Gentlemen,
I have just embarked on what will be my first army for this period. It will be French. I have looked carefully at Churchill's Blenheim OOB thread for inspiration and have been positively sickened by the standard of painting. I can seriously imagine that guy staying up 'till 3.00am waxing the moustaches on his Prussian grenadiers.
I have also noticed that quite a few of the regular contributors to this site are professional figure painters and have decided that this will not deter me. I lived in Papua New Guinea for some twenty years and used to gloat over Barry's articles in WARGAMES illustrated and again, the standards were amazing. Barry, you set the bar very high. Once again, this will not deter me.
What you will get in this thread is the story of how an amateur will go about creating his force and yes, I will submit images as and when they are ready so, no laughing up there in the three-and-nines please.
I am looking at three brigades of infantry, one of which will be Irish in the French service. Each brigade will consist of four regiments. There will be 24 squadrons of horse and probably six artillery pieces. From what I have read so far, this would seem to be the correct proportion. I have taken delivery of my first two foote regiments from Copplestone Castings, each of 21 figures and the first of these will become Regiment Picardie. I took advantage of Mark’s weekend Christmas special offer of 15% off! The flags I have obtained from Reiver Rob, who was kind enough to resize them to 50mm x 50mm. After some careful thought, my bases will be from Flames of War. I will use their 65mm x 50mm large base for each normal infantry stand with the leading edge being 50mm giving a depth of 65mm. Their medium base will provide a pike stand that holds three figures, again with a leading edge of 50mm but with a depth of 32mm. These stands will have the corresponding magnetic bases to give some heft and secure them should I play an away fixture. This configuration actually looks quite impressive.
As time progresses, I will probably source figures from more than one supplier to give variety as long as they are reasonably compatible with those above. I had originally thought of buying all the figures in one go but, having been forced to do that when I lived in PNG and thinking back on the mountain of white metal that arrived (about 500 x 40mm Perry American Civil War figures from Foundry’s now discontinued range) and eventually feeling that painting them became a chore rather than a pleasure, I have decided to buy a couple of regiments or squadrons at a time and finish those before getting some more.
As to painting, my eyesight and skills are definitely not those of a professional so, I have gone down the “Dip” road but will apply the dip with a brush rather than risk dropping the little buggers into the tin.
So, Gentlemen, wish me luck as I carry on; I will keep you posted.
Kindest regards,
Jim
The Grand Alliance War or the Spanish Succession.
