Austrians first. Each individual unit is painted to represent an historical
battalion. You will recognize below troops from from IR 23 Erzherzog Ferdinand (red facings), IR 10 Ansbach-Bayreuth (green/paperlgrun facings), and IR 16 Terzi/Erzherzog Rudolf (violet facings), among the others. Flags are from Warflag, resized. Somewhat I nailed down the correct technique to resize and fold a flag only later, when working on the French. You will notice the difference.
Finally, no Austrian Army should be allowed to take the field without deploying a unit of *pink* infantry -- in my case, IR 38 Wurttemberg. I was bold enough to use a bright, Magenta fluo color... what to say: you notice this unit.
Now, the French. By the time I started working on these units, I figured out the proper way to fix the flag, and courtesy of Warflag again I was able to create a couple of cool stands.
As previously explained, in my French Army I use a mix of color-code and grenadiers and voltigeurs to identified individual units. The color-coding part is still a work in progress, in part because of the delays in the shipment I am waiting from the UK. But at least some of the grenadiers are in place, as you will see in the next pic.
And finally, let's not forget the officers! Very likely, you have already recognised a General Lasalle look-a-like in the picture above, but a second officer is portrayed here as he stands in front of a battery (... maybe not a great idea...)
I hope I will have the time tomorrow to share a couple of pictures of my french artillery and cavalry. Thursday I am leaving for a business trip overseas, so blogging will be once again to take a backseat. Fortunately, I am well-prepared for the 15 hours flight: I have already packed Fredrick Kagan's "The End of the Old Order: Napoleon and Europe, 1801-1805", on the Austerlitz campaign, and the first volume of John Gill's trilogy, "1809 Thunder on the Danube: Abensberg". A lot of Napoleonic readings, and a lot of food for thought about my future French vs Austrians battles.
2 comments:
I really like the style of painting that you have used on these figures. It is very effective and not overdone.
I have seen some pictures from the recent Foundry publication about the Napoleonic Wars, and most of the figures are painted in their '3-colour' system. the result is that they all look overpainted and - in my opinion - far too cartoonish. Great for looking at from about 6 inches away, but the detail gets 'lost' when they are on the tabletop.
All the best,
Bob
PS. Are the gigures Minifigs? They look like it, but I am not too sure.
Thanks Bob... I wish I could tell you the style of painting was carefully calibrated to achieve some golden balance between realism and cartoon-style... alas, this is the only way I know how to paint, mostly by chance and a little by experience! In general, I am happy with the results. I still see a miniature with "a toy at heart", compared with some more dramatic and detailed "diorama" you see on tabletop these days. And yet, my miniatures are not overtly cartoonish. I aim for a middle ground.
And yes, they are mostly 15mm Minifigs, some 2nd generation, some current generation, some from the UK, some fro Minifigs/GFI in the US. The possible exception are IR Terzi, a.k.a. the violet Austrians, whom I repainted after buying them on eBay. They look Minifigs to me for scale, size, and style, but they do not match any of my other Minifigs, and I noticed subtle differences in some details like bayonets, pouches, small features of the helmet, etc.
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