10mm French Revolution

I've always been intrigued by the armies of the French Revolution. 10mm is my preferred scale and years ago I was able to pickup some of the Pendraken French Revolution packs at discount on eBay.  In 2019, I painted some up and based units on single bases, I even made a blog post about it! Last year, I ordered some more of the figures from Pendraken as well as some figures from Magister Militum to fill in as proxies for some of the gaps in the Pendraken range. Recently, I decided to rebase those previously painted figures for Maurice. I think Maurice is the most ideal choice of rules for me to portray the tactics of the French Revolution (more on that). My armies are based depicting the restructuring made by Dubois-Crance prior to the almagamation.

First up is a former Royalist battalion in their not so splendid white uniforms and tarleton caps. I gave this unit pink facings because one should always use pink when one can when painting historical miniatures.

Here is a closeup of some former Royalists skirmishing. There are two poses skirmishing (one firing and one loading). I experimented with GW contrast white paint on the uniforms, I like the result which is good. I will need this for when I tackle the Austrians opponents.

Here are 3 battalions of French National Guard, "Les Bleus", in attack columns. I plan to rate the National Guard as conscripts but will allow them to use massed formations to replicate the assault columns and allow them to form "groups" with battalions in line formation.

Closeup of a stand of Les Bleus showing some of the chaos in their uniforms. Bicornes worn fore to aft and side to side, phrygian caps, bonnets du police, and lots of striped pants in national colors!

Closeup of the command base for a National Guard battalion. More caps and more striped pants. I drilled out the flag staff on the standard bearer and added brass wire so that I could fit the slightly oversized flags. 

Here we have a battalion of grenadiers. Bearskins, bicornes and more striped pants to show off revolutionary fervor. 

Closeup of some grenadiers, I really like these sculpts. So much character. 

Another closeup of grenadiers but here we have some former royalist grenadiers showing off those white uniforms and pink facings.

The last unit shown is a unit of skirmishers also known as "irregulars" in Maurice. I will probably allow them to form movement groups with regular infantry units.

And a closeup of the French skirmishers. Neat little poses.

 

10mm French Revolutionary Wars

I have always been interested in the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions, especially the the chaotic early years that upended the Bourbon King. I’m obviously a big fan of 10mm so when I saw an eBay auction for some French and Austrians, I jumped on the opportunity and bought them at a very good price. 

I painted up a Demi Brigade featuring 2 battalions of Les Bleus and a battalion of Les Blancs. The bases are 40mm squares.

I added dice trays in the back of the bases to denote unit status. I started this project with the idea that I wanted a base to be a battalion and then looked for an appropriate ruleset that appealed to me. I found a set called “For King or Empress” which is designed for the Seven Years War. I thought a SYW set would be best for the War of the First Coalition, as the armies of the Ancien Regime still fought in old linear tactics. I would then tweak the French Army rules and stats to give them their unique tactics and characteristics. I downloaded the FKoE rules and liked them so much that I bought  the print version.

I still have a ways to go on this project but I have a clear plan and a ruleset (and one Demi Brigade) going forward. In the meantime, here are some closeups of the figures:

The Pendraken figures are some interesting sculpts and I absolutely love them. Not everyone’s cup of tea with their cartoonish, anatomically incorrect proportions but they are right up my alley. I mixed in a lot of phrigian caps and barrack caps in with the bicornes. There are also some striped pants, French  Revolutionary Armies need striped pants for the Sans Culottes!

Another picture of Les Bleus.

Here are some Les Blancs. They are sporting the flag of the 9th Demi Brigade’s 2nd battalion. In hindsight, I forgot to see what this unit’s proper facing color was. Oh well!

I took some liberties with the flags, facings and other uniform items but this is more of a fun project than a serious one. I enjoyed painting up the figures and look forward to more. I will add some Magister Militum figures in for cavalry and allies for the Austrians. Any thoughts who I should use as allies? Dutch? German states of the HRE? Sardinians?

And another new project...

Ever since Eureka released their 28mm Lace War Follies range, I have been very tempted/seduced
by the sculpts. Not normally something I would like with caricature style, these are different. Over the past few conventions I have purchased some "samples". I decided to order a regiment of grenadiers, after reading Neil Thomas One Hour Wargames book. I will either use these rules or Maurice, but they will be imaginations Red and Blue armies. Here are some "Red" soldiers to left: a grenadier and an artilleryman. More to follow....

More Progress...on Different Fronts....

Had some extra spare time over the holidays to get some painting in. At the last Fall In, I picked up enough figures to field the British and Rebel armies at Cowpens for Maurice wargaming rules. I finished up my first unit, the British Legion infantry. I opted for green jackets and light infantry caps. The officer got bucksin colored trousers and the drummer clad all in green. Not sure how historically accurate, but then again who is? The figures are Blue Moon and they are an absolute delight to paint...

 In hindsight, I wish I had added some infantry in uncocked hats for diversity. If I paint a second unit, I will mix in more hats and a little more "ragtag" look.

 I used Reaper paints and finally found a base green that I was happy with (Shadow Green), the white is Reaper polished bone base coat with craft store white highlights. I'm not sure what the British Legion drums looked like, so I went buff with red. I just realized I forgot to paint the officer's gorget a brass color, that will have to be remedied.

 I also managed to finish up three more 10mm Danish units for the 1848 Schleswig War, adding an infantry unit and two jager units. The Jagers are "skirmishers" in the Neil Thomas rules for the 19th century and only comprise of two bases with two figures each.

 I used Reaper's "Shadow Green" for the jagers. I have to admit that I incorrectly painted the jager cross straps red (instead of black), but I will leave them since it looks sharp anyway.

 Next up are dragoon units for both Schleswig Holstein and Denmark, as well as some SH jagers. I completed 15mm Royal Ecossais for the '45 but haven't added flags yet.