Tuesday, August 11, 2009

1er Battalion, Westphalian 3eme Regiment

Another experiment of sorts with the Victirx French, to see what else I could do with them, other than Frenchies of course. The perfectionist may be able to point at a number of minor uniform niggles on these chaps, but good old Blandford makes them sound about spot on!

A unit of thirty two (or 7 firing groups and four command figures in 'March of Eagles'). I started with an off-white, blue tinged undercoat and worked up from there.

For the record, I didn't enjoy it at all, white is one of those colours that is hard to highlight well, and then with white as a base, you have to be so much more careful on the subsequent work. This lot took around 20 hours to do, which is a long way off my usual pace for this level of detail; and they looked terrible until very near to completion - that last hour or two made all the difference.


The commanders are based in two's whilst the light infantry company are singles. With the Fusiliers and Grenadiers in fours this allows for a real variety of formations, such as the column attack, above.


They are supplied with their 1809 issue battalion standard, which according to Warflag.com was only three feet square on a six foot pole.
Historically, the Westphalian troops in the Peninsular were hardly enthusiastic servants of France, deserting in vast numbers; a fair match for my Spanish Junta battalion perhaps? My intention is to sell this lot on, hopefully within the club, so I can at least face them across the table from time to time. Failing that it'll be to eBay with them.
I don't think I'll be doing the 2nd battalion any time soon!


2 comments:

  1. Very nice, an army would be very striking on the table-top

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  2. Wanted originally to paint some Victrix in white, as Italians, in the end I chickened out and did them in the early green uniform...Why are white uniforms such a pain? One of the great wargaming problems.

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