Some new pictures this time the Franco-Prussian War 10mm French from Pendraken. I really like how these first two line bases and the commander came out. I have a pack of Zouaves and artillery which I can’t wait to paint and add to the force. I am trying to follow a plan with these and build a modest sized French army (probably will finish this in ten years given all the other stuff I am painting), before moving on to Prussians/Italians/Austrians. The hope is that by the time I finish painting French Pendraken will have redone the other armies in the range. Looking forward most to the Austrians.

I was rather surprised Friday when I got home from work and found a big package containing my Bacuss order. The package arrived from Baccus US distributor in less then a week!! My first impression was hey that was fast and that I went a bit nuts and ordered to much. I then reasoned that I would have bought the stuff anyway in different orders so I saved myself on shipping and as long as I get it all painted well then it would make sense. So I got to painting, did a bunch this weekend mostly the ancient packs consisting of one base of Pike Phalanx and some Roman Legionaries. Hope to get the bases flocked as soon as possible so I can decide for certain how much I like the look. Then I want to paint the Napoleonics (tentative date by next weekend?), which I am excited about. The stuff looks really good, and I hope to have the start of a good sized Austrian force shortly.

A few pictures of my recent painting. I am getting into the 6mm Baccus Napoleonic’s and painted the entire pack of Prussians which made two nice looking bases. I put these together in line formation seeing as how the early period Prussians would probably look nice in older formations. My French will be based in column while the Austrians (finished first base last night) will be a mix. I kind of want the stuff to look something like the massed formations on this page:

http://paintingshed.blogspot.com/

Problem is I am still tempted by other Napoleonic figures. I took out a bunch of my 6mm Adlers the other night and. these are just such cool looking figures. Problem is I have based and rebased them many times and just can’t find the right look when they are based. They are also not in strips (or close strips), like the Baccus figures and to hard to deal with individually, a real pain to base. Who knows I could see myself buying some more Adler anyway. They make early Prussians so why not. As a note the newer baccus casts like the Prussians pictured are very nice. I was surprised how nice they look from a farther distance such as the bases posted.

As you can see I am also working on rebasing the ancients looking for a real mass look. This is an ongoing thing. I seem to get into it then think I should switch to Baccus ancients or 10mm. This page seems to always pump me up. This guy does amazing stuff with the heroics and ros figures. Really shows what can be done with massed basing. In general his page has kept me using heroics and ros for many years as I vainly try to imitate what he has done with the figures.

http://folk.uio.no/arnsteio/DBXin6mm/

I received the pendraken order last weekend, well part of the order, the 18th century stuff were apparently sent from another location so I am waiting for them to arrive this week. I did receive 1 pack of Franco-Prussian War French Imperial line infantry 1 pack of Franco-Prussian French mounted commanders and 1 pack of WWI Austrian infantry.

Overall these figures look really nice. Once I primed a bunch black the details really came out as you can see from the pictures. They also paint up relatively quickly despite the detail. The French figure pictured took me about 15 minutes and this was a test figure for uniforms and details which always takes me a bit longer then once I get the figures down in assembly line.
As observable from the pictures the Austrian WWI figures seem a little smaller then the Franco Prussian French which have been recently redone. However, actually this is not really the case as the Austrian figures are mostly all hunched down which makes them look shorter and is actually accurate for a WWI figure apparently trying to avoid rifle, artillery or machine gun fire.

I like the figures. So now what? Well I plan to paint the French as fast as I can and base them and buy a bunch more. These are going to look really good en mass. I just can’t wait for the rest of the range to be redone so I can build the Austrians and Danish. I may buy some old Danish anyway just to see what they look like. The only issue I had with the French was the mounted command pack. The figure pose is very nice and paints up well (painted one of them last night), but the problem is ONE pose. The pack contains only one pose and while there is a general staff pack listed in the range I still don’t like the idea of all my lower level mounted commanders looking exactly the same. I will have to mix this up with other packs at some future point. I wish they would vary commanders a bit kind of like the Baccus command packs.

For the Austrians I am not sure. I don’t think I am ready to abandon my 15mm Peter Pig yet. These guys are really a lot smaller then 15mm. Also the poses are okay. Really only one good general infantry pose the others are an officer and a knelling soldier which looks okay but not really sure if he really fits in other then as a unit waiting to attack/advance. The other two poses are clearly of units advancing so this guy does not really fit in. The pack does come with 30 figures and they look easy enough to paint so who knows. I think for the time being because of the lack of poses I will stay with 15mm for Russian Civil War (tons of variety in uniforms and figures with peter pig), and use the 10mm stuff for eastern front WWI. My fictional Austrian Russian War of 1912 will probably be done in 10mm.

A few new shots of the Baccus stuff. I think the armies are coming together very well. A look at both armies on the mat however makes it obvious that I need more artillery. Right now I have four guns for the British and Two guns for the French (two light guns as well). I am afraid to make any orders to Baccus because of my lack of will power. I know that before I know it I will have placed an order for some Seven Years War artillery a few grenadiers and then something like a Russian army pack (still on target though not needed yet), A bunch of WSS stuff (off target), and a French Franco Prussian War army pack, French Napoleonic army pack, some siege guns, a bunch of flags, some War of the Roses figures, and well you see what I mean. So the artillery will have to wait until I finish off the remaining British cavalry and a bunch of the Adler WWII stuff.

Here is some of my latest work with the GHQ terrain maker system. Some improvement over the early desert terrain hexes. Still having some problems keeping the hexes together and filling out enough clear hexes to maneuver larger bases of figures on the hexes. I think I will have to primarily use them for 6mm micro armor. The figures on the hexes are 6mm Adler infantry and GHQ T34 tanks.

So what’s next? I don’t know. I have really been all over the place painting as of late. I want to finish off the Adler WWII Italians (both desert and European), to fight the French. Then I have to get some tanks for both sides. Also should get back to the Baccus Seven Years War stuff. I have really lost momentum on the British. I really want to paint Prussians and Austrians but will not purchase anymore 6mm figures till the British army pack is done so I at least have two small armies. I really need to just choose two periods one in 6mm and one in 15mm and stay with that for a few months. Okay 15mm Russian Civil War and 6mm Baccus Seven Years War or Adler WWII? I will make my choice by next update.