Baccus 6mm Napoleonic French

Vive l’Empereur! Here is a stand of Baccus Napoleonic French in 6mm. Like the British, these troops were painted many, many, many years ago when I was first learning how to paint miniatures.

At that point my foray into researching the wars of Napoleon consisted of reading a bunch of Sharpe novels. With that questionable source taken to heart, I vowed to mirror the descriptions found on those pages. In the books Cornwell pens stories of masses of blue troops hulking forward toward brittle red lines arrayed against them. Many passages described the waves of French troops crashing against that thin, tenuous barrier and miraculously breaking. That’s what I wanted to capture!

For the French I tried my best to put a ton of troops on one base. I almost wanted to overload it and I think that I succeeded. Whereas the British infantry have around 35 figures on each base, the French have almost 80. The stand is pretty heavy with all of that lead on it!

I painted them in the Baccus recommended style: black undercoat primer with bright Vallejo colors. I used a light drybrush on the shako to draw out the edging and the cords. My painting skill has improved over the past 15 years and I’m sure that I’d do a better job on them now. Today I think that I might paint in the moustaches and dot in the waistcoat behind the belting. With my better brushwork I’d also probably edge-brush the shako cords and edges.

I like the sculpts on the French more than the British because the French have more facial detail with noses, moustaches and whatnot. I’ve read that the British have been resculpted to bring that level of detail to the line… perhaps I’ll purchase some soon and compare them?

Hmmm… should I put in an order to Baccus and add to my lead pile?