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Xenophon's Ghost covers military history and wargaming from the ancient period to modern times.
Showing posts with label French Infantry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label French Infantry. Show all posts

Saturday, February 16, 2013

French Infantry

You can't fight a battle (very successfully) with just artillery.  I finished six French Infantry bases save the flag.  I will mount the paper flag after sealing the figures with clear coat.


Center Companies and Light Infantry

The six bases will form the core of a DBN army with two Elite and four Regular units.  They can also be used for 1 1/2 Lasalle battalions which use four bases.  I need eight battalions for Lasalle, so there is a lot of painting ahead!
Center Companies and Grenadiers

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Multi-Prong Progress

I have taken a few days off and made progress on three wargame related activities.
DBN Work in Progress

DBN

I inventoried my  unpainted 15mm Napoleonics, separated out the figures needed for DBN, and started painting.  When first planning my DBN armies, I had focused on fielding every possible element for a French and Austrian army list.  Now I plan to select options that maximize reuse in Lasalle instead.  I am painting French Line, French Artillery, Austrian Jaegers and Grenzers,  and Confederation of the Rhine Cavalry.  I have more figures waiting for clean-up and priming.

DBA

To help him choose an army, Ryan and I played some more DBA, using available elements from my Spartan and Macedonian sets to simulate the Late Greek Thessalians fighting the Aitolians, a Psiloi heavy army. I wanted to try my hand at a light force. The Thessalians won both matches.

Round One

In the first game, the Aitolians ended up as the attackers, so Ryan placed minimal terrain on the board.  My Psiloi didn't have much bad going to use to its advantage, and Ryan protected his camp with Auxilia.  Despite my efforts to move around and flank him with the Light Horse and Auxilia, the Cavalry ended up killing off three Psiloi and the Light Horse element

Round Two

In the second bout, the Aitolians were defending, so I placed two steep hills (compulsory), a river placed 600 paces from a battlefield edge, and two woods as the terrain.  This gave me some additional options, but Ryan used Auxilia to secure two bad going terrain areas.  The river ended up as paltry, so it didn't have as much of an effect as hoped on the Thessalian's maneuverability.  The game took quite some time as both armies tried to gain advantage through maneuver.  The Light Horse spent much time moving, drawing off cavalry elements but otherwise not helping much.  My final strategy was to try to attack two cavalry and the Thessalian camp with the four Spear elements.  Before I could move the slow spear across the board, four Psiloi were individually picked off.

Ryan has decided on the Thessalians.  It met his requirement for a cavalry heavy force, and he wanted something within the theme of my collection.  We can play the Late Thessalians against the Macedonians, Spartans, and Galatians.  We have primed up some Essex hoplite figures that I already owned, so he will try his hand at painting tomorrow.  We also ordered Warmodeling (Fantassin) Thessalian cavalry elements and some more Essex Hoplites and Psiloi for his project.

BKC Inspiration

I just finished an excellent WW II history, An Army at Dawn, by Rick Atkinson.  The book covers the War in North Africa in 1942-1943, starting from the US and British joint amphibious landings to the fall of Tunis.  Having read little on the North Africa campaign, this book was a great primer.  It is the first of a trilogy, so I plan on picking up the next book which covers operations in Italy.

If I choose North Africa for my Blitzkrieg Commander II focus, I have some ideas now on the units and weapons that made the biggest difference for the Germans and the Americans.  The Germans will definitely have a Ju-88 Stuka for support.  I will mix up the American tank force to include Shermans and the weaker Stuarts.

I will do a lot more research this winter on the forces and also look at reuse for the US units for an Italian campaign.  The Afrika Korps paint jobs will not work for Italy considering that no Germans tanks left North Africa before the surrender.


Tuesday, July 3, 2012

10mm French Elite

I finished up the 10mm Old Glory French Elite Company figures, practicing my 10mm paint skills and evaluating the efficiency gained in painting larger batches.  For my time comparison test, I painted enough figures for a single double row-based bases for both 10mm and 15mm scales.  As expected, paint time was much faster per base when working on a larger batch.  There is probably a learning curve factor at work, too.


I painted three bases as French grenadiers and one base as voltigeurs.  I will use the grenadiers as elite infantry for DBN, and all five bases (counting the base from the original paint test) will also serve as companies in five Lasalle infantry units.  The figure strips were mounted on craft sticks, and I  generally repeated the same paint stroke on all figures on a stick at one time.

I modified my painting approach slightly for this batch, aiming to speed up the process without sacrificing the quality of the work too much.

Thinning the Paint


I primarily use FolkArt acrylic craft paint.  For my 15mm figure painting, I often use the paint directly from the containers without thinning.  I noticed that this was not working as well for 10mm.  I either ended up with too much paint on the brush or needed to reload constantly.  I thinned out the paints for the large areas, such as the coats, boots, and shakos.  It made a big difference in the ease of painting and time.  If you thin too much, though, you are in trouble.


Sloppy to Neat


On my first 10mm painting attempt, I was very careful to not stray out of an area with the paint.  This time, I didn't worry as much about  collateral damage with the initial colors, particularly the jacket and boots.  I painted fairly quickly, and I cleaned up a few mistakes later.

Highlights


I did take the time to shade and highlight the face, coat front, and pants more.  I'm not sure that it made a big difference in the end.  You certainly cannot notice from a distance of more than 12 inches!


Hat Trick


For my first painting attempt, the shako braiding and edging took a lot of time.  I tried a different approach, pulling out a Number 4 flat brush (That's right, a Number 4!).  For the shako top edge, I loaded up the brush and lightly pressed it to the top of the hat at a 45 degree angle.  Voila - instant edging!  This technique worked well except near the plume.  I also tried to use the Number 4 for the braiding and details on the front of the shako.  This didn't work as well.  Next time, I plan to try dry brushing the details.


Fast Results


I expected to paint faster when working a large number of figures, but I was surprised at the efficiency game.  The total paint time for 40 figures (eight strips of five) was 3 hours and 40 minutes, including the final wash.  I completed the work in five sessions.  The paint time for a single base is 55 minutes, compared to 93 minutes for my first test.

I also timed the basing time.  I kept the basing simple because I was working on a tight schedule due to our move, and I had already shipped much of my hobby supplies.  I used small grey model railroad ballast for the basing, covered in a Vallejo Earth paint wash.  I finished the bases with Woodland Scenics burnt grass sprinkled over Elmer's Glue.  Total basing time was 15 minutes in two sessions.

I'll work out the paint time for a couple of Lasalle armies, comparing to my original analysis in a future post.








Friday, June 22, 2012

The Battle of the Scales

15mm and 10mm French Voltigeurs
I have finished the painting time and cost analysis for a group of Lasalle Armies to support my decision making: to switch or not to switch.  As noted previously, I have bought and painted up a small number of 15mm figures, and my other wargame miniatures are all in this scale.  Concerned about the time commitment to get playing as a new Napoleonic wargamer, I decided to invest a small amount of time in comparing two 15mm basing options (double rows of infantry and a single row of infantry) with 10mm figures, based in double rows.

As described in a previous posting, the cost difference between 10mm double row bases and 15mm single row bases is marginal, when you are comparing the cost of completed figure bases.

Painting Time


My painting test indicates that I could finish single row-based 15mm figures slightly faster.  I used the test results for infantry figures and added a 15 percent time increase for cavalry, artillery, and commander elements.  The chart below depicts the painting time, in hours, for the three options.
While I'm comfortable that the 15mm painting test is a reasonable estimate, I'm less sure of the 10mm test.  The test figures were my first attempt at painting 10mm figures, so I expect that I can speed things up with practice.  


The testing is also limited in two areas for both scales.  I only painted a small number of figures in both tests, so my test didn't capture the efficiency of painting a larger group at once.  I also didn't consider time spent cleaning up and priming figures.  I believe that the clean up for the 10mm figures went much faster.

Integrating the Analysis


Paint time and cost are only a few factors that will influence my decision.  I ran a multiple factor analysis that includes qualitative factors, such as the appearance of the miniature units.  I weighted each factor and used a logarithmic rating scheme.

The (Preliminary) Winner is...


10mm

Considering all of the factors important to me, I'm seriously considering a switch to 10mm scale for my Napoleonic collection.  I like the "mass" look of double-row bases, and the cost and time savings compared to 15mm double-row bases is significant.  I already have an AWI 15mm figures based in single rows.

Before making the big jump, I plan on painting eight more strips of French flank company figures.  Once we arrive at our new home, I may test paint a group of cavalry figures, too.

The Long Road to Lasalle

Even with a change in scale or basing, it will be a long time before I can field two Lasalle armies.  I can spare an average of five hours a week for my hobby time.  At that pace, it will be almost a year before I'm ready to play unless I can find fellow players in Seoul, Korea that happen to have a common interest.

Fortunately, I found another game, with a completely different operational scale and approach from Lasalle, that integrates the benefits of DBA with Napoleonic gaming: De Bellis Napoleonicis (DBN).  DBN requires a much smaller number of elements to play, so I plan to use basing that works for both games. This approach will allow me to play sooner while I work on a collection that suffices for battalion-scale rules like Lasalle.

I received the DBN rules last night, so I'll post a review and my plan for creating a collection that works for both games in the future.  My first impression is very favorable.  I've wondered if I could find a corps-level miniatures game, and DBN appears to get the mechanics right.




Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The French Rapidly Advance

French Line Infantry - painted 15mm and primed 10mm figures
I have finished the first phase of a painting time test, comparing the paint time for 15mm and 10mm infantry figures.  I will use the test results to help in choosing a scale for my Napoleonic armies.  I don't have a lot of time to devote to painting, so the time test and the cost analysis shared in the last post will be important.  Of course, I will also consider other factors, such as my preference for the looks of the two scales.

Test Conditions

I will track painting time for eight 15mm figures and ten 10mm figures.  Because I had already cleaned up and primed the 15mm figures before deciding to perform a test, I won't compare this part of the work.  All figures are primed in white paint and mounted on craft sticks.

Eight 15mm figures is enough to create one double row-based stand or two single row-based stands.  The Old Glory 10mm figures are cast in groups of five, and the ten figures are enough to create one double row-based stand.  I plan to play Lasalle and DBN with the armies.

Based on the results, I will project the total painting time for four Lasalle armies, using the same armies as used in the cost analysis.  I plan to estimate the additional paint time for cavalry, probably applying a 15 percent time increase for each cavalry stand.  I welcome thoughts on how much longer three cavalry figures take to paint as compared to eight infantry figures.

15mm French Line

For the 15mm test, I chose four French line infantry figures and four French Voltigeurs. The figures are Battle Honors Line Infantry, 1809-1812.

I aimed to paint quickly, so these figures are not my best work.  I didn't perform much highlighting, and I kept the details simple.  If I'm ever going to finish a couple of Lasalle armies, I need to advance rapidly.

The painting and wash was completed in five sessions.  I made a few tactical errors on the paint order, such as forgetting to paint the hair until the last session.
Session 1 - 33 minutes - Flesh, boots, ammo bag, shako, pants, small clothes, jacket front
Session 2 - 21 minutes - jackets (blue)
Session 3 - 39 minutes - backpack, rifle, plume/pompon, canteen, bed roll, collar, epaulets
Session 4 - 55 minutes - base, yellow on Voltigeur pompon, rifle barrel and bayonet, hilt, hair, touch-ups
Session 5- 8 minutes - light burnt umber wash

Total Paint Time: 2 hours, 36 minutes

The Results

I'm satisfied with the results even though I was painting faster than normal.   Overall, the figures were easy to paint.  Here's a shot of the Voltigeurs:



I used a medium grey to shade the shirts near the cross belts, providing some contrast.

The line infantry were even easier to paint because of the rifle positioning.  I didn't need to fiddle much with cross belt shading or details on the front of the figure.




Here's another shot.  The 1st company of a French battalion wore green pompons on the shako.  I chose to paint  1st company soldiers to speed things up because I needed to use green for the Voltigeurs' plumes.

Scaling Out

At this painting pace, I could paint one double row-based French battalion for Lasalle in 10 hours and 24 minutes.  With single rows, a battalion would take 5 hours and 12 minutes.  I recognize that this test may not represent actual paint time precisely.  I normally paint more figures at once which is more efficient.  However, I also normally paint when in the same room as my wife while she is watching TV.  We chat during the painting which also slows me down. For the test, I was down in my hobby room and uninterrupted. Overall, this estimate seems reasonable.

Mark Severin ran a test speed painting British 15mm figures which is posted on his website, www.deepfriedhappymice.com and his result was consistent with mine.  He cleaned up, primed, painted, and based 24 figures in four hours.  The painting time was 2 hours and 30 minutes.  I was not trying to paint as fast as possible, and I don't plan to do so when I work on my armies.

Up Next

I'm anxious to see how the paint time compares for 10mm .  I bought a pack of Old Glory French Flank Company figures for the test.  They are cleaned up and primed.



As a relatively new wargamer who hasn't had the chance to attend any conventions, this was my first time seeing 10mm figures.  I was impressed with the level of detail at this scale.  For example, the figures have a plate and braiding on the shakos.  Clean up wasn't too bad, but I had to be careful when trimming the flash on the plumes and bayonets.  I managed to break one half of a plume off...

We are in the midst of moving, but I plan to use my birthday (today) as an excuse to hide in the basement and paint for an hour tonight after the packers have left.  I hope to share a post with the paint results in a day or two.

Comments Welcome!
Dave in Ellicott City, MD, USA