Hearts of Oak (well MDF...)

[sunjester]

Here's a thought (he said, dragging the thread back to topic, and away from Ancients...  )

Would a car spray paint work on MDF?  Halfords are more likely to have the correct shade than Hobbycraft.  Could I use acrylics over car spray?

Are you new to posting on this forum???

[Last Hussar]

 

[Orcs]

Are you new to posting on this forum???

  

[Last Hussar]

Was down the trading estate that has the Halfords on the other week, looked at Halfords, and wondered why I thought I should go in, as I need nothing for the car...

Anyway, have bought the darkest green I could find in HobbyCraft,  and have painted about 8 strips (smallest 2 blobs I could get out of the tube, one for the fronts, one for test on backs).

Going to see how these dry.

[Last Hussar]

Dried green on Russians. The camera has made it look less green than it actually is.

It's not a Russian Green (pantone 420 seems to be the closest), but it is darker than a mid green.

I think we can just assume in a period of non-fast dyes this is OK.

Note how the cut back is darker than the treated front of the MDF.

First Russians - testing paint colour by Last Hussar, on Flickr

[Last Hussar]

Ignore previous...

Wrong paint. 

I'll post a pic of the correct ones in the next few minutes.

[Last Hussar]

Correct  green,

Darker green by Last Hussar, on Flickr

I've done one side of 72 strips; that is 36 stands worth, about 9 bases for Blucher. Going to need about 25 to 30 infantry bases, so about 120 bases/240 strips.

[Last Hussar]

Further thoughts on numbers. If I paint half an army, about 200 points worth, first, I can ally them with the Austrians for a 1813/14 battle. Thus I will aim for that, as it is more achievable,  then add on as I go.

For every 24 strips=12 stands, I need 6 artillery stands =2 artillery bases!

[Last Hussar]

I might need to make a curry!

To explain; I use the Aldi curry sauces. This isn't just a jar of sauce. Over the lid is a cap with spices in.

Cook the chicken pieces,  sprinkle the spices over, cook a bit longer,  then add sauce.

These caps are ideal paint holders when using the larger artists tubes, and for the Russians this is what I am using for the main two colours, green and (intending to use) white.

Except I can't find a spare.

I do however have a jar of sauce in the cupboard...

In the meantime I will have to mass paint more infantry strips green. Might do face's as well, as obviously on the other end to trousers, and I can't do the shakos until I have done faces on the Little Wooden Men. (On 3d figures I usually do face's last, but have found on LWM it is easier to work from waist to top/bottom. Thus I won't do boots until I have done the legs)

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Also curry sauces are good!

[DHautpol]

You will need to go a shade or two lighter to make the green look right, based upon experience. On smaller figures, including 10mm, bright colours work especially when viewed at gaming distances, as otherwise they look very dark and at times almost black.

Very true.  I have about 70 battalions of Adler 6mm Napoleonic Russians and I used GW Snot Green (as it was at the time) for the jackets.  A bit too bright I know, but factor in the black shakos, backpacks and the dark wood muskets and the whole thing tones down.

I painted over a black undercoat so the actual amount of green is limited to the sleeves, a bit on either side of the crossbelts and a bit on the coat tails.  Had I done them a darker shade then en masse they would have looked so dark as to seem black as well.

I believe that Snot Green is now Warboss Green (whatever a Warboss might be). 

[DHautpol]

I believe that Snot Green is now Warboss Green (whatever a Warboss might be).

My mistake.  The charmingly named Snot Green has become Warpstone Glow, not Warboss Green.

[Last Hussar]

It's trickier with these. I was wondering about the "go a bit lighter" that is normally said with 10mm (as I found out when painting Prussians Prussian blue for WSS - hard to tell between  the black undercoat and the dark blue jackets), but with these MDF flats it seems to be OK.

However it is possible the green is still actually lighter than real life; as far as I can tell a Russian Green is a green Prussian Blue!

[Last Hussar]

So, I have painted 120 strips, including 10 command, in dark green.

That's 60 bases worth, or 15 units for Blucher. Unfortunately Russian line is cheap, so only about 165 points.

Now have a milk lid for the white paint, so trousers up next. Then faces, boots/Shakespeare, and finally packs

Probably do Grenadiers next.

[Last Hussar]

Trousers on 24 strips done. Done as a batch of 24 because that is 12 stands = a 3 infantry unit Corps. Wondering whether to finish off these, base them etc, and do the 6 stands I need to do the batteries for that Corps.

The Russians do have stupid amounts of artillery on the historic orbat for Borodino,  I keep checking it, thinking "that can't be right."

[paulr]

Having faced the Russians across a Borodino table that sounds about the right amount of artillery

[Ithoriel]

Trousers on 24 strips done. Done as a batch of 24 because that is 12 stands = a 3 infantry unit Corps. Wondering whether to finish off these, base them etc, and do the 6 stands I need to do the batteries for that Corps.

The Russians do have stupid amounts of artillery on the historic orbat for Borodino,  I keep checking it, thinking "that can't be right."

The Russians had over 620 guns at Borodino iirc.

[Last Hussar]

You can see why I'm paranoid at the amount of artillery I am doing!

Although I'm not planning on doing Borodino,  I am using it as the model for my Russian Order of Battle. In "Grand Scale " Blucher a unit of infantry represents 3000-5000 men, and a unit of artillery 24-36 guns. You can break an artillery base down into 3, and attach the guns onto 3 infantry units, losing the bombardment at long range, but improving the infantry unit.

The Russians don't have enough infantry units to make this worthwhile. For instance, 2nd Corps (4th and 17th infantry I think) is 2 bases of the 4th (8-9000 men), a base of guns for the 4th, a single base of infantry for the 17th, and a base of guns for the 17th - 48 plus guns according to the Orbats I have found! In contrast a Wagram Austrian Corps is something like 5 infantry, 1 artillery.

[Last Hussar]

Just checked my calculations sheet. For the 1st Western Army, the larger of the 2 Russian armies at Borodino, it has 9 units of artillery, so about 270ish guns (this includes the artillery reserve).

[Last Hussar]

Plan of Action. 

I'm going to paint, base etc the 2nd, 4th, and 6th Infantry,  and 2nd and 3rd Reserve Cavalry. This will give me 201 points, so enough for a small game, but I'll also be able to combine with 200 points of Austrians to get a 6th Coalition army. I fancy a battle where Sunjester Napoleon has 300 points.

This isn't as uneven as it sounds, because of the way command dice work in Blucher. Each of the Allied armies will get only 2, where as the French will get 3. Yes, that is still 4 dice, but they will only be able to use their own dice, so it is perfectly possible that the allied commander(s) can only move one wing of the army,  and not the one they want. The French will be able to choose which areas of the field to concentrate on.

Additional idea, at the start of every allied turn, roll 1 green and 1 white die, whichever is the higher must go first. (Ties, then Allied commander chooses.)