Work in Progress

Creating a 1/72 Napoleonic wargaming army

Posted by Bessiere on 07 May 2021, 20:21

Minuteman wrote:
Thank you Mr Dodson, a helpful tip: I have been aware of the Kennington range for quite some time but have never actually purchased any of the figures.

I am trying to track down some 'large 20mm' (1/72) Russian Horse artillery circa 1812, but it looks as if Kennington do not include these in their range unfortunately....so it may have to be conversions after all.


Maybe a little pricey but you asked for Russian horse artillery in 1/72 and this is the only place I have found it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-72-FIGUREN-F ... 4605609664
Cheers;
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Posted by Konrad on 08 May 2021, 14:53

Great looking figs,man. :thumbup:
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Posted by MABO on 09 May 2021, 17:53

Peter wrote:I asked because I give my bases a color for each country.

French blue, British red, Austria white, Spain yellow, Russia green, and so on....

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Uniforms are not all the same for the armies of a country, as you are already showing here. Just a thought of me but it could be helpfull during the battle. ;-)


Good idea! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
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Posted by Zed1 on 10 May 2021, 18:31

Peter wrote:I asked because I give my bases a color for each country.

French blue, British red, Austria white, Spain yellow, Russia green, and so on....

Uniforms are not all the same for the armies of a country, as you are already showing here. Just a thought of me but it could be helpfull during the battle. ;-)


Oh wow, yes, that's a good point. Didn't think about it - great idea. :-D
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Posted by Zed1 on 19 May 2021, 20:46

Well - in the next step, I put together all the Landwehr soldiers I have already painted. By surprise, it was already almost a bataillon.

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Well. Almost. I found that there's no sapper within this set. So I had to replace it by any other figure. The command part of this set is, however, not very large. So I took a fifer from the HaT Prussian infantry command set and simply painted a Landwehr cross onto his shako.

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The use of a shako instead of a Landwehr cap was not very usual in Landwehr units, but it wasn't totally impossible either - especially when it was up to officers (that often came from regular units) and volunteer jagers (which sometimes also came from regular ranks). Some Landwehr units were issued shakos, as for example British stovepipe shakos. Plus - early Landwehr units were often equipped with a wild mixture of uniforms parts. Or in other words: looks great, prove me wrong. ;-)

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My Landwehr also carries a pretty generic flag as well.

Although Strelet's Prussian Landwehr is a great set, it's a little bit 'short breasted' in numbers. I have to group 12 infantrymen and a command group of 6 per bataillon, meaning that a regiment consists of 36 infantry and 18 command - 54 figures in total, of which one is a reverent and three are totally useless Streltsky. You find 36 marching infantrymen in this set - which fits in the first place. But you only have 4 command figures. This means you have to find a solution to fill the gap of 14 figures for your command groups. Well - I have a handfull of different Prussian soldiers from other sets, so I was able to add two volunteer Jagers here and will be able to add some officers for the other bataillons. Some of the marchers will serve as NCOs and I'll buy some musicians from ART Miniaturen - but after all, I will finally end up with a gap of at least 3 infantrymen. Which is exactly the number of those 3 b*y Streltsky figures. *sigh* So much for those bonus figures...

Has anyone Strelets marching Landwehr soldiers on spare? I could share some Streltsky instead!

The cavalry part of my French army is already completed!

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In the meantime, I have completed the bases for my lancier chasseurs

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and for the chasseurs a cheval as well.

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These chaps are from Newline Design and - as all figures from that company - recognizably smaller then figures from most other distributors. In case of light cavalry, this doesn't make too much of a problem, because these troops were often recruited from smaller sized men that ended up on smaller sized horses. :mrgreen:

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And let's be honest - no one will care too much about it on a gaming table, will one? I certainly like these models very much. In regards of style, they match really good with the HaT infantry. Plus I like the colour combination of green and pink.

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I don't know why, but I somewhat dislike to paint cavalry. It's mainly because it means I have to paint horses - and painting horses takes a big amount of time. However, the results look pretty fine, so I'm happy with it.

Next deal will be the creation of the next command group for infantry. I already converted an NCO into a fanion bearer. The drummer will be from Franznap, this figure is still not completely ready. But apart from that, the second bataillon is already based and ready...

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The first gun team is already painted. Which means that I have to order the belonging cannons, soon.
Additionally, I have two generals and one marshal in an advanced painting status. These staff figures are from the Strelets dismounted French staff set - technically a problem, because due to the rule book, dismounted generals would be largely limited in speed and range. But it's still better then having no commanders at all. There's a brigade general of cavalry on my desk as well - that would give me some flexibility because I could round up the complete cavalry as a brigade under command of a single general.

Whatever, there's still some work to do. To have an operative army at hand, one regiment of Line infantry wouldn't be enough. I'll have to add at least a second regiment. To do so, I have decided to paint a light infantry regiment using Zvezda's Voltigeur set. But I haven't decided yet which regiment I should take - a standard French light infantry regiment or one of the maaaany, many foreign or allied regiments that were often dressed as light infantry. The regiment irlandais perhaps? Or the magnificient blue Isemburg regiment? What do you guess?
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Posted by Peter on 19 May 2021, 21:06

You have been busy Sascha! Wonderful painted figures and units! :thumbup:

And great work on that flag! :thumbup:
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Posted by Egbert on 20 May 2021, 06:23

That's a great collection that you show us
Very nice presentation of the figures!
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Posted by MABO on 20 May 2021, 07:28

Very cool basing Sascha. Good looking unit.
I have only 24 figs per regiment including four command figures. A bigger unit is of course more impressive, so your solution is better. But in this case and keeping in mind the great number of Landwehr soldiers, you should consider the investment in another Strelets box, maybe. A lot of fun for 8.50 € :mrgreen:
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Posted by Peter on 21 May 2021, 12:09

Zed1 wrote:Has anyone Strelets marching Landwehr soldiers on spare? I could share some Streltsky instead!

Does it has to be marching? I have the standing at ease figures:

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=2624

;-)
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Posted by tullo on 26 May 2021, 15:41

:yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :yeah: :thumbup:
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Posted by Zed1 on 05 Jun 2021, 22:34

In the meantime I have finished the command group for the second French bataillon.
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Center is a fanion bearer - a modification made with a short part of a broomstick and a do-it-yourself paper flag. No big arts, but suitable for this purpose. The drummer is a drummer boy from Franznap. Fits very well.
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Im currently basing the command group for the 3rd bataillon. This will look a bit different because I used two spare figures from totally different sets to get a slightly different look into it. Be surprised. ;-)

Apart from that, I searched through my stockpile of figures in search for some generals/command figures. I didn't find much, so I at least decided to paint some old Strelets figures... here's the first one...
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This is going to be the commander himself, two brigade generals and a mounted colonel are in preparation.

I also found a nice figure I hadn't noticed for a while. So in case I'm going to combine all cavalry as a brigade, I also have a general to command it...
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The Prussian artillery crewmen are completely painted and ready for basing. This sums the number of painted figures up to one bataillon of Landwehr, three batteries of Prussian artillery, two regiments of French line infantry, one French line infantry command group, four commander figures, two standard and one large cavalry unit. In addition to that, I completed a French artillery crew, a Prussian lancer, three Landwehrmen and one French infantryman. That's a total output of 92 foot and 23 mounted figures so far. Not too bad for 6 months of time if you consider that my painting time is limited to a handful of hours per week.

Today, postal service delivered the Zvezda Voltigeur set which shall build the bulk of my light infantry regiment. Command ranks and the missing few infantrymen will be filled up with HaT and Franznap figures.
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I'm still not sure how to paint it. 16th light regiment or regiment irlandaise? What do you guess?
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Posted by MABO on 06 Jun 2021, 10:21

Very interesting progress. The old Strelets Generalstaff figures are not all good, but full of character, that's why I like them. The commanding General with aide is a good example, I think. The Cavalry General is from Art Minis, correct?!! Keep on painting, I hope I can do as well.
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Posted by Peter on 06 Jun 2021, 12:56

I like them all, but my favorites are the Strelets figures and that general on horse! :thumbup:
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Posted by Zed1 on 06 Jun 2021, 15:11

Correct - the cavalry general is from ART Miniaturen.
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I put the currently based units on a table today just to get a feel for it.

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Although it's still not complete, it already gives a nice idea of how the real thing shall look in the end.

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Btw - here's the two Prussian artillery batteries, NewLine miniatures with HaT guns. Very lovely.

And these are the other two French generals who should later act as brigade commanders while the one with the white feathered bicorn will represent the division chief.

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Posted by Bluefalchion on 06 Jun 2021, 15:56

Those figures look fantastic and a great example of the patented Sascha style. I also really dig the bases. What technique did you use to create them?
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Posted by Santi Pérez on 06 Jun 2021, 21:47

They are great painted figures with wonderful bases too, Zed1. I love specially the French individual commanders, both on foot and mounted. :love: :love: :love:

Santi.
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Posted by Zed1 on 23 Aug 2021, 20:32

Hi folks!
I have moved and had to sort things out for a while. My life is quite turbulent at the moment, which is the reason why I didn't continue this story for a while. However, I'm still doing progress, but it's a bit slow at the moment. At the moment I'm finishing some cavalry and the first two batteries of French foot artillery (pics will follow in the next days). The first battallion of French light infantry is also in an advanced status.

I have been asked about how I do my basework. Well - it's really simple. And yes, Remco - I still don't like basing stuff very much. It's necessary, but painting figures is the bigger fun.

So - here's a little tutorial that gives me, by the way, a good opportunity to present the third battery of my Prussian artillery, which is a howítzer. The officer is from the Strelets Prussian/Russian staff set. The artillerymen are from NewLine, the gun is from HaT.

First step: I arrange the gun in the center of the base and fix the figures around it. Then I remove the cannon.

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Simple hardware store putty (usually the pretty cheap stuff) is used to cover the base at the same level as the figure bases are. I usually don't do much to smooth the surface and leave the texture rough as it is. Usually I let the whole thing dry out overnight.

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In the next step, I roughly paint the surface with a cheap hobbystore mid-brown. After some drying, I mix a much darker brown with four parts of water and aplly it as a washing. This fills all the gaps and flows behind the rough parts of the texture so there are no white spots to be seen.

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Now I take some cheap hobbyshop glue and mix it with water - more or less 1:6.

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I apply the water/glue mixture in a random mode onto the base, using an old thick brush.

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After that, a thick layer of Turf (Flock) gets spread accross the base. I mainly use material from a German company called NOCH that produces model railway diorama equipment.

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I wait two minutes to give the glue the chance to do its' work, then flip the base so the rest of the Turf falls into the bag again.

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This is the result - a muddy, somewhat grassy plain.

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At the end, I fix the cannon onto the base and apply the bushes.

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And this is the result - my howitzer battery. :-)

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Posted by Peter on 27 Aug 2021, 18:00

Great work Sascha! And thank you for showing how you fix your bases! :thumbup:
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Posted by Zed1 on 28 Mar 2023, 06:13

Oh. My. Gosh. I just looked for the day I started with this. I'm a bit confused if I should feel ashamed that after two years, I'm still not finished with this project or if I should wonder how fast time goes.

Anyways, I'm still on it. It took me quite long because life was filled with joy and wonder (in other words: one catastrophy after the other), but in the meantime I finished to paint the whole Landwehr and French light infantry - and now, there's much basing work to be done.

The Prussian army has got some additional cavalry.

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That's Strelets Prussian lancers and Prussian hussars painted as Luetzower cavalry - two squadrons of lancers, one squadron of hussars. The lancers in this set wear the Litewka, which was pretty usual for many cavalry units in the field.

I also added another unit (2 squads) of Landwehr cavalry. Again, it's Strelets Prussian lancers - you only have to paint some Landwehr crosses onto the shakos.

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So far, I now have two armies, each made of two infantry regiments, three cavalry units and an artillery regiment. Unfortunately, the Landwehr is still unbased and for most of the units, basework still has to be done. But apart from that, I could theoretically start gaming. Pictures of the whole bunch shall follow another day. :-)
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Posted by Bessiere on 28 Mar 2023, 07:03

Your figures are exceptionally well done, whatever you end up with will certainly be one of the best dressed armies around. I started my armies 4 or 5 years ago and still haven't finished one so don't feel bad. I still haven't played a real game yet but hey, it's fun just painting them and being able to view them on your own shelf. Sharing with all the folks here is pretty cool too.
Cheers,
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