Happy New Year friends:
I hope that the year is off to a good start for you and yours. Joy and I had plans for NYE which had to be sadly but prudently cancelled. Here in Ontario the spread of Omicron is so rapid that the provincial health authority has given up on testing and contact tracing for the general public. While we both have our three doses of vaccine, we decided to cocoon at home and have a low key start to the year, which meant that I got some figure painting done.
Several weeks ago I described here getting some 3D print 6mm Napoleonics from V, the owner of the local gaming store. V really wants people to play LaSalle in 6mm with him, and while I have a large collection of old school metal 6mm Naps, I was intrigued to see how these figures would paint up.
They didn’t paint up badly at all. Since these figures all have bicornes I painted them as Spanish. As a painting guide, I used the Spanish 8th Regt. de Soria from The Wargaming Company’s Campaign Guide, To Assure My Dynasty: 1808 in Iberia, which is an excellent resource to b featured in another post. The 8th’s Fusilier uniforms are white, though there is some purple facing on the cuffs and tunics, but I doubt anyone will notice that on the table top.
Front:
Back:
They are very well equipped and uniform for a Spanish army, but again, the 3’ rule applies, and is especially true of 6mm. If one wants historically accurate and ragged individuals, 28mm is the place to go for that.
I’m rather proud of the handpainted flag. As you can see from the rear stand below, the second rank of figures in each stand has very little detail on the front face, so other than the two figures at either end, I contented myself with painting the muskets, red hat cockades, and flesh for the faces. Otherwise only the rear of the back rank figures required painting.
Just for fun, here’s a comparison shot of these two stands facing off against two stands of recently painted metal Baccus French figures.
If you didn’t know better, you might think that just from this shot, these two forces were from the same manufacturer. Because the Baccus figures are cast in strips of four, they have 360 degree detail and can be painted individually, but again, looking down at the table while standing, I think the differences are minimal.
While I’m not sure that I would want a whole army of these particular printed troops, there are definitely producers out there who are doing 6mm 3D files in luscious detail. I have my eye firmly on Turner Miniatures, for example, and hope to get some of their sample figures printed as soon as I get the teething issues with my new machine sorted. That’s another post, so for now I’ll wish once again wish you a happy, and happier, new year.
May God bless and keep us all in what lies ahead, and give us good gaming and friendship.
Cheers, MP
