Sharp Practice Napoleonic French

Not the best picture but here we go 

Not sure how this has happened but I've followed up the Austrians by buying a small French Napoleonic force. This does make some sense I think as it gives me an opponent for the Austrians but also for my Royal Navy Landing Party - whenever that gets done.

So the core force is a unit of a dozen Voltigeurs and two units of sixteen line infantry. I'll chuck in an artillery piece and some Dragoons. I'm going all Perry's again except this time I'm going for a Victrix gun and crew to keep everything plastic.

There's no particular completion date on these thankfully, but hopefully by the summer (not saying which!)

Once theyre done I'm hoping to go back to BRS and finish those damned Condors

Cheers

Austrian Update - Core force done !

So following a spurt of painting I can declare the Austrian core force done!

The main force is two units of "German" Line Infantry as below, including their Officers and NCOs

Plus their "Third Rank" deployed as Skirmishers

That completes the "core" force.

I've also painted some supports - a gun and a group of Jagers will suffice for now and I can fill any holes from the generic support list. Looking forward if I want to expand I have some cavalry and a group of Grenadiers to do, but they can wait til I try the rest out.

It's been a bit of a grind, but not a terrible one. I felt I was losing my mojo with a dozen or so Line infantry to do, but then I got my second wind and got through the last couple of batches pretty quickly.

The artillery were no problem but for some reason I really struggled with the Jagers, to the point where I chucked the towel on and declared them "good enough". 

Not certain if I need a mounted officer or not? Will probably add one later. I'm also short of a Deployment Point but looking at them in the cabinet they are missing a Colour Party so I think I will paint one up just to make everything look "right" and also use as a Deployment Point.

Not too shabby for eight weeks on and off.

So now looking for an opponent to do the traditional hammering on their first trip to the table.

For those interested, particularly as a comparison to GW models and a good reason to look into historicals, this lot, 71 figures and a gun, cost about £70 and theres plenty left if I want to expand.  

 

Three is a crowd

This photo sums up my current problem. 

On the left are some Austrian Jagers and artillery. My Napoleonic Austrian force for Sharp Practice is coming along nicely. I'm half way through the core force but need to paint another 20 or so line infantry and some Leaders. I seem to have run into the sand on that one, partly because......

In the centre are some AWI Continental Light Dragoons - again for Sharp Practice. These are not part of any core force - in fact the whole project is almost wrapped up practically - just nine cavalrymen and a Deployment Point and I will have just about everything I need or even want. Having these guys around seems to be distracting me from the Austrians because theyre so close to getting the army "done". Should I just bite the bullet and get on with them, get them finished and out of the way?

And on the right are some Napoleonic Royal Navy and Marine Officers - again Sharp Practice. As I've mentioned before Andy Parkes is doing most of the heavy lifting on this one, leaving me with just some touching up, basing, and the Leaders to paint. The bulk of the landing party is now done - I'll post some pics later, I'm just waiting on the Marines. I've maybe eight figures and a Deployment point to paint. I do think I will enjoy these as theyre all nice dynamic poses as befits our Hearts of Oaks but again they're distracting me from the Austrians.

Dave Lambert has organised a Sharp Practice day at Pendraken Miniatures next month (the gaming room there is great btw) and I've committed to having the Austrians ready for that. It should not be a problem, at least as far as the core force goes, as long as I do not get too distracted.

So basically I need to come up with a "Cunning Plan". Do I park the Navy and AWI and grind the Austrians, or do I get the others "out of the way" first, with the endorphin buzz associated with getting a project done?

answers in the comments please!   

Sharp Practice Napoleonic Naval Landing Party - Progress report

It's been a while but here we go.

Andy Parkes has agreed to paint the Marines (Cheers!) and I'm working on getting the sailors etc based up.

I've got the bases textured and painted, I'm not sure if I'm going to use tufts or flock \ static grass but they will need something.

Midshipman Frederickson

The landing party

Speaking of bases I have decided to rebase the naval gun party to match the rest of the force.

That leaves a need for some Leaders painting up, and a deployment point or two and then I think I can call them done - at least until the Marines arrive. I still need to get the movement trays sorted out - order has gone in to Warbases, and some 3mm magnets. 

So some progress :-)

Dawns and Departures AWI Campaign

The redoubtable Andrew Parkes has volunteered to umpire a Sharp Practice campaign using the Dawns and Departures campaign rules. This is very welcome. Coincidentally the equally redoubtable David Lambert had organised a Sharp Practice day at Pendraken Miniatures on the outskirts of Middlesbrough, so it seemed a good idea to combine the two and get some campaign turns in 

Three (I think) days in and the Tyrannical British have attacked the brave freedom loving Americans at Hymer's Farm. There was a small force of Continentals there, augmented on the day by some irregular skirmishers. 

Initially the Continentals, with support from locals harassing from a nearby orchard caused some casualties to the British Light Infantry that were covering the main advance.

The Yankees made the Redcoats fight hard for the farm, but were eventually forced to withdraw by overwhelming numbers back along the road, leaving the farm to the depravations of the Brits. 

A good little fight and got us back into the rules. Thanks to Andy for umpiring, David for organising, and Paul for opposition. 

A theoretical two thirds.............followed by a very real and nice three and a half

So today I finished (almost) the group of "third Rank" skirmishers. That means, if you squint, I've completed two of the three units in my Sharp Practice Austro-Hungarians. The catch is the final third is another big unit of fusiliers, 24 foot plus two officers.

Here are the skirmishers - as you can see they still need the basing doing but I think I'll do the whole force at once to keep some visual homogeneity. 

This doesn't mean the project is getting to an end. Once the core force is complete I'll need another 16 points of supports to use depending on scenarios. "Luckily" the core force is about 64 points, meaning I'll normally not need much extra if facing the French forces which tend to be quite low on base force points. I figure a unit of artillery and maybe some Jager is 14 of those 16 points, leaving a few spare for the odd or scenario supports.

As an aside I had three and a half pints of Elland 1872 Porter, Champion Beer of Britain five times and one of the nicest \ strongest beers I've had in a long time. Sadly the brewery closed it's doors this month so that will most likely be the last I ever get. Sad really.

Before the beer hit me I did manage to stick together the last of the fusiliers so I will hopefully not have too many halts once the production line restarts.

I stuck together 24 Fusiliers (only 16 in this pic) plus a drummer (Musician), NCO , Colour bearer and Pioneer. They will all come in useful as support options.

Tomorrow I'm attending a Sharp Practice day at Pendraken Miniatures, hopefully my Rebellious Colonists will throw off the oppressive yolk of Perfidious Albion! 

Cheers

  

 

General Update - Get off your keyboard and man your brush!

I'm trying to spend time painting rather than playing games on the pc. Turns out this makes my modelling more productive - who would have thought?

Having finished the first unit of Austrians I ran into he soft sand a bit. Basically my desire not to get put off by a large pile of unpainted plastic and lead meant I only assembled enough to do the first unit. Now that is done I discovered I had a few issues.

Firstly I didn't have any assembled figures - easy enough to fis there are boxes of then in easy reach (gulp)

Secondly I didn't have enough 20x20mm mdf bases for a second unit anyway.

Thirdly, I've lost (or possibly used?) the white rattle-can I am using to undercoat them

This has caused an unplanned pause. Luckily I also had spent a little time ruminating over the Austrian list for Sharp Practice and decided I would like to get a group of "Third Rank" skirmishers in the basic force. Historical side note - The Austrian-Hungarian Infantry Battalions of the Napoleonic Period were a little different to many others. The Battalions didn't have a designated Light Company as seen in contemporary British and French units tasked with skirmishing. Instead the Austrians relied on taking troops from the third rank of formations and sending them out to skirmish. It's not an ideal solution to say the least. Mulling this over, I thought it would be more appropriate for my main force to use these as my skirmishers rather than the original Grenzers or Jagers. So I ordered a pack from Perry's along with some extra command etc. These arrived yesterday as I was heading out for the other supplies. I went to Pendraken for some more bases, and picked up some spray paint, so the wheels are back on. 

I've decided its easier to base and put some sand \ grit on the bases before starting to paint - part of the changes I made to the process of painting based on the first unit. 

So the next unit on the production line is the Third Rank skirmishers. I have one group of six which in true Austrian fashion is totally inadequate to screen the main unit in line but I'm thinking that is a bonus as it will encourage me to deploy in columns, at least while I try and manoeuvre.  To be honest this is probably going to be necessary anyway as the 24 man units in line are a bit unwieldy if there is any terrain or obstacle in the way. Memo to self - reread the section in Sharp Practice about changing formation!

Anyway that's all for now - I feel obliged to include a pic so here is the next group of line infantry assembled and ready for undercoat

Cheers!