Saturday, March 20, 2010

Victrix Italians - the skirmishers!

After completing the Grenadier Command I decided to finish the skirmishers for my Italian Brigade.  The idea is that I can have a converged battalion of grenadiers and/or voltigeurs using command stands for each and the respective companies from each battalion.  In fact, by juggling the figures provided by the Victrix box, I can get three battalions of line and one each of elites if I choose, or four line and one elite.  This is made possible by using the kneeling figures in pairs as skirmish stands.  As before, I tried to do small vignettes with each pair using bits and pieces from the spare bits box and a nice piece of scenery I came across - remains of a bit of ruined wall.  I've put two light company skirmishers behind it, one of them waving his shako in the air to see if it attracts some attention while his partner loads up to shoot any bugger that tries to put a hole in his mates hat!

The idea is to have enough for an entire battalion deployed in skirmish order, with command element behind.  There are also two standing companies (one per stand) in line that would stand either with or about a hundred paces in front of the command element and feed into the skirmish line for a battalion size deployment.
They can also be the cloud of skirmishers that proceed the attack column formed by the rest of the brigade.
I used not to be a fan of these types of poses but with the skirmish stands they really come into their own and certainly from an aesthetic point of view, are a nice way to represent skirmishers on the tabletop.
The Army Painter Strong tone also finished them off nicely with that grungy campaign look - it also gives the plastics a nice hard protective coating. All that's left to paint now are two battalions of the 2nd Italian Regimente, (which will have red facings) and that's my Italian Brigade fini! 

Might be a while though as I have commission work - some ACW Unionists - and my uni begins in earnest at the end of the month.  And of course I'm waiting with eager anticipation for my Perry's dragoons!

Cheers,
           Doc

9 comments:

  1. you are tempting me to do some italians, they look great.

    john

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  2. A beautiful work... I love those moustaches!
    Regards
    Rafa

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  3. Great work and clever use of the kneeling poses. I really love that base with the wall - diorama-like, but still perfect for gaming. Dean

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  4. really nice work they do tempt one to do some Italians keep up the great work.

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  5. Thanks guys, much appreciated. After painting about 90 odd ACW (Perrys and metals) - the Italians were a welcome break! Really happy with the army painter tone and the white uniforms - it seems to work well.

    Love the mustaches too Rafa - completely biased as I sport one myself!

    Cheers,
    Doc

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  6. I am seriously loving these Italians! I have some unpainted French Guard who would look lovely in green....

    Matt

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  7. Impressive work - I really like how the figures are based. I look forward to seeing them on the table.

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  8. Thanks Matt - the white uniforms with green facings is an attractive combination. I'm about to do the same but with red for the 2nd Regiment. The white jackets with coloured piping were for the Line regiments whereas the green jackets with red coloured facings were reserved for the Italian Guard. Green and white (with a bit of red) combos appear favoured by the Italians - makes a nice addition to any French army!

    Cheers,
    Doc

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  9. Thanks Miles - I'll 'deploy' the lot to photo when I'm finished - I'd like to see how the brigade will look myself!

    Cheers,
    Doc

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