GUARD ARTILLERY UPDATE

It’s been a while since I added a progress update on this figure, that’s not to say that I haven’t been adding any more paint to the figure more the light wasn’t right to take any photographs that I would be happy with, I’m still not overly happy but I want to get him finished so he can join the remainder of the crew for the Battery.  I have now finished off the cross and sword belt bay adding a coat of the same colours as the base coat only this time with more White, (951) than Raw Umber, this was followed by a final coat of pure White.  I have also painted the cuffs, turnbacks, busby bag and the piping to the collar and lapels. The same colours are also used for the tassels on the sword knot and the aglet, Base coat of Vallejo Black Red (859) followed by Vallejo Red (947) and finished off with Vallejo Scarlet (817).  I have also gone back over the buttons with a spot off Vallejo Black (950) as a base for the Gold that will be added when I finish of the figure. 

FRENCH IMPERIAL GUARD ARTILLERY

I have recently started on some Artillery for my Guard units, a Horse Battery. So far I have used Foundry Miniatures for my Chasseurs and Front Rank for the Infantry. I do use a number of manufacturers for my armies but tend not to mix them up in units, they just don’t look right. I decided to go with what I believe are the best Napoleonic figures on the market – Perry Miniatures, for my Guard Artillery.


The picture below is of one of the figures, a gunner holding a rammer so I thought I would produce a guide to how I painted up this figure and will finish with the whole unit.

Once I have cleaned up the figure, I undercoated the figure black.  I tend to use a black undercoat for all of my figures.

The next step was a base coat for the tunic and parts of the breaches, the breaches have black leather inserts. I use Foundry French Blue 65A – Shade as my first coat, followed by Foundry French Blue 65B and finished off with Foundry French Blue 65C. The leather inserts are painted Vallejo Black (950) as a base coat, followed by Vallejo Black Grey (862) and finished off with Vallejo Neutral Grey (992). The same three colours are used for the fur on the busby, the riding boots and the cartridge box. The sword belts and cartridge box belts have also received their base coat a mix of Vallejo White (951) and Windsor and Newton Raw Umber, I must admit it does look horrible when you mix it up but I do find it works very well as a shade colour for white.

CALPE PRUSSIANS

I have just uploaded a large number of photos of my Calpe Prussian figures to my web album.  Most of these were painted a couple of years ago specifically for a Game we were putting on at the club, DDWG Leipzig Game 2009. The Army is alas not yet finished, probably more to do with my inability to reduce my lead pile before purchasing more figures and the ease in which I am distracted by new projects! The intention is to finish off a battalion of Reserve infantry this year, this will complete the Brigade, I do however have even more Prussians awaiting a slot on the painting table, unfortunately not enough to make another Brigade but enough for a good start.    

FRENCH IMPERIAL GUARD

My first exposure to Napoleonic Wargaming was when I read a book my Bruce Quarrie, Napoleonic Campaigns in Miniature. It was what inspired me to start gaming and collecting Napoleonic figures. Within the book Bruce talks about building up an army from the base upwards, a Line Infantry Battalion, a Squadron of Cavalry a Gun or a battery. He recomended not to go straight in trying to paint the Guard, as after a few years your Line infantry will look better than your Guard. I have always remembered this nugget of advice when constructing my armies, hence it is only in the last year that I have started to build up some Guard units to go with the Infantry and Cavalry Corps of the line that I have.
On my last entry I mentioned finally completing a Battalion of Young Guard infantry. They were not the first unit of the Guard I have painted first up were two Squadrons of Guard Chasseur a’ Cheval painted for the Essling game.



Second was a Battalion of Middle Guard, Fusilier-Grenadiers, also for the Essling Game. The remaining units of the Guard were provided by DDWG club members. Following the process outlined above the next element of the Guard to be worked on is Artillery, but more of that in the future.