Nappy Pics

The Grand Battery
Garde Chassuer

Chasseur

Hussars

7th Reg Hussar Skirmish Cavalry

Marshal Ney giving somebody the business.

2nd Chevauex Legers

Lately I have been trying my hand at Napoleonics mini's. Now this is kind of a long story. I have been fascinated with Napoleonic warfare since as a kid my older brother received a book titled something like 'The World's Greatest Battles'. There was a chapter on Borodino that caught my attention and never let go. For years I have enjoyed everything about Napoleonic warfare from the uniforms to the tactics and have board gamed it a few times (mostly due to lack of opponents), but not nearly enough. I always wanted to do it in miniature but frankly was scared to go that route and have to worry if the turnbacks were the right color for 1809 and these guys changed buttons after 1806 and that isn't the right color stripe on that cossak's underwear. (eew) Also was the need to paint thousands of mini's to get the right feel for the sweeping battles of the period, and to be honest, I have too many other interests to paint that many guys. After all when you think about it, after you paint a thousand French, then paint a thousand Russians, then all you can play is French vs. Russians! What about the Austrians, English, Spanish, Portugeuse, Brunswickers, Hannoverians, Bavarians...? You get the point. Simply put, that way lies madness.

Enter DBN and Ebay.

I purchased a few painted French an Prussian infantry and found De Bellis Napoleonicis, a Napoleonic version of DBA. The game is played with only 12-18 stands of dudes for each army. Perfect for the ADD gamer/painter like me. I have already completed a French and Prussian army and am 2 stands away from an English army with German allies. (All 1815) I wanted to paint some Brunswicker Uhlans and I did; 3 of them, not 30. Some may argue that the game does not match the granduer of more sweeping game systems with thousands of mini's but it looks pretty damn good to me. I won't argue that there is nothing like seeing those huge games at cons, but DBN allows me to play a few games at a sitting and still provide reasonable enough results and require reasonable amounts of Napoleonic tactics to leave me more than satisfied.

The one thing I want to mention is that I take pride in my painting skills. I know there are thousands of others out there who are better and that's cool with me because I get to see their stuff on the internet and conventions all the time. But I like my style and I like to do things well. As a rule, I always use at least two colors per surface, even if it's the face of a 15mm dude. (Bronze flesh base coat, elf flesh highlights) Anyway, the guys I bought off ebay were not painted that well and I had a decision to make: paint them all again or simply paint what I would need to a lesser standard. Well, I bought the damn things because they were painted, so I decided not to do highlights on what I would do to complete the armies because I wanted some symmetry on the tabletop. Anyway, this is kind of an apology for how these guys look. I mean, I know they look OK, but they are not up to what I consider my ususal standard. I will be posting some other photos soon that hopefully will confirm what I mean.