15mm Napoleonic French Army- At least the start of one!

We have a customer who has been collecting 15mm Napoleonics for years (along with ACW and AWI) and we recently started painting up his collection of Napoleonics. There are at least 10,000 figures to do and this batch is the first 450-500 or so. Almost all of the figures are Old glory 15's with an occasional other figure.

He will do his own flags so that is why the poles are bare.

How to Paint 15mm Mexicans for the Alamo (or Napoleonic French)

We recently did a pretty decent sized project for a customer of a 15mm Mexican force for the battle of the Alamo. This is one of those rare occasions where I took the time to take pictures for a hot-to during the process. This is how I generally do 15mm Napoleonics. While this is for the Mexicans at the Alamo, the process will work just fine for French with a few minor modifications.

This isn't the only way to paint Napoleonic French, it is just the way I've found to be easiest to me. Hopefully you can take something useful away from this tutorial if you already do Napoleonics, or if you want to get started on the period this might help you make the leap.

While the uniforms from the period can be complex, the painting process doesn't need to be. I like to break a project down into a manageable process.

First the figures need cleaned and primed. I like to work from a black undercoat, working my way lighter with highlights.

Then I do the  pants and small clothes. Since they are white I go with a lighter mid-grey, Cell Vinyl's Grey #7, followed with an overbrush of white.

Next the coats. I used Coat d'Arms Royal blue and applied our own mix of dark blue wash:

Next I work on the muskets. I used Vallejo Beige Brown for the wood since I was going to apply a wash to bring out the details and this would darken things a bit. Then I used GW's Leadbelcher for the metal parts, then applied our Armor wash to the whole gun. This wash is a slightly brownish black wash so it adds a nice shade to the gun, picking out the details.

Next the red bits: collar, lapels (on the figures that have them), cuffs, and turnbacks, and pom-poms:

Next I did the yellow bands around the shakos:

Now I do the flesh. I know this is backwards from how many people paint their figures; ie, do the flesh first. Since I tend to paint sloppy first, cleaning things up more and more to the end, I find it easier to do the flesh toward the end, cutting in on those parts. That way I don't have to worry about getting other colors on the flesh while either dry-brushing or washing.

For these I used P3's Ryn flesh (which I transferred to a dropper bottle which I prefer) washed with our own flesh wash. Our flesh wash is a close clone of the older GW  flesh wash so that would work fine. If they were 28's I'd worry about trying to make the flesh more "Mexican" but in 15mm I think the distinction is really lost.

Now I do the black bits, like the bayonet scabbard, cleaning up the yellow bands on the shako, etc, and for the Mexicans their sandals.

Then I painted on the green tips on the pom-poms. These figures from Blue Moon were kind of unusual. The pom-poms kind of looked like plums, but kind of like pom poms, but kind of like cockades. I wasn't really pleased with that but I went ahead and did them all as best I could as pom poms:

Last two steps were to highlight the black bits with a bit of dark grey, then the gold bits such as the shako plate (which really lacked definition on these figures), and the tips of the bayonet scabbards.

That's generally how I do 15mm Napoleonics. Your mileage may vary, however. I tend to paint sloppy-to-neat; in other words, I to the things that are either sloppier or that I don't have to be as careful with first, working cleaner and neater as I go. That way I don't have to worry as much about getting paint on things that have been done until I get toward the end of the process. It is just easier and quicker for me to paint this way. If you are the type of person that needs to see immediate results or must always keep things very tidy that method of painting may not work out for you as the figure doesn't start looking more like the finished project until almost at the end of the process.

More 15mm Napoleonic French!

This is a recently completed 15mm Napoleonic French Army for based for the Lasalle rules. This batch will expand this customer's French forces. It includes line, cavalry in the form of lancers, and artillery with limbers.

15mm Napoleonics are one of our most popular items. There are times, though, when it sometimes feels like the movie Groundhog Day.  This was one of those orders. For some reason I could not get any kind of momentum built up on these. As a result, I ended up sinking almost another week into them. It doesn't help that it is tax season and I had to divert some of my attention to getting the taxes sorted out. Now that the taxes are out of the way things are a bit more relaxed here.

Here is the block of infantry. These are 4 battalions from the 92nd foot. He is using the company pom pom color and the flags to designate the battalions:

This order also included cavalry units representing four regiments of lancers from the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th Chevau-leger regiments:

The lances still need straightened a bit more. I will handle that at packing time. I really dislike bending the soft metal numerous times. It tends to weaken it and makes them more prone to break. Since these need to be mailed to the customer I prefer to bend them around a little as possible:

Finally this army included artillery from the 16th Battery, 1st Artillery Regiment:

And a shot of the sub-commander for the army:

The figures are all AB Miniatures. Next up for this customer is a 15mm SYW Austrian army for the upcoming Maurice rules from Sam Mustafa. At least its a change from 15mm Napoleonics!