Painting Challenge Submission 11 - General de Bonnemains

General de Bonnemains - 28mm figure from Eagles of Empire.

This Painting Challenge submission did not have much to it - just a single figure. But there is a feature to the Challenge that encourages such submissions - the "Challenge XII Quadrant Map" - see here for details. Bottom line is that this was a way to get some paint on a figure that had been overdue to receive it, and score a few bonus points for the work. This also allowed me to get a submission in for a week where progress on larger projects had not been sufficiently advanced to be ready for submission.

 

In terms of "visiting planets", I started on Istvaan V, and looking at my collection and set of projects jammed on my painting desk(s), an opportunity presented itself to visit the neighbouring world of Glorantha. The theme for this planet calls for "heroes", and with this in mind, I here is General de Bonnemains, who led the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Division during the battle of  Froschwiller on August 6, 1870. This is a 28mm metal figure from "Eagles of Empire".

The Battle of Froschwiller was a major engagement that occurred early in the Franco-Prussian War. The Prussian coalition was advancing across the border, and Marshal MacMahon, commander of the Army of Alsace, was preparing for a defensive battle, having found an ideal position along the Sauer river. Orders to concentrate had been issued - the 1st Corps was already in place, and he was waiting for 5th and 7th Corps to join them. The Prussian side had similar notions, their III Army also planning to gather its strength before commencing a grand battle. Two armies faced each other warily across the Sauer valley, near the towns of Froschwiller and Worth. 

The plan was to wait until ready. But plans often don't work - and for the French in 1870 they, like, never worked. On August 6th, the pickets on both sides started to engage. Escalation followed. Artillery was committed. Troops were sent forward to deal with that. Maybe best to secure a town, you know, just to be sure? Can't allow that, right? 

Before long, the elements of the Prussian III Army were getting stuck in. The Bavarians led the way on the right flank, and the Prussians committed to follow their allies. Through the day, the French fought valiantly - 1st Corps containing some of the very top units in the French Army. MacMahon waited for help to arrive, but it never showed. As his lines buckled, he needed to buy time...and he bought that time with the lives of the reserve cavalry. General de Bonnemains led the charge, four regiments of Cuirassiers, the cream of the Second Empire's heavy cavalry. The odds were long, but the safety and glory of France were at stake. 

A very dramatic pose by the sculptor, perfect for the subject.

It was not to be...the rock-paper-scissors era of infantry lines and squares holding against the heavy cavalry were gone. The French Cuirassiers went forward, and were shot to pieces by the Prussians, armed with breech-loading rifles, backed by steel-breech-loading artillery, these glorious French cavalrymen never had a hope. In particularly tragic sequence, 700 Cuirassiers were caught in the village of Morsbronn and massacred in a matter of minutes.

The sacrifice of the heavy cavalry bought time for Marshal MacMahon to pull his shattered forces from the battlefield and fall back - many of these troops would meet their ultimate fate at Sedan some weeks later.

A white horse, perfect to lead a glorious charge!

I have not been able to track down whether General de Bonnemains survived this battle or whether he was one of the casualties of the fighting that day - apologies for the sloppy research! But I had purchased this character figure from "Eagles of Empire" - purveyors of beautiful 28mm metal figures for the period, and a quite interesting set of skirmish-type rules for the setting. He had been sitting, primed, for months, since he had arrived in the summer...a perfect target for an Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge submission! I thought he would make a fine submission for "Glorantha".

The "Eagles of Empire" sculpts are tall, lean and lovely - with one challenge in this case. The sword was bent during shipping, and I could not, no matter what I tried, get it sorted. It is tragic for this figure to defend the honour of France with a bent sword...but hey, things went really bad in 1870 for them, right?

So there was just the one figure for this submission, but at least it scored a few points, and as I said, it kept the posting momentum up for the Challenge. Thanks for reading!

Painting Challenge Submission 9 - French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War

French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Wargames Foundry.

Continuing along to submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Every edition of the Painting Challenge brings forward some kind of unique, cool sub-theme. Through the hundreds of submissions on such varied subjects and interests, something will always kind of stand out, at least to me, and in this edition, it has been the Zouaves. Challengers have done some really neat Zouaves. There have been Papal Zouaves. And then there have been Beetroot Zouaves (!) How do you top Beetroot Zouaves? Well, I can't...but I can offer my own contribution to the Zouave vibe in the Challenge - here is a unit of French Zouaves for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are 28mm metal figures from Wargames Foundry. 

The figures out front are used to denote skirmishers/mixed order on the table.

I just love the Franco-Prussian War setting. The French uniforms are just glorious! And among the glorious French uniforms, the Zouaves stand supreme! I had been "saving" these figures for years, telling myself that I needed to paint up a suitable amount of "regular" troops and cavalry before "rewarding" my brushes with the chance to paint Zouaves. With those Prussian Dragoons out of the way, I figured the time had come!

You can see some of the nice detail on the packs of the troops in the main formation.

These are based for games of "Black Powder" - 20 figures in the bulk of the unit, and the four individually based figures are used to denote skirmishers, or the unit fighting in a mixed formation. The flag is courtesy of Maverick - the first flags I have found on the market for the French in this period.

The Zouaves bring their deadly Chassepot rifles to bear...

These sculpts (by the Perry brothers) are very nice, although old. But the way Foundry packs these figures is a touch infuriating - the poses are at once consistent and yet too varied. For example, some have packs, others don't. Some have turbans, others don't. Some are wearing the "caban", and others are not, and all of this variance is found in a single eight-figure package. So if you are looking for a certain consistency among the figures you might use to make a unit, you can only use a few of them. This is...very annoying. I'm still irritated that they don't all have turbans...but then to do that I would have needed to buy another five packs of the Zouaves...enough is enough!

These sculpts are older, but wow, they are a treat to paint.

Another odd oversight in this old Wargames Foundry range is the lack of a standard bearer in the Zouave command pack - this was addressed by using a standard bearer from an ACW Zouave command blister, and a spare French Imperial Eagle standard.

The full unit, ready for the table.

Whatever those annoyances, however, these were a great treat to paint - I love Zouaves! And the best part is that you don't need to go fishing around looking for battles where they participated. The Zouave regiments were stuck in from the outset, and fought very hard for the French Empire (and the subsequent Republic!) against the Prussian forces. These fellows will now join the Turcos I painted a few years ago to stand ready in my French collection for 1870.

Thanks for reading - hope to have something more next week!  

Franco-Prussian War - 28mm French Artillery

28mm French 4-pounder guns & crew for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Metal models and miniatures from Perry.

After a nice long run of "Star Wars Legion", my brushes depart suddenly to return to a more familiar historical setting - the Franco-Prussian War. These are 28mm metal guns and figures from Perry Miniatures' new line for the Franco-Prussian War. These are 4-pounder rifled muzzle-loading artillery pieces, the mainstay of the French artillery during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

"Fire on those Prussians!"

It was great to see that artillery pieces and crews have been among the early releases for the Perry's new 28mm Franco-Prussian War figure range. Proper guns and crews from 1870 are otherwise lacking - even in the relatively complete Wargames Foundry range (also sculpted by the Perrys) does not have proper 4-pound rifled guns for the French side. So when these appeared as new releases from Perry Miniatures earlier this fall, I ordered a pair of guns right away. 

Spoked wheels are always terrible to work with - and these were particularly awful. Check out the tags that needed trimming...

Painting artillery is always a drag - the spoked wheels are generally a nightmare to work with, and these were no exception. While I won't pretend these guns were fun to build and paint, they are nonetheless a very welcome addition to my 28mm collection.

I do like the sculpt of the fellow pulling the lanyard...nice and dramatic....

While the guns were a pain in the ass, the French crew were fun to paint up - in general, the French uniforms for this period are just lovely, and I really like working on them.    

Ready for action on the table top, at some unknown time in the future...

The French artillery performed badly during the Franco-Prussian War, but even with whatever negative modifiers and other issues they might be saddled with, a French player will still want to at least try to use their guns on the advancing Prussians. These two pieces, together with the previously painted mitrailleuse can combine to represent the artillery complement of a French infantry division on the tabletop. I also still have the 12-pounder reserve gun, so the French artillery for my 28mm Franco-Prussian War is now in pretty good shape! 

That's all for now - regular "Star Wars Legion" service will resume shortly, I expect. 

Painting Challenge Submission 16 - More 10mm FPW Infantry

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hi everyone. The final stages of the 11th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge are here, and I have a few more submissions to share before that wraps up. To the surprise of nobody, I had another submission with even more 10mm subjects for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are all metal castings from Pendraken. There are three bases of French line infantry, one base of Prussian line infantry and another command base for the French.

Deadly Chassepot rifles at the ready.

Firing lines will be the friend of any French player in the FPW period.

I've raved previously about how cool the French line infantry uniforms are from this period (and they are SO cool) so that makes painting these little regiments a lot of fun. The three bases together will represent an infantry unit. My planning is such that each base would generally represent a battalion, and thus the three bases together would represent a regiment, but there are a lot of different rules that give you different options on perspective - this could just as easily represent a brigade, or each base could represent a company etc. whatever. I really like rules that are agnostic about that kind of thing.

Senior command base for the French.

Actual senior commanders would have had smaller flags...but screw it.

He's thinking "how can I snatch defeat from the jaws of victory?"

The command base is meant to represent a more senior level of officer group - like many of you, the more figures on the base, the more senior the command. Here we have a mounted senior officer, with some flunkies, and a flag, so this would be something like a corps commander.

Prussian line infantry, ready to advance!

The Pendraken sculpts are just fantastic.

So far, so French. In AHPC XI my 10mm work has been on French troops - so why only this one single base of Prussians in this submission? Well, I had finished a bunch of Prussians and Bavarians already over the past couple years, and it made sense to focus on building up the French in this edition of the Challenge. With that said, I was doing a review of the little soldiers on my shelf (as one does), and I noticed that, for whatever reason, my Prussians were still a single base short of having an entire Corps' worth of Prussian line infantry (on the basis that one base = one battalion). This irked me (as these sorts of things do), and so painted these guys up to round things out.

One more look at the French lingards...

Of course, no project is ever actually "finished", these figures do represent something of a waypoint for my 10mm FPW efforts - I have enough stuff painted to stage the Battle of Wissembourg as described in Bruce Weigle's awesome "1870" rule set - I even have enough French finished to play the alternative versions of the scenario he offers! That works out to 65 bases of infantry, 20 bases of cavalry, 28 bases of artillery, and 18 different command bases. I'm not about to stop at this project - after all, more and bigger battles await! But this a nice point to pause and smile a little. Now I just need to get them on to the table...

Hope all is well out there with everyone! Stay safe and stay sane.

Painting Challenge Submission 14 - 10mm French Infantry and Command for FPW

10mm French troops, ready for battle in 1870!

Another submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - we have more 10mm figures for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Here is a unit of French line infantry, and some command bases with mounted figures. These are all 10mm figures from Pendraken.

Typical of my project so far - three bases to form an infantry unit.

The uniform of the French Infantry from the era of the second empire is just so fun to paint, a real "clincher" for my interest in the period and wish to game it. All the regiments with baggy red pants and kepis and epaulettes...just so cool. It is not a circumstance where you paint many units with "OK" uniforms to get to the cool ones...this is the uniform of the basic lignard, and it is already awesome (meaning the elite units are thus even more awesome). It is a lot of fun to paint.

So much lovely detail on these castings from Pendraken.

And it shows up so nicely, even in 10mm (although of course I am biased), because the sculpts from Pendraken are top-shelf, cunningly crafted and well-cast so there are details to work with, even at a relatively small scale.

Column formation to move forward...hope no Prussian artillery is nearby!

The infantry here would represent a Regiment for rules such as "Black Powder" and "1871", but of course such rules can scale up or down as you like, depending on the nature of the battle and scenario one wishes to play.  

Mounted officers - I initially intend to use them as brigade commanders, but these can be used for all sorts of purposes.

The command bases are similar - the bases with a single mounted officer are meant to represent brigade commanders for "1871", which the base with the two mounted figures would be a division commander. I placed a Cuirassier on the base as I intended this specific one for command of a French cavalry division - but again many different rules allow for many different command bases in different ways - for my part, the more figures on the base, the more senior the commanders.

Two figures on the command base, to represent a more senior level of command - a cavalry officer, with the Cuirassier to keep an eye on things...

The end of the Challenge is looming, and I find I'm still well-short of my goal. Hopefully I can still find time to get more done before the end of the Challenge in March. Stay safe everyone, and happy painting!

Painting Challenge Submission 13 - 10mm French Cuirassiers for FPW

10mm French Cuirassiers for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Figures from Pendraken.

Hello again blog visitors! I continue to play blog-posting-catch-up with my submissions to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. For this submission, we return once more to a familiar setting for my brushes: the tabletop battlefields of 19th century Europe. Here are some 10mm French Cuirassiers from the Franco-Prussian War. These are metal figures from Pendraken. 

As always, the castings from Pendraken are amazing.

With their beautiful uniforms and bright, polished/burnished helmets and breastplates, the French Cuirassiers are an iconic military symbol, of both France's military prestige and the idea of heavy cavalry from the so-called "black powder" era of war. Through the Napoleonic wars, these well-trained, hard-hitting heavy cavalry were called on to make a decisive impact in a number of battles - and they did so, many times cracking the enemy when the Emperor called them forward.

Reverse-pattern uniform on the trumpeter in the foreground...I just noticed that I forgot to paint the stripes on their pants...oh well, they are only 10mm...

In the time of the Second Empire, the Cuirassiers strove very much to maintain this tie to earlier times, and the French army retained several regiments of these bad-boys, ready to deliver a knock-out blow on the battlefield. But as many accounts will share, technology and doctrine were evolving. Many sorts of cavalry found they could not overcome the massed fire of bolt-action rifles and artillery, and the Franco-Prussian War saw mostly empty saddles when cavalry went into the main battle. This was an issue for the cavalry on both sides, but the losses suffered by these glorious French cavalry troopers seem somehow more dramatic to me, especially as they often occurred in the context of a broader defeats underscored by the incapability of a French general staff to truly grasp WTF was going on while the Prussian forces enveloped them. The shattered regiments of Cuirassiers were a fitting symbol for fate of Napoleon III and his Second Empire.

Glory awaits on the tabletop...

Whatever the lessons of history, on a wargaming table, launching heavy cavalry is always fun, and I was looking forward to painting these figures. I just love the uniforms of the French Cuirassiers - they are among THE sharpest uniforms out there, and the Pendraken sculpts are fabulous, showing the troopers in reserve, ready to follow their commander along into one more glorious charge...these are great castings, and I really had fun working on them.

As with all of my previous 10mm FPW work, these are based for the "1871" wargame rules, in which two bases comprise a cavalry regiment. So there are meant to be two regiments here, but of course there are many ways to configure these for different rules. Thanks for reading everyone - stay sane and safe out there!

Painting Challenge Submission 11 - 10mm French Lancers for FPW

French Lancers in 10mm for the FPW - figures from Pendraken.

So I have been lazy when it comes to posting things on the blog - time to catch up a bit with more submissions from Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This one contains more 10mm Franco-Prussian War figures - no surprise there. I have been on a bit of a roll with it, so I want to keep it going. These 10mm figures are meant to represent two regiments of French Line Lancers, ready to ride to glory in the summer of 1870. The castings are from Pendraken - as always, a joy to paint, but with one sort of mysterious feature, one which I could not quite bring out in the photos, but I will share a little more about below...

Beautiful sculpts as always from Pendraken - but take a really close look at the musician, if you can.

Cavalry was very important to the armies of 1870, but the era of cavalry regiments closing to contact and having a decisive impact on the battle itself was coming to an end. Of course, no point wasting you time advancing those views in the summer of 1870, right? These brave fellows will run down any enemies foolish enough to mess with Imperial France! What should they be scared of? A bunch of foot-sloggers with black powder muskets? No,...they have rifles you say? Breech-loading you say? How many shots per minute? Backed by breech-loading artillery? Well...I'm sure it will all work out in the end - debrouiller, as the French say. Instant glory awaits. You should charge that Prussian line right now.

Maybe check the musician in this photo? No...a bit blurry...

These are based for the "1871" game rules, where a single base represents two squadrons of cavalry or so, and two bases together represent a regiment. Of course, as with the infantry, the scale of the game can be increased or decreased, so different combinations are possible, but the intent for now is that these will represent two different regiments ready to fight in some of the early engagements near the French/Prussian border.

Yellow facings for this unit.

It was difficult to find clear uniform references for the Lancers in this period. The relevant Osprey book is a bit of a disappointment in this regard, so in the end I bodged it a bit. One of the regiments has yellow facings and collars, the other red...I think I ended up exaggerating the amount of colour on the facings, but it helps when the figures are in this scale.

To battle! Vive L'empereur!

Ok...so I mentioned at the outset there was something odd about the musicians. Can you spot it? Probably not...but each bugler is missing his right forearm - a flaw in the casting, I suppose. And pretty odd that both musicians had that issue. But you only get one bugler per pack, and I didn't want to order new packs of Lancers just to get more musicians...so the "ghost bugles" will help lead these riders to battle on the table!

Thanks for reading! Stand by for more Franco-Prussian War cavalry...stay safe and stay sane!

Painting Challenge Submission 10 - French Turcos and Command for 10mm FPW

More 10mm troops for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870!

Some more work completed for my 10mm Franco-Prussian War of 1870 project. This submission includes a unit of French Tirailleurs Algeriens - the feared "Turcos - and also a command base for the French, all in 10mm. The Turcos are castings from Pendraken, and the command figures are from Magister Millitum.

The Turcos are Pendraken sculpts, and they are amazing quality to work with, I love them.

The Imperial French Army had a poor showing overall in the Franco-Prussian War, but it was not for lack of bravery or determination on the part of the front-line troops, and the Turcos in particular gave a good account of themselves. They were fierce and disciplined in battle against the Prussians and their allies - and from a gaming perspective, they also had cool uniforms, which is great fun to paint!

The problem is much more likely to be found on that command base...some spare figures left over from my Magister Millitum packs. Again, these command bases can be generic but in the "1871" rules, two figures on the base generally represents a division commander. His uniform is nice, but I expect his command modifiers will not be...

A close-up showing the Turco officers...the flag is cast-on, so painted in free-hand.

These figures are based with the rules "1871" in mind, but of course can work for a number of other rule sets.  Even the "1871" rules themselves can scale up and down, but the default starting position is that each base of infantry would represent a battalion, and the three bases together comprise the regiment. But rules like "1871" and "Black Powder" are very flexible, so in the the future there are many potential uses for them.

Ready for action! Vive L'Empereur!

The Pendraken castings are really, really fun to paint. Yes, they are small, but the sculpting and casting are brilliant, with all sorts of little details that will reward your time if you try to bring them out. Painting the flag freehand was a bit of a challenge, but in this scale it is manageable. I'm not sure my brush was up to all of it, but I sure enjoyed these fellows, and they will add to the colourful variety of uniforms to be seen on the Franco-Prussian War gaming table...whenever that can be...sigh. 

Great details on these Pendraken figures!

One thing about the Challenge is your points target. Everyone gets to set their own target, so it's a competition against yourself. I set a target of 1,500 points of painting...that might have been an overreach. To give you an idea of how much to paint, this was worth 33 points...so I had better get cracking if I expect to get to my ambitious target. Watch for more!

Thanks for reading, and try to stay sane!

Painting Challenge Submission 9 - French Artillery fro 10mm FPW

Some 10mm French artillery and crew for the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge continues, and since I have my 10mm figures out, 10mm painting is on my mind and I'm kind of in a 10mm painting "streak", I thought I would bring my brushes along to an ongoing project - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 in 10mm. I had last added to this collection back in the fall of 2020, and with the Challenge under way, it was a good chance to keep moving forward with the project.

This posting includes various artillery units to bulk up the French side of my FPW collection. There are two 12-pounders, three 4-pounders and one Mitrailleuse, plus crews. All of these castings are from Pendraken, with one  exception: of one of the 4-pound guns and crew, which came from Magister Millitum.

A couple of 4-pounders in the front.

I love this period, but I generally have a lot of trouble finding to motivation to paint artillery from any "Black Powder" setting...it's the f***ing spoked wheels, a pain in the @ss to paint in any scale. A lot of my projects slow to a crawl when it comes to artillery. So as I contemplated moving along on my 10mm FPW, I figured the best thing to do would be to get another batch of guns and crews out of the way first, so everything else can be more fun.

Mitrailleuse in the foreground...at this scale, it looks almost identical to a 4-pounder, so the gun shield helps it stand out a bit.

These guns were rifled muzzle loading artillery pieces, and their poor performance overall contributed to the very poor showing of the French during the war in 1870. It wasn't just the guns themselves, but the doctrine and training around them - and dud fuses didn't help either! Where the Prussian artillery (with their breech-loading guns) was often decisive, the French guns generally underperformed, contributing (together with many, many other factors) to the rapid defeat of the Imperial Army in the summer of 1870.

The 12-pounders...big guns from the Corps-level artillery reserve, meant to provide support on the battlefield where the action is hottest/most critical.

These miniatures can be used for different rules, but generally each gun and crew will represent one battery on the table. The 12-pounders and two of the 4-pounders will be from the Corps-level artillery reserve, while one 4-pounder and the Mitrailleuse will be attached to a specific division. Two of the 4-pounders are actually horse artillery, but by this period the distinction between the horse crews and general artillery crews is fading, and the differences in the uniforms of the gunners do not stand out in 10mm - I just used three crew instead of four crew for the horse batteries. At some point when I paint limbers for the guns the distinction will be clearer...but I admit my enthusiasm to paint limbers is even less than that for artillery...if you ever see me painting limbers, you know I have completed painting on entire armies at that point :)

Thanks for reading - stay safe, stay sane, and be sure to check out the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, where Byron, Mike F and Dallas are continuing to paint up a storm!

Encore Avec Les 10mm French

Another small batch of 10mm reinforcements for the French of 1870.

 

Nothing too original or surprising in this post - here are yet more 10mm French infantry for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The castings are from Pendraken. There are three bases of regular line infantry, and a single base of Chasseurs. 

Lovely castings from Pendraken, as always.

 

While these figures could work for a wide assortment of rules, I am currently working with 1 base = 1 battalion in mind for these 10mm figures, so this post includes enough figures to add another full line regiment and chasseur battalion to my French collection for the period. With that said, many rules are flexible when it comes to their unit scales, so this could just as easily be said to represent a line infantry battalion and a couple of companies of chasseurs...all depending of your flavour of game and scenario.

Chasseurs to the front!

 

Each division in the French Imperial Army of the era (before everything fell apart after Sedan) included a single battalion of Chasseurs, along with two brigades of infantry, each with (usually) two regiments of line infantry. 

The French Chasseur uniform - blue, trimmed with yellow - not as flashy, but still sharp!

 

The Chasseurs had different uniforms from their colleagues in the line regiments - no red baggy pants for them. Instead, they wore closer fitting blue trousers, matching the blue on their tunic and their kepi. The uniforms were piped in yellow, and they had green epaulets. Not quite as striking as the regulation uniform of the line troops, but still sharp, in my opinion!

View from the rear, showing the excellent detail on the packs of the French line infantry.

Ready to defend the Empire! Vive l'Empereur!

 

My 10mm French collection is growing at a slow-but-steady pace...now up to six regiments of infantry and two battalions of Chasseurs. Watch for more as the long winter of COVID looms...I may need a short break from the recent run of 10mm work, but overall, there are some big battles I would love to play with the group one day, and that will call for a lot more posts like this. Thanks for reading, I hope you are staying safe and sane, wherever you are!