Pandemic Projects: Victrix French Infantry

A few months ago I started re-purposing my Peninsular skirmish project and rebasing for larger battles. I started with the British side. The French half had been built with the wrong mix of posses to be able to build battalions of similar poses, so I had to get another box of Victrix 1907-1812 French infantry to get useful battalions.  well I finally got a hold of another box last week.

6 Battalions of Victrix French Napoleonic
Infantry 1807-1812, in 3 Regiments

I painted about 48 figures this week. and touched up the remaining 48 so that they blend well with the newly painted ones. i also did several head swaps. out of 2 boxes  I got 7 battalions of 16, and have 7 figures left over(3 drummers, and 4 centre companies kneeling). I didn't get to the 7th battalion this week. the 7 battalions are split into a 2-battalion Legere regiment, a 3 battalion Line unit, and a 2 battalion line unit(only 1st battalion painted so far). I also have a box of perry french in bardin uniforms, so I'll probably add a 3rd battalion to the smaller of the 2 line regiments.

French Legere Regiment

French Line regiment

Reverse angle

1st battalion of another line regiment.

Since I normally build my stuff to be 1812-compatible, I did my units with the older style flags, since it would have taken time for the new style to disseminate. the light infantry still have their eagle, as some of them kept them as late as 1814.  but the light infantry were ordered to leave their colours in depot earlier so I figured I would use the fanion for the 2nd battalion. I made it with an imperial eagle on it and under the eagle is the battalion number.

when I initially assembled the first box of  Victrix french a decade ago, I was not fond of them. This time around I found them much better, both to assemble and to paint.  Maybe I just have more skill at both now.  while they certainly have more pieces then your average Perry plastic miniature(5-6 pieces versus 2-3 for most  Perry Napoloenics), you can get a much more diverse  selection of poses, and more miniatures in the box. I also don't have to buy extra command sprues for each box to fit the size of my units. I do rather like Victrix a lot more now.  I'll certainly use them if I ever do an Austrian army and I look forward to them releasing their Bavarians.

Pandemic Projects 3: Rebasing and Touching up Victrix Peninsular British.

 After a discussion last week with a Local Edmontoner about what Napoleonics I had, I decided to look at my peninsular skirmish collection.  The collection is small one I built to put on a scenario at Hotlead about a decade ago.  I have only once pulled out the figures for a game since then. The collection is mostly made up of Victrix figures, with the addition of Front rank french artillery and Perry cavalry for both sides.

I was looking to bolster my french a bit, but I cannot really make what i have in skirmish work for cohesive units of 16 in a mass battle game without buying a 2nd box. then i looked at my British. due to the peculiarities of how Victrix released the British, I had to buy a box of centre companies and a box of flank companies. this gave me enough extra figures to flesh out 4 battalions of British infantry with enough flank companies left over to make a pair of 8 figure light battalion skirmish units(I have the metal addons that victrix offered up)  plus enough flank company figures to make another brigade if I buy another box of centre companies.

the Whole Brigade, all Victrix Plastics
except the Perry plastic Hussars

3rd Regiment of Foot (the Buffs)

59th regiment of Foot (2nd Nottinghamshire)

I chose the infantry regiments based on what flags I got in the boxes.  I'll probably use regiments with different coloured flags for the 2nd brigade when i get around to buying another centre company box.  Originally they were done as an unknown regiment, so i had to repaint the collars and cuffs on everything i also touched up the belts, and painted the command to go with them.  The exception is the 2nd battalion of the 59th regiment, which i painted 14 new figures.  In total I painted 26 new infantry to make these battalions up to size. they are on 50x50mm bases.teh red was painted with GW contrast Blood angels red over white vellejo spray primer.  It makes it super easy!  I'm not 100% sold on the entire contrast line, but the red is a keeper!  the belts on the buffs are GW Contrast Skeletal Horde. another keeper.

10th Hussars, Perry Miniatures Plastics

The hussars were unmodified.  I do plan on rebasing them eventually, but i have a shortage of both money and more bases, so I'll worry about that later. their existing bases in almost the same footprint in their sabot, so it should be fine for now. they will eventually be mounted on 50x50mm bases instead of individually on 25x50 pill bases, in a sabot.  The way we base them, cavalry units are a bit awkward, as they represent 2 squadrons. so  usually double up on my units to make a regiment. The nice thing about Perry cavalry boxes is although they are only 14 figures, if I order an additional 2-figure command frame, I have enough for 2 units of 8(a full regiment).  at some point down the road I intend to grab a hussar command frame, plus a box of light Dragoons, and a command frame for them too.

Metal Officer and sapper, Plastic Artillery,
all Victrix Miniatures

I had bought a Victrix officer pack, which came with 2 metal officers and a sapper.  these will make my 2 brigade command stands. I also had a box of Victrix plastic artillery.  2 are seen here.  I intend to buy another box of artillery so i can have a 2nd battery for the next brigade, plus an extra battery, maybe of howitzers, or heavier guns.  the limbers that accompany the set are also built, although one of them got badly broken at some point in the base so I had to rebuild it.  I want to put them on 60x60mm, so they will wait until I have the money to get bases.

overall I'm happy with how this turned out.  with the additions of a box of Victrix center companies, a box of Artillery, a box of light Dragoons, and 2 command frames, I'll have 2 brigades of line infantry(128 figures) 2 skirmish light battalions, 3 artillery batteries, and  4 cavalry units. that is a solid British division plus a cavalry brigade in support.

On a Whim....

While I was at Hotlead this year, i picked up a few things, including a  Victrix British light battalion conversion pack(a rare find in person these days, since victrix metal line was sold to brigade) and a warlord ECW cannon & specialist pack.

when exams started , on a whim, i sat down and apinted the cannon team with the  gunner specialist from the specialist pack.   I had decided to paint something different after the relative monotony of the Peninsular  Napoleonics.  despite a total lack of opponents I still intend, at some point int the future, to finish my ECW army.

This really is a nice piece, an the addition of the specialist aiming the gun really  makes it that much nicer. the Warlord ECW  line really is their best offerings.  the sculpting is head and shoulders above that of the Napoleonics they've been releasing.


Next is a set of Perry Plastic Carabiniers I painted 2 weeks ago. this is part of my friend Derek's French army. you'll be seeing more of Derek's French as I paint it over the summer.

These were quite nice to paint(as perry miniatures often are). I'll be doing a regiment of these when I eventually do my own French contingent.


and finally is a random photo of my peninsular war British rushing to defensive positions  at el matadaro 

 I had taken some pictures close in on my new fur mat when I set it up for the first time. I got bored 2 weeks ago, and grabbed one of the pics and photoshopped in a background. this is the result.

Stay tuned for more...

The Peninsular Armies(finally)

It's been a busy 2 months....

After hotlead was finished, school reared it's ugly head. we had all kinds of issues with  professors so i really needed to buckle down. in the words of one friend:

 My college course has somehow become a National Lampoon film, with me as a character within it. A real life college course can not possibly be this outrageously poorly run. I can only comprehend the last few weeks by believing I am actor trapped in a never ending college comedy flick, and not as a human being in a real world college.

sadly that was a common feeling.  

 After the year was done, i ended up being occupied by a seemingly never ending succession of renovations.  first was ripping out a wall so the crack in the foundation could be fixed. then it was pouring a concrete pad for a shed, and then assembling the shed. following that, i had to insulate the enclosed porch out back, to make it a 3-season room.  while we were doing that some mild leaks popped up in the roof  of the porch, so we had to fix those as well. all of this was in preparation for the new windows and door going into the back porch. 

 earlier this week i finally snapped some pics of a few things. the first of which is the 2 armies I used for the Sharp Practice game I ran at Hotlead entitled, "Assault at El MAtadaro".

in this scenario, the french were assaulting the fictional town of El Matadaro. the terrain is that seen in the previous thread.

French Forces for the Assault at El Matadaro

 the french infantry are Victrix 1808-1812 french.  the dragoons(both mounted and dismounted) are perry, and the cannon team and crew are Front rank. there were 3 line company groups, 1 grenadier  group, 1 voltigeur group, 2 dismounted dragoon groups and a mounted dragoon group. then of course the gun team.

British defenders of El Matadaro

the British defending the town are a combination of Victrix Peninsular centre and flank companies, along with Victrix British gun teams, and a group of British Hussars. the British had 3 centre and 2 flank groups, 2 cannon teams and 11 unit of hussars. the British cannon teams had no limbers, which forced the British players to make some hard decisions.

In the battle at the convention, the end result was a draw.  one British cannon had been captured, the other one was be mandhandled back a bit. the french had made it into the edge of the town but had not made much more progress past that.


also, a few weeks ago, i ordered some Napoleonic stuff from foundry, in light of their new pricing.  they had brought back individual packs of  Russian opolchenie, so i picked up enough packs to finish of the 2 half units I've had unpainted sitting in boxes.  I also grabbed 3 packs of jagers in firing line to use as skirmishers. I also grabbed the Napoleon, marshals and staff, which is a vignette of a painting of Napoleon at Borodino.

In addition to that, my birthday was last Friday, and my father ordered me the perry Russian command sprues I needed(22 to be exact) to be able to make units out of the 2 warlord Russian starter armies(which had 1 command set of 4 figs for 120 infantry!) , so I'll be starting in on them soon. they gave him a call the day after he ordered to confirm he actually wanted that many.

so expect to see lots more Russians in the near future, as well as more french for my friend Derek's army./

Hopefully I'll be posting a little more often now that the pace of renovation has slowed a bit.

Hotlead peninsular game

So I'm putting on a game at this year's Hotlead In Stratford, Ontario. I decided to do peninsular war skirmish, as a way to get it kickstarted. it also allows me to use all the spanish buildings I have made to date.

I also took the opportunity to experiment with a fur terrain mat. i managed to find a place that was selling fur ends in a tan-brown for about $17CDN a meter. they had a 5x7 piece and I also grabbed a 2-foot piece to experiment on. The total bill was 54 bucks.

I used animal clippers to vary the length of the fur and to shave out the ruts for the road. I then used an airbrush to spray the colours on.


I used this tutorial HERE.  It was a fantastic resource.

churched finished

Over the Christmas break I finally got the Spanish church finished. I had ordered and received the Renedra gravestones from J&M miniatures by the end of October, but due to school I didn't really get a chance to add them to the church yard until Christmas eve. Christmas night I managed to get the texturing and painting all done. I thought it was rather poetic to be building a model church over Christmas. the base is about 24" long and about 15" wide at the cemetery portion. the bell tower is 12" high. the tower is 2 pieces above the main level. and the roof of the church is removable.

anyway, over the weekend I had a few friends over, and we decided to have a game of Disposable heroes.   I decided  to pull out the completed Spanish buildings(i still have 2 more bases under construction). the excuse we came up with to allow the Spanish buildings was that German volunteers in the Spanish civil war were actually positioning along the french border for a secret  attack, and the french caught wind and launched a preemptive strike into a small Spanish border village to stop them.

we jsut through down an old green GW game mat some roads telephone poles and the buildings, and played. the game ended in a tie, leaning slightly towards the french.


This semester looks like it's going to be merely busy as opposed to the usual frenetic frenzy we have become accustomed to, so I'll probably be posting a little more often. although over the next week or so I'll be packing and moving into my grandfather's old house. I hate moving, but I'll have a decent basement that I should be able to set up a bigger gaming table in.

Mor Peninsular Buildings

well last week I got back to college. any gaming stuff i do will probably slow a bit in pace.

 anyway, Sunday and Monday(I have most of Monday off), I finished the 3rd base of my Spanish village. these are 2 of the larger buildings in the village(only the church is bigger at the moment)

One thing I'm going to have to do is change where the roof braces are.  I usually place the braces to both reinforce the roof and make them snug with the inside edges of the end walls so that the roof does not slide around.  as you can see from the Coach house-type building the roof is lopsided.  I misjudged the braces on the one side of both buildings.

anyways, the church will be next, but I have to wait a few weeks, as i ordered a set of Renedra's Gravestones from J&M Miniatures to finish the graveyard. I'm also waiting on a local store to get in more Spanish roof tile sheets to finish off the other 4 or 5 buildings. in the meantime if i have any spare time, i may just paint a few peninsular figures.

The Beginnings of a Spanish Villiage

I have long been building a series of Spanish  buildings.  I posted WIP pics of a Spanish church in May 2001, and in July of this year I posted pictures of my WIP  Peninsular war Spanish village.

the Spanish church has largely been on hold until i could find a set of suitably Spanish grave stones.  as such i decided to try and get a few bases complete, and test out the texturing and colour scheme. I finished detailing and painting the small house  and yard, and the larger Spanish Hacienda.

Getting some terrain has long been a sticking point for really starting my peninsular war skirmish project. now that i have some buildings and one or 2 more bases on the way, i can realistically start thinking about getting more figures painted.

Small House  & courtyard with front rank gun team

Large hacienda, with Victrix British ambushing Victrix french.

Hacienda from the opposite angle

 I settled on a mixture of water, white glue, durabond 90 and fine balast for the texture. this is a modified recipe that i used for the rock outcroppings i made way back when i started the blog 2 years ago.  the druabond dries hard as rock, and the white glue makes it less prone to chipping. the combination is  very durable. you would not know from feeling teh courtyard walss that they were made out of foamcore.

For the large hacienda, i still need to put some plants in the planter in the courtyard.

I almost have another base ready to be textured, and if i can find some  more O-scale Spanish roof tile i can have 2 more ready to go, plus maybe a town hall.  the church will be last because i have to order some suitably Spanish graveyard accoutrements.I'm also looking at buying a nice set of doors for the front of it.

Peninsular buildings and Continental french

I haven't posted in almost 3 weeks, but that's mostly because i hadn't finished anything until late last week.

2 weeks ago I started back in on some peninsular war buildings. I'm building a Spanish town to skirmish in.

I've posted pics of my Spanish Church WIP. I haven't done any more work on this one yet. I need to get some Headstones for the grave, but until then I don't really want to put any more work into it if i can't finish it. I have leads on some nice gravestones though, so stay tuned...

in the meantime I've been working on a few bases of buildings. they are in varying states of completion.  the first is the most complete. all i really need to do it make some doors, put the texture on the walls, and paint/base it.

12x12"  Spanish courtyard & buildings.

I've added some  bits of stone brick on the walls. when i put the  texture on, it will go just over the very edge of the plastic brick, and make it looks like the stucco is cracking and falling off.

Next is the smallest base so far.  this is a small  house and yard, with a home-made lean-to.

small house with lean-to and walled yard. bases ix 8x12"

this one is almost at the same stage as the first one, except it still needs some stone brick sheet placed around the house and walls.

the last one(so far, there will be 1 or 2 more) has the buildings done but needs walls for the courtyard, and 2nd floor, as well as the aforementioned stone brick sheeting.

last base so far, on a 8x16" base.

iv have one or 2 more bases still to do, but i ran of out tile roof, so I have to wait until the local store (Dundas Valley Hobby) gets more roofing tile in.  I also have a 2nd set of pieces for the church which I think I will modify into a Town hall with a square in front.

Next, are the things I actually finished.  these are units that are part of a commission for my Friend Derek. he wanted a French army to fight his Austrians,  so here are the first few units.

1st Battalion 2nd infantry regiment, in greatcoats.  Perry figures,
with Victrix Old Guard Grenadier Command

1st Battalion, 8th  infantry Regiment, Perry figures

Skirmishers & Brigade commander, all perry, with the hornist
arm from a victrix box.

Since we generally do our armies for around 1812, i have done these with hte pre-1812 flags, since most units didn't get or use the 1812 patter standards until early 1813, after the end of the Russian campaign..

I have 2 more line units and a battery of guns, to finish the first brigade of french. I should be done by the end of the week.

Terrain and commanders

a few weeks ago I was in Toronto at a store called Meeplmart an I picked up a GW modular hill for about $22 CDN + tax.  so at the end of last week i got it painted up, and I flocked it yesterday.   I think it turned out nice. I'm looking forward to adding a second set to complete the hill, and adding one of the smaller 1-peice hill.   I took a few pictures with some peninsular war officers I painted several weeks ago.the french one is a perry miniature and the other 2 are Victrix Peninsular war Colonels.

 At the same time I finished the hill, I also finally finished my GW Forgeworld Warhammer Siege works.  this is a huge winding 24"  redoubt that only costs about $65-70CDN ( 41£ ). I got it during one of my friend's bi-annual Forgeworld orders. it is a lovely piece! i have yet to find  anything of comparable size and quality for that low a price.  That's quite a surprise since it's coming from GW-based company.  my only complaint is that there aren't enough gun points, but it is meant for renaissance-fantasy  so i suppose only one gunpoint makes sense. I'm probably going to get a 2nd one and scratch built a few more straight sections with firing points to do a big  Redoubt for my Russian army.

the Full Forgeworld redoubt pictured with  my Baden artillery

the Left flank of the redoubt

the gun point

And finally, a close up of the Victrix Peninsular British colonels pack, complete with  British pioneer.

French Gun Team

So over they weekend i got on the painting of my french gun team, which as pictured earlier, has a limber team and caisson team.  this is for my somewhat-sidelined peninsular war skirmish project, using Sharp practice.  this is the first Item I've done for it, and it's also the first time I've used tufts for basing.

Full gun team from Front Rank

The front rank  artillery equipment is really fantastic .  The horse teams even come with bendable wire to attach the horses to the limber. the wire is unfortauntely un textured, so I painted the rope texture on.

It's also the first time I've tried a more arid basing scheme, including the first attempt at using tufts.  it turned out ok, although i couldn't use as many tufts as i wanted. it gets expensive.

It's Alive....... almost!

After a nearly 8 month hiatus due to school and lack of gaming group, I've returned!(at least for the summer).  I still have a week and a half left in exams, but  after that I plan to get back to gaming with a vengeance!

back at the beginning of last October I began doing test schemes on my Napoleonic plastics for a Peninsular War skirmish project.   I never got around to photographing them. Recently my friend Jon has expressed an inters in getting back to his gaming roots, which was Napoleonics.  so i decided nest time i photograph something to grab a few pics of them.:

Peninsular British line infantry
Victrix miniatures

Dismounted Dragoons of the 27th regiment.

on to more recent things.  the Easter weekend gave me a much needed breather from school. i too good Friday to get back to painting.  I've had an AGNM soviet T28 kicking around since last august. this is the one Vince at AGNM graciously donated to me after my original T-28 was pilfered from my gaming club. i finally painted it. it looks better then the original, and I took the liberty to test out some waethering powders on it as well.

AGNM Soviet T-28

And then i pained a couple of JTFM tanks i picked up at HOTLEAD. the Neubaufehrzeug 4 is also a replacement of a pilfered tank.  I decided to go with a 2-tone grey and brown camo scheme I found on the interwebs.  it's a nice departure from the endless grey of early war Germans.

JTFM German Neubaufehrzeug 4

 JTFM french 'Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939'

the other is one of Jeff's new tanks, the  Char léger modèle 1935 R modifié 1939 (or more commonly known as R-40). this is a neat little kit, and it comes with a trench rail, which is really cool! I may need to ask him if i can get a trio by themselves to put on my H39s. Both of these tanks have bases attached so they fit in with the rest of my collection.


 Hopefully I'll be a little more active over the summer.

Quick Update: More Progress on the Spanish Church

Just a quick update.

Yesterday I worked on the Graveyard around the back, and also started adding some of the finer details(window sills etc)

Unlike Gary Chalks, I made the Graveyard a little bigger, and instead of topping the wall with balsa stripes I used some 1/72nd Spanish tile roofing to make it look a little more "Spanish" instead of Carribean(which Gary Chalk's was designed for).  Like Mr Chalk's church, I made the graveyard raised, using 1" insulation foam. this makes it an excellent vantage point to defend from.  Totally by accident, the area between the wall and church on the tower-side of the church is also big enough to fit 50mmx50mm bases, which is a Fairly common basing scheme in my area for large Napoleonic collections.

Main Cemetery entry way with arch
defended by Electorate Fusiliers

Secondary cemetery entrance,
also defended by Electorate fusiliers.

I was thinking of putting Spanish tile(same as the main roof) on the transition from the tower main section to the 2nd level when i built it i think i made it the 2nd level a little too small, and now the "ridge" is too large.  Thoughts? opinions?

I'll probably be spending the rest of the day assembling the new desk(which is an early birthday present). I also have a few other items I have to finish this week so it might be a few days before i get back to this project.

Beginning of a new project.

At Hotlead i picked up 3 Boxes of Victrix Figures: 1 box of 1807-1812 french(60 figs), 1 box of Peninsular British Flank companies, and 1 box of British artillery. thus far i have only assembled about half a box of French infantry.

I decided to switch gears. I don't really have any Spanish-suitable terrain, but a few weeks ago a fellow Gamer & once upon a time mentor, Derek Watson, gave me a big Ziploc bag full of Foamcore. it turns out it was the pieces to a pair Spanish churches that he had started to cut out.  Most of the basic pieces had been cut out. I had to cut a few windows here and there, and i re-cut a few pieces from some Foamcore I have in the back room. I also added a roof made from Sheet Styrene and a sheet of  MBS 1/50th Clay tile roofing.

Church WIP

Church in it's constituent pieces

He was following an old Gary Chalk pattern that had been published in an unknown magazine many years ago.

Spanish Church by Gary Chalk, which the above
church has been based on

Like the photo the church will have a walled, raised cemetery around back  and when it is done, the whole thing will be approximately 12" x 20". I'm still a little confused as to how to texture teh church.  If you have any ideas, by all means let me know.



In other news, earlier this week, Vince Conners at Army Group North Miniatures emailed me, and Let me know that next time i place an order he will include a replacement T-28, free of charge.

Once again I am astonished by the good will of the miniatures industry.  The kind of response I have gotten from Conquest and AGNM will easily make me(and hopefully many others) a loyal customer for years to come.  If you get a chance, reward these kind souls for their kindness with a purchase. I know I will.