1er Bataillon, 21e Régiment de Ligne

Well I finally got the 1st Battalion of the 21st Regiment finished. Painting the Grenadier and Voltigeur battalions took a bit longer than I expected due to studies getting in the way. The whole unit is Perry, all of the command expect for the drummer are metal figures and the rest plastics. An excellent line, but I would have hoped that at least the heads would have been separate for easier customization.

Still need to figure how to paint the whites better. Couple of layers and army painter looks OK, but I think it's still missing something. Well maybe in the next batch... I also decided to paint all the backpacks differently. Makes painting slightly slower, but it does make the unit look a lot nicer.

All in all, I'm pretty happy about how they turned out, eventhough apparently the drummers uniform should have been different. Probably should never check references after painting.  I think the faces turned out pretty nicely now that I tried layering the paint a bit more before using painting army painter over the whole model. The close ups look a bit weird though as I don't like to paint eyes. Can't really see the point of it as you will never really see the difference when you are gaming.

Next I need to finish skirmish bases and some british artillery and command stands. And hopefully I'll have time to finish the 92th Gordon Highlanders before our next game too. I just ran out of suitable arms for charging minis so I need to find some more somewhere.

Vive la France part Deux?

A quick update. Managed to finish the next couple of bases of french line infantry. I'll leave the basing until I've managed to finish the Grenadiers and Voltigeurs also.

I also finally received my pack of GMB french flags from the post man on friday and immediately got to use them. I decided to start the 1st Corps from 3rd Division led by General Marcognet. This bunch is going to represent the 1st Battalion of 21e Régiment de Ligne. The flags from GMB are once again really nice, but quite big for Perry minis. Somewhat surprisingly the flagpole included in the metal regimental command pack was long enough to fit the flag. The plastic ones from Perry are about 5mm shorter and wouldn't fit.

I also managed to get the rest of the Flames of War Open Fire boxset built, based and undercoated. Hopefully I'll have time to finish them for the Analogue Hobbies painting competition. But at least now I can start practicing playing the game. And maybe my better half is a bit happier after I've managed to finish her gift for me.

 

Vive la France

Just a quick update on what I'm working on. I just managed to finish painting the first couple of bases of french line infantry. These will someday grow to be a part of D'Erlons 1st Corps at Waterloo. Nice and fast to paint compared to the Brits that I've been working on lately. And the variety from the mix and mash of equipment helps in not getting bored by just painting the same uniform over and over again :)

Anyway here are the 1st and 4th Fusilier companies. The pompoms didn't turn out that well as they don't really stand out. Need to use brighter colors on the next units. The next couple of bases are also proceeding quite nicely and hopefully I'll get them done this weekend. I'm using some Perry metals in the form of regimental command to bring a bit of life to the unit.

Achtung Panzer

Here is another bunch of minis that I managed to finish up. These were painted with the Royal Scots to keep me from getting bored with all the red and white. The Stugs and Königstiger are from Battlefront and the 251 with it's riders is from Plastic Soldier Company.

As these were the first 15mm vehicles I ever painted I decided to try how some techniques from bigger scale models work on these. All are preshaded to varying decrees and then painted over with the camo. It shows a bit through on the yellow parts and adds some life to the paintjob. After painting I applied the decals and added a quick oil wash to bring out some details.

I also tried a product called Easy Mud from Marutechnics to do the tracks and lower hulls. Works reasonably well by either painting or splattering it on. Quite easy to overdo it on this scale though.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased eventhough I'm not too happy with the decals from Battlefront. The quality and accuracy is really bad. Need to find some other manufacturer for these.

1st Royal Scots

Finally managed to get these guys finished and based today! The units is a mix of Victrix and Perry plastics. They work pretty well together with no big problems or gaps left to fill. Too bad the backpacks etc. are not really interchangeable without a lot of sanding and resculpting work. The flags are again from GMB designs. I really love their stuff eventhough it's maybe a bit too big. But at least it makes the units stand out on the table.

Painted with Vallejo paints as usual and finished with Army Painter basing stuff.

Probably should clean the units better before taking photos. A lot of static grass stuck on them now that I look at the close-ups.

Progress

I've managed to get some more painting done in the last couple of days. I've got the first half of my 1st Royal Scots finished and waiting painting and the rest are only waiting for finishing touches so the battalion should be done by the end of the week! I also switched to using the Off white color from Vallejo when painting all the straps and lacing for the brits. Seems to cover a lot better and the color is better than in the other white paints that I have tried.

  

I also managed to get some armor painted for Flames of War. Just testing different camo patterns and how preshading looks like in this scale. Nice and fast to paint with an airbrush and yields pretty good results. The preshading doesn't show that well in these iPhone shots but looks adds nice depth when viewed closer. Need to finish these boys up too.

I also tried my hand at painting the Ambush pattern. It worked out pretty well on the backside, but I had masked off too much of the yellow base color on the turret and front part of the tank when I started so I had to correct it, which didn't work out that well. This guy is going into paint removal next as I find that the older style camo looks better (even when this camo would be done correctly) and it's also a lot easier to paint.

Ensign Kennedy

1st Royal Scots are going forward nicely. When looking for ideas for a casualty base for them I stumbled upon the story of Ensign Kennedy of the 1st Royal Scots who was wounded during Waterloo and wouldn't give up the Colours despite being mortally wounded. He was carried away from the battlefield by a Sergeant and would later die of his wounds.

I knew I had to redo this scene for my casualty base. Apparently I'm not the first one with the idea though. However I've started converting the vignette from leftovers of some Perry and Victrix boxes and sculpting some from greenstuff. The basics are pretty much done now. I still need to improve the legs of poor Kennedy and work on the torso before starting to add details. Anyway here are some shots of the progress so far. Sorry for the bad photo quality as my phone doesn't handle the winter darkness that well.