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Thursday, March 26, 2015

State of the Painting Desk

With work taking me out of town for the week, the painting desk lays quiet.
What awaits when I return are three battalions (36 figures) of French infantry for the 1859 Risorgimento project started before my departure.  
Lancashire French in work
The colors on the tunics, gaiters, and pants have been blocked.  Work will progress quickly once webbing is added.  The French uniform from this period is one of my favorite uniforms.  Blue tunics, pantaloon rouge, and white gaiters are a striking combination.  The figures are Lancashire Games and are the first of the Lancashire French to see paint.  Nice figures!

Having so much Risorgimento lead hit The Lead Pile recently from Mirliton and Lancashire, motivation is high to focus on this project.  While enough Sardinians and Austrians are under arms for a good-sized game, French troops are sorely lacking.  Time to field a few French battalions so Napoleon III can take have a shot at glory on the battlefield.  Besides, it has been about two years since the 1859 collection was last out on the table for a game.

Before the 1859 project can take to the field for a contest, preparations for a refight of the Napoleonic Battle of Raab, 1809 are underway.  Raab has been fought on more than one occasion and time to revisit this battle and get my 18mm Napoleonics out onto the gaming table after too long of an absence.

Also nearing completion is the last unit of my Napoleonics painting push that spanned nearly two months.  Needing basing and flocking is one battalion of the 60th Rifle Regiment.

Once the 60th is finished, a group pass in review of the recent Napoleonic additions is in order.   


12 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Still early but I do enjoy painting French of this era.

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  2. Looking really good, Jonathan. It's exciting to see this project coming together and I look forward to learning something about this war. Like John Snow, I know nothing.
    I have to say when I read you're early post about taking advantage of the power of your US dollar to buy stuff from Mirilton, I was possessed by a small demon of envy. Our Canuck Buck was going strong about a year or two back, when oil was king, but now it's about 82 cents to your dollar and I'm not even sure what it is compared to the Euro. Tant pis.
    Cheers,
    Michael

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    1. Currency fluctuations both help and hurt. Right now, the USD is relatively strong against the Euro and have hurt my wallet by buying figures from a number of European based companies.

      A number of years ago, I recall taking advantage of a very lopsided USD to AUD exchange rate. At AUD$1 = USD$0.55, i had a steady flow of lead from Eureka in Australia.

      As usual, this windfall won't last forever so I strike while the iron is hot.

      Even with a strong USD, it is difficult to afford sending or receiving packages from your fair country.

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  3. To a Franco-Prussian enthusiast, those are familiar colors indeed! I'm quite impressed by the quality of the Lancashire minis - looking forward to the finished "lignard" unit!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Soren. I, too, look forward to seeing these fellows finished and compare how they stack up against the Old Glory French.

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  4. A work always seems to get in the way!
    Nice painting Jonathan.

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    Replies
    1. Quite right! Work does interfere with hobby time.

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  5. Looking good, Jonathan. I do like French in red trousers!

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  6. Kinda like a detour into Napoleonics bis, eh? :-)

    Raab is an interesting battle to fight - does anyone have Insurrectio figures for the game?

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    Replies
    1. I plan to mix up the painting a bit more than the Napoleonic blitz.

      As for Raab, I do have Insurrectio infantry but no Insurrectio specific cavalry, that I recall. I may surprise myself when I dig around.

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