Napoleonic Progress

Good News on the painting front, as I have my first shot at painting a unit completed - I've painted up a base of British Infantry, just to try things out and get my eye back in (last time I painted plastic Napoleonics would have been probably in the very early 1990s, and that was quite a while ago! Still, it's good fun and I liked the end result. The figures here are painted and washed with Devlan Mud, giving them a bit of shadowing. I plan to matt-varnish them and then base them. The learning curve is also continuing, as I have been reminded that glueing the plastic figures onto lolly sticks to paint them is not exactly like doing so with lead figures. The plastic figures' bases are too perfectly smooth, so the clue doesn't hold them - most of the ones shown here simply popped off when I tried to paint them! I shall score the underside of the figures before I try and fix them to a permanent base.

Ah yes, the bases. I got a good comment from Jim on my last post, when I trotted out my first guess at base sizes. Sensibly, Jim suggested using 60mm x 60mm square bases for everything, and I quickly realised this was an excellent notion. (You see, I don't do this blog to share all my efforts: I just do it so the wargaming community at large can save me from my own blunders!) :-)

Anyway, the photo above shows a 60mm square infantry base with some figures arranged on it. Taking advantage of the larger base, I can even depict the infantry in varying formations! Shown above (with some Highlander figures, but we'll just skip that for now) is a possible 'Column' formation of a 4-man row at the front, backed by a second and third rank of three men in each. This still leaves loads of room around for safety's sake to prevent figure-bumping, and lets those troops who habitually fought with 'columnar tactics' get a better showing. Likewise, I'll place formed Light Infantry further back on their bases, and put a big skirmisher screen to the front for them.

There's also been a bit of card base-cutting going on. This monster-stack above represents all the bases needed to represent the Anglo-Allied army, in its entirety. 53-odd bases in total, I believe, excluding Supply Camps and Command Parties. (Flippin' heck, this really is a big project I seem to have somehow blundered into...)