I’ve been making pathetically slow progress on my 28mm Napoleonic Skirmish project, but even pathetic progress is, after all, progress. Here are the fruits of my labor – three new Voltigeurs, including an NCO (on the larger base). These French troops take a looooong time to paint, or at least they do for me. I think I’ll have to resort to production-line style painting to ever finish the 15 or so figures I need to do. Which is a shame, because this is supposed to be my ‘paint for pleasure’ project. Woe is me! Comments and criticism, as always, are welcome.
Another shot. I think I need to invest in grass tufts. I’ve been drybrushing static grass, in lieu of tufts, and, well, life is too short for such things!
The original two test figures I did (with blue trousers) are in the back.
Ze enemy shall never see this view!
I’m basing these guys on zinc coated steel washers, and the paint keeps flaking off of the edges of the bases. I need to go back with a pva/paint mixture, and see if it will hold up better.
ArkieGamer 
Comments
Very nice work! About the paint flaking off from the bases: Interestingly, I have the same problem with my washers, never thought about why this might be… but using a paint/pva mixture sounds like a good idea, I’ll have to try that.
Thanks! I’ve based on coins in the past, without any paint flaking problems. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the washers have much more precise (and sharp) edges than the coins, or if paint just doesn’t adhere well to zinc. I have high hopes for PVA, the wonder-adhesive of wargaming.
What a brilliant paint job! I’m actually worried looking too close in case I get biten by the Napoleonic bug…my bank manger won’t like it :)
You’re too kind, sir! 28mm skirmish is an economical way to get into Napoleonics. Right? That’s what I keep telling myself, anyway.
Excellent paint job as per usual. Been there with dry brushing grass lol. You are now going to need some seriously cool terrain to go with all these troops,perhaps a small walled farm or a windmill or a church or two😛
Thank you, sir.
I have a friend working on a windmill, as we speak! Or supposedly he is. Come to think of it, I haven’t heard from him in quite some time. I may end up making windmills myself, after all!
Excellent detail work. My only comment is the shade of blue for the coats looks a bit light – but that could be colour reproduction in the photo. French coats start iff Indigo and get darker, almost black, with wear, even in Spain!
Yes, they are a bit lighter than the color plates in my books. I’ve been starting with a base of dark Prussian blue, but maybe that should be my final highlight color instead. My one concern would be that they might look black at normal game playing table distances. More experimentation is in order!
They look great, beautiul job!
Thank you very much!
Very nice set of miniatures! Basing is also very realistic. Did you consider first playing some skirmish games, maybe Songs of Drums and Shakos? The more you finish the more you can move to big scale skirmish and finally army scale. Would be a pitty to just do the base colours and wash routine with your pleasure project.
Maybe you can lightly sand the washers to give the paint something to adhere to? Or what about decanting some plastidip and painting the sides and bottom with the rubberised paint? They have a nice brown and I think you can overpaint it easily.
Thanks, man!
Playing Song of Drums and Shakos first, is actually exactly my plan. Then I’ll move up to Sharp Practice, which can handle up to around 100 figures per side. I don’t know that I would ever do large battles with 28mm, but who knows-anything is possible!
I was saying I might resort to production technique, but all I meant is painting more figures at one time, not resorting to base-wash-highlight. Right now I’ve been keeping it to 3 or 4 figures at a time, but with all the detail on the French, it’s really inefficient. Of course the trade off, is it will take a really long time to complete a batch of troops, which can be discouraging.
That’s a really good idea with the rubberised paint. I need to look into that. Sanding is a good idea, too. But I have an unnatural aversion to sanding.
I think you can buy pots of Plastidip, so no need to decant. I do batch painting mostly with my 15mm miniatures, but as you say, painting 30 odd horses takes time and can be discouraging at times ;). However, if you use a wet palette you can make plenty of breaks, without loosing your base or highlight colours.
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