"10mm Napoleonics - first time on Madaxeman" Topic

In a first for me (first time ever owning any Napoleonic troops – honestly..) here are some newly-painted 10mm Pendraken Napoleonics based up on 40mm wide bases for our CLWC club-standard basing for Bataille Empire.

These are a couple of test paints of standard sized 4-base units, for which I've used four 40mmx20mm DBx bases with two ranks on the rear base and one rank + skirmishers on the front rank base to set up the unit. These guys are undercoated in Army Painter blue spray, then inked in Army Painter dark blue ink before having the other colours added to them.

This is my first foray into painting Naps, and I thought that by doing them in 10mm not only would they get a good mass effect, I also wouldn't have to be too detailed on the painting of straps and the like. However, I did get suckered into adding coloured epaulets on these… against my better judgement. I also tried dark-washing the trousers of the main marching infantry, which came out a bit darker than I would like, so I painted over some of them again with white. The 2 shooting chaps at the front have uninked trousers at the moment for comparison.

I've not got any knowledge of this period other than at a very (very…) superficial level, so the apparently very important colour schemes for the pompoms and feathers in their hats and the like is somewhat ("entirely") beyond me. Grenadiers stick around the flag and have red pompoms, and everyone else has some sort of cllour that is only yellow in exceptional circumstances… is I think how it works? ;D

There's a few more photos on my blog at: link

Good job on those little guys ( I do 15-18), its a balance of what detail to do or not.

Cool. No real knowledge of Napoleonics required. You got the basics right.

A quick primer, IF you want to get in the weeds…. 6 companies: 1 grenadiers(red), 1 voltiguer (yellow), 4 regular companies with pom pom colors of : green, sky blue, orange, and violet. Grenadiers to the right of the flag and light(voltiguers) to the left.

Again, nicely done! And let us know how those rules play.

madaxeman
Looks ok, but I don't do small sizes any more. Sold off most 15mm several years ago as they were even less used, despite having several armies present.

Your figs look ok as far as photos show- however, some improvements perhaps-
1- flags used are way over scale- I know this is a tricky area of modelling (I have before now hand-made each and every standard in 25mm), but they are only really 80cm tall, so half a man height.

2- there should be white lapels on the chest (the French 'habit' coat worn had fake button down lapels with hooks and eyes closing the centre. Officers yes- you can get away with blue- some wore the 'frac', a plain style undress coat even on service.

Legere (Light Infantry regiments) you can do all blue (some had red cuffs still). About 25% of a 'normal' Division would be legere.

As to the 'companies' colour pompoms etc. I'd quit. Though there were 'regulations' about company colouration, really the distribution on a base hardly matches what it could be. More emphasis on the 'flank' companies Grenadiers and Voltigeurs attributes defines the 'battalion'. But is that the actual scale being followed?

Grenadiers weren't 'around' the flag- a 'special' guard and the sappers might have been but they didn't look like the Grenadier company per se. No epaulettes were ever worn by fusiliers or center companies (in Brit-speak) after the last of the revolutionary uniform coats were worn out/ replaced by 1801/03'ish. Just flat shoulder straps, blue piped red. Usage- to hold the cross belts in place!

Hope this helps somewhat,
regards dave

Ok, thanks.

I guess at this scale a literal representation is probably not sensible nor practicable then – so maybe I do each formation with one of the 4-5 colours, and have the coherence of plumes across different on table units operate at a different (visual) scale to the (representational) scale of the game then.. bit of a fudge maybe but better than having a rainbow with 2 files of each colour maybe…

I use the pop-pom colors by unit to help tabletop recognition, even in 25 mm; the grenadiers are always red, voltigeurs yellow [etc] (as elites I have them in the earlier tall plumes), and then one unit has all sky blue pom poms for the Fusiliers (center companies), the next dark green, the next violet, and the last aurore (light orange).

The weird thing I note, madx, is that even in these 'tiny' scales and mass production printed figs, you are still only using 20 figures per unit. You have approx 20 man units in the same space that I have 2 bases, and a 24 man unit.

If you want to use mass, small scale, I would have thought that you'd also use more figures/ bases per unit. I can imagine having 6-8 figures representing a single company (ie pompom colour), but you then will need to have x4 plus elites (late French org).

I realise this is your "dipping your toe in the water" start, but are you being (mis)guided by rules/ models etc. and not obtaining the 'flavour' of [massed] Napoleonics?

BTW- if those figures you have all have epaulettes, then they are light infantry (who DID retain that attribute in many legere regiments) until much later like 1813? replacements. The 'regulations' do not reflect reality, just a preference that would be put into effect.
cheers dave