Brian A Datta

FRENCH ARMY

I was recently fortunate enough to receive one of Baccus Miniatures' packs of 6mm figures. I had requested a batch of Marlburian French and Peter was kind enough to send them along.

I've been a fan of Frank Chadwick's Volley & Bayonet rules for several years, despite never having been able to actually play a game. I decided to finally bite the bullet and start to put a V&B army together. I felt that it would be best to start with foot, since that would make up the bulk of an army. My brigade composition was nine strips of foot on a 3" by 1.5" base, with one strip a command strip. I immediately discovered that the starter army provided by Peter would make up one brigade each of foot and horse, with no artillery. I'm giving some consideration to rebasing to what the V&B community calls "half scale" (using half-sized stands and cutting all ranges by 1/2).

(In my defence here, the army pack provided was for Condensed Scale DBR. V&B needs a LOT more strips! ------- Peter)

I had a bit of a problem deciding what unit to portray. I wanted to go with one of the more senior regiments, but one that had some visual interest. My initial choice, Regiment Picardie, was kind of boring, since it had no facing colors at all. Eventually, I chose Regiment Normandie, with black cuffs. I will probably paint up an additional stand of Normandie and two stands of Picardie, since in V&B of this period represent approximately two battalions, and both of these regiments were four-battalion regiments.

I usually use matt board (sometimes called artist's board) for my bases, but I wasn't able to find any of my stash (having recently moved). I moved on to Plan B, cutting two pieces of thin cardboard into the appropriate size and laminating them together with Elmer's Glue (white craft glue). I them applied weight to prevent curling and proceeded to the figures.

After cleaning the strips and gluing them onto craft sticks with Elmer's, I sprayed them with a cheap gray primer. When this dried thoroughly, I drybrushed with an off white and painted the drummer in an ultramarine blue (I use the royal livery as a default when I don't have any info on what the drummers would've been wearing).

I applied black to the hats, the cartridge boxes and the cuffs. In some cases, the cuffs were a bit difficult to get at, so I went with a 'best guess' as to where they were. Next, I used a medium brown for hair. I'd have used a bit more variety in 15mm and gone with individual hair colors for 28mm, but in this scale, that wasn't really necessary. I then used a darker brown for muskets the flag staff and the officer's spontoon.

I experimented with applying the buff-colored cartridge box straps directly over the off white/gray uniforms but found that there just wasn't enough contrast for the straps to be seen. I painted on a slightly broader than necessary strap in the same color I used for the hair, then carefully applied the tan paint, leaving a (hopefully) thin strip of brown to differentiate the strap from the uniform coat. Flesh paint on the face and hands, followed by yellow tapes on the hats (gold for the officers and drummer) and green paint on bases finished the figures themselves.

I arranged the figures in three ranks on the stand with the command strip in the front and center. My intention is to use this stand interchangeably for Marlburians and Seven Years War. My British will be in two ranks J Once the glue dried, I slathered on the same color green as on the strips and applied Woodland Scenics flock. Once this all dried, I shot it with clear coat.

I really enjoyed this little project. The unit looks very nice in it serried ranks, and I have no doubt that I will be buying more to finish out a full army. Then I'll have to start on the Brits!