Progress, some repainting, more paints and bases

Wow.  That's some subject.  Let me break it down.

I apologize in advance for no pictures.  I can't get them from the camera to the computer right now.

I have 4 sticks of fusiliers in good progress.  1 stick = 8 minis.  The coats are painted as are the cuffs and collars.  I just put the coat of linen white over the rest of the uniform.  I was told the poms were all red so I painted all those at the same time since I had red on the palette.  I can move forward without the new paints since the Reaper Master Series will work for the accessories.

I had to paint over the poms.because it turns out they're not all red. They're divided into companies - purple, orange, blue and green (I think - my notes are in the car).  So I painted over all the red poms with the linen white so the colors would show up correctly.  Not a lot of work, just one more thing.  I had the time to spare.  And I think I'll hit the rest of the poms with linen white as well to make a nice base for the other colors.

I ordered the black and white versions of the paints I've been using.  I want the coverage.  Those should be in by the end of the week.  I have line commanders I should be able to start painting while I wait.  I can also work on rifles and a few other things while waiting on the paint.  I knew I should have ordered them from the beginning.

My complete set of bases for my entire army has arrived.  I had some of the infantry/cavalry bases already but now I have everything I need for my army.  This is important because I can mark the bases and play with stands even if they don't have their minis yet.  This lets me play and learn the rules much better.  I took the time to put the steel on the bases so I can put them on sheet magnet in the carry case and they won't move around.  That extra little bit of height is nice too.  I only did the limber bases since there were 10 of them and I'm tired.

I found that one of my minis is actually 2 different kinds of soldier with just a couple of color differences.  I have enough to put them in the battalions.  Now it's just a matter of remember to paint them correctly.  I'll make a note of that.

I'm going to make a spirited attempt to paint a battalion of Hussar for the theme entry competition, mostly because it seems hardly anyone is entering and I'd like to see at least a few in there. I hate competing but this is for a good cause.  That's 12 horses and riders.

My friend Kris was nice enough to drill out the eagle bearers' hands so I could replace the noodle standards with something more solid.  The eagles at the ends were no problem.  He had a problem with the minis themselves and I'll be resculpting a few hands.  Nothing major.  This lets me make them removable as well so I can mix up the eagle bearers and standard bearers depending on my mood.

Finally I'm ordering the last of what I need to complete my army.  I needed 3 more battalions of Dragoons and some guns to complete the limbers.  Turns out they give you the limber but only the guns needed for the individual artillery units.  So to make a complete limber you either need to move the gun over (or move a stand behind) or buy more guns.  We're buying more guns.

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Prepping an army

Like I don't have enough armies.  Previously I showed some 15mm I was painting.  Now I've got most of the rest of the army and have been prepping like crazy while I've got some time and the need to do repetitive tasks.  I'm still waiting on the paints I want but I've got painting I can do until they come in.  French Conquest is pretty easy - red, white and blue.

Here's slightly less than half of my line infantry.

Infantry 03 - Prepped

Each stick holds 8 minis and there's 12 sticks.  It should have been 11 sticks but I had enough for one more and I would rather have too many prepped than not enough.  I still need to do at least 10 more sticks of regular infantry.  Yes, I need a total of 232 minis for my battalions.

Here's a combination of my Grendadiers (need more), drummers and eagle bearers.  The drummers and eagle bearers all belong to the command unit - there's enough of those.  Yes, I have 8 battalions to do.

Infantry 02 - Prepped

And finally the skirmishers (done) and the horses for the commanders and possibly sub-commanders.  I'm not sure if I'm using those horses or if I have other ones for the sub-commanders.  I need to dig through the unprepped stuff and see what's there.

Infantry 01 - Prepped

Hrm.  The last stick of skirmishers at the bottom didn't seem to be in the picture.

Let's total up.

• Line Infantry - 96
• Grenadiers - 24
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Skirmishers - 32
• Commanders and Sub-Commanders (we'll count as half since the riders aren't attached) - 12

Grand total - 180 prepped minis.

Next up is the remaining line infantry.  So that's another 88 or 96 minis, depending on how many I prep.  Or maybe 80.  I'm hoping there's more Grenadiers in that set since I need another 40 to fill out the battalions.

For those who don't know the Lasalle rules a battalion consists of 4 stands, 8 minis each for 32 minis per battalion.  With one exception.  There's 3 stands of 8 infantry and 1 command stand of a mounted commander (counts as 2 minis), a drummer, an eagle bearer and 4 infantry.  Mixed in with the 28 infantry are 8 Grenadiers.

I need a total of 8 battalions since I'm playing French.  We get 2 additional battalions when we attack.  This is before the French turned into cheese eating surrender monkeys.  Along with a regimental battery (artillery - 3 cannons and 1 howitzer) that makes up my core force.  Of course the artillery needs to be modeled and painted as both limbered (hitched to horses) and unlimbered (unhitched and about to cause havoc) so essentially it needs to be painted twice.

Let's do more math for a total core division.

6 Veteran Infantry - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander, 1 horse
1 Regimental Battery - 3 cannons, 1 howitzer (unlimbered with 12 crew); 3 cannons and 1 howitzer (limbered with 6 horses and 3 riders/drivers)
2 Veteran Infantry (attacking only) - 20 line infantry, 8 Grenadiers, 4 Skirmishers 1 drummer, 1 eagle bearer, 1 commander

Now this is where I start sobbing.

6 Veteran Infantry - 120 line infantry, 48 Grenadiers, 24 Skirmishers 6 drummers, 6 eagle bearers, 6 commanders, 6 horses
1 Regimental Battery - 6 cannons, 2 howitzers, 12 crew, 6 horses, 3 riders/drivers
2 Veteran Infantry - 40 line infantry, 16 Grenadiers, 8 Skirmishers 2 drummers, 2 eagle bearers, 2 commanders, 2 horses

Grand total of minis for the core division:

• Line infantry - 180
• Grenadiers - 64
• Skirmishers - 32
  
• Drummers - 8
• Eagle bearers - 8
• Commanders - 8 on horses
• Cannons - 6
• Howitzers - 2
• Artillery crew - 12
• Limbered horses - 6
• Limber drivers/riders - 3

Total of minis for the division.  I'm counting the commanders and horses as separate minis for painting purposes even though they create a single mini.

Total - 337

Sound bad enough?  There's 2 different support divisions as well.  Cavalry and artillery.  Light cavalry is 32 mounted figures and artillery.  Dragoons are 32 mounted minis and artillery.

Oh yeah - I need a commander and 3 sub-commanders.  So that's another 5 mounted minis.

Grand total is around 445 miniatures and if I want to do casualty disruption markers I'll need 15 of those as well.  I can use dice for that but it's not nearly as cool.

This is why you don't count up the number of minis in a historical game.

On the plus side I've got them on the sticks so that I can paint up the 99% that's the same on every one.  The last 1% is the color of the pom/plume to designate the different battalions.  I plan on breaking an army painting rule and not do the same color pom/plume on each stick.  I'm hoping to do some variation in hair and skin color per stick so making each stick one of each battalion will spread those around.  I like a little variety on the battlefield.

Let's hope the weather holds and I can get these primed.  I'm going to prime white since so much of the uniform is white and I want the bright colors for the uniforms. That and my grey primer has been hijacked.

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