Major work done!

The greatcoats and Guns are done!


At last the final French units and my first IMPERIAL GUARD infantry units are coming together.

By tomorrow night they will have their gloss and sealing coat done and I shall only have some flocking to do over the coming week.


ALL TROOPS FOR THE EYLAU GAME ARE READY IN TIME FOR PLAYTEST #2!

I have also heard from my primary game associate for the EYLAU game and he was called away for work at 5 am on Saturday the 20th, and so was unable to warn me of his departure...then too bagged to call me about the sunday etc.

At least until today.

Anyway I have 'nabbed' his table and can finnaly have all the components to put together at the playtest on February 10th (only 2 weeks before the big show)!

Enjoy the pics, I will post another full set after they are in 'full regalia' with flags and flocking.

Cheers

Playtest #1


bleh.

I wish that I had known in advance that my supposed partner in the EYLAU game was not going to be able to take part.

To date I still have not heard from him.

I went over early on Saturday with my table and all of my terrain parts, so that we could set-up the two table combination for the first time. He was not at home, no note, no call, no indication of what had happened or why he was unavailable.

So I dragged by materials back home.



I busied myself with the layout of the French Grand Armee, so that I could confirm that I had enough minis (the 'green gaps' you see in the picture are for the troops still under production). Hoping that my partner would call to inform me that I could come over or at least what was going on.

What did come was a call to get more firewood. (which we needed)

I set aside all the minis and materials for the next 5 hours and humped wood, splitting some and stacking it for use this week.

Returning to the table after dinner I was able to set out the map completely and got some troops onto it for the first series of some photos.



I have been working on the 'snow' imagery concepts, I am interested what viewers here think of the first attempt at scale and if you have ever done snow scenes before, what worked for you?







Sunday was an attempt to have a 'new' player veiw the materials and comment, sadly this person was also not able to attend.

So I busied the day with the 'labels' for the unit tags. I had planned on using 'sticky' printer paper, but remembered that I had 'magnetic' printer paper!

LONG LIVE MAGNETICS!

So I have printed out and attached to the metal unit and command tags a magnetic ID.

Cheers

Painting Progress




A two session update.

I have had opportunity to paint a couple of times since last posting and have the block colors and mid-tones all done.






I settled on doing the 4 greatcoat units as blue, green, black and brown. They will all have white trousers and belts when done, so that they will serve mostly as French, but as planned they will all have 4 different flag bearers.

Enjoy the progress shots.

Cards in-progress,

With 'daddy daycare' continuing to get in the way of painting, I can at least work on my computer & therefore get some of the support materials for the coming EYLAU game done.



I have designed a new card back, since the Russians were not part of the original Eagles game by Columbia Games (where I borrowed the format for the card backs from).



Along the way I have also been working on the card faces as well, in this example an image of Levin Bennigsen has been used. While it was a painting of the Russian general made later in life, it works well in the game context.

Other cards are still being designed, but since I have a few moments while my baby son is sleeping on my chest I thought I could post these.

Painting operations have been done on the minis, but only up to blocking colors, so I will not have all troops ready for the first playtest...sigh.

The Duchy of Mieczyslaw is launched.

Starting with some formative ideas, then leading thru some 'histories' I shall attempt to have my little 'imaginary' place ready to take more written actions in the 'tricorne' period by this summer!

Take a glance there every now and then.

Cheers

Greatcoat Collection

The last group to be painted in time for the coming EYLAU game.



This one contains 4 formations of greatcoat wearing troops in bicornes. I have put them together with 4 flag bearers (some scavenged from broken bits) with the idea that I can paint up the unit, then have 4 different flags, so that I can use the unit as Russian (the actual casting), French (they also had some bicorne troops early in the period and the 'middle guard' wore them as part of relaxed dress), Austrian (also part of a 'relax dress' and some of the German minor nations within the Holy Roman Empire), Spanish or Portugese (some units were really wildly dressed!). I can also use them as British (again very early in the period) since the uniforms for the Russians were acrually supplied by the Brits.



Also being done now are some line grenadiers in greatcoats. I shall be painting them as though they were "Imperial Guard" Grenadiers and Chasseurs; THE OLD GUARD.

Along with the line troops are another 8 batteries of heavy artillery, with their gunners. I am also painting up more Horse Gunners, so that I can properly man the Horse Artillery that I already have.

You can also see the side of a church that needs its steeple completed so that I can paint it as well.

I shall have some more pics of the church later.

Cheers

Final group images.



The flocking for this collection was done over the nights of the 10th and 11th.



I could have pushed and actually finished on the 10th, making the entire force being painted in exactly one month (DECEMBER no less!) from December 10th to January 11th.



I still like the way that Murat worked out, and the Chasseurs trumpeter was a treat to paint-up.

Enjoy the pics!

Catching up more of the brushworks:




Friday was the 'big day', as I was able to concentrate for about 6 hours on the painting needs and finish all details of all the masses of cavalry, then do all the 'touch-ups' needed on the Marshals and the Russian Gunners.




After a final inspection, I was then able to 'glue' all riders to their mounts.



Saturday saw a shot at getting the gloss coat of minwax polyshades put on and with that done I only have the flocking to do!

Enjoy the pics of the finished brush actions taken at 3 am Saturday morning!

Many Days of painting to back track:

First Thursday the 4th:

Murat was the focus of the evening, with that darn tiger skin drawing me in over and over again.



I finnally got it right and took some pics of just the horse to show the efforts.




The tiger skin was a challenge since I have never tried to get the 'layered' color effect and I ended up needing to try it twice (painting over the 'blunder' then doing all again).

I am most pleased with the final results!

NEW YEARS BRUSH DAY!

YAYY!



I did, very nearly, an entire day of painting!



I was able to get a huge amount done while the family was away doing errands and some visiting.



Bonaparte and the Marshals are very nearly done (actually Boney is done, but as predicted Murat is taking longer).

The metallics are on some of the troops, but loads more needs to be done on the Dragoons (all those helmets!).

The Chassuers a Cheval are also very nearly done and they turned out smartly (I am very pleased with the overall appearance and particular brushworking I did on these ones).



Only dull metal parts on the Russian guns remain and the gunners are all basically done, I just need to do the 'final inspections' and touch-ups.

One more day like that (could be this friday?) or the evenings over next week and I will have all these troops ready and gloss coated.

Enjoy the pics!

First wave of detail color.

I focussed on getting the massed Dragoons done first, which by the time the fireworks started being let off around here last night left me with less time than hoped for to accomplish the task.


Why did the fireworks interfere?

Our dog became positively frantic and was in and out of my painting spaces over and over again, along with lying under and on top of my feet, which plays merry havoc with detail painting!

So I had to shut all down and just read etc while I comforted the dog.


Still more things to get in the way of the painting projects before the return to 'regular' schedule...


sigh.

Here are the pics from last night that the dog did not let me get posted due to his crowding around the computer so much that he killed the power bar!

White trim and faces.

Still not completed, but very very close.

Were it not for a vehicle failure early in December I would have finished all the crop planned.

Ah well, did some more on them over the past day, more coming on New Years' day.

The push to finish in time for playtest on January 21 is now on!