Italian Grenadier Command

I've decided to return to my roots as it were - if only briefly.  Kind of forced on me by a little disaster I had with this stand while I was moving some figures around.  The display cabinets and bookcase I was using had become chockkers with figures - so much so that to fit in the extra Prussians I've been painting I had to transfer several hundred others - mainly TYW & Napoleonics - to other storage.  And thats when the accident happened - my Italian Line Grenadier command got dropped.  From a great height and even being plastic didn't help.  It was carnage - they kinda bounced and shed bits as they did so. Mama Mia!  The bearer was the biggest casualty with the flag snapping clean off.  The drummer's head likewise. I may have even said several rude words at the time.

Who's a pretty boy then?  That officer with the cape doesn't 'alf fancy hisself!

The good news is the paint and restoration job went better than expected.  The paint job got a bit of a touch up too with the end result, after a bit of matt varnish, you can't see too much of the damage.  If you look carefully at the pic below, the flagpole has been repaired just above the bearer's right lug'ole!  Bit of a lump - but that's it - phew! Mucho relief!

Wassamatta you - why u looka so sad? Itsa not so bad!

Itsa nice a flag - ah shuttup-u-face!

(With apologies to Joe Dolche!)

So with the strains of Joe Dolche's old hit 'Shuttupa Your Face' pinging round inside my head (I swear I heard it on the radio while I was fixing the flag bit!) I thought I'd re-shoot them with the Lumix.  No natural light I'm afraid as its winter here and gets quite dark early in the evening so one colour-balanced light and a bit of flash for one or two shots and trying without it for the others.  Not unhappy with the results.

Detail officer's cape and Port Aigle's jacket

Strike the pose!

All the figures are Victrix by the way.  Made up from the spare bits from the box - so the figures and command stand are spares for when I want to field them as I also have a light infantry (Cacciattore) and a Line command stands as well for a two-battalion regiment.

They were fiddly buggers to make up too as I recall - the figures are quite large being closer to 30 than 28mm, and with those bearskins...  mama mia!  

I wonder how Victrix will go with their planned Austrians?  The Perry's are also releasing sets of Austrians and Russians too - great for us gamers as we'll be spoiled for choice - but it'll be tough for at least one figure maker I reckon and my money would be with the Perrys - marketing machine just too slick and figures too beautiful!  

Hmmm, must-not-get-distracted-by-bleedin'-Napoleonics...  too many damned FPW Prussians to paint!

Cheers,

          Doc

Italian Brigade

I posted some time ago that the 60 figures in the Victrix French Infantry 1807-1812 box made it virtually a 'brigade-in-a-box'.  I decided turning all of them into Italians. I finally finished the other half of the box.  There are plenty of spare bits and command figures so that I was able to made three separate regimental command stands and enough commands for no less than five 12-figure battalions.  I have to say, I am impressed by what you can get out of box of Victrix figures. A very cheap way to build an army and they are very nicely done figures to boot.


The only criticisms I have are the size (scale creep got mad - they are virtually 30mm figures, definitely NOT 28s!) and the overly slender muskets and bayonets which have a nasty habit of breaking off.  The good news is of course, being HD plastic, they are very repairable - if you can find where that skinny bit that snapped off when to! Modeling tip: for those of us used to superglue - don't bother. You will get a far superior result with quicker bonding using proper plastic model cement. I used Revell that comes with that long slender applicator spout thingy and swear by it - not at it.

In setting up the brigade I tried to be as flexible as possible with the basing as with light plastic figures, re-basing is really not an option. So apart from the command stands, most are the 45x20 two-figure bases.  I've also used some of the 60mm ones that come with the Perry's boxes for three-figures stands which have free standing singles to add (or not) as you please.  What I ended up with was five 12-figure battalions: two Cacciatore (Italian Legere equivalents); two line and one grenadier battalions.  By taking away command stands these can be re-configured into regiments or even at 1:20 scale a single 40 figure battalion with two 8-figure elite companies for really, really big hairy chested Black Powder gaming!

As I have already used the kneeling figures for skirmisher stands, I decided to do an entire light infantry unit - the Cacciatores - the Italian version of the Legere.

As you can see I used a few Perry heads to add further variety.  I know I've posted it before but the Grenadier command is a favourite of mine and now with the second regiment completed I have enough figures for a converged grenadier battalion.  I think the Victrix grenadiers are great figures to make up.

I must say, the figures en masse  have turned out better than I hoped.  I don't think the size will made that much of a difference on the table - they mix in with Perry's 28s quite well (must remember not to put the Italian grenadiers next to the French cuirassiers though!).

1st Battalione, 2nd Regimente in column.

Must away now as the Memsahib (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) is on the warpath as in the aftermath of finishing my Italians, the study is not up to her exacting standard of cleanliness and hygiene and I fear violence may ensue if I don't get off the computer.  This will be my last posting for a few weeks as I also have one last uni essay to write.  After that, hopefully the French hussars (or Carabinier or...)

Ciao for now,

                     Doc

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

Italian Grenadier Command

 These were the 'extra' figures out of the box of Victrix, which together with the kneeling figures I'm making into separate stands. Those kneeling are made into skirmishers - no surprises there - but the other were additional (or rather superfluous) command figures.  With the plethora of bits that come in the box, I was able to turn them into a command stand.  If I add the eight other grenadiers from the four battalions I have I get an extra Grenadier Battalion.  The eight skirmishers make up the deficit if I choose - so either way I get five battalions out of one box!  That's better than a brigade - best value on the market in my opinion.


After I finished the painting I decided to apply the Army Painter tone.  Apart from the flesh and a general weak black wash - which was then highlighted in the base colour - I did not do the usual layers of washes to build up the tone.  So the first shot is the figures painted but 'in the raw' as it were, before basing and flags to finish.  I was particularly interested to see how the white uniforms would turn out as I had abandoned my earlier method with these figures.

The next is of the finished figures, with the toner and after a matt varnish has been applied.  The variation on the white uniforms is almost entirely the addition of the Painter tone.  Looks OK to me and saves time - I'll be using this method again for the remaining two battalions of Italians.

All told it took about an hour and a half per figure to paint - about average for normal figures but about half an hour less for command ones, which I usually lavish more time and detail on.  It took about an hour to do the flag and Eagle Guard's pennant then another hour and a bit to trim down the plastic stands on the figures then base and flock and final varnish. I reckon the Army Painter probably saved me at least an hour - the only drawback being you have to leave it overnight (minimum of 12 hours) to dry and set before you varnish.

I must admit to enjoying doing small dioramas like these, far more enjoyable than painting figures en masse - which is what I now must away to do to get a regiment of Union Perry figures painted and based for a Black Powder game tomorrow evening. 

I tell you - the work never stops!

Cheers,
          Doc

More Victrix painting adventures!

I was looking at my Victrix Italians and noticed that the Voltigeur company was bereft of two plumed shakos, making it look at bit, well... ordinary.  Hunting threw my spare bits I found two long shako heads so decided to do a head-swap op!

In doing so I decided to paint up the new heads at least in base colours before I attached them because of the fiddly paint work involved with the packs partially covering the back of the heads.  Well, once I started on this I kind of continued, as I was getting pretty good results just holding the heads by the plume and painting them up.

 

I ended up putting washes and finishing which I found easy to do.

I then glued on the heads and painted the shako plumes - they'll just need a wash to add depth and some  highlight to the feathers and they're done!

This poses an interesting question as it took me about ten minutes per head to paint to completion - less than an hour from having the idea, luckily finding the required bits, painting then gluing them on.  It would seem that you can do fine detail required quickly and easily painting the heads before putting the model together.  Hmmm, I wonder if I should try it with the next bunch of Victrix I build? 

As you can see in the last pic they're big lads against the Perry's cuirassiers I'm doing behind them but will still fit in well enough.  

Happy now I have four Italian Voltigeurs that actually look like those fancy-dancy skirmishers! Now after that brief illuminating interlude - back to the cuirassiers!

Cheers,

       Doc

Victrix - 1st Regt of Line, Kingdom of Italy

Some better shots of the regimente  complete including skirmishers and casualty marker - the latter surprisingly hard to photo properly - although being a dead'un, one can't blame him for not standing up properly to get his picture taken!

Skirmish stand using the kneeling figures and a Perry's 40x45mm plastic base.

Skirmishers forward!

Grenadier company and voltigeurs

2nd Battalion command

2nd Batalione

1st Regimente d'Lina - Grenadier Coy

1st Regimente - rear view

 

 

Bring out yer dead! Some more casualty markers from the Perrys casualty set and the Heavy Cav box (the Italian dead'un) - got another three 'in the works'.

On that somber note salute! - we've only got the other half of the Victrix box to do, some 28 figures plus a 4 figure Grenadier command, all of which I will also do as Italians to make up an Italian Brigade.  But I may leave that for a while as I really want to start on the cuirassiers which I have already assembled and primed.  As usual, please feel free to add a comment or two on this or any of my earlier posts such as the 20mm figures - does anybody wish to see more or less of them? Or should I just focus on the 28mm collection and painting?  I'd be interested on other blogger's views.

Cheers for now.

Doc

 

Victrix finished! (well half of 'em anyway!)

After my 40mm and then 20mm digressions, its back to the 28mm figures.

The 1st Regimente of Infantry of the Line, Kingdom of Italy is now complete.  With casualty marker and skirmishers.  They turned out OK - would that I could get a finish like the figures by Giles (Tarleton's Quarter) or Dave (Saxon Dog) but I'm reasonably happy with the results.  I spent a bit of extra time on the basing and used rocks and grass - although the grass (grasfaser - dunkelgrun) is a little too dark for my liking.  After seeing Dave's results with dipping (the Army Painter system?) I'm tempted to try it.  It may save time rather than innumerable washes.

After doing that tutorial on my 'you-beaut' methods of painting white uniforms I'm ashamed to say I ended up using an inferior white acrylic in which the pigment was too coarse.  With the heat it dried too fast leaving an unfortunate chalky finish which I couldn't always disguise.  Best thing you could say about it was that it took the washes well!

I'll photograph the full regimente, skirmish and casualty sets again as the heat is affecting both the photographer and his equipment!

I'll post some more of the other skirmish & casualties and a WIP of the latter as I've got some of the Perry's from the French Heavy Cav box and Frankenstein-like I have been slicing and dicing to create more dead 'uns!

Cheers,

    Doc

Victrix French based and finished

 1st Bttn, 1st (Italian) Line

As predicted, the basing presented some challenges due to the size of the figures and the bases molded on as part of the figure.  In the end I cut the plastic bases back as far as possible, smoothing edges and rounding them off with the Dremel tool - fair amount of mucking about but it solved the problem of fitting them on my WRG basing system.  For this battalion I chose a command stand (60 x 20mm), a three-figure (45 x 20mm), a single (20 x 15mm) and two 2-figure stands (45 x 20mm) for the elite companies.  I used combination s of the hard plastic green bases that come with the Perry's French box as even with the adhesive magnetic sheet on the bottom, they were still about 3mm thinner than the standard MDF bases.  With these thinner bases, the 30mm+ Victrix don't tower as much over the 28mm Perry figures.

1st Bttn in column

Rear detail, bttn cmd.

Cmd & Grenadier Coy.

Detail: back of Grenadier Coy - note all the gear strapped to their packs.

Detail: Bttn in double column

Detail: Bttn in double column - Port Aigle and Bearer

Well that's it - one battalion down and another one to go! I'll have to decide if I turn the other two battalions into Italians or Legere and there are the kneeling skirmishing figures to do too (2 per bttn) Plenty of holiday painting to do before I even get to my Perry Cuirassiers.

But hat's off to Victrix - bloody nice figures.