My first experience miniature wargaming the Napoleonic era was back in the early 90's playing Napoleon's Battle's with the Frankfurt Wargamers. I later attempted collecting 15mm Napoleonic armies of my own, but realizing the task at hand, I ended up selling them off. I then had the bright idea of using 6mm miniatures and made a large purchase of Russians from Adler that are still sitting unpainted in a cabinet. I was later seduced by idea of Napoleonic Skirmishing in the peninsula based on the Richard Sharpe series of stories, the Sharp Practice rules set by Too Fat Lardies, and the lure of Victrix's extremely well sculpted and relatively cheap plastic 28mm box sets. After discovering that Sharps Practice was not the skirmish rules set I thought it was, and realizing the work needed to assemble the plastic figures, the Victrix boxes also sat in a cabinet collecting dust as I focused on other projects. However, my buddy Dean continued to host game after game of Sharp Practice and watching him slowly build his armies, and even trying out our own simply designed single page set of fast play Napoleonic rules, my interest slowly rekindled, and with a recent game of Black Powder, it finally sparked again! So here I am, actually working on 28mm plastic Napoleonic British for Black Powder, possibly with the idea of our group hosting a game of Black Powder at this next year's Enfilade 2012 historical miniature gaming convention.
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| Victrix Napoleonic British. |
First, I must admit that I did not assemble the miniatures. One more, and probably a very important element in contributing to my Napoleonic rekindling, was a deal I brokered with my friend Dean to assemble my Victrix in exchange for a couple boxes of Warlord Praetorian Guard I had recently obtained as part of a Foundry Roman army deal.
The plan is to place four miniatures each on 50mm by 50mm bases for use in 24 figure 'regular' sized units for Black Powder or Sharps Practice. The 48 converted light infantry in the left of the picture below will form the 43rd & 52nd Light Infantry Regiments, I am unsure which line infantry units the other 48 will represent yet.
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| A photo Dean snapped of the assembled Victrix. |
You can read more about how Dean went about assembling the Victrix here: Plastic Project and Plastic Project +1 at the WAB Corner.
My plan is to use the MinWax 'dip method', which in fact Dean used on the Praetorian Guard I traded him, which can be seen HERE. The MinWax of choice is supposed to be the Tudor Satin, pictured below left. Because the 'dip method' leaves figures quite shiny, Testors dullcote was the recommended solution, pictured below right.
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| MinWax |
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| Testors Dullcote |
The first step was of course to prime the figures. As the Brits would have grey, and, or white slacks, I considered priming the figures in one of those two colors, and dry brushing/highlighting those areas as necessary. After a test of each I decided to stick with what I know and went with black. My favorite black primer has become one suggested by another local gamer buddy, 'Ace Hardware's Premium Enamel Black Flat' spray paint pictured below left.
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| Ace Premium Enamel Black Flat. |
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| Dreamcoat Cadet Grey |
After priming black, I went ahead and started block painting the grey slacks and bedrolls. For light infantry that will have white slacks, I will go back over a number of them dry brushing white over the grey before using the 'dip'. Because I inherited quite a collection of craft paints from my mother-in-law and wife, and because they've generally worked well for me, I've continued to use and re-stock them as necessary. For my grey I chose Dreamcoat Cadet Grey by Delta pictured above right.
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| British 'Centre Company'. |
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| British 'Flank Company' with optional Light inf heads/pieces. |
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| Close up of Light infantry. |
Next update: the flesh, white lacing and straps.
In my exuberance I've also put in on a friend's bulk Old Glory order for a pack of 6 pound guns, British Generals and a Rocket Battery pack, which was ordered a week ago, and amazingly has already arrived, which I hope to pick up this weekend. My final, and last addition to the British will probably be Perry's new plastic Hussars.
For the 6 pound guns, although I horribly dislike the idea of assembling Victrix, I was able to obtain a couple extra plastic limbers and artillery crew from another gaming buddy. Thanks James!
Perhaps I can wrangle Dean into assembling these too? ;)
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| Victrix limbers and artillery crew. |
If I survive this Napoleonic project, I plan to move on to Russians next, basing the bulk of the army around either the new Warlord Plastic Russians (less assembly), or Old Glory's 2nd edition miniatures.
HUZZAH!
