A paper evolution

The paper battalions have now evolved into a more flexible version that uses smaller blocks that can represent companies, sections or half sections for a 1-1 representation of a battalion. I've had a lot of input from the folks at TMP click here to see the lengthy discussion. My thanks for all their great suggestions.

I have made some final revisions to the soldier illustrations to reflect the individual companies with some command elements, Fusiliers, Grenadiers and Voltigeurs.

 Individual blocks shown here, note labelling on the underside to show which company (they even have correctly coloured pom-poms if your printer is up to the task). Shown here is all six companies in line.

Column by division in close order and in square.

I took the time to print four, six company battalions. This meant I could also represent a battalion in 1-1,  every man represented (720 men).

 Shown here as a column by division at section intervals. Then a column by peleton in close order. Then the whole battalion in line, which I just managed to fit on my A1 map of Waterloo pm.

Finally the battalion in square. Unfortunately the flag is not in the correct position, I may make a final tweak to include a flag party.

Here is the latest A4 that reflects the latest changes, all six companies per A4, the flag and an optional command front for the company of your choice.

A final note, I've noticed that blogger optimises any images uploaded to this blog, the final version will be at a much better resolution.

More paper army stuff

I've had a generous amount of feedback from the guys at TMP and using some of their suggestions I am making some new paper Napoleonics. I was interested to read that during the Napoleonic period wooden blocks with painted soldiers were used. The suggestion that arose a few times was to break the battalion into smaller blocks so that people can create the formations from a single set if company sized blocks.
I've done some initial reworking on the French and here is a quick preview.

 New group that includes command elements.

 

Another suggestion was to place the soldiers on a balck background to make the uniforms more visible, shown here on a command block. This has a 30mm frontage, 3 ranks that are 15mm deep.

Finally here is the 6 company French battalion to print, complete with 3 Fusilier, 1 Voltigeur, 1 Grenadier and 1 command company.

I've also made a start on illustrating some cavalry with everyone agrees will be a more difficult unit to pull off.

Paper Napoleonic battalions

In my day job I make stuff out of card. Mostly promotional stuff, point-of-sale and packaging. So I frequent the paper modelling section of TMP a bit and like to see and even try out other people's creations. There are lots of paper armies freely available on the internet and most of those are of the 2d stand-up variety. There are some really nice examples out there including the frankly bonkers amount of stuff at Junior General.
I had an idea to create Napoleonic battalions of a small scale (10mm) as 3D boxes rather than 2D cutouts and here are the results to date.

 British in line, column and square

 Card flags inserted into slots on the top

 Font and side illustrations

 The French in line, column and square

 The French advance in line (it did happen!)

 The French advance in column (thats more like it)

The boxes are actually about 12mm in height. The other dimensions, frontage and depth are still a work in progress as I'm not working to any rule set in particular. Line and column battalions are 2 to an A4/Letter sheet. Battalions in square are a bit more complex and are only one to a sheet. They can be scaled up or down for different gaming scales although I'd imagine they are less impressive at the larger sizes.

Once there are a few on the table they look quite convincing (I'm biased obviously). Below is an enlargement of the individual troop illustrations. I can appreciate that some purists will find errors in uniform and kit but they were never meant to be seen at this size.

Finally I have included a sample of the British in line:

and the French in column for people to try:

Please remember to click the image and then right click and select 'save image' to download and print.