Painting Challenge Submission 8 - Prussian Dragoons for 1870

28mm Prussian Dragoons, ready to advance into France in 1870!

One of the great recurring themes of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is tackling overdue projects. Sure - we are constantly distracted by new things, or starting new projects (or maybe just me?) - but those figures you had purchased, set up and primed, but, for whatever reason, just couldn't get under the brush...this Painting Challenge is a prime time to tackle those dormant, stranded projects. In this spirit, I present these 12 Prussian Dragoons for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These are 28mm figures from Wargames Foundry.

Red facings on this lot...

I started doing the Franco-Prussian War back in...2017, I think? Something like that - the "before times", at any rate. I so love the setting, I do it in different scales! In 28mm, I have been using the Wargames Foundry range for my "Black Powder" efforts in this setting. At the outset, for Prussian cavalry, I wanted a unit of Dragoons, as there was often a Dragoon regiment joined to the Prussian infantry units. I ordered some Dragoons from Wargames Foundry, enough for one unit - 12 figures. 

Painting horses is a drag, but I do love cavalry...

Yet when I finally got round to painting them in the summer of 2018, I saw there had been a mistake (either by me, or by Foundry - both are possible, although the former is more likely). I had two command packs, instead of one. This should not have been any kind of issue, but I have OCD-adjacent hobby quirks...I could not mentally resolve having two command figures within one regiment, even though the odds that anyone would besides me would ever notice were  vanishingly small. I sorted this by painting up two half-regiments...two units of six figures each...and told myself I would just order more regular Dragoon troopers to finish out the units. I noted to myself at the time that I would do this "very soon". 

So...fast-forward to 2021...lots of stuff going on, I was moving house...and as the 2021 Painting Challenge came about, I told myself "I am so damn tired of looking at those half-units of Dragoons on my display shelf downstairs! THIS year, I will get them finished up." I duly ordered the requisite figures from Wargames Foundry...I even built them and primed them...and...well, got distracted by other stuff, insert excuses here, etc. etc.

Dragoons were often attached to Prussian infantry divisions - this is why there were my first selection for 28mm cavalry for my Franco-Prussian War project

In the interim, the Perry brothers released their own new sculpts for the Franco-Prussian War in 28mm. This included brand new - and arguably, much, much nicer - sculpts for Prussian Dragoons. But I was committed to the Foundry range, at least for these figures. Having started with Foundry, I wanted to finish with Foundry (which, of course, are also sculpted by the Perry twins..but anyway)...nonetheless, such useless contemplation on whether to switch over to Perry Dragoons fuelled further procrastination on this specific aspect of this project...

Fast-forward to 2022, the Painting Challenge looming...THIS TIME I MEAN IT, I'M GOING TO FINISH THOSE DRAGOONS, FOR F*CK SAKES! IF I HAVE TO LOOK AT THOSE HALF-UNITS ON THE DISPLAY SHELF EVEN ONE MORE TIME...and I am so pleased to report success! So you see 12 troopers here...six with yellow facings, and six with red facings. They will be joining their previously-painted fellows in my display! I now have two full units of Prussian Dragoons in 28mm! 

While I would expect the newer Perry sculpts would look better, the Foundry ones are still classics - like painting up old friends. Yes, they are monopose...and the molds are getting old. But I just loved painting these up. It was fun! Why did I wait, anyway? Ah, the hobby squirrels in my brain...

I was pleased to be able to pretty-much match the paints and colours after a four-year gap in completing these units. It's not perfect...in this interim, f*cking Liquitex stopped making their "natural sand" product that I used for my basing, so they don't match perfectly, but I applied a liberal dose of grass tufts, and it looks more than good enough for me. 

Finally! Two full, proper units on the display table!! About damn time!!!

The best part is now looking at my shelf, and seeing all of the units in the collection at full strength! About bloody time!

It was lovely to get back to some Franco-Prussian War subjects, following a nice long run of 40k and 30k-themed models. We'll see where the brushes end up next! Thanks for reading.

28mm Prussian Infantry for 1870 - Perry Plastics

Back to the Franco-Prussian War! 28mm Plastic figures from Perry Miniatures. Flag from GMB.

Hello again! Funny how when you stop posting on the blog, it is really easy to...stay not posting...isn't there some smart saying out there about a how a blogger at rest remains at rest? I have all the usual excuses...late August weather was just so lovely, I even managed to get a visit to Winnipeg in, being busy with work etc. etc. And then the NFL finally got going again...you know...all sorts of excuses...but through it all, I have been doing some painting, and I'm glad to share it now that I have finally made some progress worth sharing! Here is a unit of Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These 28mm figures are plastics from the new FPW range being released by the prolific Perry Twins.

The main unit figures are assembled from the "marching" frames, while the skirmishers are assembled from a "firing" pose frame.

If you are keen on a period, it is always great news when the Perry Twins take an interest - and this case, it is somewhat interesting because one of the only reasonably complete 28mm ranges for the Franco-Prussian War is found with Wargames Foundry, and it was sculpted by...the Perry Twins. So I guess they are "re-entering" this period now, all of these years later!

Another view from the front of the unit.

These plastic multi-part figures were one of the first figure sets released for the new range. Those who know me will know I am quite the grouch when it comes to historical plastic figures. But I must say, these are quite nice. There is a choice of poses (firing or marching, with the mix depending on the box you select), an assortment of heads allowing a range of options (can be regulars or Landwehr), and even different variants of picklehaube - so the little details are all covered. Thus, while I continue to believe that there are no plastic figures which would not be better off as metal figures, I will say these are brilliant - if you like this period, buy these figures.

Another view of the command group - officer, colour-bearer, drummer and trumpeter - the flag is from GMB.

View from the back, showing the rolled greatcoats, and fascine knife. On close examination you'll see how much trouble I had painting the frigging "swallows nests" on the shoulders of the musicians.

Assembly is pretty straightforward - just watch the fascine knife (hanging on the left hip), as that is a pretty tiny little bit, and will disappear easily into any flooring if you don't glue it just right...

WIP of an early test figure.

Another view of the test figure.

Do I have any quibbles? Well, plastic bayonets seems like a terrible idea...but I don't have any better suggestions either...so let's just hope for the best :)

My newly-reinforced Prussians await the call to battle from their assembly grounds on the living room map table...

It has been over a year, at least, since I have added a 28mm unit to my Franco-Prussian War collection - and boy, was I rusty! It was slow going at first, and I found that I was often distracted by my squirrel-brained desire to either paint even more 30k stuff, or just paint something else entirely (watch future posts for more on that)...so these fellows took a little longer to finish than I might have liked. But they are now finished - 24 figures all together, based for Black-Powder type rules, using the same basing system I adopted when I first started this project in late 2017 - 20 of the figures are grouped together to represent the bulk of the unit, and four are based individually, placed on the table to represent deployed/detached skirmish companies.

The line advances, with skirmish groups deployed out front...

It has been great to revisit 1870 on the painting table, and I'm sure it won't be long until I'm back at it again...the new Perry Range looks like it will be lovely, and there are already a number of new figures for it that I can't wait to add to my collection. Watch for more as we head for another winter here in Canada. That's all for now - thanks for reading!    

Painting Challenge Submission 19: Potpourri of Mostly 10mm Stuff

A random assortment of completed stuff as I scrape for points!

This is another one of my final-week submissions to Curt's recently-concluded Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  There is a potpourri of stuff, mostly 10mm, covering a wide assortment of periods. This was basically a "what stuff have I finished but not counted for points yet" post - I intended that each bit be part of a larger submission, but realized that time for the Challenge had run out that other figures would not be finished as part of it. This motley assortment is the result - I hope you enjoy!

10mm WW2 German Panzers

Late model Panzer IIIs - 10mm castings from Pendraken.

 These 10mm tanks were painted and based as German "test models" for my ambitions to (re)build my collection for the game "Spearhead". They are late-model Panzer IIIs from Pendraken, based on 50mm squares (to represent platoons) and one on a 50mm round (to represent a battalion command element). 

At these smaller scales I try and exaggerate the colours a bit so the contrast pops a little more.

Ready to roll out...but they'll need reinforcements first...

Obviously still a long way to travel on my 10mm WW2 efforts. I went into this edition of the Challenge so sure I would get more of these done...oh well. Next time, right? At least I have some starters to inspire me.

10mm FPW Command

10mm Prussian Command for Franco-Prussian War - figures from Pendraken.

In this edition of the AHPC I was able to finish a fair bit of 10mm stuff for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. These command figures - a senior command base for the Prussians, and a lower-level command for the French - got finished along the way, and I kept intending to add them in with another submission of a larger unit before the end of the Challenge. This "larger unit" part was not going happen before the Challenge ended, so here we are...all figures and the flag are from Pendraken.

Having a flag on the base helps him stand out a bit on the table...plus flags are more fun.

The three-figure base, including a standard, will be used to represent a senior commander (i.e. corps command) on the table. 

Have to love those French uniforms from 1870...so lovely...

This individual French officer will likely lead a brigade, but of course there are all sorts of ways to scale rules up and down...bottom line, he will lead gloriously!

10mm Byzantine Cavalry

Byzantine heavy cavalry from Magister Millitum - based for "Warmaster Ancients".

When I love something in this hobby, I tend to paint it in multiple scales...but that doesn't mean I make progress, of course...oh well.  This unit of 10mm Byzantine heavy cavalry is comprised of figures from Magister Millitum, and they are based for use with the rules system "Warmaster Ancients".

These Magister Millitum Byzantines are lovely castings.

Perhaps in the next edition of the Challenge you will see some of the other figures that came with this impulse purchase back in the day?

28mm Arab Spearman

Ah, the poor test model, waiting for friends...28mm plastic figure from Gripping Beast.

I actually did manage to paint up a fair bit of 28mm Byzantine stuff during this edition of the Challenge. While my hope is to use these models to fight Dallas' Normans, I am also thinking of opponents for the Byzantines. That is where this figure comes in - a 28mm plastic figure from Gripping Beast, he is a test model for a unit of Arab Spearmen. The "test model" part happened during this edition of the Challenge, but the "OK, let's paint the rest of the unit" part did not.

Anyway, this variety gives you an idea of the many project percolating in my scattered hobby brain. You may see more of these very shortly, or in the summer, or perhaps during the next Challenge (if Curt proceeds with one again). Whatever happens, I thank you for reading - stay safe!

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.

Some Small Figures, A Big Move

10mm Prussian Infantry from Pendraken.

 

It has been a few weeks since I have posted anything, so good to get back into a bit of the blogging and painting pace a bit with this entry. These are 10mm Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The figures and flags are from Pendraken, purveyor of top-shelf 10mm figures. 

 

Prendraken make fantastic castings for this scale.

 

Most of the figures are wearing their coats, but two of bases feature infantry with the coats rolled around their chests, an image from the war that is more common. If you stare closely (sorry about the crappy photos), you will see I painted coloured facings on some of the coats. Ooops! Not sure what I was thinking there...anyway, it adds a little variety and once a whole bunch of these fellows are out on the table you don't really notice anyway. 

These two bases in the forefront feature Prussian infantry wearing their coats wrapped around their chests...the rest in the background have the troops wearing their coats.

 

These bases are useful for all sorts of rules, from the utterly perplexing "Polemos", to the excellent "1870" to the tried-and-tested "Black Powder". The base could represent anything from a couple of companies to a regiment, depending on the level and scale of battle one is looking to represent on the table. For my initial 10mm battles I will be looking to use each base as a single battalion of infantry, so a regiment would, on average, be comprised of three bases. But over time I hope to try different rules and different battles. It will be fun to experiment!

The Prussian "needle rifles" will be ready for action!

I have now painted enough 10mm Franco-Prussian stuff for a small game - specifically, the Battle of Wissembourg. Who knows when we will get a chance to play it? The public health restrictions related to COVID continue to increase in many areas of North American, including Winnipeg. But there is one additional wrinkle...that would be the reason my painting progress has been so non-existant for the past several weeks. This photo should explain it:

Thanks for everything, Winnipeg!

Yes, I have moved - or, as I believe they say in the UK (and possible elsewhere), "moved house". The reasons are good ones, linked to a career opportunity at my firm. After having lived my whole life in Winnipeg, this summer we put our house on the market, bought a new house in Ontario, and then prepared for the move, which took place at the end of September. 

Moving is a very stressful experience - I don't know anyone who ever enjoyed it. Moving a long distance is particularly stressful, and I must say coping with the clowns and cretins at the moving company, the various and sundry contractors, lawyers and other nonsense has been particularly trying. We are only now just starting to get our heads above water again, settling in to our new house - and I have been able to find some time to paint! We love our new house and new location very much, but wow...this has been hard.

And, of course, none of this is good for the hobby collection/hoard. Like many gamers, I have access to an assortment of foam trays and containers to allow for the safe transport of quite a few figures over to another house or location for a game. But there was no way I would ever have enough of that stuff to move all of my collection at the same time - and as it was, email inquiries out to various suppliers were for nought, as many are either disrupted by COVID or simply don't reply to emails (step up, KR Multi-case). Things had to happened so fast - and, because of COVID, kind of had to happen very fast - that 1-to-1 scale sadly needed to take priority, and many, many hard hobby decisions were made. On the plus side, many items from my collection made their way to new homes with friends, which is great - if stuff has to go, best for it to go to a good home :) I need to recognize and thank Byron, Dallas and Mike for their help this summer as I made crash preparations to get the house ready for the market and the collection as transportable as it could be...

 

And of course the cretins at the moving company made it difficult. I packed things up with as much care as I could, but they found ways to damage them regardless, tilting and tossing assorted boxes marked "fragile", knocking over a pile of boxes filled with my 28mm Franco-Prussian War collection, which I had PUT ASIDE so I could move them myself...they didn't even make it safely out of the basement! Sigh...

Anyway, the unpacking is now underway, and I will continue to make repairs where I can as I settle into the new house. I will very much miss my gaming friends - I am SO glad we managed to cram one more game in during the relative COVID respite in late summer. But I will be back in Winnipeg often to visit - and the web is a great tool to stay connected and stay in touch, and I will lean on it very much to do so. 

So thanks everyone - stay safe, stay healthy and stay sane!  

More 10mm FPW - Prussian Artillery

10mm Prussian artillery, ready for battle - models and figures from Pendraken.

Some more FPW progress to share - a bunch of 10mm Prussian artillery pieces and crews.  There are two Krupp "4 pounder" guns, and six Krupp "6 pounder" guns. The guns and figures are all from the excellent Pendraken. It's a Prussian artillery park!

Divisional guns - Krupp "4 pounders" - there were four batteries equipping each Prussian division.

The steel breech-loading artillery of the Prussian army hit very hard during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The artillery was far from the only reason the French lost, but it was a major difference on the battlefield and, as you might expect, accounted for a significant proportion of French battlefield losses. I use air quotes around the "poundage" of the guns as I believe this rating was a theoretical one, the supposed size of roundshot that might fit in the barrel. The actual shells fired by these guns were heavier, had a much better range and hit harder than the equivalent roundshot. Bruce Weigle has an excellent overview of the artillery and firearms from the war in his rulebooks, which are 150% worth buying even if you never intend to play the games...

The BIG GUNS...Krupp "6 pounders", six batteries in a Prussian corps' artillery reserve.

It will be a tough thing for the French player if/when this lot deploys on the table...

The "4 pounders" were divisional guns for the Prussians, with four batteries equipping each division. The "6 pounders" were corps-level reserve guns, with six batteries available to each corps.

Another view showing the great details on the models and castings - Pendraken is fantastic.

Painting artillery is always tricky. Curt summed it up well for me with two words - "spoked wheels".  He is right, that is probably the worst part, but just in general I struggle to paint artillery and crews from any "black powder" era. I'm just not very confident about what the guns themselves "looked" like, or any of the equipment that went with them.  These were no exception, so it's great to have them out of the way, a nice mental hurdle to have overcome. 

I don't enjoy painting artillery, so it's great to get this bunch of it finished!

This lot will round out the artillery contingent for the Prussian side of the Wissembourg OOB - the German allies will have 18 batteries of artillery they can bring to bear on the poor French! My brushes now must turn to Prussian infantry and a few more command models in order for me to finally reach my goal of completing all of the models necessary for the battle in 10mm. I suspect, however, that there may be a diversion to different subjects along the way before progress on my 10mm FPW project resumes...

Some More 10mm Bavarians and Prussians for FPW

10mm Bavarians and Prussians for the Franco-Prussian War. Figures from Pendraken.

After a round of science fiction painting, my brushes have gone back to historical subjects.  Here are more 10mm castings for the Franco-Prussian War.  There are an assortment of Bavarians - infantry, officers and artillery, and some Prussian Dragoons.  These 10mm figures are all from Pendraken, purveyor of the finest 10mm figures I have ever come across!

Bavarian infantry regiment - I went with yellow facings on these fellows.

Pendraken sculpts are fun to paint.

View from the rear of the line...

When I love a period or a setting, I am apt to start painting it in multiple scales. Yes, I know this is bonkers...but what can I say? I love the 28mm figures because you can enjoy the many fine details on the lovely uniforms of the period.  But there are limits to 28mm when it comes to playing out the battles of the period - they were large, corps-level battles and I'll never have enough 28mm figures, table space or time to run something like Spicheren, Froschwiller or Gravelotte-St. Privat. To play even portions of those engagements, I'll need a collection of smaller figures so the gang can try out some of these bigger scraps.

Bavarian artillery - Krupp 4-pounders, steel breech-loading pieces that greatly outgunned the French artillery.

Another view of the gunners.

Different rules can give you different options in terms of table representation with these smaller figures.  I really want to try the "1871" rules by Bruce Weigle, and these rules have some flexibility in terms of unit scale/representation, but for the basic level, the figures you see in the photos here would provide one regiment of Bavarian infantry (with each stand representing a battalion), four batteries of Bavarian Krupp 4-pound guns, a Bavarian brigade commander (single mounted officer on a base), a Bavarian division commander (two mounted offers on single base) and a Prussian dragoon regiment (each base representing about two squadrons of cavalry).

These figures could be used for rules systems too of course - certainly "Black Powder" is almost infinitely flexible, and could be used for figures at this scale. These figures could also work for "Polemos", the rules from 6mm figure manufacturer Baccus. 

Prussian dragoons.

Even in 10mm, the Hussars are the glamour-boys of the cavalry arm, with their lovely finery and silk-bagged head gear.

I struggle to paint artillery in any scale, it's always a big stumbling block for me, so it's particularly great to get this group of batteries out of the way.  These four batteries will provide a divisions' worth of guns to my initial Bavarian contingent.

Bavarian command bases.

The single officer will lead a brigade, while the stand with two figures will serve as a division commander.

I started messing around with Pendraken's 10mm range a couple of years ago, and I was blown away by the quality and completeness of their offering.  I've been puttering away at a 10mm collection ever since! I have one specific battle in mind to start - the Battle of Wissembourg.  Using the level of representation described above for the , I have calculated I will need 88 different bases all in, including all of the infantry, cavalry, artillery and officers.  This is for one of the smallest battles of the war (at least for the "Imperial Phase") - and still that's a fair amount of kit to get painted.

I just need to paint these figures, and I can run my first 10mm battle...hoping to get through these during the Quarantine Challenge.

Those kinds of goals can seem so far away. And yet...progress has been made over time! In fact, I'm almost sort-of within striking distance, so I am going to try to do that during our quarantine period of the next few weeks. Of course, I'll be my own worst enemy as I will suddenly feel like painting more Titans or panzers or FPW stuff in another scale or who-knows-what else at any given moment...but hopefully I'll be able to stage the Battle of Wissembourg in 10mm by June. And, of course, I hope we could actually get together for a game in June...

Thanks for looking and visiting - hope you are having a good, safe and healthy day, wherever you are!

A Few More 10mm Prussians

10mm Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War.  Castings and flag from Pendraken.

Well, the summer is almost finished - although we're getting some AMAZING late summer weather, yay! The work pace usually picks up here after Labour Day, and this year has been no exception.  While work has been busier, the painting pace has slowed, and this month I have been trying to knock off a couple of "pending" items that have been sitting around primed since the spring.  Up first were some 10mm Prussian infantry for the Franco-Prussian War.  These sculpts are from Pendraken.

These fellows are wearing their long coats, so not quite as colourful.

These are part of an slow-but-still-moving-forward effort to run some games using Bruce Weigle's "1871" fast-play grand tactical rules. In this case, each base here would represent a battalion of infantry, and so together the three bases would represent a Prussian infantry regiment.  "1871" can be scaled up or down too, so different permutations are possible - and of course relatively scale/basing agnostic rules systems such as "Black Powder" will work for these figures as well, but for now the goal with these is to play an "1871" game in its basic scale using 10mm figures.

Nice sculpts for 10mm - Pendraken are top-shelf!

I continue to be blown away by how much fun 10mm sized figures are, as well as by the sculpting and casting quality I see in the figures from Pendraken.  They are excellent, a lot of fun to work with and paint.

Ready to advance!

Of course, when looking to play "grand tactical", you are looking towards some larger engagements, and the Franco-Prussian War, even in the relatively short "Imperial Phase", had some very large battles, so this is still pretty slow going - particularly when you add in a lack of focus on my part! But I'm taking a patient approach with this effort...a few bases here and there between 30k things or who-knows-what-else...we'll get to try "1871" eventually :)

Thanks for visiting, I hope you are enjoying the last few days of the summer too!

Up next, more 10mm...but a rather different setting...

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!