1809 Project Update II

There is a link at the bottom of this post to an earlier post (Part I) that covered the aims and objectives of this limited project.

In summary I am aiming for 8 units per side in a project that will see some 1809 related actions fought out on a dining table. 

In the initial post, I had 6 units out of the needed 16 units already painted. In this update, a further 4 units and two commanders can be added to that tally, now painted, based and sent to barracks.

To help with project planning, I have made up two rosters to keep me true to preparing just the actual head count needed. The units highlighted with a peach coloured background have been completed.

The French Progress (click on the table for enlarging)

The scenario (by Neil Thomas) that I am following needs an allied satellite battalion for the French.

I was just going to paint some of my Warlord Games figures as Swiss, but at the recent Alumwell show, I picked up the newly released plastic Duchy of Warsaw - nice!

The Austrian Progress

The basic forces for each side needs 100 infantry, 16 cavalry, 2 guns with 6 crew, plus a generals base that will have two mounted commanders. Even as a ‘small’ project this still demands a respectable amount of painting for the two Pocket armies involved.

Above - I picked these (Polish 14th  Cuirassier) up off e-bay for the kids, for their Christmas gift to me. I want my cavalry in 8's on 2 bases of 4 horse, but these seem too nice to split up.

Above - Austrian 6th Dragoons. To give me a leg-up, I sent these to a painting service and then based them in the 4's that I want. I wasn't 100% sure what to do with them when they arrived as I felt they had less contrast in them than my own stuff, but I liked them enough to leave them. They had been dry-brushed to give a dusty campaign look.

Anyway after some deliberation, I spent another couple of hours on them, putting some highlights in that of course matched my colour palette. I am now very happy with them.

I have added a few bonus bases to the list that may increase the utility of the force, outside that first imagined. These may or may not get done in time. The target for completion is January 2025, when a game with everything painted can go ahead for the Battle of Auberge, inspired by Neil Thomas’ Leibnitz scenario in his napoleonic book (as outlined in the initial post).

The French infantry units have been fairly straight forward to paint, if a little time consuming, but it is the Austrians that I find to be the most daunting, trying to get all of the white right. 

My most recent approach (above - 4th Line Regiment with pale blue facings) started with Wraith Bone rattle can primer (Citadel) over the whole figure and then for all of the white uniform to be painted with Apothecary White, which is a GW Contrast paint and is a sort of very light grey. All the highlights are then painted with Vallejo’s Off White and finally the cross belts done with Vallejo white.

With contrast paint, to ensure fully mixed pigment, I find that you have to shake, shake and shake the paint and then when you think it has been shaken enough ….. shake some more! I have put two small steel ballbearings in each of my pots, to help break up the sediment on the bottom.

Compared to the first unit that I did (a couple of years ago now - above top right with red facing) with standard painting techniques and a dark tone wash (Army painter), I think the involvement of the contrast paint has made for an easier and perhaps kinder result - at least for the wargames table.

I was going to do the Commander bases last, but jumped the gun and have just painted up Napoleon and Mameluke Ali as a duo (above). These are Perry metal castings and the pairing of these two for the French command was inspired by Iain (Cavedsum1471 Blog) who last year did a similar pairing for his 1809 forces (Blog link in the Resource Section Below).

Above - French Light infantry in line, plastics from Warlord Games, come with tiny transfers for the cartridge cases. A small thing, but to the eye, especially on the white cases, they elevate the unit to something nicer.

Looking at the gaps in the project roster tables, there are still units that need to be taken from their boxes, built and added to temporary bases. I will likely wait for better weather to do that, so that I can glue outdoors in the fresh air, but once done and I have a ‘full’ order-of-battle, I will take the Battle of Auberge to the table with the mix of painted and unpainted units while I settle on rules.

This is not as straight forward as I initially suggested.  I had thought that Black Powder would win through, due to my commitment to streamlining my rules to the Warlord Games trio. 

However ‘The Shadow of the Eagles’ is one of the few sets that survived the great rule clear-out and deserves another look. I would also like to spend a little more time with Valour & Fortitude, if for no other reason than the author / Perry’s plan to push those rules to cover other periods (ACW just published).

Above - three French infantry battalions in mixed order.

Speaking of ‘Shadows’, lurking in the background, I have my own Eagles at Quatre Bras rules, which have recently been getting a tidy up as I try to keep the napoleonic version and the ACW versions closely aligned.

Anyway, everything feels like it is moving forwards and getting sufficiently serviced. There was a small loss of wargaming traction in January because we had a couple of weeks of builders working in my usual gaming area, but suffice to say, that area of life / home has now returned to normal.

The building work combined with the Christmas period meant that I lost around a month of momentum, but the goal of having a year to complete the project and it having a relatively small objective, should make all of this still quite do-able as a January 2025 target. 

I’m glad I set the goal, it has kept the brushes working, perhaps more consistently than they have been for a couple of years - though they are caressing Wars of the Roses figures at the moment ..... on behalf of Lord Stanley and a Piggy Longton battle that is long overdue.

Resource Section.

Part 1 of the 1809 Napoleonic project - LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2023/12/kicking-off-1809-project.html

Iain’s Blog (Cavedsum 1471) LINK

http://caveadsum1471.blogspot.com

My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’  showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.

https://commanders.simdif.com