10mm Napoleonic French Bases

A few weeks ago, I bought a few bags of Napoleonic 10mm from Pendraken, to make single test units for infantry, cavalry and artillery, plus a command base. There is a previous post that discusses this and the thoughts behind how the basing should look (link in the Resource Section below).

A main thrust is to try and get some benefits from speed painting, relying on the ‘three foot rule’ to get armies painted and to the table quickly. 

In that post I discussed basing options and showed the infantry unit painted up and based. 

This post concludes things by showing each of the test units all fully painted up and based for further consideration.

All these figures were glued to bases before painting, something that I have never tried before and thought would be much harder to do than it was. It actually helps with the discipline of speed painting.

As a reminder of the infantry side of things, here are a couple of shots of the Austrians in line and column. They are on 40mm x 20mm bases, with 12 figures to the base, so that is 36 figures to the unit, which I think is enough ‘heads’ to get an okay look.

The unit is double flagged simply because I bought 1 bag of everything and by using a 36 figure unit, I ran out of infantry and so had to use extra command figures to get the third base. As this project continues, that second command base will just move to the next unit, to be replaced by 12 standard infantry.

Next up I did the artillery. I am aiming for roughly using a figure pack per unit and since you get 3 guns and 12 crew in a pack, all three guns and crew have been used to  represent a battery. This single base is 80mm x 40mm and I like the effect. It looks like a deployed battery. I think it best to represent limbered artillery with a separate base of horse pulled guns. At this scale, it not particularly an issue to have enough limbers.

For cavalry, you get 15 models to the pack and here 14 have been used in two lines of 7. The standard bearer is front centre, but I have not yet decided yet what to put on that pole. These are Austrian dragoons in the colours (blue facings) of the 6th Dragoons, based on a single 80mm x 60mm MDF base.

To help the speed painting, I adopted something that a poster at Lead Adventurer Forum (thank you) described as ‘wet painting’ for the horse. For this, I kept the brown paint quite wet so that as I slopped it on the horses, it pretty much went everywhere it needed to for fuller coverage. This is hugely helpful with pre-based horses.

Setting aside figure prep (easy), basing, priming and then later adding basing paste and flocking which are fairly fixed in terms of time spent on them, the actual painting of the cavalry unit took just 1½ hours, which I am pretty impressed with and I think the overall effect (3 foot rule) is fine.

Finally there is the command base, these are generals and they have been put on a 40mm circular base, which I feel looks too big, but I like the bigger base for senior command and I think the real problem here is not the base size, but that the figures have been spaced too far apart.

It might be a scale thing, but I note that all of these bases look nicer to the eye than they do via the camera.

Anyway, it occurs to me that 1 base of cavalry, artillery and infantry already done, this is half way to a Neil Thomas style force in his ‘One Hour Wargames’ system and so for the little effort of 3 more infantry bases (3 packs of infantry at the cost of roughly £21) that a usable Austrian force would be complete.

For my own tastes, I would see that as stage 1 of a Pocket Army, with a later doubling of it to reach a stage 2 size that essentially gives a 12 unit army, possibly a sweet spot for many.

So there we are. Will I complete it - well, I thought more than likely I would, but not just yet. However, at the recent Partizan show, I was quite taken by that 4’ x 4’ self folding terrain board made from a re-configured wooden pasting table that Martin from Peter Pig had brought along and perhaps that might make a nice self contained project.

I have seen similar boards used at the last two Phalanx wargame shows used with 6mm armies (a Napoleonic and an Ardennes WWII game).

But of course as always, there is a lot of good stuff that is competing for immediate attention! I am looking at getting the Wagram board game to the table, having a trial or two of the Blood Red Roses rules that I bought for 28mm Wars of the Roses, painting the 9 x 28mm French Napoleonic Voltiguers started a few weeks ago, completing the 3 table corps game and keeping my hand in with the Advanced Squad Leader situational exercises. All are on the immediate horizon.

Resources

The previous post that introduces plans for 10mm basing styles. LINK

https://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/search/label/10mm

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

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

German WWII Pocket Army in 10 / 12mm

Having sold off the 20mm (1/72) WWII stuff last year, I have been buying the bits to put some 10 / 12mm (1/144) forces together.

In the first instance I am going for a German mid war starter force - a new ‘Pocket Army’. 

WWII can pass across the painting table at surprising speed compared to other periods and so it makes for a good quick project to fit in between other bigger projects, that you sometimes need a rest from!

Anyway, kampfgruppe Schmidt is ready for action, comprising as follows;

9 x Infantry bases (6 figures per 45mm base)

1 x Mortar base (with 2 mortar teams and an observer)

2 x HMG bases (1 HMG per base)

1 x OBA observer team (radio operator and observer with field glasses)

2 x PaK 40 bases (75mm anti-tank guns and crew)

1 x HQ base (Horch car and two officers)

3 x StuG III vehicles.

1 x Opel truck

The infantry, mortar and HMG and OBA observer team are Victrix hard plastic figures from their German Infantry pack costing £30, but there are still enough figures left to do quite a few more bases … perhaps even another company of infantry if I get a little creative.

All the vehicles are from Anschluss Wargames. They are resin and the StuG’s cost £3.75 each, the Horch car cost £3.50 and the Opel truck £3.25

The Anti-tank guns are metal from Pendraken Miniatures, costing £3.20 for the pair.

So for around £50 a flexible WWII Pocket Army can hit the table, for say just over £100 plus associated postage for the two small forces.

I have tried to base these so that they can fit into both rural and urban scenarios, but I am not sure that I have achieved that as much as intended. The problem is that if the base goes too dark, you visually ‘lose’ the figures in them. I had to add some light turf (a sort of dusting) to brighten these, but I think that has left them a bit ‘messy’.

Although the Horch car is based, that was really just to create a HQ scene and for this project, for now at least, I am generally not going to base the vehicles. The advantage of basing would be the raising of the vehicle so that they look right next to the based infantry, but I think un-based vehicles sit better on a variety of terrains - we shall see!

The infantry bases each represent a rifle section, so the nine base gives a company of three platoons, a fairly perfect size for my own rules, rather small for ‘O’ Group and also on the small side for Rapid Fire Reloaded scenario books that I have, though the ‘head count’ on the bases might make for a better visual for Rapid Fire games. 

In any case, it is just a starter force and it will be easy to introduce other bases and broaden the versatility.

My intention now is to do a mirror force for the mid-war Soviets. I will look to add a 7th figure to the infantry bases to represent bigger platoons and see what that looks like and probably run one of the platoons with three sections of sub-machine gunners.

After which … ‘Attack on the Rail Station’ and others beckon! 

Progress can then slow down a bit, perhaps a platoon of Hanomag half tracks for the Germans and a truck platoon for the Soviets, before turning to either a British / commonwealth or American force for another ‘Pocket Army’.

I will be adding updates on these Pocket Armies over on my COMMANDERS site at;

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