Basing 6mm Napoleonics

A few people have asked about my base sizes in comments on various posts so I thought I would just do a summary of my basing.

You can check out a tutorial on basing here, but this post is all about the sizes and the unit make up.

I have always used a scaled down version of base sizes for In The Grand Manner rules as well as the basic unit sizes for these rules. I have kept those when moving to more modern rules as I like to be able to form line and column and square plus I like reasonably sized units. Newer rules don't much care about base sizes so I have had not problem.

I use 1.5mm ply wood. It takes the glue for sand much better than plastic and once I found a place that did laser cut bases in 1.5mm ply (fenrisgames.com) it all became much easier.

The main sizes of base I use are:

20mm x 20mm
20mm x 25mm
20mm x 30mm

15mm x 24mm (although 25mm is fine)
15mm x 18mm

10mm x 15mm
10mm x 22.5mm

Artillery

Horse guns are on a 20mm by 20mm base with 4 crew figures. Most nations have 3 gun batteries although British can be 2 guns. Russians and Prussians have 4 gun batteries.

Examples

French horse guns
Prussian horse guns
British horse guns

Foot guns are on a 20mm by 25mm base with the frontage being 20mm and again 4 crew figures. Most nations have 4 gun batteries although the British are usually 3. Russians have big batteries and have 6 guns.

Examples

Prussian foot battery
Bavarian foot battery
British foot artillery
Portuguese foot artillery

I made up my own size for Austrian Grenz guns which is a smaller 15mm by 20mm as they are small calibre

Infantry

French pattern battalions are 36 man units with 6 bases each 18mm wide and 15mm deep with 6 figures on each base. I have not posted French line yet but a number of nations use the same organisation.

Examples

Bavarian Infantry
Polish infantry

Most other infantry battalions are 32 man units with 4 bases each 24mm wide by 15mm deep (although 25mm wide works just as well) and 8 figures on each base.

Examples

Prussian infantry
Wurttemburg infantry
Saxon infantry

Early Austrians can be 48 figures which just means an extra two 24mm by 15mm bases. Later in the wars I use 36 man units based like French.

British are a bit of a law unto themselves but mostly use 24mm by 15mm bases with either 32 or 40 or sometimes 48 figures (Guard): so 4 or 5 or 6 bases with 8 figures each

British infantry

I have based the British Light Division on 30mm by 20mm though and use special rules for them.

Some nations have smaller units such as Portuguese and I have them as 24 figure units on 18mm by 15mm bases (4 bases with 6 figures on each). I have a couple of British units of this size as you can see in the above British infantry example.

Skirmishers

I base all skirmishers on the same size bases, either on bases with 2 figures (15mm by 10mm) or 3 figures (22.5mm by 10mm). Strength of unit depends on the size of the skirmish screen

British skirmishers
Prussian skirmishers

Cavalry

Cavalry squadrons are usually 6 or 8 or 10 figures and regiments usually have 4 squadrons although less can be fielded for understrength units. Some nations had massive cavalry units early on but often best to split into two normal size units, although I usually keep Austrian 6 squadron units as a single unit.

French

Generally light cavalry are 4 six man squadrons and I base the unit on twelve 20mm by 20mm bases, so 2 figures a base. Heavy cavalry have 4 eight man squadrons and I base those as follows: each squadron has 2 figures on a 20mm by 20mm base and two bases with 3 figures on 30mm by 20mm bases. Guard have big squadrons of 10 figures and I use two 20mm by 20mm bases and two 30mm by 20mm bases for each squadron. The same organisation (i.e. line organisation) is used by most French Allies for their cavalry.

French line cavalry
French Guard cavalry
Saxon and Polish cavalry

Prussian and British

All Prussian and British cavalry are 4 six man squadrons based as per French light cavalry. I sometimes base six man squadrons on two 30mm by 20mm bases although that was mainly before I managed to get laser cut bases and I wanted to reduce the number of bases I had to cut out by hand!

Prussian cavalry
British cavalry

Austrian

All Austrian cavalry have 6 squadrons of six men (36 figures). I bases these as per French light but obviously more bases for the two extra squadrons - although I sometimes have half of the squadrons with 3 bases 20mm by 20mm and then the other half with 2 bases 30mm by 20mm simply to reduce the awkwardness of moving the unit.

[link pending]

Russian

All Russian cavalry except Cossacks are based like French heavy cavalry - so both Russian light and heavy cavalry have 4 eight man squadrons using one 20mm by 20mm and two 30mm by 20mm bases per squadron.

Russian cavalry

Commanders

I initially used square bases, sometimes with rounded corners, but I now use round bases - again thanks to laser cutting. Generally I use 30mm diameter for corps commanders, 25mm for divisional commanders and 20mm for Brigade commanders. However, I tend to be a bit more flexible with commander bases.

Russian commanders
Austrian commanders 
Prussian commanders
British commanders
Murat
Napoleon

Perfect Six barricades - a review

In my last order from Perfect six I had a set of barricades and this is both a guide to painting them and a review.

Preparation

Perfect Six scenics are generally very cleanly cast and these are no exception so only a tiny bit of clean up required around when the metal comes into the mould.

As I want to use them within my buildings I did not want to put on a base but I also did not want to have bare metal on the bottom. My solution was to glue on to thin black plasticard. I can't remember how thick it is now - as I got it for other reasons - but it is less than 0.5mm I think but not the paper thin stuff.

I first super glued on to the plasticard sheet near the edge.

This gives an idea of how thick it is.

Next I roughly cut them out with a knife.

And next I trimmed the edges so they were flush and used a file to make sure it was completely flush with the metal.

Painting

I used Tamiya light grey primer (looks pretty much white actually) followed by a Flames of War spray called British Armour - a nice earthly brown as a base for the painting.

I then painted the ground part with Games Workshop Steel Legion Drab, the barrels and 'bricks' lying around Games Workshop Mournfang Brown and finally the pieces of 'wood' and the crate with Vallejo US Field Drab.

I then gave them a heavy wash with Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade. The front one below has had the wash and it does make it look very different - the wash gives the browns a different tone and highlights the distinctions as well as edges the detail but I just couldn't get it to show up in the photo (probably should have taken it up on to my terrain boards but too late by the time I realised I should have done that rather than take the photo on my work table).

I then painted some highlights with the original colours and then with a bit of Games Workshop Ushabti Bone in the Mournfang Brown for the barrels. I used Vallejo Light Brown to highlight the bricks scatted in the earth and that is quite an orangey brown which looks the part and gives more variety in the colour contrasts.

The final stages. All of them have been brushed with an acrylic varnish then sprayed with anti-shine.

And as a final touch a few pieces of foliage have been added to give a bit of colour beyond shades of brown.

Barricades in use

For Napoleonics these are not just scenic pieces but I will be using them as markers. For many rule sets I have looked at recently they make a distinction between moving through / just having entered a built up area and defending it. When Richard said he was going to do barricades I thought these would be an ideal way of marking the distinction. Put the figures in on the first move with no barricades, then when moved to defending add barricades to show the unit is now defending the buildings.  I have also thought about fortified built up areas (i.e. preprepared defences) and these could be marked with more substantial barricades (e.g. bits of furniture in them) and the number of barricades indicate the level of fortification (rules sets I have seen this is usually 1, 2, 3 or 4 so can easily have a barricade on as many sides as needed to show the strength). Anyway, need Richard to do the alternate barricades for that but for now I have a way of showing occupation and this type of barricade could still do that alongside the more substantial one for the level of preprepared defence.

Here are some examples - I did discuss with Richard the sizes that would be useful to do so no surprise the work well with my buildings!

Example one:

I have used barricades on each of the three routes into the village but when using as an occupation marker the number does not matter - just for aesthetic reasons really.

So now the battalion has either just entered the village or is moving through on the road and hence no barricades - it is not defending the village.

Example two:

Different village, just for variety really.

And once again just moving through.

A few examples now with 10mm WW2 figures to show how well they work at that scale. These could be used to show entrenched in FOW or defensive positions.

Conclusions

I really like them and being made for 6mm they work very well with the Adler 6mm Napoleonics and I think they are going to be a great marker to show the unit is defending the buildings. Not sure how many I will need until I play a few games with multiple villages, but I suspect I will put more than one on just for the effect even if one would do the job to show the unit is defending. So will probably need some more I would guess.

For WW2 they woudl also work well for 6mm and for 10mm I think they are fine for light barricades or entrenchment markers. Would need something bigger for anything that is supposed to be a fortification / heavily barricaded.



For an easy way to see all my Napoleonic posts check out the Napoleonic summary page.

For an easy way to see all my WW2 posts check out the WW2 Summary page.

British 5.5" medium artillery battery

I have been working on this for the last couple of weeks and ended up doing two batteries as I decided whether to use the Arrowhead or Pithead model for the gun. I got the Arrowhead model when it first came out, or four of them anyway, but had not got round to starting them. Around Easter 2015 Pithead brought out the 5.5 inch gun and as I mainly use their artillery I got a full battery of eight. I normally get different makes to try out which model I prefer if the options are not clear cut and then sell off the one I decide not to go with - don't normally do a whole unit when deciding though!

I have decided to show the finished unit first  - the version I am keeping - this has the Arrowhead model. Then after that I will discuss and compare the two makes later in the post as well as detailed tutorial for making the Arrowhead gun.

Here is the finished battery. Two troops of 4 guns each with Matador trucks, 15 cwt trucks and command and observer stands.

Matador trucks are Pithead, another recent release. The cab and rear are resin and the chassis and wheels are metal - Pithead are mostly all metal but the odd truck is resin or part resin.

First troop command with 15 cwt truck. Truck is Pithead and command figures are Arrowhead - I like the guy with the hat which I presume is from a Scottish regiment, but British officers seemed to keep bits of equipment they liked when moving regiments so just adds some nice variety.

Other command.

Observer stand which is a Pendraken radio operator and an Arrowhead infantry man. The Bren Carrier FOO is a Pithead model.

The other observer team.

Close up of a gun, the gun is Arrowhead and crew are Pendraken. The stack of shells came from a Pithead model and the crates are Perfect Six (see my review).

The battery command. Figures are Arrowhead although the staff team are earlier Wargames South figures. Click on the photos to see an enlarged view and you can then see the improvement in the faces in later Wargames South/ Arrowhead figures. I also like the commander in the duffel coat.

Comparing the Arrowhead and Pithead models

The unmade models as they arrive. The Pithead version has three pieces - a gun barrel, the wheels and trail together, and the  hydro-pneumatic recoil system. The Arrow head version has eleven pieces.

A closer view of the multi-part Arrowhead kit. Separate trail and the spade pieces are separate too, individual wheels with a central piece for it all to fit in, a gun mount with two individual hydro-pneumatic recoil system  pieces and the barrel.

Making the Pithead version is very straightforward, just a bit of trimming of cast lines and filing so the piece with the hydro-pneumatic recoil system can fit flush on the front.

Arrowhead have next to no or very light cast lines so cleaning up is easy. Making it is something more of a chore although gets easier when you have a system - my first one involved some swearing until I worked out the best approach. So what I did was:

• glue the spade pieces on to each of the trails; 
• Glue one wheel on to the central axle piece and stand with the wheel flat on the table;
• put the barrel in the mounting (not glued - it slots in rather than having to manoeuvre rods into holes which some artillery models do PS don't like this as easy to damage, so pleased about the slot approach here);
• take one of the hydro-pneumatic recoil units - I always did the left one but don't think it matters - and put some super glue on the bottom and on the little rod half way up on the side that goes into the gun. The barrel can only go in one position so put the rod into the hole in the barrel and lower the barrel so the bottom of the hydro-pneumatic recoil sits on the piece extending out of the central axle piece. Take care to get the right one on the right side - a bit sticks out at the height of the little rod and that needs to point forward;
• glue the other wheel on the axle;
• if you are doing more than one gun a good point to clean the pieces up for the next one while the glue sets (I would not recommend doing a load at once as it is fiddly and best to give your full attention);
• glue the trails on to the axle unit with the angle you want - partly look and feel but partly what base sizes you are using;
• do the second hydro-pneumatic recoil in a similar way to the first except the barrel is already in position - you can bend the little tabs coming out of the axle unit to make sure both hydro-pneumatic recoil units sit properly;
• I then put some small drops of super glue where the barrel slotted into the mounting to keep it all in position;
• glue the mounting complete with gun and hydro-pneumatic recoil units to the axle piece (there is a hole that slots over a bump on the axle unit.

The above all worked nice and smoothly except for a couple of times where I ended up with the hydro-pneumatic recoil piece super glued to my finger! The first one was not so systematic and as I mentioned above accompanied by a fair amount of cursing. But if you do it all in a sensible way it is not difficult. After doing the first one though I decided I was not going through that effort and then sell off the Arrowhead ones so I got 4 more to do a full battery.

Made and painted guns for both makes below to show how they compare. Arrowhead make detailed models for collectors rather than wargamers so it is not surprising it is a much more finely detailed model. From the rear they don't look much different, more so from the side or front. One observation is that the trails for the Pithead gun look slightly too short; otherwise it is a nice model but just not as detailed.

A better comparison is when they are based up for gaming. The differences are far less obvious when based up with crew. Both look a very nice wargames unit.

All 16 guns with Pithead at the back and Arrowhead at the front - gives an idea about how full units look on the table (click on photos to enlarge).

Conclusions

So I went with the Arrowhead models. Yes they are nicely detailed but to be honest if I had bought a battery of Pithead models then saw a picture of the Arrowhead model I would not have been tempted to get it - I would be perfectly satisfied with the Pithead version. However, having to make a minimum of 4 Arrowhead models I was always going to keep them having put in the effort (I have other Arrowhead artillery and none are quite so fiddly to make even though they all have many parts).

The Pithead model costs £2.80 and comes with crew - I use Pendraken crew for all my guns but this is a value for money point so you can forget my particular foibles (to note I use Pendraken as I can get as many figures as I want of any type plus they have plenty of creases in the uniform casting which suits my painting style better than the smoother Pithead figures, which do have a nice range of poses by the way).

The Arrowhead model costs £3.95 with no crew.

So really it is down to individual choice as both will give you a nice wargames unit. If value for money is important then Pithead is definitely the way to go. If you want a good representation of the gun then Pithead is fine but if you want super detail and are happy with the extra cost (about double when taking into account crew) as well as the effort needed to make then Arrowhead is the way to go.


For an easy way to see all my WW2 posts check out the WW2 Summary page.