Monday, June 5, 2023

Adding To The Range

It has been a while since posting here.  Life and other hobbies have been taking precedence, but I’ve been working on some additional models and thought I’d share some preliminary looks. I was approached by someone who wanted me to adapt my colonial models to Napoleonic.  I already had tricorne wearing forces from the Great Northern War that might work all the way up to the Revolutionary War. Side note, I have been working on grenadier miters for them but haven’t found anything that I really like yet.  The Napoleonic project should fit between the two other ranges nicely.  Because they are designed to form a solid block, I think their best use case would be to represent large formations of troops in games where other games would have several thousand men represented by a single figure.  Not being required to paint over 50% of each figure would allow a good painter to rapidly get a game-ready force together.

Colonial, Napoleonic, and 18th Century Line Infantry

Making the change from Colonial to Napoleonic has been simple enough so far.  The body, head, legs, arms (to include cuffs), and all of the weapons are completely reused from other projects.  I simply created a shako out of a cylinder and a severely slanted cylinder for the brim, merging the spaces between to complete the shako.  Embossed insignia provides some national distinction.  The “client”/requestor intends to use them in an imagi-nation setting so getting the details correct on a Belgic Shako vs. the French pattern are not important now.  That level of differentiation might be important in the future, but not today.  The coat’s turnbacks and iconic crossed belting will have to be painted if required.  I have also flared the cannon’s profile to be more reminiscent of the time period.  This remade cannon profile will be re-used for the 18th century forces as well.  I would like for the range to eventually include differentiated shakos, bearskins, cavalry helmets, and packs for the infantry.  More exoctic Hussar, Landwehr, Hannovarian uniforms might be possible if significant interest materializes. For now, the "client" only wants troops wearing Shakos.  

Saber Cavalry, Field Artillery, Light Infantry, Line Infantry, Lance Cavalry

For a more detailed explanation of my thought process behind how I design/model my simplified and exaggerated models, pick up a copy of the Second Portable Wargame Compendium.  Bob Cordery was generous enough to publish an article of mine in the 3D printing portion.  I hope it will be my most widely-read work to date. 

 

2 comments:

  1. Ryan,

    More great models that all have a unique charm of their own.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Bob,
      Thanks for the kind words. I don't know what game he intends to use them with, but based on the request of 4 line infantry, 1 light infantry, 1 cavalry, and 1 artillery, I suspect it might be for The Portable Wargame. When printed at 25mm, these figures fit very well in 2" grids, making a very portable wargame.

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