Victrix French Infantry: Enfin!!

It is quite a relief to get these figures finished. I started putting this box of Victrix French infantry together in mid July. I got 60 figures out of a box, and you can see 59 of them below. I was able to get 52 figures out of the box in non-firing and non-crouching poses which is excellent. Using a wash over white prime technique, it probably took around an hour a figure to assemble, prime, paint and base each figure. Assembly took 25% of the time, which is excessive in my opinion.

They are painted up as 5 battalions of the 26e and 82e regiments de ligne, as well as some 4 bases of legere. I painted 6 Perry plastic figures to make up the required 5 battalions (they are not posed here). I got a little out of control with the drummers. The Perry's were much easier to assemble, but they are in the Bardin uniform, wrong for the 6th Corps of the Army of Portugal in 1811 (this usually does not trouble me too much, but I am trying to pay more attention to detail).

As I have previously noted, there was an enormous amount of flash and I think I may have got a defective box as some of the figure's details appeared to have been melted away.

All in all though, I suppose they look ok posed as a unit. I do plan to buy a box of the Victrix early French Infantry to paint as Italians for the Battle of Maida, but I think that might be it for me with Victrix. I have 2 boxes of Victrix British Infantry, which I just figured out are centre companies only, so I suppose I will also have to buy a box of British flank company figures, but no more after that.

Some French light cavalry may tempt me though!!!

I almost forgot to say the metal Victrix mounted colonel was a very nice figure, which I quite enjoyed painting.

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Basing

Just a brief note on my basing technique. I mix up some pumice gel with brown paint.Patient voltiguers waiting for their base to be done.
Apply the stained pumice gel and then touch up the base with the same colour paint.
Dry brush with bubonic brown, maybe I could be a little more aggressive here.
Then bleached bone.
Important step, is the mixed flock. I use the leftovers from my terrain projects, so it is a mixture of everything. I apply brown stained white glue, especially to areas that are not well covered with the pumice gel (usually between the feet). Place the base in the bag and then shake off.
Then a bit of "german grass".

Painting with Washes

It is with some reluctance that I put these images on my blog. The Victrix figures are quite nice but the effort of glueing them together was onerous. I had gone over them removing mold lines before they were sprayed, but when I started to paint them there were still multiple pieces of flash and what was more troublesome there was significant defects in the castings. In some areas, it looked like someone had taken a blowtorch to the figures. I wonder now if I had got an early box of figures, if I remember correctly Victrix had some production problems early on with the French Infantry box, I wonder if the box I received was reflective of this, as I had pre-ordered them. I find it hard to reconcile these figures with the descriptions of others.

Additionally, these were the last figures I had painted of the box of Victrix French (around 60 figures) and I was getting pretty tired of them by now. Notwithstanding this, I had taken the photos, so I will post them. My technique definitely can be improved and any suggestions would be welcomed. Please remember though that I am interested in painting units, rather then a figures and am not a modeler. A nice unit of figures is my goal in as few as painting steps as possible. I feel a white primer with a wash is an effective way to quickly paint figures so they have somewhat of a layered look with a single step.

I usually paint 12 figures at a time, glueing them to a painting stick and then spraying them with an automotive white primer. Although the French uniforms I have seen in museums are quite dark, I feel that on campaign they would have faded quite a bit so I like a blue-grey colour to give the infantrymen a lighter blue. Here I used an very thinned down GW Shadow-Grey as a base coat for the jacket. The GW wash is too blue I find. I try to be neat, it is ok to go over on an area that is going to be painted with an minimally thinned acrylic paint, but if the adjacent area is going to be painted with a wash any areas would have to be repainted with white before I applied the wash. I apply the wash and roll the figure to let the thin liquid settle into the crevasses.

I then wash the flesh areas with a GW Ogryn Flesh. I find this wash is excellent and as far as I am concerned the flesh area are done now in one step.
I then paint the shakos with a thinned GW Badab Black and the shako covers with GW Devlan Mud or GW Gryphonne Sepia. I do add a second full strength black wash to the shakos, but this time avoiding the shako chords. I also paint the metal parts with the the black as a base for the metal paints and the boots of course.
I then reverse the figures and use the same 3 washes on the shakos, the ammunition pouch and the water bottles. I also paint the hair with the flesh wash. Sometimes, a second wash is required as the first coat does not give a dense enough colour. I am pretty well finished with the washes now.
I then use a 3/4 thinned GW Blood Red on the collars, cuffs, the thing that hangs next to the ammunition pouch and the buttons.
The figures are then again reversed and 3/4 thinned acrylic paints are applied to the rifle (Khemri Brown), the water bottle strap (Calthan Brown), bayonet sheath (GW Terracotta), rifle barrel, bayonet and shako straps (GW Boltgun Metal) and finally the cuff flaps (GW Enchanted Blue).
I then start to repair the white, fixing the edges and the straps and applying some white to shakos.
The figures are reversed the whites areas are repaired and the pre-painted knapsacks are glued in place. I use the GW black and sepia washes on the knapsack and the blanket roll. Once glued in place I touch up the knapsacks and the metal work and sacks with various colours. I also start to apply a brass paint to the musket and the buckles on the straps.Continue with the brass to the buttons and the shako plates.
I then paint the straps on the knapsacks and the shako pompoms. I then used a very thinned black wash to shadow in the crevasses and to delineate the straps on the front of the figure, I also use it to delineate the equipment. I then put a very thinned second coat of Shadow Grey on the coat and if the relief is not good, I will dry-brush on an highlight of GW Ice Blue.

The final step is the wash over the white trousers and here is where I clearly need help, as I am quite unhappy how these 12 figures came out. I uses a thinned Devlan Mud and it did not work this time, it just looks a mess up close. Any suggestions using washes would be appreciated. On the table, though it does give a nice campaign look...c'est la vie! It took 7-8 hours to paint these 12 figures.

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Victrix French Infantry: Venez-y, vous êtes en retard!

Wavy Flag Tutorial

I like a wavy looking flag and I just could not get the effect I wanted from rolling the flag. After looking at the Flagdude style I decided to try to micmic it. I had a bunch of GMB flags, so adaption was required.

I cut the flags and use a glue stick.

I attach them to rigid poles temporarily.
And soak in some water for 30-60 seconds.
The tricky bit is scrunching them up, as you can see the paint is slightly cracked in the upper flag. You have got to be careful.
Let them dry standing up, I wait at least 12 hours.
I then slide them off the wires and slide them on the already attached flag poles. Use a tiny bit of super glue to attach them.
I then paint the edges (GW enchanted blue and blood red are good matches for GMB french flags). Attache the points (I can not find my Front Rank eagles which is pissing me off) and I think you have quite a nice effect.

Le deuxième bataillon/82e Ligne command group

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Terrain Table: Roads 2

Looks a mess after the yellow oxide. I shall follow with some close ups.

Yellow oxide.
Buff
Earth Blend turf as the final blending agent.
Voila!!
Blending in a bridge.

Using a small forest as a connector for a gap in the road.
Some buff, just to make the passage more obvious.

I am done with terrains for a while.......

Terrain Table: Enfin

It has been some time since I have posted, so I thought I needed to update the blog before we all lose interest. I have been busy working on the relentless task of painting five battalions of Victrix French, but more about that later.

I have also been working on my terrain table. I have got the oak side pieces fastened in place and now the table certainly has a finished look. Additionally, the modules are all nice and tight in place.

I have build six 2x4' pieces and five 1x4' pieces as outlined below: Brown hills, grey roads and blue rivers. The roads were quite a challenge as the pieces are not geomorphic, so there was no easy way except by trial and error to arrange the positioning of the roads. It was, in fact, quite a nightmare. I think if I was going to do it again I would have liked to have used uniform sized terrain modules, but of course that was impossible as the largest table I could fit in was 12x5'. 12x6' would have been perfect as each module could have been 3x3'. Smarter fellows (Garage-Gamer), than me have already worked this out. C'est la vie!!
Not withstanding the above, I was able to come up with several layouts. Here was my first, it was designed for use for my FoB scenario Engagement at Ventosa.
Do not mind the trees on the ridge, I had to find somewhere to place them.
Here is another layout, fortunately the terrain went together better than my little diagrammes. You will notice that the stretch of road going from the bend in the river in module C is missing, I can't get everything done (but I am working on it)!!

Forest used to link gap in road.

This layout went together pretty well.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the table and the modules. There are quite a few possibilities for different scenario setups.

Time to get back to those Victrix French infantrymen......

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Terrain Table: Roads 1

I constructed my roads my using drywall compound as the base with fine sand and little stones as the relief. I then paint the road heavily with Burnt Umber, and then progressive dry brushes of Yellow Oxide and Buff. I then blend the road into the terrain using Earth Blend fine turf (Woodland Scenics®).

More photos to come.....