Micro La Haye Sainte in paper

After spending a bit of time making my paper soldiers, I've decided to try making some buildings, micro sized but with sufficient image quality to be scaled up if required. The finished base size of this is 105x60mm approx.

The flat version of this is only made of 5 parts, I've glued the base to some thick card to prevent warping. This is not for the feint-hearted and is very fiddly to glue. I prototyped this at a much larger size, probably double the finished size. The main piece should reduce the amount of fiddly gluing.

The farm courtyard actually needs gluing to the unprinted reverse and positioned carefully so that the buildings fold inwards they will fall into place on that image. The internal side of the main farmhouse and the main gate are separate pieces, the gate needs to glue inside and outside the main wall covering the white parts of the main wall.

The finished model is shown here with some 6mm an 15mm metals to give an idea of scale. Finally, there is a 300dpi A4 version provided below for printing and making. I've positioned it carefully on the sheet so that it should print, centered on Letter sized paper without having to scale.

PDF download

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.

Victrix Test

I've not posted for a while. No excuses, I've been off pursuing other hobbies and interests. Santa was kind and I received my Sharpe Blu-Ray box set this year and the Napoleonic itch requires scratching once more. I have bought some Victrix hard plastic figures and here is a test of a group of four Peninsular French.

Lovely figures and a joy to paint and glue.

Bases are card with sand and coffee grounds glued painted and flocked.

Italeri French infantry, step-by-step

First I painted my French infantry blue...

Just kidding, I promised myself if I were ever to do a tutorial, or step by step I wouldn't be teaching anyone's Grandma how to suck eggs. I've included pictures showing the figures as they progress and I'll not be going into specifics about paint and colours used as everyone has their own favourite paint manufacturer. Having said I am about to completely contradict myself by talking about paint specifics.

I've given up buying cans of aerosol undercoat. Mainly because a money saving venture on my part resulted in a fortunate discovery. I purchased a cheap spray gun (Badger 250) for the purpose of undercoating. You'll notice I have avoided using the term 'airbrush' to avoid being reprimanded by the airbrush purists. Now filling these up with Citadel or Vallejo acrylics was going to get a bit pricey so I needed to find an alternative. My local shopping centre has a huge hobby superstore, with aisles of paints and brushes of every possible ilk. After wandering the shop for what seemed like minutes I happened upon a bulk pot of Acrylic by Daler Rowney called System 3. Says on the tub it's suitable for models, was a fair price and was in a spill proof bottle (essential for a clumsy oaf). I bought a 250ml bottle but its available in sizes up to 2.25 litres!

The good news is, it was a triumph, thinned nicely and covered soft plastics, hard plastics and cardboard well.

Stages 1-3, Red, White & Blue

One aspect of painting figures rarely discussed is the inevitable 'wobbles' or going over the lines if you like. I paint stages 1-3 and then correct any errors. Most mistakes made are because of inevitable hand wobbles (I think it's an age thing). I find it useful to rest the hand holding the figure or figures on the table and rest the little finger of my brush hand on my other hand to minimise wobble.

After stage 3 I tend to correct any errors as I go along, this prevents the figure getting too untidy.

On figures this small, painting hands and faces can be difficult, but it's worth doing a good job as good faces can give your figures character. I make sure my paint is a bit thinner than normal as it goes on a bit easier. I paint the back of the hand then fingers (not always successfully) then the opposite side, palm etc.

Faces are just a series of dots. I dot the nose, each cheek and then the chin/bottom lip. This gives a great 'Frenchman with big moustache' look. You can paint the top lip for a 'slightly younger Frenchman' look that is ideal for a bit of variation. Or you can paint that top lip grey for a 'really old Frenchman' or Old Guard look.

Stages 4-6, detailing.

I start quite untidily, and finish with as much detail as possible.

The last stage is always metallic details. Gun metal, silver and gold.

Hope one of these tips is of use to someone. I have picked up many useful tips from the internet over years, time to return the favour.

Waterloo terrain

I'm currently busy finishing my final six French battalions, so I though I'd take this opportunity to show you the terrain pieces I have started. There are six in all, two representing the most famous buildings of that battle and the other four generic pieces to be used for the other points on the battlefield (Plancenoit, Papelotte, La Belle Alliance etc). I have completed one piece just as a test (which is an annoying habit I seem to have developed, buy figures paint one as a test, move on).

La Haye Sainte 150x90mm

Hougomont 200x150mm

Generic 100x100mm piece, the only one completed so far.

Remaining 100x100mm pieces.

Each of my infantry bases is 60x20mm ( 60x80mm for a full battalion)

French Italeri Flags - a quick WIP

I was disappointed with the Airfix French as a whole. The Italeri French on the other hand are amazing. So much so that I'm actually quite glad the Airfix figures were so poor. I still had to do my normal flag conversion on the HQ. The Italeri figures provide an officer, drummer and Flag bearer x3 in every box. I just trimmed off the existing flag, made a hole in the base and glued a straightened paper clip into place using PVA glue. Two or three applications should do the trick.

 These are best 1/72 figures I've painted so far, although some of the Zvezda figures look like worthy purchases as well. I may post a more in depth WIP as I paint some of the remaining French.

Les Bleus

My intention is to have ten Battalions of French to oppose my British. To date four are finished. These  four are made up of the Airfix Figures that were included in my Waterloo set. They range from good to bad to downright unusable. The good are the Guard figures, well sculpted, good moulding, a few strange poses and a dodgy Officer's sword. The bad are the French Infantry, poor sculpting but can be saved by some clever painting. The poses are fine. Unfortunately some of the figures are so badly moulded that their limbs are so thin they looked like me on a beach holiday. I had so few usable figures that I was forced to make up the numbers using a surplus of 'shoulder arms' figures from the French Artillery set. Having said that I'm not unhappy with the final result and nostalgia for the bow-legged hunchbacks that served in my childhood 'Boney' army goes a long way.

So the final line up will be seven line, one light and two Guard Battalions.

1st Corp, 2nd Division, commanded by General Donzelot

 13th Light Regiment

1st Corp, 3rd Division, commanded by General Marcognet

 45th Regiment of the Line

Imperial Guard Corp, 1st Division (Old Guard) commanded by General Friant

1st Grenadier á pied 

 1st Chasseurs á pied

The remainder of 1st Corp, 2nd and 3rd Divisions will me made up of the fantastic Italeri French Infantry.

10 British Battalions

Having decided on how I'm going to base the figures the first Regiment I decided on was the 44th East Essex. The reason being I am an Essex man, born and bred. I'm actually from South Essex, but we all know there was never any South Essex Regiment... right?

This eventually led to me deciding to paint Wellington's reserve, Picton's Division minus the Hanoverian element. The inclusion in the Airfix set of French Guard figures would eventually lead to me add the two Guard battalions of Maitland's 1st Brigade. Clearly the Airfix set didn't have enough figures or figures of the right type to complete this task. I also decided at this stage to replace the mini skirt wearing Airfix Highland Infantry for the superior Esci/Italeri product. I also added the Revell Rifles and the Italeri British Infantry 1815 which is a mix of Guard figures and Stovepipe Shako wearing figures of the North Gloucesters (perfect).

8th Brigade, commanded by Major General Kempt

1st Battalion,  28th North Gloucester Regiment (Italeri)

1st Battalion, 32nd Cornwall Regiment (Airfix)

1st Battalion, 79th Cameron Highland Regiment (Italeri)

1st Battalion, 95th Regiment 'The Rifles' (Revell)

9th Brigade, commanded by Major General Pack

3rd Battalion, 1st Foot The Royals Regiment (Airfix)

1st Battalion, 42nd Highland Regiment 'Black Watch' (Italeri)

2nd Battalion, 44th East Essex Regiment (Airfix)

 1st Battalion, 92nd Highland Regiment 'Gordons' (Italeri)

1st Brigade, commanded by Major General Maitland

 2nd Battalion, 1st Foot Guards (Italeri)

 3rd Battalion, 1st Foot Guards (Airfix & Italeri)