Basing cavalry: light cavarly

Hussard brigade

Same brigade from the other side

Chasseurs Brigade

Mixed brigade lancers/Chasseurs

As for the pink/purple lancers, I wanted to field the Berg lancers for the fun of it. I put them in a mix brigade as they are a bit peculiar. I will make another base of lancers with more usual lancers.

As a general remark and contrary to the opinions I have seen, I think the massing as much troops on a base actually doesn't look all that good. "Overcrowded" was the feeling I had when they were 14-17 figures a base.

In my view, what looks good is between 12 to 10 riders a base for cavalry.

basing infantry (one step further)

Line infantry

Light infantry

For the sake of change, the uniforms of the first regiment on the left are all white

So all my infantry is done, however I figured out that 2 flags a base look better than only one flag, therefore I found myself in the need of twelve more command strips, 48 figures to paint. So for the moment, I can have only 6 complete bases, mostly light infantry as it seems.

Adler infantry is exquisite however it is a catastrophe to base soldier by soldier. All my guards are Adler, as well as all my infantry in greatcoat. It looks now quicker to re-paint these troops with Baccus figures and bases them rather than one after one 100+ figures.

I didn't like so much the thickness of the Baccus bases (still less thick than Adler's), therefore I carved in the plywood of the base some depression to insert the figures in. Cut my thumb twice (band aid) and my palm as well.

Oddly enough, I am really taking my time, step after step for these figures. The real second stage of the work will start with the scenery to be added to the bases.

Where are we now?

• 15 Chasseurs a Cheval (100 minutes/Done!)
  
• 40 Grenadiers (100 minutes/Done!)
• 16 Hussards (320 minutes/Done!)
• 9 guns + 45 artillery crew (140 minutes/Done!)
• 144 line infantry (Done!)
• 150 infantry in greatcoat (Done!)
• 40 light infantry (Done!)
• 30 middle guard (Done!)
• 15 Dragoons (Done!)
• 15 Lancers (Done!)
• 32 Cuirassiers (Done!)
• 96 Light infantry ( Done!)
• 9 guns + 28 artillery crew(Done!)
• 192 Line infantry off-loaded from ebay ( Done)
• 48 Line infantry (Done!)
• 20 mounted officers, file and high command (Done!)
• 6 Aides de camp, (Done!))

In total, there should be:

• 21 x Infantry bases
• 6 x Cavalry bases
• 10 x artillery bases

Cavalry basing trials

two units in two ranks (14 figs)

Compact, command in front (15 figs)

Squadrons, command in front (16 figs)

Squadrons, command in front (rear view- 16 figs)

Still trying to determine a suitable basing for the figures. Among all possibilities above, I think I will go for a mix of bases in squadrons and in two ranks.

I will use the compact look very likely for the Cuirassiers.

La brigade infernale (Hellish Brigade)

This is an attempt on a 5x5 cm base. The base has 16 figures which might be a bit too many. Overcrowded?

So where are we now?

• 15 Chasseurs a Cheval (100 minutes/Done!)
  
• 40 Grenadiers (100 minutes/Done!)
• 16 Hussards (320 minutes/Done!)
• 9 guns + 45 artillery crew (140 minutes/Done!)
• 144 line infantry (Done!)
• 150 infantry in greatcoat (Done!)
• 40 light infantry (Done!)
• 30 middle guard (Done!)
• 15 Dragoons (Done!)
• 15 Lancers (Done!)
• 32 Cuirassiers (Done!)
• 144 Line infantry ( 4 hours -> 4 days)
• 20 mounted officers, file and high command (3 hours -> 3 days)
• 9 guns + 28 artillery crew(additions: 3 hours -> 3 days)

Some progress is being made, the hussars, with all their different colors took actually quite some time. Since the last post on artillery, I reached the conclusion that I had to double the number of guns per base, therefore some additional figures were added

Conscripts (Ebay is your friend...)

(Warning: these are not the actual bases, the picture bellow is only the figures I am going to receive - I will see what I can make out of them)

Following comments I have received in regards of the troop density per base, I have to admit that I wasn't too much thrilled to paint 30% more figures. So I browsed a bit ebay and well, here we are, 192 additional French are on their way.

I should have then 5 more infantry bases. This will certainly ease a bit of the painting time and allow to start playing rather than fading a way in the abyss of de-motivation and painting lingering. I hope the figures won't be dull and that with some work on the bases, I'll make very decent units. We'll see.

Color plates for the Hellish Brigade

7th Hussars

5th Hussars

Eventually, I drew my inspiration in the colors above for the regiments, with a few alteration as different sources indicated slight variations in details colors.
Pictures from the excellent Napoleonic shared resources website www.napoleon-series.org