More Napoleonics under way

I'm getting some more Napoleonics underway.  I'm intending to revisit an old, old project going back nearly 50 years or so, to do the forces at Quatre Bras in 1815. I've done this so many times with different figures and scales and with boardgames.

However, I'm still debating which figures to use.  One thought was to part with some of the 8,000 or so 15mm Napoleonic figures I have a switch to something like only AB Miniatures.

But then I thought about actually going back in time to my old 2nd generation Minifigs. I still have a lot of them (estimated at over 5,000) and I have a nostalgic fondness for them. With a bit or reorganising, I reckon I could do the forces at 1:20 figure scale, though I might have to use Russian or Prussian substitutes for the Nassau and Dutch Belgians.

So unpainted figures were brought from boxes and set out on card trays. The weather here was quite good last weekend so I had a good outdoor spraying session. Here's the product.

Here's a close up of the AB figures. I got these to try as a test. I'll see how these turn out before maybe getting more. 

Here I have given the figures a light wash of black to highlight the detail. 

And the first test of some red for the jackets. I used Vallejo flat red for this, again just to see how they would turn out. 

Now, AB miniatures have a lot of hype around them as being some of the best Napoleonic figures on the market. They are nice, and well proportioned, but I was a bit surprised to see no lace detail on the jacket and no real definition for the cuffs. These can always be painted on, but it's still disappointing for these details to be missing.

I'll see how I get on with the AB miniatures, but I also were to get more of my old minifigs done. 

And finally, this week at the club we're planning on a game of Hail Caesar with 15mm figures, just to see how it looks. 

More later …