Sharp Practice v2 Deployment point competition

A little inter cult activity intermission for something completely different.. The French!

Richard from TFL is running a Sharp Practice v2 deployment point competition.
So this prompt me to realise idea I had in mind for a long time. A little dioramas of soldiers robbing boots of the fallen enemy - a common thing in war especially or badly supplied Army of Italy .. My badly supplied units are still in wip stage but why not try to make test miniatures and use in competition too! Win-Win.

Rules of competition are as follow:

So, here are the rules:

1. Two Deployment Points are to be entered for an Army.
2. The Deployment Points may be for armies in any scale.  The competition is entirely scale neutral.
3. The Deployment Points should be a sensible size.  What that is we leave to you.  My 28mm DPs are 60mm round which I think is a nice size, being large enough to create a scene on but not too large but as we say, the choice is yours.
4. Points will be awarded on the entirely unscientific basis of what the Lard Island judges like.  Points will be gained if the vignette “tells a story”, i.e. it is clear what is going on, and a touch of humour will likely be rewarded as will some nice scenery as well as troops or some other way of identifying the nationality which the DP represents.
5. The competition will run between now and the end of June, with the jury’s decision being announced on Monday the 4th of July
6. The jury’s decision will probably be wrong or foolish, but it will stand with no right of appeal.

They are a little vague but - lets be honest I am not the best painter around so chances for win are quite slim anyway but potential prizes very tasty :P
So I chose  to have fun
My first deployment point is called  (Yes i gave them proper names hoping for extra unscientific points in the competition :) Vive la chaussure!

As all of you surly fluent in French will see coming it portrait glorious if grimmy job or freeing nice officer boots from Austro-Hungarian occupation! And drinking some wine in the proces.. those guys are Frenchmen first revolutionaries second..

Second one I had more problems.. I didnt want to copy the death robbing concept nor do simple furage gathering so Mort aux ennemis de la France was born

Grand battle may be won but everyday there is next battle ahead and so we see it.. La dernier combat between a man (a FRENCH man) and a chicken (soon to be a french supper) .. And eating some fine previously baked chicken leg in the proces.. those guys are Frenchmen first revolutionaries second..

Here are they together

And in sorry WIP state just yesterday..

And some field photos

All chickens run to Castiglione!! Mamma mia!

Not anymore..

Stop right there in the name of France!!

" General de AWix, Nous battons ennemi poularde!!"

Hurry Up men.. Wurmser had more boots at Castiglione

Marchons, marchons, marchons !...

Mort aux ennemis de la France

*I apology any inevitable Frenchman that will stumble upon my Frenchlish.. :)
(Especially Tango01 that will see this sooner or later..)

von GRZkoffs best...

My Napoleonic skirmish project is slowly coming forward. I've finished and based unit of Austrian German Line Fusiliers and von GRZkoff himself.
I am not fan of those Victrix Austrian models. They are cheap and fill ranks fast but hunched poses and especially faces left a lot to be desired (who thought that mouldline through the face is good idea Victrix ?!!  They are worse than Frenchmen for sure. Only bonus is mounted colonel sprue in the box. von GRZkoff face is a lightyears ahead of fusilier faces.. In the end they will look good on the table but for my next box i will try my luck with Grenadiers, they have faces cast frontal not on the side.
I really like vonGZKoff face, its one of the most characterful Victrix faces I've seen (my second favorite is first Frenchman in the line on the action photo). I will use second one with some slight hat modification for a French officer. Sorry for lack of eyes but I have to confront the color with real life von GRZkoff first :)

 

 

And for the finish action shot (sorry for the void but i lack proper Napoleonic terrain yet :)

Vive l'Empereur part 3 Volitigeurs completed

Ive finished my first unit for sharps practice. Volitigeurs. Technically speaking they did not exist in 1800 but I will use them as light infantry. Nobody from my gaming partners shouldn't realize the stretch :> I think that in Sharps practice they will work well. Next Ligne Intantry. I will try more fancy trouser with them like seen in Italian campaigns.

Models are from Victrix.


Vive l'Empereur my friends :)

My napoleon overseeing unit :)

  

Vive l'empereur part 2: Bases

Ive more or less finished (i forget bicorn rosettes) first 4 Victrix French Infantry. And made bases. Ive researched color of soil near Lodii but was hard pressed in thinking up convincing vegetation. Ive decided for some rocks (most of the fight in Italy was at least partially in hilly and mountainous terrain) and some green grass with extras. They could be better but as I hate basing I am not to good with it ;(

Vive l'empereur part 1 :First steps with Napoleonic Infantry in 28mm

I finished my first Voltigeur. Ive decided for Victrix miniatures and bought myself as Christmas present a box of their early French Infantry in bicornes. Later shako equipped infantry is more iconic for great Napoleonic battles, but I am more interested in skirmish so I decided to try early Italy - French in bicornes and Austrians in helmets (If i like th rules and painting miniatures I will then add 1812 in Russia skirmish later). Victrix miniatures are very nice, but a little fiddly. If I would play mass combat game I would choose Perry. Victrix have some flash (and in places it could be a little annoying to remove) but most important they are multipart. Each miniature consist of body and legs, head, musket arm, second arm, and in some cases extra sword.  Its top choice for skirmish, buy gluing up two boxes of them could be annoying.. Especially if you are interested in marching poses.. I want many poses so i went Victrix and despite flash I am very happy with them. Models paint nicely, and have very good detail, although some parts are very delicate (plastic is of the softer kind and one can damage bayonets and straps when cutting them up from the sprue). Additionally for each pair of sprues (4 pairs in box) you get extra 10 sets of hands with muskets, extra 12 heads and few extra bits (although hand with shako and one shako with plume look like  ended in this set by accident) Overall I give the models A- (for flash) but it would be B-  if  you plan to use them in mass combats (like 10 models per company.. any force above battalion would be a chore).

 

 

And WIP shot of guys being painted now:

Question that is puzzling me is how many will I manage to finish before I will get bored by this Napoleonic horde :>

Napoleonic experiments part 2: 28mm Young Napoleon

As a follow up to my experiments with 1:72 Cuirassier I painted 28mm Napoleonic miniature, The man himself !. Interesting model but face was really hard to paint to me. I have to say that it paints much easier than 1:72. Although this model has less detail than Cuirassier soe it was easier miniatures.. After this experiment I have to say 28mm 1: vs 0 - 1:72scale  

ESCI Cuirassier 1:72

I am considering my options for new year plan. Napoleonic Skirmish! I have me my 3mm for big battles, but while such small scale allow me to fight a battle (whatever i call my 60 man bases Battalion or company i can fight different levels of massed battles) but it loose much of the flavor of the epoque. Colorful uniforms - that have to be one of constituting factor for Napoleonic period (This and certain tall fellow that gave so much fear to the English they make him a dwarf in propaganda - a vision that is here today.. This guy was taller than Wellington - swallow this vile red coated evildoers!! Vive L'Empereur).
Off course while some players take it much to seriously, i adore possibility to replicate exact uniform  of a given unit. But I hate doing miniatures i wont ever fight with (and have almost none motivation to paint more than a handful)  :)
So i came to a conclusion that i need Napoleonic Skirmish. While there are many options on the market, Sharp practice from TFL caught my attention (After trying a CoC I am TFL junkie (I ve bought 5 of their games that I am yet to play :( ).

I know that I need French. And I need some guys they will be able to take their frog off making them look completely stupid in the process. While evil red skinned British are first choice for many, lets be honest they were never a real threat to Napoleon when his star was ascending, they just gathered like vultures after his downfall to take spoils. So real question is Austrians or Russians (I think i prefer Austrians for my first opponent, although Perry retreat from Moscow line is very tempting too). Sooo main question is a scale.. I wanted this project to be as cheap as possible but I want to have pleasure playing with my miniatures. I can have less of them but funnier to paint. Thats why i decided to paint my last ESCI Cuirassier from my youth.. I get him in great Quatre Bras set around 1991. I sold the set years ago but i left me one last memory of crushing Highlanders under its hooves  (possibly 2 but i cant find the second one).

To be honest the model is great, it has detail to dream of, but the detail is fine, hard to paint, and model is gummy. paint chipped from him before i finished the painting.. SO unfortunately, while I like how the guy went I will try my luck with 28mm next. (Did I mention awesome retreat from Moscow from Perrys ?

 

7e régiment de hussards

In my quest to rise mine Petit Grande Armee Ive finished 7e régiment de hussards or 7th Hussars Regiment in english :)
One of the most famous regiment i chose for its high contrast red trousers and green dolman and mentyk (blouse and pelisse) and white
 
Ive decided to use lighter green for the dolman and mentyk (like in the picture on the left) .  I am sure that Napoleonic fasion police will want my blood but lets be honest, its just not very visible in 1:600 scale. ALso Ive aded easy nationality recognition system you will be familiar with at the moment you see it :>

So here are my Hussards.. All 4 squadrons of them ! Vivle la Emperreur !

Here is my  whole Davout III rd corps so far