Gathering 10mm Forces - how to base?

I recently mentioned doing an experiment with Pendraken 10mm figures, with the core design principle being a fast assembly of forces with very minimal time spent with a paint brush. This would be about getting a functional army to the table quickly. It needed a break of mindset of always feeling compelled to paint the detail that is on the figure.

I recently abandoned a couple of the Warlord Games’ Epic projects, being over faced with a painting challenge and never seemingly being able to adjust my painting technique to the three foot rule that I think the benefits the scale, plus over time I became less of a fan of the formulaic look of ranked infantry, with each figure merging into the next - so time for a re-think.

I like the idea of the figures being based very close together, but remaining individual and then painting after basing. For speed, just undercoat in black, dry brush white and pick out highlights that the paint brush could reach, which would mostly default to the front of the front rank and the rear of the rear rank getting more attention that those hard to reach places between the ranks.

I am reminded of how many years ago I was buying ready 4 ranked bases in 6mm from Irregular Miniatures and that is exactly how you had to paint them.

Just to try this out, I ordered a packet of line infantry, one of line command, one of dragoons, one of artillery and a senior command pack. The intention was to use one pack per unit.

Per pack, Pendraken give you 30 infantry, 15 cavalry or 3 guns with crew.

So, firstly, how to base? this has been my most pressing question. In the end I just pinched my nose and jumped in, but already I am having second thoughts on the Infantry basing.

For infantry, there are 3 bases per unit on 40mm x 20mm plastic bases (Kallistra). For line, this gives a frontage of 120mm with 36 figures. Because this exceeds the pack size, I have had to create two command based (flagged) from my stash, but one of these bases will be installed in a second unit if I press on with this project.

The three bases behind each other give a good impression of an assault column, with plenty of heads in there (36). What it doesn’t do well is march column or form the ideal square, but I can get around this with markers.

Why am I having second thoughts - perhaps just two bases at 50mm frontage each might help with table constraints and going for the ‘small game’, giving a unit frontage of 100mm and being a better fit with what I have done with the cavalry and artillery. Also IF I decide to go with Kallistra hexes again, the 100mm frontage will at least fit their hex.

For the artillery, the 3 models and 12 crew in a pack, works well to give a sense of a deployed battery. These are on an 80mm x 40mm base. The black priming while based works okay with a rattle can, but is best done with two light coats to better catch the undercuts.

Note the cannon on the left has lost its barrel in action! I can’t find it anywhere, so I have replaced it with a piece of cocktail stick sanded down. I doubt anyone will notice once painted and I won’t tell if you don’t!

Cavalry - I like the look of single big cavalry bases. This will count as a single unit, regiments in big games and perhaps squadrons in skirmish level games. The 14 models here are on an 80mm x 60mm base. They are ranked in straight lines and I wish now that I had done them just slightly less formed, to give a sense of motion.

Command stand - These are on a 40mm round base, which I now feel is a tad too big, but I will treat them as army or corps commanders, so their status befits the bigger base!

Painting

To stop me doing detail, rather than painting on sticks, I mounted the figures on their bases and then primed with a black rattle can. The infantry were dry brushed twice to accentuate the white. After that I just dabbed with the paintbrush onto the accessible parts of the figures.

These are Napoleonic Austrian infantry, so they have white tunics and trousers, black boots and helmets and then yellow to the sides of the helmet crest. Muskets are brown with steel bayonets attached and exposed skin is limited to hands and face. Backpacks are brown with a grey roll on top.

All the worrying things like belts, straps, buttons, water bottles, bayonet scabbards, collar colours and other trim etc etc either  can be ignored. 

Pretty much everywhere the colours have been suggested rather than carefully detailed. An example being the yellow sides to the helmet crest. This was slapped on and then a black stripe was placed over the very top of the comb and each helmet got a ‘dab’ of black to its sides, by the end of that process, there was still enough yellow showing to give the right impression.

What surprised me was that I completed the three base paint job in 1 hour and 15 minutes. The prep, priming, varnish and ground paste are what they are, but 1:15 for a unit for the painting bit, I thought was very good. My Epic were taking around 5 hours and my 28’s for 20 figures are generally takin 13 - 15 hours!

So - with the three foot rule, I am thinking these will be fine. My worry will be getting the cavalry to look good enough, with ‘rough’ painting and trying not to have too much primer left exposed, but I’m sure they will be fine.

What next?

I don’t know really. Initially this is an experiment for me just to see if it has the basis of something that I want to take forward. I just can’t decide whether this is something I want to pursue. On the same painting tray are 9 x 28mm Austrian Jäger for skirmish stands and they look so nice and I just want to finish them and perhaps that tells its own tale.

In the short term, I could move this to a Neil Thomas style army, so just 3 more infantry units would give a 6 unit army for his one hour battle scenarios and then make an opposing army. After that, doing double of everything would give a couple of handy pocket armies.

I might just order the figures needed to make up those bases, prime them and use them as they are, while I get a feel for them on the table and can then paint them over time, as it seems that a single unit could be painted in a single session.

Resources;

Pendraken website. LINK

https://www.pendraken.co.uk/

I have another bit of web space (COMMANDERS) that is a bit more magaziney than here and is likely where the small updates on the project will appear. LINK

https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html