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Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: Melnibonean on 15 June 2016, 10:35:35 AM

Title: Retro-Napoleonic Project - New Battalion & Guard Jager company
Post by: Melnibonean on 15 June 2016, 10:35:35 AM
Well, today I received a delivery from the Land of Perry and behold!!!

(http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg91/ikhemm/Prussian%20Goodies_zpsszdtyn7w.jpg) (http://s246.photobucket.com/user/ikhemm/media/Prussian%20Goodies_zpsszdtyn7w.jpg.html)

I'm the proud owner of a bunch of Prussians.

Some friends and I have started down the the murky road of retro-Napoleonics. And that means 1970's, Bruce Quarrie, 1:33, Average Dice, Fire Dice, Casualty Charts and bookkeeping. The whole shebang!

What we really want to do is take the rules, play them until we have a good working knowledge and then modify and streamline them into a set of rules that are easier to use whilst retaining the same flavour of 70's Napoleonic's. What this means for me at the moment is painting up a bunch of Prussians (because we all have either French or French-allied armies).

Anyhow, here's the start. I can paint pretty fast and keep a good standard and I hope to be able to paint at least a 20 figure battalion per week.
I'll keep you updated.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project
Post by: Norm on 15 June 2016, 06:56:29 PM
looking forward to more on this.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project
Post by: Melnibonean on 24 June 2016, 02:47:56 AM
I've done the first Prussian battalion of many more battalions to come. This is the 2nd battalion of the 8th Leib Regt.

I decided on a back to basics painting style. No shading and the only wash use was on the skin. There's a lot of benefits to this style. It's easy (but you have to be accurate with the brush), it's pretty fast and above all it gives the figures a nice clean look.

More pics on my blog: http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/prussian-project-first-battalion-painted.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - First unit painted.
Post by: Marine0846 on 24 June 2016, 03:58:40 PM
Interesting that I have been thinking about doing Prussians,
some what along the same lines as you.
Good start on you first unit.
A good standard paint job, good to get units on the table.
With the pound being so low, time to put in a big Perry order.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - First unit painted.
Post by: Melnibonean on 25 June 2016, 05:39:20 AM
I did a bit of a write-up on my blog about my experiences, thus far, regarding my Retro-Napoleonic adventure.

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/a-slow-death-by-fractions-ncim.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - First unit painted.
Post by: Melnibonean on 14 July 2016, 10:26:36 AM
Well here I am again. In the meantime, I've managed to paint up some more figures that you can see below.

I've finished the second musketeer battalion of the 8th Lieb Regiment and I've moved on to the fusilier battalion. But, in the meantime I decided to do some jagers. Unfortunately the Perry Plastic Prussians (P3) only has one jager pose so they all look the same. But I'll need a second company so I've decided to make them all conversions. At least that way I can mix the two companies together for some variation.

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - More units added.
Post by: Melnibonean on 21 July 2016, 07:06:36 AM
So, I finally finished my first Prussian line regiment: 8th Lieb Regiment.
I'm doing some conversions to the jager figure in the Perry Plastics box so that I can field two companies and I've also started on a squadron of uhlans (regiment unknown at this stage).

Here's a pic of the fusilier regiment 8th Lieb Regt. There are more pics of the finished regiment at my blog: http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/8th-lieb-regiment-done.html
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - My first finished regiment.
Post by: Melnibonean on 23 July 2016, 03:20:55 AM
My Prussians made it to the table for the first time last night in a scenario against an advancing Polish column. They were never going to win but the scenario was a Prussian forward post with the am of delaying the enemy and retiring back to the main force (off the table). I only have the troops shown on this thread.

In our pursuit of an older style of play, we used Bruce Quarrie's Napoleon's Campaigns in Miniature and the result was very satisfying.

I did a write up on my blog and, for once, I remembered to take plenty of photos.

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/my-prussians-make-their-debut.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - My Prussian's first game
Post by: Melnibonean on 31 July 2016, 01:54:36 AM
I've had a busy week but I managed to do some stuff to propel this project along.

After the last game we had it became apparent the a Quick Reference Sheet was required. So I got to work on it. I like the QRS that comes with General de Brigade so I thought I'd use that as a model. This took a while to do as I first had to create all of the tables and charts from scratch. There was also the issue that Bruce Quarrie had a tendency to mention various factors etc, in the text and not included them in any charts. After another small test game yesterday more of these hidden gems were revealed and will have to be added.

I did an initial set of 4 A4 pages and posted them to the Bruce Quarrie Napoleonic's, Facebook page for discussion. I then made a revised second set and posted them on my blog. If you'd like to have a look they are at:

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/quick-reference-sheets-for-ncim.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - Some work on charts & tables
Post by: olicana on 31 July 2016, 12:26:44 PM
If you are enjoying it then who am I to say otherwise lol

I know what you mean about the bigger units though. Over the last couple of years I've retrospectively increased the size of my SYW infantry units from 16 to 24 man units purely for the aesthetic (figs per stand not making a shed of difference in the rules I use).

BTW. After a game using BQ's old rules, what do you prefer, Asprin or Paracetamol? o_o
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - Some work on charts & tables
Post by: Melnibonean on 01 August 2016, 04:08:25 AM

BTW. After a game using BQ's old rules, what do you prefer, Asprin or Paracetamol? o_o

I know what you mean. All the fractions were doing my head in. ;D

The first couple of games were painful but we thought, we need to play the "rules as written" to gain an idea of where to start fixing them. However, the last couple of games have started to flow better and when we come to an issue it's much easier to solve it when we can look at the situations on the table. We're getting there and it's enjoyable.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - Some work on charts & tables
Post by: Melnibonean on 16 August 2016, 01:59:50 AM
I now have a Prussian foot battery and some more uhlans. My single squadron didn't do well in our test games so now they may have a bit more durability (although they are still only at half strength).
 
I did a little write up and added some pics on my blog.

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/some-prussian-guns.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Prussian Project - Some work on charts & tables
Post by: Melnibonean on 20 August 2016, 11:58:11 AM
We had another game last night - Polish v's Prussians. We're still trying to hammer out a workable set of rules from Napoleons Campaigns in Miniature and so far things are going well. The basics have become easy to work with and the turns are turning over quickly but every game we come to a point where we find something that doesn't work well and needs consideration. In this case it was Cavalry v's Infantry. This game is the first time it's come up.

A write up and a lot of pics on my blog at: http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - Another game - Another write up
Post by: Melnibonean on 26 August 2016, 01:50:50 AM
I need a few hundred Landwehr and I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for them. So I decided to sculpt my own range. I'm looking at doing about 15 variations: 6 x march attack, 6 x advance, 3 command (maybe more).

This is my first test sculpt and I'm quite happy with him. His name is Ludwig.

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/08/prussian-landwehr-test-sculpt.html


Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - added Landwehr Test Sculpt
Post by: jambo1 on 26 August 2016, 05:53:19 AM
Great work and very nice looking Landwehr sculping, really look the part. Good luck on your project, taking shape very nicely.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - added Landwehr Test Sculpt
Post by: matakishi on 26 August 2016, 07:43:24 AM
I just found this thread today. Enjoyed your write ups immensely and looking forward to more.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - added Landwehr Test Sculpt
Post by: Melnibonean on 09 September 2016, 03:01:08 AM
I had to take a sabbatical from sculpting whist I wait for a musket to be cast.

So' in the meantime I've continued painting. I finished these guys about a week ago but only just got around to photographing them.

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/the-prussians-keep-on-coming.html

Here they are after I sent them back in time to the 1970's where they appeared in a popular wargaming publication:
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - New battalions added
Post by: Melnibonean on 14 September 2016, 02:52:55 AM
After a long wait for some muskets to be cast I finally got around to finishing my second Prussian landwehr sculpt.
You can see more of him as well as my design thoughts on my blog at:

http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/landwehr-sculpt-2.html

He's an ugly bugger.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - 2nd Landwehr Sculpt added
Post by: PAULSPENCE on 14 September 2016, 02:10:51 PM
Bonjour,

How did I miss this!!

A great sculpt and a great subject.

You can never have too many Prussians so I look forward to seeing how you get on and would be interested in hearing if Ludwig and his chums are availabe for sale one day.

Cheers,

Paul
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - 2nd Landwehr Sculpt added
Post by: Melnibonean on 23 September 2016, 01:33:34 AM
After a bit of a delay, I finished the third Landwehr figure. There are a few minor differences with this figure just to give them a sense of variety and non-uniformity.

More (bad) pics at my blog: http://this28mmlife.blogspot.com.au/2016/09/landwehr-sculpt-3.html

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - 2nd Landwehr Sculpt added
Post by: ARKOUDAKI on 23 September 2016, 09:13:28 AM
Since you are doing the sculpting route I would strongly advise you to do the heads separately, and perhaps some of the arms, as that will give you a lot more variety in your units. And variety is the spice of life!

What material are you using, ProCreate or something else?
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - 2nd Landwehr Sculpt added
Post by: Melnibonean on 23 September 2016, 12:11:49 PM
Since you are doing the sculpting route I would strongly advise you to do the heads separately, and perhaps some of the arms, as that will give you a lot more variety in your units. And variety is the spice of life!

What material are you using, ProCreate or something else?

I'll be doing variations on the originals (different heads/footwear etc) for more variety. I'd prefer to keep them as single pieces.

I use a 50/50 mix of ProCreate and Miliput. It has the best properties of both mediums. It's really easy to shape, it has no Miliput chalkiness, and it can be sanded/filed very well.
Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - 2nd Landwehr Sculpt added
Post by: Melnibonean on 03 October 2016, 02:04:20 AM
I finally finished the last battalion of the 12th Reserve Regt as well as a company of Guard Jager.
The 3rd battalion has a different uniform to the other two battalions in the regiment - grey with black straps. The only facing colour is on the hat band and they are not fusiliers despite the black belts.

The jagers were mashed together using the jager from the Perry boxed set & lots of arms from a variety of sources. I straightened the left leg on all of the figures bar one and, all-in-all, they were a pain in the butt to make. They're not perfect but they'll do the job.

Title: Re: Retro-Napoleonic Project - New Battalion & Guard Jager company
Post by: Cessna on 03 October 2016, 05:37:52 PM
I really like your style. Many years ago I did a "toy soldier" style 15mm French army for a small game - bright colors, very little highlighting and shading, "Britains" style green bases. It looked quite striking on the table. Yours look even better!