French Horse Artillery 6mm Baccus

I started painting these up at the same time as the last batch of Neapolitan Infantry. I in fact had started to convert some to foot artillery by removing two horses from the front but on reflection I really have no real need for foot artillery limbers under my rules as they move at the same speed as the infantry with or without limbers. The idea is that they do limber up but can unlimber and still maintain position with the infantry. Given they can't fire if they move a need for limbers is less apparent and tend to get in the way. Horse Artillery are different as they can move further and have more space to deploy and have limited more and fire possibilities.

 

I got the guns and limbers painted up quite quickly. The horses were done with the lancers recently shown, just the harness and crews needed painting. This is how they sat for a few weeks as I was busy painting away at all the other bits and bobs. Finally towards the end of last week I picked them up and finished them is a session. Nothing really was in the way of painting them other than just getting around to it. I always seemed to want to finish something else or needed to get another done start to finish. That's dangerous as they can find their way to the back of the line and never getting done. Not this time and I enjoyed doing it, good job as I have to do plenty more before the army is finished. Excluding guns it's about £1 a base for limbers. Not really much but for some reason these seem to get left out. Look at the army packs you buy, no limbers just the four guns.

 

 

I still have a pile of 6mm to paint but it paints up rather fast so results are quick, something that helps the figure painter no end. Another set of figures that landed on the desk but have taken an age to get on with is the fourth pike block. These fellows have taken 4 sessions to paint the flesh of and no good reason other than I tended to drift off to another project. Finally I am happy to say that I am making good progress and expect high speed results, well up to the painting of the shields then it will slow down as I recon that stage alone is two to three long sessions to get done. Still four blocks with the Macedonian star looking right back at you should look great. Especially as two of the blocks re the large 48 figure type. All four blocks are Magister Militum with two blocks also having Essex command figures. Quite a few of the Magister had their pikes broken off (Martin's figures) so I have drilled out ready for new pikes being added. My next big job after that is cleaning up figures ready for the next big push.