown as an upper-knot, a mid-section, a lower-knot, and the fringe. The fringe was white, as shown. That’s was easy.

The upper- and lower-knots were the same, and were supposed to be colored by the company :
Grenadier company : red (both platoons)
1st, 4th, 7th center company : white
2nd, 5th, 8th center company : blue
3rd, 6th, 9th center company : yellow
NCO swordknots, by regulation, should have had only the lower-knot in mixed orange and black. However, it appears that they had botht he lower-knot and upper-knot in the rank distinctive orange and black.

The middle-section was colored by the battalion:
1st battalion : white
2nd battalion : yellow
3rd battalion : red

=============================

The tassles (only) of the shako cords for NCO’s were a mix of white and orange and black.

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Pants ….

For other ranks, the pants or trousers for Grenadier, Infantry and Marine regiments were white wool in winter and white Flemish linen in summer. The black items called gaiters are actually sewn-on leather leggings for the winter pants. If you do them with paint, as suggested, it will take a couple of coats to get the correct effect.

For fatigues, undress and often when on campaign, gray-ish or off-white loose pants (stuffed into the shank or top of the short boots used as footwear) were worn, sometimes called “bloomers”. The sculpts are actually a little tight for the regular pants (Russian pants had looser fit than French breeches), and you would need to add some milliput or similar to get the baggy look of the bloomers.

For officers, the white pants were reserved for parades and mess-dress occasions. They wore gray “riding trousers” (wherher or not mounted) or dark green pants for most occasions. On campaign, company grade officers might also were the “bloomers”.

For Jägers, the winter wool pants were dark-green.

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I think this is it, unless there are questions …

Final clarifications :

The tall thin plume was in use from 1811, even with the older (1809) shako. Only the Grenadier platoon had them – not the Marksmen platoon.

The top-band around the top of the 1809 shako is sculpted very heavy. You might thin it a bit, or be careful in paining to not high-light it too much.

The scupts are really early war, summer 1812 looking to me.

Especially after Borodino, and through the long march to Paris, it became rather common for Jäger rankers, without the infantry short sword, to just fix their bayonets and “lose” the shoulder-belt and frog for the bayonet.

The French “furry” knapsacks were much prized (and with lots of dead French, it was easy to get one). French muskets and low shoes were not much prized. With their non-combatants, regiments could make-up boots locally if they found some leather. Similarly, they could make-up ammunition from raw materials or captures.

The pre-war shakos were pretty much used-up by late 1812. Forage caps were pretty common unless a unit got re-supplied. The uniform coats had turned to rags by Spring 1813, but the greatcoats lasted quite well. Some captured cloth of some dark color could be made-up into new uniform coats.

The men that made it to Paris barely looked like uniformed solders by the time they got there. Everyone was in bloomers. Scandals resulted, when they had to parade after the peace. Richer officers ran to the Parisian tailors. But I doubt that the parades mattered too much to the veteran rankers.

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Hope this information proves useful to some of you!

In case anyone wonders, the portraits shown in this post are from the Replace Face blog. Steve Payne has taken paintings by the English portrait artist George Dawe who painted 329 portraits of Russian generals active during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

He is using digital copies of these paintings as a basis for his work which involves incorporating his friends, family and even some celebrities into the paintings using Photoshop. If you do not know it, go and check it out… I have only used some of my favourites here.

 

 

2tes Leib-Husaren-Regiment „Königin Viktoria von Preußen“

Preußischer Leibhusar (2tes Reg.) Knötel Cigarette Card

So after the hiatus in posts over the past week here is something new. The 2tes Leibhusarenregiment in strength for my Möckern / Völkerschlacht project. All the minis shown here are Calpe and based for Republic to Empire. At 183 men it was quite small at Möckern (or at least those squadrons that were part of von Yorcks Advanced Guard), so it is only represented by 9 minis here. But this means they divided nicely amongst three stands of three minis each.

At first I thought it would be quiet a bleak unit to paint with their black uniforms and saddle fur and only some red and white piping. But in the end it turned out looking lovely. Prussia had huge problems finding proper mounts for their cavalry and hardly adhered to the normal distribution of horse colours (dark for the troopers and light for trumpeters and in some units officers) by 1813. This being one of the more prestigious units and I felt that they would be outfitted with horses in regulation colours though. So there are only two dark browns in here and a white horse for the officer. All the rest are black.

Now this unit itself was formed in 1740 as the 5th Husarenregiment by order of King Friederich II. This lasted until the 20th December 1808 when the Regiment was split in two and turned into the 1st and 2nd Leibhusaren. There are two stories as to why their uniforms were black.

The first states that the unit was originally uniformed using the black drapes that had been hung inside the Stadtschloss (Citypalace) in Potsdam during the mourning for King Friedrich Wilhelm in 1740.

The second refers to the fact, that the unit was raised with funds from the fines (both in money and goods) from the monastery in Leubus (Silesia), which was punished for allying themselves with the Austrians in 1740. The goods that were produced the most there were black mourning drapes with white skulls embroiled on them.

Pick whatever version you like best, as both make sense. The skull and crossbones worn on the caps might hail from the later version, but this is also an old German symbol denoting that mercy would neither by expected nor given by units wearing it.

But as usual… on to the minis:

2te Preußische Leibhusaren

2te Preußische Leibhusaren (command stand)

2te Preußische Leibhusaren (1st stand)

2te Preußische Leibhusaren (2nd stand)

2te Preußische Leibhusaren (rear view)

 

La Bricole Painting Competition (Part 6) / 4th Marine Regiment

There is about one week let to go till the deadline for the La Bricole painting competition but I managed to get the 2nd battalion of the 4ème Régiment d’Artillerie de la marine (the third to be painted) done. So now all three battalions and therefore the whole regiment are finished. I have to say, that I am quiet happy I chose this unit for th competition. Since they wore dark blue coats over dark blue uniforms, they were not the most diverse unit to paint and it became a chore somewhere along the way. I had been sure, that this would be the case and pledging to paint all three battalions as part of a competition was my trick to keep me going. And it worked! Plus I am really happy with the result no matter how they do in the competition.

Without much further ado… here they are:

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine command stand

To keep with the maritime theme for those battalions not issued with an eagle, I carved a fish from a piece of plastic for the finial here. I had planned it to look like the fish used to indicate rounds raced in the ancient Circus Maximus in Rome, but it came out rather longish and looks more like a trout. Unfortunately, I took this photo at an agle where you see it from the front, but it shows on some of the unit shots.

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 1st stand

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 2nd stand

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 3rd stand

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 4th stand

4e - 2 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 5th stand

While these two skirmishers were painted when I did the first battalion, they belong to the second (the only one large enough to deploy skirmishers under the R2E rules) so here they are again.

4e Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine skirmishers front

4e Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine skirmishers back

And last… the whole regiment deployed one battalion behind the other.

4e - Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine, all 3 battalions

4e - Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine, all 3 battalions

In total these are 66 minis. 64 of them are Victrix from the old Guard and Infantry boxed sets with shakos in place of the bearskin caps. Two minis are from Perry.

One last comment one these… Victrix minis have a reputation of bayonets breaking. I have not had a single broken bayonet with any of the 64 Victrix minis here and I did not treat them any “nicer” then I would metal minis. I even dared to put a shako on top the plastic sword of the officer for the first battalion and it did not break off. So if anything I can attest to them being robust.

 

La Bricole Painting Competition (Part 5) / 4th Marine Regiment

I know the past week has been a bit quiet here, but life got a bit in the way of doing much and posting. But I managed to finish the third battalion of the 4e Régiment d’Artillerie de la marine for the La Bricole painting competition. I had planned to have these finished the other weekend, but just the few little things to touch up and basing ruined that timetable. They are done now:

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 1st stand

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 2nd stand

As mentioned in a previous post they were mistaken at Leipzig for Guard Marines or even Guard infantry, due to their dark blue greatcoats. I still assume, that a few of the men wore did not wear the greatcoats over their normal uniform, so I always mix in a few men not wearing greatcoats (about 1 in 5). For this battalion the drummer is one of them. I chose to give him reversed colours for his jacket to add a little colour to all that dark blue. I could not find any information if this was historically correct or not, but I liked the looks and the fact that it broke up the monotony. The mini is a Victrix infantryman converted to drummer with a Perry head by the way.

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine command stand

Since this is the 3rd battalion it was not issued with an eagle. Those always went to the 1st battalions. Now usually the battalions not issued with an eagle used spearhead shaped finials, but I wanted something special. In the end I thought that a trident would be fitting for a marine unit, so I carved one from plasticard. I am thinking about something similar for the 2nd battalion… maybe a fish or something like that. Lets just see!

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine command stand

4e - 3 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 4th stand

The 2nd and final battalion is on my painting table already and are all dark blue right now. I just hope they do not take as long as these guys!

 

La Bricole Painting Competition (Part 4) / 4th Marine Regiment

OK the weather still has not turned warmer here, but I could not stand having nearly finished minis sitting around here for much longer. So I decided that I would not enter by game room for one day (due to the fumes) and (spray-)varnish them indoors. So here is the first finished batch of Napoleonic French Marines for the La Bricole painting competition. Except for the varnish and basing the only new thing is that I painted the flag over even more.

But there are the minis in all their glory, ready to take on von Yorck´s Prussians at Leipzig!

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine

And some shots of the individual stands (I go a bit carried away there, but I do not really regret it ;-))

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 1st stand

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 2nd stand

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine command stand

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 3rd stand

4e - 1 Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine 4th stand

I usually do not paint regimental number on shako covers or ammo pouches, since I want to keep the units generic. Because lets face it… from a normal table distance you can not make out the writing on the flags. On the other hand the numbers on the shakos and pouches are more obvious, since they are bigger and offer a higher contrast. So if I leave them off the lets say 54th Regiment can just as well depict the 77th in the next game. Since the Völkerscchlacht game will most likely be my only use of Marines, I did not care this much here.

To round the pictures off, here are two shots of the skirmishers. As I said before these will not see use with the 1st battalion, but the 2nd. Since they are finished they get their 15 minutes of fame now.

4e Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine skirmishers front

4e Régiment d'Artillerie de la marine skirmishers back

 

La Bricole Painting Competition (Part 3) / 4th Marine Regiment

I finally finished painting the minis Napoleonic French Marines for the La Bricole painting competition yesterday. Well at least the first batch, which is the 1st battalion. So two more and a command stand or in other words 47 minis to go. Now the weather is still bleeping cold here in Germany, so I only managed to glue them to their bases. Before the bases themselves will be done, I still need to varnish them and since I am using spray on varnish, I need to wait for warmer weather. So the pictures here are still WIP. First up the unit itself:

4-1 Marine WIP front

4-1 Marine WIP back

Next up is the skirmisher pair. Now while painting these minis it dawned on me, that only the 2nd battalion will be large enough to deploy skirmishers under the R2E rules, so these will not see use with this battalion. In retrospect this seems to be a common mistake for me. So far I have always painted skirmisher pairs for any unit I have done, but a good number of them are too small to actually deploy them under the rules. Guess I need to pay better attention in the future.

Skirmishers WIP front

Skirmishers WIP back

Last but not least I wanted to go somewhat special with their flag. Since I could not find a proper flag for the unit anywhere online I decided to repaint one. So this is a Victrix 15th Infantry flag (photocopied) and then repainted as 4th Marine regiment. Not the best work, but it should work at table distance.

4-1 Marine flag repaint

So what is next… well I am in the process of assembling and cleaning up the minis for the 3rd battalion (2nd will be done last). I should start on those this weekend at the latest. I will do a write-up on how I do the mud when I paint those. There were a lot of requests for the technique after the last post, so that should answer all questions.

 

La Bricole Painting Competition (Part 2) / 4th Marine Regiment

OK, so after working on a few other subjects over the past week, I returned to my Napoleonic French Marines for the La Bricole painting competition. I made some good progress on these yesterday, finishing their crossbelts, boots, cartridge boxes, the dirt and skin, plus the company Fanion. So all that is left to do is hair, finishing the eyes, headgear, metalwork, Pompom´s and highlighting the black and the first 22 minis will be done completing the first battalion. Here are two troopers meant to give you an idea of how far the unit is:

4th Marine WIP

And since I am really pleased with the freehand work on the Fanion a picture of the Sergeant, too:

4th Marine Sergeant with Fanion WIP