Tour de France - Stage 7
What a great nights viewing last night ... spectacular scenery into the Vosges mountains.
Took a few shortcuts myself, and finished off a single battalion of French line in Greatcoats.
The first real climbs of the Tour saw the real contenders come to the front and fight it out for the last 6km all uphill.
This last section is at 20% slope ... ouch !
So here then is my standard French Battalion at 1:60 scale, on a battalion base.
Grenadier company (2 figs) on the right, 2 bases of 3 figs, and 1 round base for the voltigeur company.
Thats .. what ... 540 bayonets. Pretty small battalion .. but thats the best they could scrape up in 1813.
Note the 'new' tricolor flag.
I actually dont find painting greatcoats a huge time saver over regular uniforms. It is a bit easier of course, but I also insist on having the greatcoat colors all over the place .. which makes shading a little tricky.
Using a light enough shade on the greatcoats and shako covers allows for a heavier than usual glaze coat though, so the actual amount of highlighting is minimal.
No particular regiment here - I will just paint up a stack of them, and mix up some greatcoat figs with standard uniform figs to create the vast masses needed for some of these regular French Corps.
Figures by the way are Lancashire games 15mm. Their 'summer sale' is on at the moment, so its a good time of year to grab a few battle packs. Even with the new postage costs from the UK, they remain great value.
Size wise, they sit inbetween 18mm ABs at the top end and true-15mm scale at the smaller end. Lets call them 16.5mm then. Works for me. I do like the Lancashire figures a lot - there are some lively poses in there, clear details, and heavy recesses / creases make them easy to paint. Should get a stack more ... they are great.
Next up - I have some Eureka 18mm French, and they are a completely different kettle of fish. (ie - they are stunning !) More on that later., hopefully finish them during tonight's stage of the Tour de France.
Back to the race ... where was Mr Sagan last night ?
I know the lad can climb, so I was a little surprised to see him dropped early in the final climb. Dropped before the real climb started actually.
Looks like GC is not on his radar at this point .. ah well.
The lad knows how to work the crowd though - here is him providing some extra value for his advertisers by pulling a mono for the fans at the finish line :) Didnt see that one on SBS.
I am continually astounded at the way the GC riders power up the last climb having already ridden for nearly 200 km. A sustained, power effort matched by your own sustained painting effort. Infantry in greatcoats always look good, don't they? BTW, what material do you use for your flags?
ReplyDelete(On computer this time, so no bizarre typos!)
I like a few units in greatcoats... and in 25mm, they are *definitely* much faster to paint than French Line in full dress. I did mine more uniformly atired , so that they are easily distinguished one from another,
ReplyDeletehttp://blundersonthedanube.blogspot.com/2011/01/french-ligne-part-2.html
but of course the motley look is more "realistic". Keep on pedaling, errr, painting, Steve!
Those 25s are very cool - I like the 'uniformity' of the different figures there for each regiment. That would work well.
DeleteIts going to be interesting with a great gigantic mass of figures, trying to keep the organisation intact between packing and deployment on the convention table.