NEW Baccus 6mm French Line Painted

Finally got these finally based and photographed. I painted up the twenty four line figures at Triples on the Sunday. Actually that's a little over simplified. I actually painted them most of the way to completion whist on Dr Mikes painting tables.

Twenty Four French Line Infantry and four Skirmish figures.

I still had the shako cords, facings and pompoms to paint. The Voltigeurs were painted at home from scratch. The line I painted at Triples were donated by Peter for the use on Mikes stand and differ from a bought pack as they don't have any Elite amongst them. Pity that, as it means I will have to paint up some more.

Close up action.

The whole painting and basing of the one battalion took about two and a half maybe three hours and was painted to the much quicker method that Dr. Mike recommends. Don't compare the painting to the Adler as it's not fair as such as the skin just gets one flesh tone without the red leather first coat and so only the nut brown ink is used on the flesh. Still the skirmisher figures are so very much better than the originals.

The view I want to see of my French!

The detail is certainly more crisp than their predecessors and they paint up some what faster and cleaner. As you can see from the picture above the bayonet and musket are much more defined. Also the shako cords are much easier to paint, so now I am painting them. Mike started these with a grey undercoat (Halfords) and then added a black wash. Nett result was very little black work on the figures, these means such as the shako have a better look about them (I touched them up a little with Black Grey (Vallejo 862).

Grenadiers = right hand man.

If you look carefully you can see the chin strap on the rear figure above. Equally you can leave it alone, yep that's what I choose to do. I also never do the coat tails but the detail is there if your that insane.

View from above, still using old style basing on the French.

So what are my thoughts after painting them up? Well it's no surprise that it's a vast improvement. Not that the old ones were bad, they were not good but not actually bad. These though are something else. I can see the lions share of my French will be new Baccus, that is slightly worrying given the number of infantry I already have. 

I still have five battalions of old Baccus waiting to be painted up as allies, these will probably remain as allies, but I can't give any indication on when they will be painted up. At the moment I just have eyes for the new boys in town and of course those Prussians given the amount I still need to paint.

The new French will stand out against the old, mostly because of the shako cords and skirmishers but given the ease of painting their numbers will grow with ease.  The pose remains the same though, which is a blessing for the all uniform camp but there are reasons Peter prefers the musket held at the side pose and it's all to do with durability. I did find the old Baccus bayonet vulnerable to breaking off, these are more sturdy but looks a little bulky to my eye. But the chances are that it will remain in place through many a campaign.

I don't score out of ten but to give you an idea based on my recent Baccus compared to Adler posts, these figures go a long way towards willing in much of the tick boxes Adler achieves without compromising the Baccus advantages. Are the as nice as Adler? No, but they have enough character that you don't mind being seen with them. So no ugly sister to your mates date issue here. 

Baccus are at Partizan this weekend so if it's a good opportunity to grab yourself some Baccus if you have the chance to hit the show.

Next up is the early French in Bicorne, I should do two battalion's, one as they are intended and the second as Guarde de Paris. You will have to see how it plays out.

News tomorrow will be of the coming shows and soon after that an update on Project Waterloo,