It's all Black and White

Well I've finally succumbed and started on some Napoleonics. It has always been a period that I shied away from, mainly due to the uniforms, too fiddly for me. However after a few games at Neal's I finally decided to take the plunge, but which armies to do and what rules to use. I've currently got Black Powder and think I'll use that to start me off, though I may eventually gravitate to General de Brigade in the future. This means the basing has to be generic enough to cover a number of resets. I've gone for 25mm square bases for 4 figures. I will also round the figures required for units as I don't want any loose figures in the units.

So the Black. These will be the Brunswickers. Now as I am going for 1809 and still in Austrian service there are only approximately 2000 of them. I am working on a figure scale of 1 figure = 30 men. The Brunswickers had 3 battalion of infantry roughly 500 men each, this will equate to 16 figure units or small for Black Powder. The Hussar regiment will work out at 12 figures and the Sharpshooters at 8. A nice small contained force. So on to the first unit. This is the 3rd battalion. The figures are all from QRF and painted up rather nicely even though I found highlighting black uniforms rather troublesome. The flag is from Warflag and the bases are from my usual supplier Warbase.

3rd Battalion

3rd Battalion

And now for the White. The Austrians, I picked these up from Old Glory / Blue Moon at the Border Reiver show and must admit I have rather enjoyed paining these up, despite all that white. Size wise they are a nice match for the QRF figures and it wouldn't trouble me to mix the two in the same units. Due to the Blue Moon figures coming in bags you always end up with spares. In this case a full command and 4 infantry. To overcome this I put in a small order with Warmodelling for the necessary figures to finish off the unit. Checking other blogs and the Internet they should match in size wise.

The first unit I did was the 44th Infantry regiment Herzog Ferdinand von Wurtemburg. On a scale of 1 to 30 these come in at 32 figures or large units for Black Powder. To paint the white uniforms I decided to give them a wash with a brown ink and then re do all the raised areas, strapping etc. Rather pleased with how they came out.

44th Infantry regiment

44th Infantry regiment

The second regiment I have completed is that of the 15th, Graf d'Alton. I chose these as the red cuffs added a little brightness to the force.

15th Infantry regiment

15th Infantry regiment

Now where you have Black and White you are sure to get some grey. To back up my Austrians I have completed a unit of Landwehr from Lower Austria. These figures are from AB that I picked up from Colonel Bill's stand at the show. My only gripe with these figures is they are all the same pose and their was no standard bearer figure. Not to much of an issue as I don't envisage using these in alot of games once my forces grow.

Lower Austria Landwehr

Lower Austria Landwehr

On the painting table I have another battalion of Brunswickers, Brunswick Sharpshooters, Austrian Landwehr and Duke of the Brunswick and entourage. Apart from the extra Austrians I have already ordered I want to get the 3rd Brunswick battalion and Hussars. I will then concentrate on getting enough Austrians for a second brigade and some supporting cavalry, jaegers etc.