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!

Blazing brushes!

A full day of painting!



First horses manes tails and bridles.



Then all shakos, helmets, bicornes and (just so that Jeff will remember!) Bonaparte's tricorne.

Then in the afternoon, a set of time for shabraques, and mid-tones on all tunics and dolmans.



Finnally this evening the facings, vests much of the plumes and turnbacks all got their colors.



All that remains is the 'higlights' and detail finishing.

I may yet get all this done in December!

Trying a new thing for the blog with a template change, since many had complained about the dark background and similarly dark text on it.

Along with the change I am trying this 'new' background image.

I will upload it here and see if all works!

All undercoats done.



With a day of relative calm, and no more rampaging sickness in the house, I managed to get all the undercoats done.




The block colors on all minis are in place and, provided the calm continues, I may have this batch of troops done by Saturday.



Enjoy the pics.

The 'under coat' colors and all the greens have been done.



Then Daddy daycare took over a while.





Then I got to the faces of all the troops, Bony and the boys.



I started on the inking process, but a crying baby son took up the balance of the night.

Gingerbread House

We started a new family tradition this year.



This was the first creation.

'nuff said.

Festive celebrations cause the 'interrupt', along with a dose of winter flu (just for fun).

I did manage to get a first layer on all the mounts, and green onto most of the units tunics that call for it as ta base color (almost all of them).


Still more green to do and of course all the horses.

This will come in the next 2 days, with a suitable gap (in the real world problems) and I may even see all the horse done and a major lump on the riders.

Been studying more on Murat, and I think this image sums up the plans for him.

Merry Ho-HO and a happy Hiccup!

No brushwork done yet, as the Empress Dragoons needed to have the saddles 'ground-down' otherwise the riders would all be 'canted forwards' over their mounts.

Since I needed to wait for the glue to dry on them I thought I would also 'grind-out' the saddles and extras on the dozen mounts needed for the squadron of "BIG BOOTS" French Grenadiers a cheval. The riders are already painted Hinchcliffe models I got off eBay for about $0.25 per fig. All that they needed were a dozen horses. So I have cast them and now need to clean and modify the mounts since the Prince August figs have the riders without saddles and Hinchcliffe has the riders and saddles together.


I have painted Bonaparte before, in 15mm, so I thought this might be as good a place as any to show off my older brushwork and mention the Waterloo Campaign Game(s) that I have run in the past.

The game is loosely based on Napoleon, as designed by Tom Dalgleish, now of Columbia Games. With the borrowed map and move concept. The battles are then faught-out using my own De Bellis Napoleone (basically a Hordes of the Things - with mods), the players give general battlefield directions based on a map and a 3-d 'picture' that gets sent to them. All games are played out via email.

The images here are of a battlefield in action from the 1st version of the game played in 2002.

A big thank-you to Stokes for the counter idea and now the MarauderS page has a nifty little counter in it also.


Started at 0 on December 18, 2006.

Challenge of challenges!

I have started on the December plan of painting Napoleon Bonaparte, Marshals Murat, Soult, Ney and some ADC's

Just in case I cannot find the energy to face the painting of these Grand Armee Commanders I also have 4 units of Dragoons one of Empress Dragoons and one of Imperial Guard Chasseurs as well as 10 Russian batteries with 30 gunners and 6 Russian Horse gunners (to man the two 'extra' guns from the former Russian Guard Batteries).

I'll now see if some pictures can be added to this new blog.

This posting was tried about a week ago and was drafted much, much better than this one - sorry I have been frustrated by the constant refusals of the system to accept my posting(s) and pictures. I'll be sure to 'improve' once the postings continue to be 'accepted'.

Cheers

Still trying to get a posting to work under the 'beta' version.

Hope this one goes thru.

Did not get much done on the minis over the weekend as I needed to solve other real world problems.

Sigh, if the real world would just stop getting in the way I could have more fun!