British Napoleonic Artillery - Blue Moon

A month ago I announced to the world that I was the proud owner of a Blue Moon brigade of British Foot artillery. Since then, following painting Portuguese dragoons, British and French casualty markers and putting together the new table, I can now introduce my new table top warriors.

It seems fitting that they should be the first unit to get a photo-shoot on the new table, and to add value to the exercise, I thought you might like some range comparison shots.

So here they are, a Blue Moon 6lbr foot brigade with a Fantassin team of drivers

The first thing I would say is that for the money, I think these are a very nice sculpt that paint up easily. As you can see they fit in nicely with the Fantassin figures.

So in the photo below we have a BM gun and crew (left) next to the AB gun and crew (right) and with the Fantassin driver team behind.

I think you'll agree that if money were no object it would be AB all the way as the sculpt standard is superb. However if there it is one thing I really like with the Blue Moon option its got to be their guns.

If you can get over the fact that they seem to have missed off the elevation screw, the "chunkiness" and brute force look of the barrel, carriage and wheels seems to be more appealing than the rather delicate looking AB option. I have yet to see their howitzer model. I'm hoping to pick some up at Salute, but I think they'll look great lobbing shrapnel rounds at the Emperor's Legions.



BM left, AB on the right

BM left, AB on the right

AB on the left and BM on the right

AB on the left and BM on the right

Painting Tutorial Part 3 - British and French Casualties

This final stage is by far the quickest as at this stage we are only applying relatively small amounts of paint. I find I can move quickly from figure to figure adding these highlights. As you can see I have endeavoured to avoid mixing lighter shades of any given colour, but occasionally you will have to.

The Brits with their final touches done

Ok so the final touches include:
Flesh - Vallejo 955 Flat Flesh
Red areas - Vallejo 910 Orange Red
Blue areas - Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue mixed with 820 Off White roughly 2:1
British Canteens - Vallejo 901 Pastel Blue
Brown Trouser/Back Packs - Vallejo 929 Light Brown
Buff Straps/gourds/bread bags, British jacket lacings - Vallejo 976 Buff
Metal work on muskets - Vallejo 865 Oily Steel
Yellow plumes and cuffs/collars - Vallejo 915 Deep Yellow
Green Plumes/chords - Vallejo 967 Olive Green
and lastly the French turn backs start out red, then add Cd'Arms 231 Mid Grey, topped off with Vallejo 820 Off White.

I will finish these guys off with Ronseal acrylic quick drying matt clear varnish, followed by a coat of Vallejo matt varnish thinned 50:50 with water, and that is job done apart from basing, but you know how to do that!!

One thing I would stress is that good reference books should be close at hand during painting, as it is easy to forget what item is what colour. I hope you find these painting guides helpful.

Painting Tutorial Part 2 - British & French Casualties

Now we move on to highlighting the block painting. But, before I go though the stages and colours used, I should point out an error I noticed at the conclusion of the first part. I put up an illustration of a redcoat with buff facings and indicated that these units should have buff straps, forgetting to paint that onto my models!! So I have gone back to the buff figures and repainted their straps with Coat d'Arms 510 Mid Stone.

So continuing my psychological theme, I like to highlight the big areas first so I can see the progress and get a feel for how the figures will look. The next six shots show the figures at the end of that process but before doing the detail areas.

So first up I highlight the flesh with Citadel Kislev Flesh. The redcoats get a highlight of Vallejo 957 Flat Red and the French Blue gets Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue. Whist those two colours are on the pallet I also use the blue on the British canteens and the red on any plumes and shoulder boards and French turn backs.

Redcoats with their first highlights added

The Grey areas get Coat d'Arms 525 Uniform Grey, except the French grey, white areas which get a highlight of Coat d'Arms 231 Mid Grey.

The French with the blue jackets and white waistcoats picked out with highlights

British White trousers and belts get a highlight of Vallejo 820 Off White, and any black surface gets a touch of Vallejo 898 Dark Sea Blue. Finally my Highlander casualty gets a criss-cross pattern on the kilt of Vallejo 896 Extra Dark Green.

The Highlander's kilt with the Extra Dark Green pattern. I also added Vallejo 965 Prussian Blue in the dark blue squares in between the green.

Any brown areas, such as French back packs and Spanish cloth trousers get highlighted with Vallejo 983 Flat Earth. Don't use this on the musket woodwork.

At the end of this part I then do all the detail areas. The next three shots shoe the figures at the end of the detailing stage. Note it is at this stage that I start to add lace detail to colours and cuffs.

Shako plates and brass work including buckles on cross belts, and musket butts and trigger guards, Vallejo 801 Brass. Note with the British I apply a dot of matt black on the cross belts before applying the brass.
Green plumes and shoulder boards - Vallejo 967 Olive Green
Yellow plumes, collars and cuffs - Vallejo 953 Flat Yellow
Bread bags, gourds, buff facings and straps - Vallejo 914 Green Ochre
Steel work on muskets - Vallejo 863 Gunmental
Musket woodwork - Vallejo 875 Beige Brown
French shako chords White = Coat d'Arms Mid Grey, Green = Vallejo 968 Flat Green, Red = Vallejo 985 Hull Red.

Next up Part Three, final highlights and varnish.
 

Painting Tutorial Part 1 - British & French Casualties

I like to paint. I like to spend time getting figures to look right. I have owned figures for many years and I am that kind of wargamer who is prepared to invest a bit of time up front to be able to enjoy looking at those figures over the years to come. I also feel obliged to honour the skill of the sculptor by understanding the detail he/she has managed to capture and make that work stand out by good painting. My technique reflects my commitment to those guiding principles.

I often speak to people who struggle getting their figures painted, and if it is not your first love in wargaming there are other alternatives. However if paying someone else to do it isn't one of them, then mastering a technique and mastering ones self to apply it is very empowering. So I have found painting figures in stages a useful psychological tool to progress a project. The feeling of sitting down to the job knowing that you have already done x y and z helps keep things progressing. I now often spend a minimum of an hour a day working this principle, and my enjoyment of the process has grown accordingly. If you are looking to get better at and spend more time painting then try following this technique. It takes 30 days to build a new habit.

Ok with that pre-amble, what follows is a step by step plan for painting Napoleonic British and French 18mm infantry, that should give you an easy on the eye result.

Typical British Line Fusilier with buff facings, hence buff straps. White straps would be normal for other units

French Line and Light Infantry in the Peninsular War

My painting technique is based on the three colour highlight system, using a base, middle and highlight for each colour. As I am painting my British and French casualty markers I will illustrate each colour as I go.

As with the basing tutorial, I tend to work through my units in three steps, so after priming with a black undercoat, I would block paint in the base coat.

STEP 1 - Base Coat

The British get the flesh pressed

With block painting I am just getting the basic colours set up. I don't leave the primer showing and so paint one colour up to another. The base coat will give all the shadow and delineation I need.

The first colour I start with is the flesh areas using Citadel Ratskin Flesh, don't you just love these silly Game Workshop paint names!! Still never mind the name, I find this shade gives a good dark base to the flesh areas

I find the Ratskin shade gives a good base to flesh

Next colour would be the uniform starting with the coat and for the British red jacket I start with Vallejo 985 Hull Red which gives plenty of depth to all the areas in shadow. In addition, the fusiliers amongst this group, identified by the lack of elite company wings on the jackets get their shako tufts painted as well.

Redcoats in Hull Red

Likewise with the French I start with Vallejo 899 Dark Prussian Blue. One of my casualties will be a Legere and so I have given him blue trousers as well.

French in Dark Prussian Blue

I then move on to typically grey areas, such as rolled greatcoats, trousers, gaiters and white areas such as lapels, belts and waistcoats on my French, not the British. The Grey compliments the blue on the French as a base coat. The British redcoat needs a warmer base coat for the white areas.

I like to give my figures a campaign look and so some of my figures will be wearing Spanish material for their trousers. This was typically a local brown cloth and I use Vallejo 941 Burnt Umber.



Grey great coats and gaiters

Next up any muskets and French back packs are painted a Chocolate Brown, either Coat d'arms 519 or Vallejo 872. Note I don't worry too much about painting the whole musket and pack brown. We will come to the metalwork and straps later.

Any areas where the white goes is grey

 

Did you spot the mistake? The Highlander above just got his knees painted! I often miss a figure, so just go back and fill in the bit you missed ready for the next step.

Muskets and Back Packs plus brown Spanish cloth

The final main areas to cover are the base colour for the British white summer trousers which I use

Vallejo 976 Buff  and while I'm at it I'll tip the white of the fusilier tufts



The last main colour to do is Matt Black, which I now go over the shakos, boots, sword scabbards/bayonet frogs, British back packs, ammo pouches and metalwork on the muskets

Once these main areas are done I will add a few base colours to the detail areas such as cuff and collar facing colours (Hull Red, Dark Prussian Blue etc) , voltigeur/grenadier shoulder boards, bread bags (Coat d'arms 510 Mid Stone) and water canteens (Dark Prussian Blue), and water gourds for the French (Coat d'arms 510 Mid Stone).

Note I don't paint the chords on the shakos. I like to highlight the shako before I add any detail.

The final area to complete Step One is to prepare the British belts and straps with the Vallejo Buff and the Highlanders kilt with Dark Prussian Blue.

That's about it, you can now walk away and look forward to the fun part of this paint job. Next up we start to highlight and make these little chaps start to "Pop".

Busy Weekend

Occasionally it's quite fun to run several projects side by side. I find it helps ease the monotony of just doing the same thing, being able to break off and paint or model something completely different. It just so happens that this weekend such an opportunity has arisen as having finished my British Infantry for Rolica and Vimiero, I have some Portuguese cavalry, Peninsular buildings and trees that need to be done towards the same project. I will update the blog with my progress.

First up, the buildings. I had been searching for the best 15/18mm Peninsular style buildings and saw a recommendation from  Fat Wally's blog that the Rusus  buildings were some of the best on the market. I decided to ask Santa to see what he could do and with some help from my family, he came up with the total collection of their Bella Italia range which I think you'll agree tick the box. I should also say that when I got the models out of the box and grouped them in the order of the collection as advertised, I found that they had included extra village items as a bonus, so "hats off" to Rusus.
I really like the character of these models, if you haven't already, check them out.

The Rusus large town houses with added doors and staircases that come in the extras box to add variety to the buildings

The Farm collection, with dung heaps and water troughs, very nice!

I love the little entrance archway to complete the entrance and exits to the village

The guide that I will be using to paint up my buildings is a very handy little book from Karwansaray Publishing  who produce Wargames Soldiers and Strategy Magazine, but also sell some excellent modelling guides under the Touching History title.  The booklet for Napoleonic Peninsular War buildings is very good.
http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/shop/digital-content/touching-history.html

The next up is my Portuguese cavalry, which is going to be a unit of AB Wurtemburg Chevauleger
that I picked up from Fighting 15s at Colours last year.

These chaps will be supporting my British light dragoons when I roll out my Vimiero scenario in a couple of months!!

I hope my Portuguese cavalry will look as gallant as these chaps

I usually paint two units at a time, and I am planning to paint up these casualty markers for indicating units under a compulsory movement when using Carnage and Glory rules. I always prefer figures to counters when producing markers.

British casualty markers from Fantassin

French casualties from AB

And last but by no means least I like Jason have been planning to upgrade my tree collection so have also been busy with the Woodlands Scenics range to get some much needed new trees ready for a new season of wargaming fun.

 



 

 

Peninsular Light Infantry & Foot Artillery

Tomorrow I will be joined by Jason , Nathan, Gus and Steve to play test my Rolica scenario. Time permitting we will try to play using Carnage & Glory Carnage & Glory II computer rules and Napoleon at War. These are two rule sets that I plan to use as my default Napoleonic rules and am keen to see how my scenario works with each set.

Once we have identified any pitfalls and applied any tweaks I will post the scenario and an AAR for info.

In the meantime I have put up some more pics of my growing Anglo-Portuguese army with the Light Troops of the Light Brigade which would become the Light Division. I think the Cacadores really make brown look cool.

Fane's Rifle Brigade, 60th on the left, 95th on the right (Fantassin from Stonewall Figures, Skirmishers at front are AB)

43rd Light Infantry & 95th Rifles

43rd & 95th

1st and 3rd Cacadores (Fantassin from Stonewall)

Royal Artllery 6lbrs and howitzer (AB)

As in the real affair all my Anglo Portuguese are untried in battle so tomorrow will be their first time under fire, more anon.