Napoleonic's: Big battles, little models

When I started collecting the figures for Shakos & Bayonets the idea was that they would act as a starting place to collect forces large enough to fight brigade level actions with multiple battalions on each side. It became apparent during the painting process that I would not be able to maintain my painting enthusiasm for the amount of time it would take to complete both sides. I put the idea aside for a fair while until I started listening to the Anything but a One podcast, which is well worth a listen. They are strong advocates for changing the scale of the miniatures as you change the scale of the engagement and also for Age of Eagles rules. AoE are based on the Fire & Fury ACW rules which I recall playing many years ago in 15mm back when I was still Cirencester based. 

A quick look at the rules page suggested that they would be suited to 10mm as well. So the only question left to answer was if I could actually paint 10mm models ? Considering the decline of my eyes over the years I wasn't sure if I would be able to see them well enough to paint or not. I decided to get some Bavarians from Pendrakon games and see how it went.

The hope was that due to the scale I wouldn't need to worry about all the buttons and piping and cross-straps and could concentrate on getting just the block colours down to depict the unit. Despite the small size of the miniatures I was able to get what I think is a good effect very quickly with minimal time spent. I opted to start from a black base then dry brush white over the top to pick out the details on the models. Despite the small size the models do have a surprising amount of detail and no doubt some people even go as far as to paint the highlights on. Over my white dry brush I blocked in the colours with a mix of some contrasts (mainly the blacks/greys) and regular acrylic paints, I then applied a black wash and matt varnish.

I wasn't sure what to do with the bases as all the flock I currently have would be massively out of scale for 10mm so I went with some Vallejo sand texture and then painted that green. On the next one I may mix areas of brown in amongst the green to see how that looks. It's also worth keeping in mind that the units will be around 8 - 10 bases strong (each unit represents a brigade) and you will probably have about 9 brigades on infantry a side so you should get a good mass of models.

The cavalry coats are the correct(ish) shade of green but don't really stand out on the actual model so I may go a few shades lighter when I do the rest of the brigade. 

I think this project will be a slow burner but I can see it won't take a massive amount of effort to get a couple of divisions a side onto the table and a game played. You can certainly see enough on the models to know they are Bavarians (at least the infantry) and the addition of banners which Pendraken also sell should double down on that unit recognition.

I also had a 28mm French Dragoon on the painting table to add to the S&B force as a dismounted leader option so he lined up to give a size comparison.