10mm FPW Again...This Time, French Hussars

10mm French Hussars for the Franco-Prussian War - figures from Pendraken.

More "small" progress from the painting table, a continued theme from recent posts - 10mm Franco-Prussian War figures.  These are French Hussars from the Franco-Prussian War, and as before, these are castings from Pendraken - and they are amazing quality sculpts and castings.

Lots of character and detail on these little fellows - fun to paint!

There are a number of different gaming options out there for this period, but consistent with my recent 10mm output for the period, these are intended for use with Bruce Weigle's "1871" rules. Each base would represent two squadrons of cavalry, so the two bases together would represent a French cavalry regiment in the game.

A charge in line...

These little fellows are wearing the light blue coats, kepis and red pants of the newer Hussar uniform that was still in the process of being issued in 1870.  Even though they are small little guys, the level of detail on the sculpts is incredible, and I love how Pendraken have given them an animated, dramatic look - charging forward, sabres drawn, for the glory of the French Empire (and, later, the French Republic).

Another view of the detail...

If you are curious about 10mm, you should give Pendraken a try...I'm blown away by the quality.

Together with the Chasseurs and Dragoons, I have close to a division's worth of French cavalry ready for a game of "1871".  But there is always more to do...I still need to get many more Prussians, and some Bavarians, painted up before we try these rules.  Summer is approaching (on the calendar, if not in the climate), so hopefully my summer painting will bring some more progress to share on more of these little fellows.

French mobilization continues in 10mm...

Thanks for visiting the Blog, have a great day!

A Few More 10mm FPW French Fellows

10mm Franco-Prussian War castings from Pendraken.

Not too much painting happening these days, but I'm chipping away here and there at a "small" project - 10mm Franco-Prussian War.  These are castings from Pendraken, and they are really quite amazing - very small, of course, but sculpted in cunning fashion so as to give you little bits of detail here and there to jump on to.

While these figures might ultimately accommodate a number of different rules, I am aiming to use them for Bruce Weigle's "1871" grand tactical rules.  In this case, each base of infantry would represent one battalion, and each base of cavalry would represent two squadrons/half regiment of horsemen.  So the three bases of infantry would represent an infantry regiment, and the two bases of horse would represent a cavalry regiment, etc. By using this sort of scale, it will be possible to play some of the large battles from the Franco-Prussian war - or at least, large parts of them.

The Pendraken figures have cast flags on them...I thought this was a terrible idea - and to Pendraken's credit, you can order separate flag bearers with empty poles and then use paper flags - but the scale is small, and as flags go, the French one is pretty straightforward...my free-hand is nothing to write home about, but I'm starting to like the look of the painted flags in the small scale.

So there are three bases of French line infantry:

In any scale, those Second Empire french uniforms are just lovely.

Ready for a charge after softening up the Prussians with Chassepot fire...

Incredible detail for 10mm castings!

And two bases of Chasseurs a Cheval:

Charge!

Love the animation in these little sculpts!

Again, amazing details for 10mm castings.

Still not enough 10mm chaps painted for a game as yet, but getting there slowly-but-surely. Watch this space for more progress (I hope!). Thanks for visiting, and have a great day. 

Franco-Prussian War - 10mm Turcos & Friends

10mm Franco-Prussian War castings from Pendraken.

The blogging pace has slowed in the past few weeks - work has been rather busy, and abysmal "spring" weather has finally relented somewhat, allowing glimpses of a bright, glowing orb in the sky that appears to generate sufficient heat even to melt snow! I have been trying to get outside to maximize my enjoyment of this wondrous development...

But I have still been painting a bit. The period and setting will be a familiar one - the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, but I have switched scales for a bit, adding a few more 10mm figures. These castings are all from Pendraken. They add to some "test" figures I painted last year, and to some more I painted during the recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

These 10mm figures are being based with the game "1870" in mind.  In the basic version of this game, one base equals one battalion of infantry, two squadrons or cavalry or a battery of guns. This scale allows for some of the very large engagements from the Franco-Prussian War to be played out on a gaming table of a somewhat reasonable size in a somewhat reasonable time. 

There are a few different elements in this post - up first is a regiment of Tirailleurs Algerian, the feared "Turcos", colonial troops from Algeria in French service.  The Turcos were fine soldiers and performed bravely during the war.  The three bases together would comprise the whole regiment.

The Turcos are ready to march in defence of the Second Empire!

Incredible detail and quality on such small figures - Pendraken sculpts are incredible, and really do justice to these iconic troops!

These same sculpts can be used to represent Zouaves...I'll paint some of those up soon.

Up next is some cavalry - French Dragoons.  These two bases together would comprise an entire regiment of Dragoons.

French Dragoon regiment in line.

French Dragoon regiment in column.

Then we move on to artillery - there are three batteries of French "4-pounders".  These were rifled muzzle-loading pieces and two batteries of these guns were attached to each division in the Imperial army.

These 4-lb artillery pieces were the main components of a French divsion's artillery strength.

Then we have that exotic French weapon from 1870, the Mitrailleuse. Generally speaking, each French division in the Imperial army had one battery available.

The mysterious mitrailleuse.

One battery of these exotic weapons per division...

Finally some small stands to represent command - there is a French base and a Prussian one. 

French divisional command base.

Prussian divisional command base.

How dumb is it to paint one setting in multiple scales? Certainly this causes a diffusion of overall progress toward goals...and this is true - when you spread your efforts out, you make a smaller percentage of progress towards a larger number of goals...no doubt this approach helps fill my basement with unpainted stuff, right? But there are many other positive things I find from collecting and painting a period or setting in different scales.  

First, there are some big battles from this setting I would like to game with the guys - but that won't happen in 28mm.  I love and enjoy my 28mm collection, and will continue to add to it, but this will almost always be used to play smaller components of larger battles.  Most of the main engagements in the Franco-Prussian War featured at least one Corps-level formation per side. At a battalion level, a French division alone would have 13 battalions of infantry.  With 24-figure battalions, that's 312 figures just for the one division...a French Corps would have had three divisions, plus a cavalry division, and then the attached artillery...and that doesn't even count the Prussians!

My 10mm Franco-Prussian war collection to date...not very big, but as the gaps on the shelf fill in, we'll get towards a game...still you can already see how the smaller scale can offer a big "sweeping"  view for the period... for rules like "1870" this small collection still represents a total of 21 battalions of infantry, 12 squadrons of cavalry and 10 batteries of artillery...

And even if I could somehow summon the time and skill to paint all of those figures in 28mm (hey, that would be cool, if miraculous), I'm not sure I could find a table or the space to represent, say, the battle of Spicheren or Mars-La-Tour...those would have to be enormous tables, so far beyond my skills to create, or the size of my house to hold!

A Prussian division in 10mm for "1870" - two brigades of infantry (each of two regiments), a regiment of Dragoons (cut off on the left of the photo). The divisional artillery at the back. Command stands are at the front, along with a battalion of Jagers (cut off at the front left of the photo). 

So diving into smaller scales is the answer.  But there is a further benefit...I find it refreshes my interest and motivation (oddly), to paint a period/setting in different scales.  While I'm painting my 28mm figures, I'm saying to myself "oh man, this takes time, it would be so cool to just get a whole regiment painted in a few hours".  So I crack out the 10mm figures, and boom! But then, while painting the 10mm figures, I'm saying to myself "oh man, these uniforms are SO awesome, I would love to see them in 28mm", so when I finished a stretch of 28mm, well, boom! I'm fired up for the larger figures again!

An Imperial French division taking shape...one brigade of infantry is now complete, along with artillery and the attached Chasseurs a Pied battalion (they are at the front, lower left).  Needs five more infantry battalions to complete the second infantry brigade. The cavalry, meanwhile, is the start of its own division...needs some lancers and Hussars to round out...always more, right?

And while I'm blown away by the quality of the 10mm castings from Pendraken, I'm also experimenting with castings in the other small scales - some 6mm from Baccus and 15mm from Old Glory.  Hopefully I'll have more to share here on the Blog at some point.  Again, each scale offers a different set of trade-offs in terms of look vs. table size vs. game scale...and dabbling in each figure scale feels different enough that my interest and overall motivation remains pretty strong...you know, until I decide I need a new Titan or some more Space Marines :)

Thanks for visiting!

Painting Challenge Submission Seven - 10mm Franco-Prussian War

Selection of 10mm Franco-Prussian war figures - mostly from Pendraken, but a few from Magister Millitum.

My seventh submission to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge touched on a familiar theme - more Franco-Prussian war stuff, but this time in a different scale - these are some 10mm-sized figures.

When I dive into a period, I tend to overdo it.  Different scales of games give both different gaming options on the table (bigger battles vs. smaller skirmishes) and different painting & collecting challenges, a chance to experience a different "look".  One big draw for this period is the marvellous uniforms, I just love painting them, and only 28mm-sized castings, in my opinion, truly do these great uniforms justice.

At the same time, 28mm-sized figures bring a number of gaming limitations, namely a very limited ability to represent the main battles on the table.  The key encounters in the Franco-Prussian war were very large, multi-corps-per-side affairs.  I could settle in and paint only 28mm figures from this period and nothing else for years and still not crank out enough castings to represent all of the units for a major battle. And even if I did that anyway, well, no regular table would give a chance to hold all of that stuff for a game in 28mm - it would have to be huge.

So while I am excited to do 28mm "Black Powder" games (which would represent small parts of much larger battles), the only chance I will ever have to try to give the fellows a truly large battle will go to the smaller scales - 10mm or 6mm. I'm still primarily interested in 28mm, but I puttered around trying out both 10mm and 6mm in between painting rounds, but found that in this case 10mm was the winner, in particular the sculpts from Pendraken.

Last spring I painted up a few units of basic 10mm infantry to try and get a feel for painting in the scale, and just to see if I would enjoy it. I did! Now, with Curt's Painting Challenge under way again, and since I have all of the paints I use for Franco-Prussian War figures handy, I have been working on more 10mm stuff.  I have been painting it sort of "on the side of the table", doing a few here-and-there while something else dries etc.  After a few weeks of this now, I thought it would do for a submission, particularly as I don't have anything else to show for this week...

I am intending to try the "1871" rules by Bruce Weigle.  While some of the rules mechanics seem a bit bolshy to me (simultaneous movement? uh...ok...) the books themselves are a must-have for anyone interested in the period, as the research and planning he has put into the scenarios and force lists alone make these so, so worth your time.

In the basic "1871" rules, one base represents a battalion of infantry, two squadrons or cavalry, or one artillery battery.  Command figures are mounted one, two or three to a base depending on seniority. For bases I just used the handy "Flames of War" sized ones I have from Warbases, as they were on hand, and I have a lot of them already!

Prussian artillery, three batteries - sculpts from Magister Millitum

Prussian artillery, three more batteries - sculpts from Pendraken.

So in this submission there are six batteries of guns, a decent down-payment on the artillery complement of a Prussian Corp (a Prussian Corp typically had four batteries per division, as well as an artillery reserve with six or so batteries of the heavy stuff).  Among the guns are three from Magister Millitum - also fine 10mm sculpts, although on this range I have to give the edge to Pendraken.

Prussian Dragoons in 10mm - figures from Pendraken.

Two bases together represent a regiment

The cavalry are Prussian Dragoons, the two stands together representing a regiment.

Tremendous sculpts from Pendraken. Outstanding quality.

The officer is also a Magister Millitum casting (came with the guns).

Mounted Prussian officer from Magister Millitum - a fine sculpt, but I do prefer Pendraken's work in this area.

There is a unit of Prussian Jagers - this would represent the single Jager battalion attached to each Prussian Corp.

Prussian Jagers in 10mm

A splash of green among the green.

And I haven't ignored the French completely, honest! Here is a unit of French Chasseurs.  One battalion of Chasseurs was attached to each French division.

French Chasseurs in 10mm.

The single base will represent a battalion in the "1871" rules.

Of course, rules like "Black Powder" are very flexible, so there are many different rules sets under which these 10mm chaps could be pushed around the table. And "1871" can also be scaled up and down (so that one base of infantry would be regiment, or conversely, two bases could represent a battalion etc).  But, for now, I at least plan to try "1871" at some point. Even at smaller scales, large numbers of castings are needed - there were some big scraps in the Franco-Prussian war, so will call for lots of castings.

Thus, while 28mm will remain my main focus for this period, doing a few 10mm figures here-and-there throughout my painting sessions has been fun and I plan to continue that throughout the Challenge this year. With luck, it will bring a few more units like this to the table.

And will I try painting this period in 15mm too, just to see what it looks like? Yeah...probably...I'm bad for that...

This gave me another 74 points toward my goal of 1200 "points" of painting in Curt's Painting Challenge.  I'm almost half-way to my goal!