More MDF Napoleonics

Next up on the painting table is a test unit of the British Infantry from Commission Figurines MDF range of 6mm figures.  Unlike the French figures these are not cut with shouldered muskets.  I prefer the shouldered figure outline as it gives more shape for the eye to grab hold of at arms length but it probably makes the figures a bit more robust.  My British unit will have less figures than the 30 man French one.  I'm going with 20 figures in two ranks to show the 'thinner' British line formation.  It also makes the pack go further!

These figures are trickier to paint than the previous French offerings as I have to paint in white cross belts on to the contrasting red coats.  The nature of the MDF figures means that there is almost no relief for the paint brush to follow, so that needed a steady hand and a good eye, which at my age is a big ask!  I had to go back with the red to tidy up in some cases but eventually I got them as I wanted.  OK lets be honest, almost as I wanted.  The picture in my mind's eye is always neater than I achieve in reality but I long ago learned that the difference between the two is what drives me to improve (and should be ignored when necessary).  Next time I might try to add the cross strap for the back pack as these look very 'chocolate box soldier' like.  It's probably the lack of anything which suggests the lace across the coatee's chest area that is the issue but I can't think of any way to paint them which wouldn't end in a messy splodge!

You can see the blockiness of the figures in this shot

I went with a white undercoat and first painted in the red coatees.  This stage can be as messy as you like, as everything done after this stage will tidy it up.  Grey trousers for the majority came next with the officers getting white to help set them apart.  Remember that these are painted in right up to the waistline as the coatees were cut short at the front.  This was followed for black for shakos and boots.  Then it was time for the detail.  Black backpacks and cartridge box, mid blue canteens, light grey blanket roll. brown muskets and (gulp) white cross belts.  Last was flesh to the faces and hands, your choice of turnback colour and the plumes.  It sounds a lot but other than the cross belts it is just a dash or a dot of colour where required.  The only other thing left was to paint in any shoulder straps.  It was at this point I realised I hadn't painted a drummer in reverse colours (oh buggah) so back to the painting table had to go.

It's an OK paintjob I'm sure I can do a better job with practice.

A little bit of tidying up  on the shoulder straps might help with the overall look.  I did think about adding Skirmishers to the base but decided against it for two reasons. Firstly that having a separate narrow strip that could be placed in front of the base as required might be useful in some rules and second, I haven't bought any skirmishers yet.  MDF bases are going to help with the survivability of the figures so an order will be on it's way to Warbases in due course.

For reference I found the Baccus 6mm painting guides helpful along with several painting blog posts I found online (especially Steve's Balagan).