Big little Napoleonics project - updated 5/3 Austrian light cavalry

[6mmfan]

Hi all

A while ago I stumbled across some pictures of Horse and musket (https://forwardmarchstudios.com/photo-gallery) games in 2mm and I was very impressed. Whilst I'm a big 6mm fan I really like the idea of being able to fight big battles on a reasonable sized area, and have a realistic chance of finishing the project! The 2mm setup and photos appealed and the the sweeping shots look like real battles, so I was hooked.

EDIT here's what I'm talking about in regards to what I want to achieve.




My plan is to print and paint forces for all the major Napoleonic battles (excluding The Peninsular and Egypt), and use Grand Armee for the rules. The figures are on 40mm wide bases which is almost half the standard GA scale of 75mm sized  bases. So I cramp as many figures as I can onto the bases.

I also own a 3d printer and the cost of printing 2mm figures is extremely cheap, so I splashed out the $15US for the 3D files of Infantry, Cavalry, General, Artillery and buildings.  I tried a few different settings and had some stringing  issues (not unusual for 3D printers) and here are the first prints. Forward March Studio have a few different styles so I went with the "2 to1" Infantry and also the Epic Infantry.



And I painted a couple of bases to see how they would look. I'm very happy with the results, as the initial prints don't have a lot of details, as you would expect, but its a change in mindset from 28mm figures! Each base took about 10 minutes to paint so it is very fast. I spent bit of time painting all the different pom-poms for each company but I won't in the future.





More soon as I started this project a while ago so I have made some progress.

[robh]

They look great, the FMS figure strips are great fun to play around with.
Are you going for a "Board Game" look like Zach uses or more traditional?

[6mmfan]

I'm going for a more traditional wargame.

After a few prints I decided that I prefer the "Epic" style of figures which are about 2.5mm. They are individual figures rather than a solid strip so it is easier to see the different figures. Also the printers lines "add" detail to the model sometimes. 



Here's a picture of a finished base (40mm square) modified slightly with a flag added. The skirmishers are based on the Epic infantry which i modified in Tinkercad. Each base will have 2 strips plus some Skirmishers or Generals or Wagons etc.

[6mmfan]

Now its time to start this project off properly. As I mentioned the plan is to build forces refight all the major European Napoleonic battles using Sam Mustafa's "Grand Armee" rules.

I managed to find some storage boxes at the local "Made in Japan" shop so I picked up 2 colour co-ordinated boxes for each army - Yellow - Austrian, Blue - French , Red - British, and I have some clear boxes for other nations.



Also I chopped up about 120 40x40mm bases for the Infantry and Cavalry units and 40 20x40mm bases for the artillery. I don't think it will be enough but it will keep me going.

[6mmfan]

I've also been modifying some for Forward March Studios designs to create different troop types. I imported some of the Epic infantry into Tinkercad and remove some of the figures and created different shaped bases of skirmishers. You can see some of the skirmishers earlier in this thread painted as Legere.



Thanks
KIeran

[Forwardmarchstudio]

Those are very effective.  I think I've mentioned this, but they seem to be spread out just right.  The Epic figures definitely lend themselves to a lot more detailed painting. I found out today that at least a few people were talking about FMS at Historicon, even though I wasn't there, unfortunately.  I'm hoping to make it to Fall-In, however.  We'll see how it goes though. I have some old friends I need to catch up with.

[6mmfan]

Yeah thanks. I like how the epic figures paint up and maybe its because I'm used to painting bigger scales.

[6mmfan]

The next files I tweaked from FMS was their infantry. I got some of the Epic infantry, chopped off their heads and added something resembling an Austrian helmet. This will work for Bavarians as well at this scale





And I printed some out (although its very hard to see the details, they are there!)

[6mmfan]

Here's some photographs of the first completed Austrian bases. The white was hard to get right but it works from a distance and the are recognisable. Although its hard to tell, the skirmishers are a mix of line Infantry and Jaegers. I'm not happy about the white between the ranks but that will be a nightmare to try and fix I think!

Also I'm still working on the back of the bases. I made something as a dice holder but I'm not sure about how to do the labels. Originally I planned to just glue them on but looking at some OOBs there is a lot different in Corps between battles so that will not work. I might have to go down the magnetised label path.







Thanks

[Digits]

Really pretty cool project.  I can see the appeal of not having to paint all those 28mm figures!

I like that you are modifying the files yourself, good idea.

Looking forward to seeing the cavalry though.....

[Forwardmarchstudio]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... these are painted way better than my own 2mm figures.  I can't wait to see a game with the troops you're putting together.

[gibby64]

this should look "epic"!... what size playing area do you expect to game on?

[Cubs]

Something I found useful when doing 10mm was instead of using grass flock, I had sand textured bases and just painted those in patches of green and brown. Would that work between your ranks?

[Sangennaru]

Looking great! That small scale does have its charme!

[6mmfan]

this should look "epic"!... what size playing area do you expect to game on?

I'm using "Grand Armee" rules by Sam Mustafa with the ground scale halved,  so a 8x6 will be 4x3. I did think about full scale but that would be a lot of painting and I want to be able to refight all the big Napoleonic battles like Lepzig, Borodino and Waterloo.