Cheating Frogs

I think I mentioned I was stalling painting my Sharp Practice French Napoleonics? Before Christmas Wargames Illustrated were giving away a sprue of Warlord French Infantry, and I picked one up to have a closer look - it was free after all. There were six figures on the sprue, all in greatcoat at March Attack. Hmm

Anyway I got a few more sprues by begging from friends (thanks Dave) and then picking up some from the Sprue Shop as I didn't need that many figures. Actually I needed sixteen. Each sprue had four line company guys and a pair of flank types with epaulettes. I needed sixteen line, so four sprues, and I would have eight spare figures to paint up as Grenadiers if I needed them in the future. I suppose I could have carved the epaulettes off them but that seems like a bit of a faff.

As I considered greatcoats cheating and as I was damned to hell for that I felt I should go all the way and just use Contrast paints. May as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

So after a couple of tries I discovered that the Warlord ones were very quick to paint and look ok (to me) at table distance. The minimal straps and the greatcoat covering the damned waistcoat really helped. I found I could paint them about twice as fast as the Perry models. In fact the main issue was waiting for the contrast to dry before putting another colour near - my eyesight is getting a bit meh so I do wander over the lines a bit.

So I have rattled out the sixteen needed which brings my Sharp Practice French up to complete for the core force. I will still need some supports adding before they can hit the table, but it feels like the back of this one is broken.

As for what supports? That's an interesting question. The basic French infantry unit is sixteen guys in the 1809-1812 Peninsular list. My usual first call for supports is to chuck in a gun, but the sixteen man units worry me because I think they lack the weight to carry either a melee attack in column or shoot it out with a British line. So my first option will be to add another stand of eight to each of the line units. They're surprisingly cheap at 4 support points each so shouldn't break the bank in points. Then if I have some spare support points I can take a gun, or maybe some Dragoons........

The sharp eyed (should that be Sharpe eyed??) out there will have spotted the problem. I only had sixteen greatcoated figures. So I decided I needed two more sprues. I consulted the Sprue Shop and they were a fiver each, give or take, plus a bit extra for postage. But a full box could be had for £22 inc p&p so it made sense to do that, it would give me all the expansion option I needed, plus a command group.

Which is why my "I've not bought any models this year" meme has lasted a whole seven days. Ah well.

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