Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Tiny Frenchmen Have Arrived!

Waiting for me at the Mad Padre's Painting Chapel when I got home from holidays was a small box full of tiny Frenchmen. As I've said here already, I have this inexplicable impulse to try my hand at Napoleonics, since Conrad Kinch makes the period look like something that any self-respecting gentleman should try.

The tiny Frenchmen (do I call them Tadpoles? They seem too small to be Frogs) are from the Baccus 6mm range, which I've heard good things about. After deciding I would do the classic mid period (1806 on) I opted for a bag of line infantry with some voltiguers thrown in for skirmishing, and a battery of guns. Since I've never bought horses, limbers or cassions in a larger scale (hard to justify the expense) I plumped for the full monty - 6mm cassions and limbers can't be too hard to paint up, and don't seem that expensive.

I also tried out a NE European farm/barn set in resin to get a feel for the terrain (at this scale, balsa models don't seem too daunting to make) and since I know little about Napoleonic rules, opted for Baccus' house rules, Polemos, getting their large scale army battles rules (Marechal d'Empire) and their smaller, divisional scale rules (General de Division) on one USB stick.

How to paint them? I've found some helpful stuff on the webI am sure I will come back here to pose questions and ask advice to any Napoleonics folks and/or small scale fans who follow this blog.

I have set myself a goal of getting these little chaps done before Thanksgiving, and then I may try a small order from another manufacturer (Adler? Heroics and Ros?) to see how they compare. But shall I get more Frenchmen or opponents, and if the latter, whom? Russians, British, Austrians, Prussians? Decisions, decisions.

26 comments:

  1. Ach! Die kleine Frosch! Was kann mann tun?
    Good luck with the nanites! I'll be looking forward to the photos.

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    Replies
    1. Oh! The small frog! What can man do?

      Google is a wondrous thing.

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  2. Welcome to the wonderful world of 6mm. I think they look great for Napoleonics. I hate painting them though.

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  3. You devil you, 6mm Naps! Baccus are great figures to paint. The only trouble I had painting them is that they're too detailed for 6mm!!! I painted up some ECW figures and found the best way was to undercoat them black, and dot paint, then any black you leave looks like shading. Just my twopennith worth!

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    1. Hi Ray:

      Dunno, I was thinking of undercoating them white, which would at least solve the pants and crossbelts issue. I will try your suggestion on stick or two and see what works better.

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  4. Adler makes great looking, detailed stuff. Heroics and Ross are bland blobs of metal (unless they redesigned them since I last saw them many years ago)

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    1. Hey, W, it's good to see you here. You are one of this blog's earliest followers. Thanks! I apprciate the tip ref Adler vice H&R, I shall keep that in mind.

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  5. Cool, got to love tiny Frenchman, you will have fun with those.

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    1. Thanks Dan. The one good thing about tiny Frenchmen is that they don't make huge demands on my liquor cabinet. So far I have fobbed them off with a quarter bottle of a nasty Canadian merlot and the promise to buy them some 6mm cantinieres, or at least play Carmen while I paint them.

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  6. Bacchus are lovely, lovely figures, though based on what I've seen I don't think they play well with others.

    Timecast are the gold standard for terrain in 6mm. I'll drag out some of my examples on the blog so you can have a look.

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    1. Thanks Kinch, old chap. When you blog those Timecast models, pray don't forget to include some cute kittens amidst your buildings to show the scale. :)

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  7. Of course, the Baccus Forum is a great place for getting painting tips for 6mm, but the rgistration system might still be up the creek (you can get on by sending Peter an email I believe), or there is the Angel Barracks 6mm forum http://angelbarracks.forumup.com/

    As others have said, Baccus are on the larger side of 6mm with lots of detail. They wouldn't mix well with others on the same base, but you could probably mix with Adler in the same army.

    Probably the best idea is to clean all the flash on a reasonable sized batch of figures then glue them onto sticks with one stick per base/regiment, spray prime the whole batch and paint one or two sticks at a time.

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    1. Thanks for those tips Tamsin! I've applied to join the Baccus forum and will look into that other URL.
      I appreciate your suggestions.

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  8. Enjoy your new toys.
    My eyes are no longer as young as my imagination, so I have graduated to scales bigger than 6mm (I've even sold my 15s).
    My guess is that some uniform research may have you looking at bigger scales.

    Cheers
    PD

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    1. Thank you Peter. My eyesight isn't getting better, in fact it seems to be slowly getting worse, so 6mm may be a really bad idea. I hope not.

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  10. Thanks Chris. I may end up hating to paint them myself.

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  11. Replies
    1. Thanks, Al, I am returning the favour.
      Cheers, Mike

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  12. Hi Mike
    I prefer the black or a dark brown basecoat and then blocking in the colours for quick shading.
    Also remember for smaller figures you want brighter colours to help them 'pop' so when looking at uniform plates you may want to go a shade lighter when you paint them.
    For opponents I would go with Austrians. Always a good reliable enemy of the French. 1804-5, 1809 and then 1813-1815. And their cavalry are pretty.
    Russians are easy too and you can do them for the Austerlitz (1804) Friedland (1807) and the Invasion of Russia of course (1812) and then 1813-15. But their cavalry aren't quite as pretty.
    Prussians you've got the small SYW looking army of 1806 with ponderous command and control and slow drill. But I would go with the new army for the War of Liberation 1813-1815. Simple colours; blue, grey, black mostly. Their cavalry aren't pretty at all.
    Then there's the Brits of course, but they're so ubiquitous in the gaming mags I find them kinda boring.
    I'd do Austrians or Russians myself... and then throw in some Prussians too for a combined allied 1813-14 army.

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    1. Thanks, mate, you are as always the fons et origo of good and sensible advice. I am leaning towards the Austrians and possibly Russians meself. I have enough figures that I can try a variety of basecoats and decide which I like best.

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  13. Have fun with your new project! When I was heavy into getting my 6mm collection together I primarily used Adler as I liked their style of sculpts. I agree with Conrad in that you don't want to mix them in a unit BUT they look fine mixdd within the same army/collection. My preference is to prime in black or dark grey and then pick out the highlights. This way the shadows and contact-lines are already done for you. Also, go with a shade lighter than what you would with a larger figure. These little guys need their colours amped-up so they work in their scale. I think Austrians or British/Portuguese/Spanish would serve as a good counterpoint to the French.

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    1. Much obliged, Curt. You and James seem to be in agreement as to undercoats and bright colours (taking notes). I appreciate your advice and hope to have something to show here soon, once I chase some 20mm Jerries, some ACW ladies, and a naked vampire lady off my painting table.

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  14. Hi Mike

    I have about 4000 6mm naps
    French, of course, Russians, Prussians and a few British - all Adler
    I have very few Austrians, these from Baccus. They match up quite well with the Adlers
    Within the month I will have enough painted up and based to put 3 French Inf Corps and a Cav corps up against 2 Russian Inf Corps and a Cav Corps and a Prussian Corps (MdE rules)
    I have based then for the Lardies Le Feu Sacre, but, having put them on magnetic pases, and using metal 60mmx60mm bases, can also use them for Polemos MdE.
    Looking forward to getting mine on the table and perhaps we can join forces at some time for a mega battle
    Keith

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    1. Wo2, 4000! That's something I can aspire to in my likely number of years left on earth, I suppose.
      I would love to put our forces together sometime ... assuming you are the Keith I think you are. :)

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  15. Yes Mike
    I think I am the Keith you are assuming.
    Got the toys on the table with Brian last weekend.
    Had a good battle and fumbled throught the rules.
    Will have another go soon to sort through the mistakes we made in the rules.
    Keith (aka General S. Moore)

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