Saturday, December 19, 2009

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.



5 comments:

  1. Hi Doc, these came out very nice, it is amazing how natural light helps with photography.

    As an aside, we use a somewhat similar basing scheme, I like the thin bases as well. I was able to fit 3 Victrix on a 40x20 base by slightly staggering them. I put the voltiguers on the same size base, but just 2 figures, in case I want to separately deploy them as a combined unit in open order.

    Great job!

    John

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  2. Very impressive work - and relatively fast as I've been reading all the posts. I found the whole series of posts on the Victrix very helpful and I might give my assembled ones another go at painting.

    I think you'll enjoy the Perry Cuirassiers when you get around to painting them up.

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  3. Thanks for the nice comments guys. As I said in one of my posts, if I didn't have to correct all the mistakes I made painting, they'd be done in half the time! I am somewhat relieved that by burring off the bases they all fit quite well i.e. didn't look too crowded on the WRG basing. Putting two to a three figure base for skirmishers is a good idea John - if you have a look at some of my earlier posts on the Perry's you'll see I tried the same with the firing pose figures. For gaming purposes you'd have to use these for skirmishing exclusively - but its a small price to pay as I think they look better set up like this anyway.

    It added about another 1 & 1/2 hours work to the basing and finishing of 12 figures but I think the results you get make it worthwhile. Now I know how to do these Victrix, the next battalion should take only half the time - shakey hand and failing eyesight permitting!

    Doc

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  4. Hi
    Masterful painting as always. Do you think to use the Italians for wargaming and which ruleset you'll use?
    Regards
    Rafa

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  5. Thanks Rafa - the second battalion including skirmishers and some casualty markers are now on the way as well - I love the holidays!

    Most horse & musket era gamers here use a heavily modified Aussie version of WRG. In fact the group I occasionally game with have just completed a comprehensive re-write. To be honest WRG is not my favourite ruleset and I prefer General De Brigade. I've also tried Warhammer Historical (ECW) for my TYW figures - also a lot of fun - and Fire & Fury for my Franco-Prussian collection - fun but the Prussians nearly always win! I'm keen to try out the new BlackPowder rules too. Your and Trailape's battle reports have me interested in trying Lasalle sometime too.

    So much to choose from - and so little time!

    Cheers,
    Doc

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