Imperfect Painting - Picardie and Piedmont

This may be an unusual post, in that I am going to show some, shall we say, 'less than perfect' painting results. I may be drummed out of the blogging society for this, but I think I'm keeping with the spirit of my hobby. .I'm doing my best, making mistakes, hopefully learning lessons, enjoying it, and maybe getting better bit by bit.  If I only showed perfect results I'd have nothing to show here! So,  you have been warned - here are the latest 'learning opportunities'...      

 Picardie:

It took a while, but I finished painting my first  Seven Years War French Infantry - a couple of 'Portable Wargame' units of the Picardie regiment.  These are nice Garrison figures,  supplied by the excellent  Rob Young of The Eastern Garrison - thanks very much, Rob!  I liked them - rather more elegant and less 'chunky' than the vintage  Minifigs I have been painting up to now for the period. So here is a view of them - 'Button Counters' need not look too closely, as I have not  painted on any buttons...  

gentlemen from Picardie..

 However, 'belt counters' may well be clutching at their pearls, as I will admit  I have made a mistake with the crossbelts. Two factors : (a) colour, and  (b) arrangement. As to colour, I took a steer from the Kronoskaf website, which states that crossbelts were  natural leather (often whitened with pipe-clay)  - I decided my chaps would want to be smart, and use the white. But then all the examples I've seen in other illustrations ( such as a nice plate in an edition of Tradition picked up the Broadside show ) tend to show the natural leather look, so I may be out on a limb here. Yesterday I acquired the  Osprey Men-At-Arms no.302 Louis XV's Army (2) French Infantry, which states that 'from the later 1750s a growing number of regiments whitened their belts', which maybe gets me off the hook.  Where I have a bigger problem is the arrangement of belts - with a slight shortage of documentary sources initially, I rather rashly assumed they would have the classic 'two belts crossed over' , whereas I now see that in reality they more likely had a single shoulder belt for the cartridge box, with a waist belt for sword and bayonet scabbards. Oops.  I suppose I could try to re-paint the extra belt into the 'Grey-White' coat colour, but for the moment I am going to leave them, and assume a rather eccentric Colonel has provided non-regulation equipage - or 'liberated' crossbelts from fallen Prussians, perhaps? . Further units ( I have another two or three lots still to do )  will revert to the single belt. possibly in buff leather for good measure.    

Having said that, I was otherwise quite pleased with them;  I kept them in my very  simple and rather old-school  'house style' ('cos that's all I can do!);  I think I got the 'grey-white' about right, and it will distinguish them nicely from the pure white of my Austrians and Saxons. I hit upon the trick of using a fine-line black pen to outline those belts (thus highlighting my mistake, oops!) and to do the garters at the knee, and I will use that again, it worked pretty well. I even managed to get the flags more or less to my satisfaction - made from good old wine bottle-top foil, painted with acrylics, and which may be shaped a bit to give an impression of fluttering in the breeze - they are only temporarily attached for the camera.   Not too bad for a first go, and I hope the next batch will be better - onwards and upwards, etc.

 Piedmont

Now a complete change of tack - both  period and scale. A bit of a first for me: I have had a go at some 6mm figures.  Since acquiring Neil Thomas' fine book Wargaming 19th Century Europe I have been thinking about that period, and the wars of Italian unification or Risorgimento  (memories of history teacher Mr Davis intoning that word in his mellifluous Welsh tones, c.1976 - it must have stuck somehow) seemed an interesting and colourful setting (and balanced - no dour Prussians winning all the time!).   At  'Salute'  I picked up a nice book on the subject, Gabriele Esposito's Armies of the Italian Risorgimento, which has lots of inspiring contemporary illustrations of the uniforms of the time.  I also took a punt on buying some figures, having decided to give 6mm a try for this period, as a bit of an experiment. That nice Mr. Berry at Baccus was happy to oblige with a few packs of figures, so I now have some Piedmontese and Austrian infantry, and some artillery pieces.  As a first attempt, I tried  putting together a Piedmontese infantry unit ( a battalion?  Neil Thomas is deliberately vague ).  

For painting advice, Baccus has quite a useful page on their website,  the crucial point being 'paint the unit, not the figure' - don't get caught up trying to paint the detail that no-one will ever see at this scale! Armed with that, I plunged in - and I reckon the advice is good. 

 

From the Risorgimento book I found this plate (above, centre) showing a Piedmontese Line Infantryman, post-1849, and that looked a nice simple and pleasing colour scheme.  Immediately a slight problem arose, in that the picture shows a man in single-breasted tunic, but if you squint hard and look closely, the Baccus figures are in longer coats, probably greatcoats! No pic of those in the book,  so I made an assumption that the  long coats would be basically the same blue colour - fingers crossed. Following the Baccus 'cheat sheet', I found I could fairly whizz along with painting, especially as I was only doing 8 strips of figures - a total of just 32 men.  Having done a basic job, and given them equally, er,  basic  bases, I have a unit. A bit rough around the edges ( and a lesson learned about sticking them to the base before trying to paint the green on - I won't do that in future, and will probably end up re-basing these! ),  but I reckon they will do fine.  I reckon I could knock out serviceable ( for me) units at a satisfyingly high rate..

HOWEVER of course, when I came to photograph them, I ran into the problem with modern cameras - they are far too good! Took this on my phone: 

 and they look terrible, don't they? Click on the pic to look closely - overlapping paint everywhere, green base colour all over the place..  BUT also note, if you click on the pic to look at them closely, you are seeing them as about 25mm tall - 4 times their actual size!  No-one will EVER see them like that in reality, short of picking them up and putting them under a magnifier - and if you do that, you will  NOT be invited back...  I think a more realistic view is something like this  ( and no clicking!) 

Looking at them like that, I am not  unhappy for a first and rather hasty attempt- I'll re-do the bases, though. And I do hope to get a bit better at painting them too, with practise. Following a hint from Neil Thomas' book, I have kept the figures on two of the bases in their strips, representing a 'reserve' part of the unit in closer order, while the other two bases have the strips chopped up and spaced out a bit, to represent skirmish order. Here the unit is in 'Line' formation as per Neil's rules, with in effect a skirmish line out front and a formed-up reserve behind, ready for the glorious bayonet charge.. 

As I said these are Baccus 6mm, largely because they were what I could buy on impulse at Salute. - but I admit I actually rather like the look of  the range of 'semi-flat'  MDF 6mm figures from Commission Figurines - you can see them in use on recent blogs such as Wargames with Toy Soldiers 1685-1845 by Steve J,  and   My Wargaming Habit by Richard,  of Postie's Rejects fame.  Commission do a Napoleonic range and an ACW range, and I think both could come in quite handy for the Risorgimento, - British shakos for Austrians, for example, and ACW Kepis for Garibaldi's redshirts? the figures have a rather stylised look and minimal detail, which I think will make 'paint conversions' very possible. 

 It so happens I picked up some of their ACW figures at a show in  pre-Covid times, and here are some - posed in front of the Baccus Piedmontese, we have a base of kepi-wearing Union and one of slouch-hatted Johnny Rebs :

Commission Figurines ACW in front of Baccus Piedmontese 

 

Sadly it looks like one of the Reb's musket has turned into a shotgun with the barrel 'broken', but  think I might be on to something here! I think the two different makes of figure don't look too different in size, so should go together on the table without problems.  Given the 'mission creep' factor ( hmm.. when will the D-Day Dodgers actually get a game? And those Picardie chaps? ), any such project needs to be quick and cheap, and I think 6mm with Neil Thomas rules may just fit the bill. Much to think about, then.. 

*** UPDATE :***

After a little thought,  I decided to re-do the Piedmontese infantry basing as shown in this picture: 

 

I simply reduced the number of figures on the 'skirmish' bases to 4 instead of 8, so they look a bit more of a loose formation. They are not 'stuck down' yet, but I am happier with them - and there is a small bonus in that with 24 figures per unit rather than 32, I should get four  units out of my pack of 96 Baccus figures, rather than only three. So, more efficient too!

And while I'm here, many thanks to Jon at Palouse Wargaming Journal for mentioning this post in his latest!   

*** update ends.. ***    

As I said, not a parade of Picardie and Piedmont perfection, but I hope this has been interesting. Next week, maybe even some gaming - he said, yet again..  Also a return visit to Duxford is planned, to include the 'Land Warfare' hall - should be lots of wargaming interest there! I will give a full report, I hope.  Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.

Return to Picardie - and belated D-Day

A bit of a miscellany this time, as hobby time has been rather short, alas. I'm afraid it's been almost a year since Rob of Eastern Garrison fame was so kind as to sell me some rather nice 7YW period 25mm Garrison French, and to my shame I have done nothing with them,  Well, having completed enough WW2 figures to be going on with for the moment, I wanted to keep up the (tiny amount of ) painting momentum. My acquisitions of books at Broadsde the other week pointed me back to the 18th Century, so what better than to get some of these French painted? 

So, I have made a tentative start on the Regiment of Picardie - sixteen figures, which will make two units for The Portable Wargame. After a rather miserable and wet spring, the Longest Day has brought summer, and I was able to have my first outdoor painting session of the year, sat in the garden late  this afternoon. Progress was not exactly rapid, but I did slap some paint on to the general area of their coats! But what colour to use?  There does seem to be a slight dilemma - many sources suggest a plain white coat, but others posit the famous  Gris-blanc  or 'Grey White', carried over from the earlier armies of Louis XIV.  I decided on my own version of the Gris-blanc,  at least partly just to differentiate my French from my other white-clad figures, both Austrian and Saxon. Rather like an interior decorator, I've ended up with a sort of 'white with a hint of grey' produced by mixing Army Painter Uniform Grey with Titanium White. I was tempted at first to just leave the grey spray primer exposed for the coats, but that seemed a bit too strong - more 'Gris' than 'Blanc'. 

 

Not much to look at as yet, perhaps, but it's a start, and the figures are rather charming, with simple detail (not excessive) and better proportioned than the rather podgy  Minifigs that have made up most of my collection so far.  I think these will look rather elegantly chic, very French.. We'll see how I do with them. 

I can also report a slightly belated addition to the 'D-Day 80'  anniversary. My WW2 'D-Day Dodgers' project is by definition not about Normandy, of course, but I thought it would be nice to pay my wargaming respects of a sort to the event being commemorated  the other week. I have a copy of the boardgame Memoir 44 , so I thought I'd get that out, and why not use my figures and vehicles in place of those from the game?  Ideally  I would have set it up as a full-scale figures game, but alas I don't currently have enough hex terrain to replicate the full  Memoir 44 board, so I came up with a sort of boardgame/figures game mash-up, which didn't look too bad, I thought.  The model tanks only just about fitted into the hexes on the game board, but they were (just) OK.  

This is the 'Sword Beach' scenario, which was the obvious one to try given that I have British and German WW2 forces but no Americans so far! For infantry units I simply swapped my painted figures for the unpainted models in the game, for armoured units and artillery then one model gun or tank sufficed per unit, with artillery unit strength represented by the number of crew figures, and hits taken by tank units marked by simple tokens (pennies, in fact). And so to the game - the British pushed their 3 'DD' tank units up the beach promptly, using them to clear barbed-wire obstacles as they  went, but they took hits from the defending artillery ( in a protective bunker ) and the lone German armoured unit, and two of the three Sherman units were destroyed. However, weight of numbers ( and a few lucky hits on that artillery unit and other bunker-bound defending infantry ) told, especially in the central  sector.  After about a dozen turns a successful  British 'Close Assault' on the central village objective gave  the British their 5th and 6th 'Victory Medals' and finished the game in their favour - which was only right, I felt.  Here is the final situation, with the British looking very sparse on the left, but having pretty much cleaned up on the centre and right. I was glad to see a historically appropriate result,  and Memoir 44 proved to be simple, but challenging and fun.

Must get more Hexon terrain, and go for a 'proper' figures game version!

Finally for today, more D-Day - the ladies of the village handicraft group produced their most spectacular 'Pillar Box Topper' yet, in honour of the anniversary. Complete with landing-craft! 

That's all for now - as I said, this is a bit of an odds and ends post. I hope you'll forgive that, and I promise to keep on with painting those French! Meanwhile, keep well, everyone.

The 'Mighty' Phalanx, and recruits from the Garrison

Last day of the month and only one blog post so far?  Better remedy that! As a result, this will be what  Stew,  of  A Terrible Loss of Lead and Wealth fame calls a 'PB&J' post - just a summary of the (all too little) recent hobby activity.   Which amounts to a 'mighty'  Macedonian Phalanx - at least in DBA terms - and some new recruits to the 7YW garrison, from, ahem,  the Garrison. Plus a brief mention of a fantastic game I was lucky to take part in only yesterday. 

First, the Macedonians. I finally managed to complete painting Alexander's Macedonian Phalangites for a DBA army, and here they are in their massed ranks - all 16 of them!  They will make 4 elements of 4 Pk   in DBA, which should pack quite a decent punch. 

The ground shakes to the tramp of their feet..

 Painted to my usual very middling standard  of course, though I would claim I am slowly getting  a little better, maybe, and they will do fine for me on the table. Simple block painting with a wash of 'light tone' , which did seem to add a little definition to details of armour etc. Three-inch ( 18 feet, to 1:72 scale ) pikes from household brush bristles look suitably impressive, I think. Colour scheme as simple as possible, with the variation in figure poses and dress making sure they are not entirely identical. I was very lucky that my  entirely randomly selected 16 figures just about made up four groups each with a similar pose with the pike -  I did not give a moment's thought to that potential issue at the start! A little variety is nice, but I suspect that the one formation that really could and should be depicted  with identically-posed figures is a Pike Phalanx, which depends crucially on each man conforming to everyone else! 

and from a Persian perspective

 

Now I just have to finish a couple of Prodromoi light horse, and then get round to  an element  each of Peltasts, Hoplites, Agrinians and Archers ( 12  foot figures in all ), and I will have a DBA army, Then, of course, on to the Persians to fight them..

just need to finish these..

 

Jumping forward a matter of 2,000 years, we have some new recruits for the Seven Years War, and they are rather interesting. At  the Salute show in April I attended the 'blogger meet-up' and was very pleased to meet  Rob Young of The Eastern Garrison blog,  and it transpired that he is able to supply some newly-cast figures from the vintage Garrison ranges. Now that is a magic name to me, going back to the days of Charles Grant, Donald Featherstone etc and seeing Garrison figures in their books - I particularly remembered the Persians depicted in ( and maybe on the cover of ) Grant's The Ancient War Game.  So, who could miss the chance to own some - and nice new castings too?  I do fancy replicating those Ancient Persians and Greeks at some point, but for the moment I thought it would be good to reinforce the 7YW armies,  and start by putting together a contingent of French Infantry, to go with the splendid 'night-cap' wearing French Dragoons which I have already and have been wanting an excuse to paint up.  So recently a deal was struck, money ( a very reasonable amount)  changed hands, and I received a batch of 40+ small metal Frenchmen, pictured here ( straight out of the postal package, hence some bent bayonets and a very small amount of mould flash )

 

Rob has generously 'thrown in' a gun and crew as a bonus, he thinks it's not a very good model, but I think it will do just fine, very nice of him! Many thanks indeed to Rob, I am very pleased with these.

They will be organised in 'units' of 8 figures for the Portable Wargame, which can easily be combined into larger formations ( 16 or 24, say ) for use with other rules. 

who let those pikes in at the back?

 

I have enough figures to make 5 Portable Wargame units, one of which is of grenadiers. With the dragoons ( and maybe that gun ),  this will make a nice little PW force. For a painting scheme, where else to start then the Kronoskaf 7YW website, which has masses of information including uniform and flag details for many, many regiments of all armies. And looking at the French Line Infantry pages  there, what could be better than the oldest regiment?  So, Picardie it will be, with their very simple white coat and red waistcoat. I particularly like the old regime 'white cross'  French infantry standards  (yet again, reminders of vintage Charles Grant , Don Featherstone and Young & Lawford books), and Picardie has a simple white cross, red quarters scheme, which  even I should be able to paint... 

( the above copyright Kronsoskaf - if any objection, I will happily remove )

The chaps will soon be getting a coat of spray primer, and then the painting production line will (slowly) crank up - in parallel with those Greeks and Persians, of course. 

Finally,  back to the ancients. Yesterday I was lucky enough to be invited to partake of another 'remote' game run by Jon Freitag of Palouse Wargaming Journal, this time using his 28mm collection to re-fight the Battle of Ilipa, 206 BCE  between Rome (Scipio) and Carthage (Hasdrubal), using his amended version of Basic Impetus rules.  A great time was had by all, and quite a surprising result ensued. I will leave Jon to describe event in his battle report, which should be well worth a read!  Just as a teaser, Jon has provided me with  a picture he took, of the moment the Roman Legions made contact with (retreating) Carthaginian elephants - with interesting results! 

be careful when approaching the rear of an Elephant...

It was a great game, many thanks to all concerned, and of course mainly to Jon for being such a fine host and umpire!

That's enough from me,  I think those Garrison chaps may need a spray of primer next, and a bit of paint on some Macedonians would be good, too.  I'll keep posting my progress - meanwhile thanks for reading, if you have got this far, and keep well, everyone.