28mm Napoleonics Taking Off

Happy February everyone.

A quick update on things. My company reorganized at the beginning of the year and the new role is taking up a lot of time & energy, so while I am painting it is going at a slower pace than desired. My new local gaming friend Chris is amassing an Austrian Horde at a quick clip via purchasing painted minis online and I have started doing the same. I purchased three battalions of French infantry (36 figures each) off the ‘Bay in recent weeks and now am only a command stand and maybe another battalion away from having my first brigade ready to go. I’m continuing to look at painted miniatures online as well as some painting services to help increase the number of infantry battalions quickly.

Purchasing painted minis online requires patience, especially if you’re particular about how the models are painted like I am. There are plenty of painting services and individuals out there selling the Warlord and Perry plastics painted to a “tabletop” standard, but in many cases either the painting is really rough or they are using contrast paint to get things done faster. While I use contrast paint myself for certain things I find they are best used for fleshtones or very textured surfaces. Using them on large flat areas isn’t to my liking, and since most of the contrast-ish ranges are designed for fantasy or sci-fi use cases, with the blues and reds being way too saturated and vivid for use with historical miniatures in my opinion. As an aside, I think the Citadel and Army Painter browns are for the most part fantastic and I use Citadel Black Templar a lot as well.

So I keep on painting and scrolling through eBay, various online market places and Facebook groups and occasionally find something that appeals to me and is in the price range I’m willing to pay. If it helps me get a force together sooner, all the better.

I’m hoping to be able to put games on this spring. There are a variety of rules I’d like to try out including General d’Armee (I just pre-ordered the 2nd edition set from TFL), Black Powder and Valor & Fortitude. All of them bring different benefits and I’m curious to see which one(s) become preferred.

That’s all for now.