Production Line: Napoleonic British and French Infantry

Its started again!

The Napoleonic War, more specifically the Peninsular War is my favourite historical period to "wargame", I quote/ unquote for the fact that for as long as I have stepped into the light that was historical wargaming over a decade ago, this is what I have yearned to battle but mainly due to bad discipline and laziness - have never seen enough figs completed to take to the tabletop.

So every so often I get the burning desire to get my nap on, I venture into the shed, dust off the collection and see where I stand, paint a unit, get bored, burn out, get tempted by other shiny, put the collection back in the shed where it remains for history to repeat again...

My main hurdle is the high figure count. For years my rule set of choice was General De Brigade but having to paint both forces for this leads into literally hundreds of figures... per side! Until my collection grows to a significant size (When I am 60 :P) than that rule set becomes an option for me.

I have tried skirmish games like All Quiet on the Western Peninsular and Capitan, while a lot of fun, still don't capture the feel of proper Napoleonic warfare. But a few week ago I stumbled across this inspiring article on down scaling Black Powder for the average gamer and gaming space. With the fire burning again I decided that 2015 would be the year this dream is finally fulfilled!

I decided that I would use the following figure to unit sizes for my immediate games:

• Tiny: 3 figs 
• Small: 6 figs
• Standard:12 figs - Cavalry 6 figs
• Large: 24 figs

with standard units being 12 figures, this makes batch painting units much more manageable. After visiting the shed and digging out the collection, realised I only needed one more standard infantry unit a side to begin gaming :) !!!

First off is my 1/45th Nottinghamshire Regiment - I used this painting guide. By altering the white elements to GW celestial grey, was able to basecoat and agrax earthshade wash these and complete them in a single evening. For a fast paint scheme I am very pleased with the results.

All the models in this post are from Victrix Ltd.

Next up is the French, have yet to add the final details to dictate its regiment - probably go with the 3eme. Anyway I used this very helpful guide to paint them and where painting in the same fashion as the Brits. As I type this I am painting the 2nd half of the unit and will post my progress as I get more completed.

Thanks for your time - cya soon ;)