Monday 9 September 2024

"I'm Ney, Marshal Of France!"

"Are you French? Stand with me!"

This 28mm metal Marshal Ney is a free model which comes with the "A Clash Of Eagles" Black Powder supplement book by "Warlord Games", and was acquired with the much appreciated assistance of rules-guru Roger Gerrish this time last year. I wasn't actually planning on painting the "First Prince de la Moskowa" any time soon, as I'm focusing on just using "Wargames Foundry" figures for my long-term Napoleonic Wars project. However, the sculpt is actually fairly similar in size to the old Perry Twin soldiers I've recently been pigmenting - albeit I did have to super-glue it to a 30mm circular base to properly incorporate its 'Retreat From Moscow' base.

Resultantly, I undercoated the French military commander using a mixture of "Vallejo" Surface Primer Black and "Warlord Games" Pitch Black, before applying a couple of layers of "Two Thin Coats" White Star to his trousers, Rifle strap, decorative hat brim and ammunition bag's leather strap. All of these areas were later shaded using plenty of watered-down "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

"Wargames Foundry" WIPs - Four Prussian soldiers being 'picked out' factory-fashion

I next gave Michel Ney's winter coat a lick of "Vallejo" Heavy Brown and its fur-lined collar, cuffs and lining a splodge of Heavy Sienna. The jacket was then treated to a zealous amount of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, before being dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Brown to hopefully tie the colours all together. I additionally used "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna on the Marshal's firearm, and as a base for all his flamboyant braid. These tiny decorations were subsequently lined with a little "Vallejo" Gold and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade.

The First Duke of Elchingen's famous red hair (and quite extraordinarily) bushy eyebrows were 'picked out' with a little "Vallejo" Heavy Red and "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade". Whilst his boots, fingerless gloves, and hat were tidied up using some "Citadel" Abaddon Black. I did momentarily consider giving "the bravest of the brave" a snow-covered base - as per the "Warlord Games" official paint-job. But this wouldn't really fit in with the rest of my Napoleonic Wars collection, so soon decided to simply plonk him inside a muddy field instead.

"Wargames Foundry" WIPs - Two French Fusiliers and a pair of British Grenadiers

Due to my motivation to paint even more Napoleonic soldiers still being rather high, doubtless due to me currently consuming an almost endless series of Bonaparte-based documentaries, I've quite surprisingly 'hooked out' a quartet of Prussians from the "Wargames Foundry" blister PN063 Infantry in Peaked Cap Marching blister and been slowly working on them in a somewhat piecemeal fashion. I'm really keen to get a sizeable (skirmish) force of Generalfeldmarschall Blücher's soldiers ready for the tabletop, so hope this process will see all four of the figures finished before the month is out.

My main drive though has been to work on two Frenchmen from FN137 - Late Fusiliers Or Voltigeurs In Greatcoats And Assorted Headgear Marching, and (finally get started on) a pair of British models from B041 Late Line Infantry Flank Company Shouldered Arms. I plan on simply adding the Fusiliers to my existing French force as a second (tiny) eight-man company. However, if my understanding of Wellington's elite troops is right the Redcoats will be used as Grenadiers for both "Black Powder" and "The Silver Bayonet" by "Osprey Games".

12 comments:

  1. Great work on the Marshal Simon, should replace the Hobgoblin nicely for the scenario in Silver Bayonet, and nice progress on the Prussians French and British, you are certainly on a roll with the Napoleonic's

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    1. Thanks Dave. Ney was a lot of fun to paint tbh, and I'm really grateful to Roger Gerrish for helping me get my hands on him. I've got absolutely tons of Napoleonics waiting in the wings, LOL. Including some Austrians and Bavarians.

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  2. Ney has come out very nicely indeed, you are getting through these Napoleonic's now. Should have some decent forces soon.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. You only need eight figures per side for Silver Bayonet. But we like the rules so much that we're planning on doing much larger games - without the supernatural elements - which are simply Napoleonic skirmish battles. For that I'm looking at 21 figures per side.

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  3. not heard of Silver Bayonet, but I've been away for so long that I'm not surprised. This is some nice work Simon and the Marshall is lovely

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    1. Cheers Andy, and great to have you back both posting and commenting. Silver Bayonet is a very nice set of Napoleonic skirmish rules vs the undead. But my plan is to predominantly stick with it for just Napoleonic - hence using a delirious Ney instead of a Hobgoblin for the first scenario.

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  4. Nice work on these! I keep eyeing Silver Bayonet but the last thing I need is another period to collect for.

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    1. Thanks Bill. I'm planning to post up some simple Silver Bayonet BatReps this month - so hopefully they might tempt you. LOL!! On a serious note though, I didn't want another rule-set either - especially as I was planning on doing both Frostgrave and Stargrave this year. But having played Silver Bayonet, I think it'll work for just about anything tbh from Ancients to Sci-Fi. So it's the one I plan to stick with once I've worked this Napoleonic bug out of my system.

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  5. That is quite an interesting sculpt of Ney. He looks very animated and you clearly did your research about him! Lots of Napoleonic forces from different nations on the go too. You are very enthused by this period aren't you?

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. I don't know who sculpted Ney but he fits in very well with both the style and scale of the Wargames Foundry Napoleonics. Loads of Naps are currently sat upon my desk - and plenty more are lurking in their blisters within arms reach too. LOL!!

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