Assembling Austrians... and so it begins!

I started putting my Perry Austrians together over the weekend and here's a few random thoughts about the figures and the process! I've got over 550 infantry to do, including over 100 metals. I'm aiming to paint in groups of about 150. 

First I took over the kitchen and did my usual hot water and detergent wash for the plastics. The intention is to wash off any oily residue from the production process. I've heard this is no longer necessary(?) but I've done it with plastic figures for decades, so the habit continues. It only takes a short amount of time and if it helps the paint stick it's probably worth it. Perhaps it's really just superstition these days though? Anyway here's what 450 Austrians and 39 French Dragoons look like on the kitchen bench!

Onto the assembly. Starting with 8 command groups each of six figures, taken from the command sprues. This is the most time consuming element... as some of these figures are in many parts. The Officers and Sappers only have three pieces each and are thus my favourites...

Drummers are the worst, in eight pieces! Each tiny piece of which must be cleaned and glued together - as I apparently complained about to my partner (repeatedly she tells me). You do get more pose variety with all these pieces, but when you are doing hundreds of figures speed seems more important... I wait for each piece to dry before gluing the next piece of the model. Here I'm about to glue on the Drummers right arms, followed by the left arms of the NCO's.  Then finally the heads. 

Getting ready to glue the left arms of the NCO's, a needle file, plastic glue and craft knife are all that is used in the assembly process. Plus modelling clippers to remove models from the sprues. 

Finally done and glued on painting bases. Painting bases = card strips cut from shipping boxes the figures came in.

And starting on the regular infantry. These are only in three pieces, body, backpack and head option, and they assemble much more quickly.

The troop sprue with options for German helmet, Shako and Landwehr Corse-hut. I'm going for the later period (1809-1815) so will be using the Shakos and Corse-hut. Shakos  will also be far easier to paint than the helmets in my opinion which is an added bonus. I've heard complaints that they could have included Grenadier options on these sprues, I'm not sure though as it looks pretty packed! And you do get 48 figures in this box set too, compared to 42 for French and 40 for Russian. 

Command sprue. Standard Bearer, Musician, Officer, Sapper and two NCO's. these command sprues can also be purchased separately from Perry. Excellent sprue if you don't mind all the parts.

French Line Infantry 28mm Perry

Some detail shots from different angles of one of my French line infantry regiments as promised in my last post on basing. These are all just from the Perry plastic French infantry set.

I have now completed painting 12 regiments like this, (4 regiments in greatcoats), though I still have to finish the basing on half of them, and the drummers of 4 of the regiments. I'm also about to do another order to Perry which will expand the numbers to 15 regiments and this will include some more of the metal product codes to increase the variety and visual appeal. Once all regiments are done I'll take some more photos. I also have some of the 1814 Paris National Guard to do up for a bit of fun. This weekend though, I'll probably start assembling the many hundreds of Austrians I have lying around that have prompted feelings of guilt about neglecting them for so long.

Photos of the regiment below. The flag is just one printed out in colour from Warflags. Glued on with PVA (white wood glue), and when dry carefully shaped to look like it is waving in the wind. Edges painted with gold to avoid the white paper look. Officer has a rolled sky blue greatcoat, which I understand was a fashion for a time, plus it just looks bright and colourful!

For reference, these infantry were painted according to the method described in this earlier post.

How I base

Following up my "How I Paint" post, here is a post on basing. Fortunately this won't be nearly as long or detailed!

Bases

First off the bases. I am using 3mm wooden MDF bases that I bought off "Dopey Dog Laser Engraving" here in New Zealand. Very fast and cheap, and I have typically received extras with orders. They are also happy to make bases to different sizes and specifications. The other company I have used for MDF bases is "Warbases" in the UK, who also provided good service. I've also used "Litko" from the United States, but found their service rather slow and expensive in comparison.

I base Cavalry and Infantry on 50mm square bases, and Artillery on 50x75mm or 50x 100mm bases. The aim is that they might then be useable for a range of rules, and it is also a common basing standard for Napoleonics here in New Zealand.

Basing Material

The basing material I use at present for my Napoleonics is all from Army Painter. I chose this because much of it seems comparable to existing ranges out there, and I want to ensure standardisation. Army Painter seems to have been around for a few years now, and likely to be around for a while too, so I imagine I'll be able to keep getting the same material for years into the future.

As an alternative, Woodland Scenics has products which I have also used a lot of, and they are a long established quality company. My main basing material for my 15mm and 6mm figures is a 50/50 mix of their two Blended Turf mixes - Green Blend and Earth Blend. I have also used this same mix to flock my two wargaming tables. I also mix in a bit of the "Coarse Yellow Grass" to break up the garden lawn look with some low lying shrubs or tussock. Their ballast range is good for a basing material under the grass and turf if desired, with the Buff and Brown Ballast being useful in this regard.

The Basing Process

Here then is a stack of bases and figures ready to go...

I rule a couple of parallel lines, 1.25 cm from the base edge from the front and back of the base, thus ensuring that multiple ranks will be evenly spaced when the bases are in column. I roughly centre the figure bases onto this line, gluing them on with with PVA (white wood glue).

My existing French infantry (128 of them) were based four to a base, but I decided to rebase six to base. It looks far better, though of course it is a lot more work to get the same number of units! Here's the first six regiments based up. As many were glued on with PVA to their old bases rebasing was not too painful an exercise (though still something to avoid if you can help it!).

After the glue is dry, I paint the top of the base matt black using an old 5-6 size brush.

Then I paint the top of the base including the figure bases with PVA glue using an old size 3 brush, and apply basing material. The material I'm using is "Army Painter Black Battleground", (Edit - I'm now using 'Army Painter Brown Battleground' as described below as it saves a step and looks fine!), together with a few larger pieces of "Army Painter Battlefield Rocks" to add a bit more texture. I scatter a few of the rocks on top, and then dip the whole base into the Black Battleground material.

Once this has dried (I typically wait a couple of hours or overnight), I scrub the top of the base with an old toothbrush to remove excess material. I do this over a large container so that the material which falls off can be tipped back into the supply and reused.

I then paint the few pieces of rock black, before drybrushing the top of the base with an earth colour. This is done reasonably quickly again, but taking some care not to splash it all over the figures shoes. I use an old 3 or 4 size brush.

Here's a picture without the flash.

As an entirely acceptable alternative to basing with black then painting it brown, I could have just used "Army Painter Brown Battleground" instead. This would save a step and I have in fact done this with my 15mm figures. It looks slightly less good to my eyes, but not enough to justify the extra time I take doing the black then drybrushed brown. However, I started doing my French the way I show here, so will persist for the sake of consistency until the army is completed (Ha! As if a Napoleonic Army is ever completed...)

I then drybrush the top of the base with a bone or sand colour, to give the texture some more depth. If using the Brown Battleground basing material I still do the same. I then paint the edges of the base with the earth coloured paint, typically doing two coats to ensure an even colour.

Once again, showing without the camera flash.

The next step is the flock. I'm using "Army Painter Field Grass". I roughly splodge on patches of PVA glue with a size 3 or 4 brush, leaving the earth colour showing through in places, and then dipping the entire base into the flock. I find that I tend to have to press clumps of this stuff on a bit more with my fingers or tweezers rather than just dip it into the flock, as the material tends to stick together. Once it is dry (another hour or two), I once again scrub the base with an old toothbrush to remove excess material, collecting the excess again for reuse as described for the earlier basing material.

I then apply 2-4 clumps of various tuft material to the base, glued on again with PVA and placed with a pair of tweezers. I use a mix of "Army Painter Highland Tuft", "Army Painter Winter Tuft", and "Army Painter Meadow Flowers". Note that I've got the packets mixed up in the photo below, that colour shown is actually the winter tuft not the highland tuft!

And there we have it, unit done! I will take a few more shots of a Line Infantry unit from different angles for a future post to show them in more detail.