An extended morning of painting today let me finish applying flesh to 233 early French infantry that are at the forefront of my 15-year plan; focussing my Napoleonic reading, collecting, painting and likely some games or other ‘recreations’ with miniatures around various quasquibicentennial / vigbicentennial^ events of 1796–1815.
^My best attempt at 'latin' terms for the 225th/220th anniversary; pleased to be advised of more appropriate terms.
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French revolutionary infantry: undercoated with flesh applied
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I really enjoyed the focused activities for the Napoleonic bicentennial, but, not starting until 2010 meant that the Revolutionary and early Empire did not get included (not to mention only re-fighting some of the battles of the latter Empire). I now plan to go back to the 'beginning', starting next year with the 225th anniversary of 1796.
The Revolutionary French infantry that I applied flesh to today will initially represent troops of the Army of Italy, later being pressed into service for the Egyptian campaign (initial phase) as well as part of the forces for the Marengo and 1805 campaigns.
The vast majority of the figures are Strelets' excellent French Line Infantry (Egypt), with half a dozen Hat Napoleonic Early-Mid French Marching, a couple of Italeri French Infantry 1798 - 1805 and four officers from the Hat 1805 French Line Infantry. They took a while to prepare ahead of undercoating with a number of head-swaps and some more major alterations to make drummers and standard bearers.
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Hat 1805 French Grenadiers and Voltigeurs, with a pile of fusiliers in the foreground
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These early French are now in the pipeline along with the other Napoleonic—early
French in greatcoats, Oudinot 'grenadiers', French foot dragoons, early
Russian infantry and later French in greatcoats—as well as non-Napoleonic figures that I am painting.
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Oudinot 'grenadiers': infanterie légère
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| Oudinot 'grenadiers': infanterie ligne |
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1805 French in greatcoat (actually not issued until 1806)
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Foot dragoons for 1805
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Early Russian infantry
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Late French in greatcoat—thrown into the mix
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That's a massive (and quite intimidating) amount of troops on the go! I think I would have an attack of the vapours if I tried such numbers!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
That's why I use acrylic paint Iain! (hahaha)
DeleteThank you for commenting.
It works for me (I think). I tend to do one colour across the lot, or focus on one lot of troops, according to how I feel. Progress is slow, but visible (to me at least).
I concur, very ambitious but seems well on pace to have the bulk of the troops ready for 2021!
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter; we had it in stereo for a little while there, didn't we? The slow response of blogger/internet connection to posting comments sometimes has me hitting the button twice too!
DeleteA bit of colour is added to figures each evening and then, 'presto', I'm up to applying basing materials and thinking about finishing touches 'in no time'! haha. (Actually, that did happen with those voltigeurs in the second photo, which were going to be for the Oudinot 'grenadiers' until I discovered that they were better represented in colpacks. They are ready for basing and finishing touches, but will now wait until the fusiliers catch up!
The good thing for me is that a lot (most?) of the joy is in getting there (research and development), rather than purely games (application). Still, I do not wish to only have unpainted figures and un-read books. A semi-structured approach suits me and has me actually converting some 'un-' to painted and read respectively while having fun and learning along the way.
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ReplyDeleteJanes, this is a very impressive collection and undertaking. My Napoleonic interests have gone back in time to the revolutionary period as well.
ReplyDeleteThe bicorne-wearing and slightly tattered or mixed-up uniforms add to the overall joy that is the Revolutionary-Napoleonic period.
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