Christmas update: Part 2 - French Additions

Part Deux of my Christmas update, this time showcasing the progress I've made with the French. I wrote in a previous post about adding some Elite Infantry units that had a mix match of great coats. I decided to test that out with a Legere unit. I know I know, I vowed to stop painting these because I have far too many unique snowflake units. Buuuuuuuuuuut.... I will be adding two battalions of Elite Line infantry so.... that make's up for it. Yup.

Excuses, I know.

I've seen several people go for the Swiss or the converged Grenadier battalions for their elite, but I wanted something more... campaign worn. Dirty, ragged, and definitely veterans from several seasons of campaigning. These would not only look different from the general mass, but would also *feel* different. To make them even more unique snowflakey than they already are, I went ahead and decided to perfect the arts of finicky 10mm conversion.

What's that you may ask?

Well, making the standing chasseurs kneel, of course.

True, this is quite finicky, as it involves clipping the left leg (front leg) at the groin, and the right leg at the knee, and then glueing them back. I did manage to "perfect" this however. For the front leg, one will want to shave the top of the knee ever so slightly so that it fits right under the elbow (like a proper modern kneeling firing position). Add green stuff to close the gaps and model the thigh. You don't need to be super good at the detail work (I sure am not) as you can "fake it" by painting shadows. Besides, once you start adding flock, you wont notice the imperfection. One will also want to place the right leg so that it forms about a 90 degree angle with the front leg. Thats the best way to do it without it feeling wierd. Apply painting to again, fool the eyes.

The end result? Looks damn good, especially when you start mixing models together.

Obligatory image that highlights my handpainted flag I am proud of.

Kneeling troops, someone wearing shako covers, other wearing great coats, its different enough that it makes up for the lack of poses. I can't even complain, these look so good put together.

While I do intend on having my Line battalion being formed up in close order, these ones represent veteran/elite light infantry (if you squint close enough you'll even make out the "9" on the flag, as it's meant to be the 9e Regiment d'Infanterie Legere, "Incomparable"). I also decided to go with 24 mixed models, rather than my customary 32 to represent either a broken firing line (fire fight), or to represent skirmishing troops. I'll just declare at the beginning of the game which formation they'll be in.

Adding to the collection... much needed GENERALS!

Sure, they're from Magister Militum due to lack of figures from Pendraken, and yes, I'm not a huge fan of bizarrely proportioned horses from MM, the generals came out quite OK. I decided to make two General de Brigade (one infantry, one cavalry), and one General de Division with his staff. 

Mucho pictures below, so feel free to view them at your leisure and don't be afraid to write a comment :)

And I think that's it for this year 2014. Quite productive, and hopefully 2015 will be as well.

See you next year!

Christmas update: Ze Austrians Arrive!

Phew, this has been several weeks work of almost non-stop frenzied painting! That said, despite it being the Christmas holidays, I still need to be working, and so as such I got less done that I wanted. No matter, the good news: Pendraken stuff arrived, and I got to paint more new soldiers! Woo Woo.

So without further ado, I must make the announcement that the Austrians are arriving to my tabletop collection! 

Austrian contingent in its current form

Oh these guys are nifty, and once again, Pendraken models REALLY do stand out with their high detail. I had mentioned in the previous blog post about how I was very so-so about Magister Militum's miniatures, and how I was disappointed that the Voltigeurs were not up to the standard of the MM's Jaegers. I still hold that believe, and after painting these Jaegers, I feel it more so. Though I do wonder how Pendraken's Jaegers would compare? I love the Pendraken sculpts oh so much, and for me they are hands down the reference for 10mm scale miniatures, but sadly.... they are a bit lacking in their variety of poses, a common complaint of mine.

 These Jaegers are totally cool though, and I based them in a skirmishing "irregular" formation (if following Lasalle rules).

Next up were the regular infantry, though I do now regret going 'Hungarian' Austrians, as I do have a Grenz regiment to paint as well, I think I should've gone for the full white 'German' Austrian regiments instead for the ease of painting. I had afterall, decided to go with Austria as a change of pace from a rather tedious experience with the French Legere. Sadly, painting 48 Austrians sort of hit that "tedious" level too. And the hand painted flag. Not. Doing. That. Again. Still, I think the effort was worth it.

Austrian Hussars... hands down the most beautiful of Pendraken miniatures, but also the most colorful in terms of regiments. I held no punches and went with this regimental color scheme which I am incredibly proud of. You could also perhaps note that after my "Never Again" experience with the Austrian flag, I decided to simplify it. I think it turned out okay, and the quality of the cast (once again) makes the regiment that much more alive on the table. What a beauty.

I am cutting this post short in order to split up my work, which also includes French troops, and thus... that's it for now for the Austrians!

I do have some Grenz that need painting, some Uhlans and another battalion of infantry. I'm not even sure when I have the time for that, as I'm literally over-booked until March... we'll see if I can squeeze in some projects during the week nights....

Arrival of Magister Militum order.... and putting them aside.

Well, my Magister Militum arrived for my napoleonics, following my initial order of Austrian Jaegers that arrived several weeks ago.

And the verdict is....

I don't like the figures for the French.


While I do appreciate the variety in poses that you get in the Magister Militum packs... the sheer lack of detail or should I say, the shallowness of the recesses in the details makes it so that painting them is an absolute pain. Its to the point that it reminds me of painting 6mm figures, with the time it takes to paint 10mm. Maybe my painting technique is off, it could be quite possible.

Regarding the sculpts, like mentioned above, I like the variety in poses. Its a bit too bad that they're skinny compared to the Pendraken sculpts, and regarding cavalry, the proportions of the horse's head compared to the legs are just... wierd. Feels like monstrously gigantic heads compared to really skinny legs, which is a huge minus.

This was a bit of a surprise as I had expected something closer to the my Austrian Jaegers I had bought from MM, which I felt had the detail and the variety of poses I was looking for, and being a bit 'beefier' to be comparable to Pendraken.

I guess the Napoleonic French line of MM is just an older line and the master mould is getting tired.

I'll be setting aside my MM infantry for now, and focus on painting up the generals and fill in the gaps of my Pendraken collection. It's just too bad that Pendraken has a fairly long delay for the orders to be shipped, but looking at how its expanding steadily, I can't fault them and honestly, having painted 6 battalions worth of infantry and 5 regiments of cavalry... the wait is worth it, as the quality is really top notch for 10mm.

You just have to make sure to plan your projects well in advance.



In other news, experimenting with MM infantry has led me to the discovery of French Infanterie Legere blue - a tone of blue that has been elusive and eluding me for quite some time.

I've been base-coatinng my french infantry with Kantor Blue, followed by highlights with Alaitoc Blue. The Legere's blue is infact the Alaitoc Blue with a Nuln Oil wash applied over, with a slight highlight of Aloitoc blue. So I'll be doing that for my next batch of Legeres... of which I keep a bad habit of wanting to paint despite trying to force myself not to.

Well, my next batch of Legere will just be one single battalion for the "Elite Infantry Brigade" project.

I think my Voltigeurs from MM I'll be donating that to my gaming partner who's also been itching to start Napoleonics - as I wont be using them. I might also donate my Eclaireurs de la Garde pack as well - I'm just not a fan of the MM sculpts, and would rather the Pendraken ones.

Sd.Kfz 234s

Small little beauties I painted about a month ago, which I had totally taken close up pictures of.

These are one of my most favorite units in the war, and if anything, I believe we still see the influence of armored recon cars like these in modern armies, certainly in European armies. The modern German Fuchs armored car is basically a modernized 234/1.

Even the 234/4 with a 75mm has a modern impact - case in point the French armored cars in the modern army. The ERC-90 "Sagaie" with its 90mm gun, and the AMX-10RC with its 105mm main gun stand to prove that armored "cars" with large guns still play an important role. And if anything, combat performance of both the ERC-90 and the AMX-10RC in Africa has been stellar.

For the actual color scheme, I went with a different green and brown than what I have used normally in previous paint jobs for Flames of War. This time around, I went with more muted down colors. The "dunkelgelb" is basically Citadel Kommando Khaki washed down, and Doombull Brown as the brown/red and Deathworld Forest green. The green doesnt really show up much, but with the wash they clearly stand out, and it really fits a more "Late-1945" theme as opposed to my previous paint work.

The images above show one patrol, of which I have two. I love them to bits, and the 234/4 in Flames of War is certainly not something to underestimate.

French army juuuuust about finished

Good news everyone! I have fixed the poison slime pipes almost finished my French army for Lasalle.

My core division is now done with 6 battalions (3 Ligne and 3 Legere), and a light cavalry brigade (2 chasseurs-a-cheval and 2 hussards). This has allowed me to begin working on my next army - the Austrians, an Avant-Garde division to be precise.

Current state of the army

Light Cavalry Brigade on the left, Core Infantry Division on the right

The two Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiments I'm really happy how they turned out. I was debating on which colors to use for the facing, and after much debating on between red, orange and yellow, I settled for orange and red. I think the regiment with orange facings really look totally cool. I think the red made it a bit generic, but still, I think they'd totally fit right in my army too.

I also finished off the 3rd battalion of the line infantry (though I may have the battalion flag colors... wrong? Was the third battalion flag red, or blue? Such things I probably should've researched more). Also finished up the second battalion of my light infantry regiment, as I prefered how the colors look, compared to the first iteration of the color scheme which I felt was a bit too dark. Ended up giving the second battalion a little more "old school" pre-1805 style etendard.

Chassuers-a-Chevals

Legere battalion 1 and 2

All in all, I'm mighty proud I started a 10mm napoleonics project. I was really uncertain earlier on how it would size up and look, and in the end, I think it adequately give a 'massed' feel. I also concluded that I wont be doing anymore Legere like I did using mixed figures in a "engaging formed line". The white piping on the boots and all those extra details felt absolutely tedious as hell, and was not fun at all. Besides, I think my current 1 Line to 1 Legere ratio is a bit too much, and I'll be trying to go for a 3:1 ration from now onwards. Legere regiments were less common after all.

Core Infantry Division

Light Cavalry Brigade. Dragoons aren't pard of this brigade, but I wanted to paint them up anyways

I still haven't painted any generals, as I'm waiting the arrival of the ADC (Adjudant-Chefs Aide-de-Camps) pack from Magister Militum as well as excellent bases from Renedra (http://renedra.co.uk/ - seriously check those guys out for cheap and excellent plastic bases in all formats). That way with some ADCs, I can have a nice diorama style General de Division, and brigade generals from appropriate branches (cavalry general, infantry general). As I'm also working on some of my own rulesets that is more about leadership and command & control, having additional aides and generic ADCs would be excellent as well to have around. My generals will be based on circular bases, 20mm and 30mm if I remember correctly what I ordered.

I also have some more French infantry (Pendraken) and voltigeurs (Magister Militum) that will be arriving - those will be painted up and put into an Elite Infantry Brigade. I plan on using mixed miniatures of the line and line in greatcoats to make a proper rag tag group of veteran soldiers, probably of the 57e Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne, and use the voltigeurs pack as the 9e Legere in irregular/skirmishing formation. After purchasing Austrian Jaegers from Magister Militum, I think I prefer the more varied poses in their skirmishers.

I also have a regiment of the Eclaireurs-de-la-Garde-Imperiale arriving from Magister Militum, but thats more of a non-army list related project. I've always been interested about that regiment, and of course, I love variation and unique snowflake units.

For my Austrians... I derped and did not take them with me to take pictures, but I'll post some pictures when I'm done with them. Suffice to say, they're looking pretty good. I'll see about getting some pictures tomorrow.

Also have some pictures of my finished Flames of War German armored cars, but that'll be in a different blog entry for the sake of organization.

Quick update on this week's progress

A little update on my work so far from my week-long holiday (until this Thursday 20/11) -
Finished one line infantry battalion. Finished one line Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiment. Second regiment is being undercoated as we speak - and I should be finished with it tomorrow evening I think.

So thats like what, 3 regiment/battalions (ie 12 bases) in a week? Quite productive I'd say! During my work schedule, I was fitting in maybe one infantry battalion (4 bases) per week! Though I do have to admit, I can't bring myself to do French infantry back to back. It's just too tedious and mind numbing in a way - so I'll be working on my last and final french infantry (legere) battalion this coming weekend, before switching to work on Austrians.

That said. . . . my magister militum order for French generals arrived! Woo! Though... I expected a little more variety in the French generals pack. It's a 12-model pack, but come in two poses of six each. They are I suppose meant to be division and corps-level generals so I'm okay with that. I ordered an Aide-de-Camps pack to spice things up and to give me brigade level generals for my armies and my upcoming ruleset (which I really need to work on, instead of painting....).

I think I'll be using spare cavalry and officer models as well as ADCs in various colorful uniforms. But I'll keep those for a rainy day when I don't feel like painting the same camo, oops, uniform color (too much Flames of War!) over and over. I noticed that having one-off general/hero models brings back the desire to paint when suffering from a mild burnout. Painting an entire battalion or platoon of tanks when suffering from a mild burn out just makes it worse - but painting a unit of two recon cars, or a single hero figure makes painting fun again.

Anyhow, pics of my progress! They haven't been based because that can wait. I just want to get painting done.

I really enjoy hand painting flags now. And painting the trumpeteer was just fun.

I was a bit apprehensive of going orange at first, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. You can really feel that effect of massed infantry too. I love it.

Unique Snowflake Syndrome when painting armies?

So I'm currently on a week-long holiday (much deserved).

I have so far been rather productive, although this blog entry will have no pictures - as I'm not fully finished with my current work. Pics will be taken when I return back on friday!

So far, over the course of the past... 4 days, I've managed to paint up another line infantry battalion (3rd of my line infantry regiment), and currently I'm half way through a Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiment (these are awesome btw).

My stuff has indeed arrived from Pendraken (awesome service as always), though I have to say I'm greatly disappointed with Magister Militum. I'm going to have to write them an email regarding my order. I've ordered stuff about 3 weeks ago now, and I've sent a package to a friend living in Holland, and that apparently reached him... and not me. So whats up with that?

Anyhow, the stuff from Pendraken that arrived consisted of.... a couple additions of figures to complete my 3rd battalion of light infantry, 2 regiments of chasseurs-a-cheval, and then enough figures to make two large Austrian "hungarian" battalions and a regiment of Austrian hussars. Plan is to polish off my French army with these chasseurs regiments, a last light infantry battalion, and maybe a horse artillery unit and commanders... and that should be it for now. Going to be focusing on Austrians next as a change of pace. Going to be trying out a different technique using white undercoat spray and black ink. Might turn out good, or terrible... one way to find out.


* * *

The Unique Snowflake Syndrome... when it comes to painting, does anyone else get it? By this I mean having super unique and cool units that aren't "regular" "of the line". Special units, special forces, elite super troopers and stuff. For example, I love painting light infantry for napoleonics... but they're meant to be a little more 'rare' than the common line infantry. But by having unique units everywhere, they're no longer unique. I don't quite mind painting line infantry, but it's just so... boring? If that's the word I'm looking for? They feel generic, and common. I suppose its why that should I paint another line infantry regiment (with 3-4 battalions), I'm going to have to mix them up with great coats for a more tattered look. Just like when I paint my current line infantry, I add some brown pants, shako covers and such to make them "different". Painting the hussars are definitely fun, but again, they weren't the most common units. I'm not sure I could bring myself to paint 4 regiments of dragoons... but maybe I could be wrong? Two regiments of Carabiniers and Cuirassiers to form a brigade.. could be possible if I'm careful not to overdose on repetition.

I think this search for unique units can be best seen in my 6mm Imperial Guard Division - just about every battalion is different and colorful. Was a blast to paint, I have to admit. But they do look and feel the part because the rest of the army is "generic"... well, as "generic" as it can be seeing as off the top of my head, it has about 5 battalions of line infantry, and 4 of light infantry.

Eventually I think regarding my line to light infantry ratio, I'm trying to make it about 2 line infantry regiments to a light infantry regiment.

Or am I completely over-thinking this?

Additions to Napoleon: Total War tabletop?

More units!

What? More units? More units!

This time around, finished up some Dragoons (not sure what regiment. . . shame on me), and finished up the 2nd Hussar regiment. I also finished up a second battalion for my line infantry, putting my little army at three cavalry regiments, and four infantry battalions. It's really looking the part.

Units left to do until army "completion":
- x2 Chasseurs-a-Cheval regiments
- x1 Line Infantry battalion (to bring the regiment to three battalions)
- x1 Light Infantry battalion (to bring the regiment to two battalions).

Oh I should mention, the flags on the new units are hand-painted.

2eme Regiment de Hussards

2eme Regiment de Hussards

Line Drgoons

The current Light Cavalry brigade, of the 1er and 2eme Regiment de Hussars

The army so far

Gaming and Battles all round - Flames of War

I have begun to play Flames of War fairly regularly now. Usually it's once every other week, and occasionally it's once a week on Fridays.

My gaming partner is in the same boat as I - that is to say, more painting, and gaming as a side entertainment. Lately, however, we've started to really begin 'playing' the game. Learning the rules, experimenting different army list compositions, different tactics. It's been fascinating, and it has shown me a way to appreciate the game that is Flames of War better.

I really enjoy the game, especially having battles on Friday evenings after a tiring week at work but I can't say I find the actual rules super engrossing, as I feel that its very... "generic" in a way.

I don't like how the game basically forces you to play and finish the game in under six turns. I understand that it has "2 hour tournament" play in mind, but I suppose I was expecting something a little more realistic. Its crazy how 3 turns to get reinforcements almost feels forever.

Not that I'm saying I don't enjoy it, because I do, but I understand more why I had begun painting more than gaming in the first place when I started to really get obsessed with the miniatures hobby. I used to game WH40K a lot back then (almost 8+ years ago), and I had found that the game was too abstract, and there were a log of rules munchers that would find some obscure loophole to screw you over. That's certainly not the case with the person I play with, but it'll take some time for me to warm up again and to really appreciate the gaming side of the hobby.

Meanwhile though! I have my own 10mm napoleonic rules I'm still trying to work on. It's taking its sweet time as I continue to decide how I want to do it, but there is some progress.

Still, I enjoy being able to bring out various armies due to my huge collection, and test out different tactics and just enjoy the game for what it is.



In the meantime... here are some pictures of my last FoW game:

SS panzergrenadiers defend the objective (truck), and fortifies the house, while being covered by a Tiger

Russian motor rifles advance through the field through machine gun fire

What is this? A T-34 advance? Excellent, come closer!

21cm Nebelwerfer battery and Tigers

\

Napoleonics! The Brigade is taking shape....

Phew. Been painting some Flames of War lately for a Desperate Measures list, but I've been getting bored with the same old tri color scheme. There's so much dunkelgelb you can paint before you just get sick and tired of it.

And then there's Archeage, a PC MMORPG. Ugh. And that sucked in about 2-3 weeks of my time. Shame to me.

And then it happened, I randomly put on some French napoleonic marching songs from Youtube, and my Napoleonics bug hit me. Hard.

So I then started painting up some voltigeurs for my current 10mm Pendraken collection, and before I knew it, I finished up a new Infanterie Legere battalion.

A bit blurry, but the collection of what I have right now painted. A small infantry brigade, with an addition of a Hussar regiment.

The infantry. The closest Legere battalion is the one I just finished painting this week.

Artillery battery.

Close up of the Legere battalion

Ersatz Panzer III preview!

Some preview shots of my Panzer IIIs (well, one for now) for my future Ersatz Panzer platoon for either Market Garden or Desperate Measures list.

These Ersatz tanks were either replacement tanks, training tanks, or simply last ditch efforts to bring armor to the front.

Hence these look like as if they've gone through hell and back.

First time I've actually gone this far in adding battle damage in the form of wear and tear to the paint, and this being the preview, I've still got quite a few more details left to add - and I plan on adding as much dirt as I did to my Panzer IV Js.

Models are Plastic Soldier Company Panzer IIIs.

First FoW battle of the season!

People have returned from holidays at work... and I've succeeded in convincing one to paint more of his Russians for late war, and the other has started Mid-War Brits (MID WAR?! WHY?!!)

So, here I shall share you my latest game and my thoughts -

For this, I brought out a little KG Peiper list:

We were playing a 1780pt game and while in the end it took FAR too long (we're still novice at the rules thing... and thus is took a while), I brought the following to the table:

Command Tiger II
x1 Tiger II
x3 Panther Gs
x4 Panzer IV Js
x2 Sdkfz 251/9  7.5cm
x1 Gepanzertepanzergrenadiers platoon
x1 Sporadic Me-262 support


I haven't played Flames of War since last year, so I was incredibly rusty.

DEPLOYMENT / TURN 1

I wasn't really sure what to do - so I decided to go for the standard military operations tactic - delaying operations on the left flank, and effort on the right with my Tiger IIs and Panthers.

TURN 2

My opponent was attempting a pronged attack approach, so I decided to use the Tiger II's advantage in the open fields facing the T-34/85s. As the T-34 are incapable of penetrating the Tiger II's front armor, I simply held ground and poured shells down range... great effect other killing the platoon commander, and bailing one. The skillful company commander's Tiger II would prove to be the decisive Tiger Ace as the other one ended up being wholely worthless for the rest of the game (missed about 80% of its shots.....). With the commander killed, the Russian T-34s could no longer move - meaning that as long as I stayed hull down and firing, it would be a one-sided fight.

 TURN 3

Opponent continues to advance, and double times his T-34s on my right flank to envelope me. I use my Panzer IV Js to fire back, bailing 3 of the 5. Not very useful, but enough to hold back any further daring attacks on that side. Meanwhile, my Panthers and Tiger IIs combined fire takes out the scary SU-152s at the back, killing 2 of the 3.

TURN 4

The opponent's motor rifle infantry attempt to assault my infantry in the woods, but the sheer amount of MGs as well as MG support from the Sdkfz 251 half tracks simply moved them down. I counter attack, killing all but one team. I try to press the advantage with my Panthers in the center to surround the enemy, but poor shooting bogs down the attack.

At this point we realized that we were shooting on +4s (Veteran), instead of the +3 (Trained) that our armies were rated at. No wonder things were dying so slowly! So we continued playing as if we were all Veteran. Lesson learned!

TURN 5

The Panther's prowling in the town definitely cost me. Not only did the attack bog down, they got surrounded and I lost one Panther to that. Ugh. I got my revenge, but... costly maneuver on my part. The lone SU-152 attempted to flank my Tiger II, and was promptly denied and turned into a flaming hulk.

The T-34s that I ended up ignoring my left cost me as well, destroying my Panzer IV platoon. Here I learned how flimsy these Panzer IVs are! At this point I pretty much realized that the game was lost - there was no way I could defend my objective now, as I have been surrounded.

TURN 6

The opponent has full control of my objectives now, and my Tiger IIs are stuck fighting defenseless T-34s.... who due to poor shooting on my part are STILL alive. Ugh!

At this point in an action of pure spite, I snipe the opponent's command T-34 with my Panther and turn that into a wreck. Take that, dirty Russian!



CONCLUSION

Well, it was a fun game for sure. It did end up taking about 5 hours to full play through due to us not really knowing the mechanics, and while as expected my Me-262 did cause a few frights, it was wholely underwhelming and did no damage. Similarly, I think my opponent's aggressivity paid off as I was still bogged down in the center of the battlefield getting nowhere, and my objective contested.

I think the game in itself is quite interesting. There was a distinct lack of terrain which I felt was rather disappointing, but I also felt that the lack of a certain amount of realism was disappointing. I think that that's really the plague of wargaming - especially when in a "I go, you go" sort of system. I also have to admit I dont like the Flames of War scenarios. It just feels so arbitrary.

My opponent and I agreed that we'll be fighting more 'historical' / 'realistic' scenarios next time around, ie "seize and hold the village" or "fighting retreat". I think it was maybe the terrain that made the game disappointing - there simply wasnt enough of it.

It almost made me question why I painting so much Flames of War and that I should maybe continue working on my10mm Napoleonics, who's "linear" style of battle has a bigger sense of realism. I suppose time will tell, but it certainly did make me think about continuing my 6mm and 10mm napoleonics for precisely that reason.

Can't seem to choose though - the 6mm look great when assembled together in divisions and corps, but I think the 10mm could look just as good.... if only I could bring myself to paint them more.