The Grenadiers!

I'd like to start this post off by apologising for the slow progress over the past few days, I've been itching to make some more progress on these guys and try something new, so here we are; Grenadiers!

I've decided to use these guys as a proxy for State Troops as a fully Handgunner army would be ridiculous and not very fun to play with or against! So thus these chaps have been spawned, part handgunner, part pistolier, tied together with all sorts of green stuff goodness! I decided to go for the "Old Guard" look with laurels and inscriptions (Sigmar scrolls) to keep them looking like Sigmar finatics (as they should be!), epaulletes and put them in a pose that differentiates them from handgunners as well as including an affixed bayonet!

Reinforcements have arrived.

As stated in my last post I was hoping to add backpacks and possibly head swap some models to get a nice mix of The Empire / Napoleonic style and so have treated myself to a little something!

I can't help but love the uniform of the Russian line infantry and am very tempted to do my paint scheme to this style as well so it made sense to use some actual Russian Line Infantry from Black Powder to spice things up a bit!

So here we go! I've not actually made a lot of use of the box as I'm not a fan of how static they look when compared to games workshops handgunners but the backpacks looked too great to turn down!

The first steps.

So here we go, the actual content of the blog begins! As you may well have read, I will be using games workshop models and chopping, kit bashing and greenstuffing them into line! (pun definitely intended).

It's going to be a steady process as there is going to be lots of small details to be done to a fair amount of models, starting with the handgunners who will be my line infantry. Firstly, every barrel will be smoothed down and any cartridges / wraps around the rifles will be removed so I can keep all of the guns uniform as seen below!

As you can see in comparison to the rifle I've yet to smooth down, it seems a lot more "Napoleonic". The canisters were also removed after this photograph and I added cuffs to the boots and arms too, oo-err!

That's pretty much how they sit right now, I do have plans to add some backpacks and was contemplating head swaps but I didn't want to take too much of the heroic warhammer feel from these guys as I love the models to begin with, I must say!

It begins!

So after realising how big of a project my little hobby is going to be I've decided to make a blog so I can look back on the progress I've made... but progress on what you ask? Well, here we go!

Recently I've managed to get myself sucked into Games Workshop's new project - Age of Sigmar, coming from the Hobbit SBG / 40k. It's all very different and very simple which is great for myself as I'm nothing more than a simple man anyway, but I digress.

I have a big thing for all things Napoleonic. The formations, weapons, tactics... like I said, all things! I mainly blame Sean Bean and his Portrayal of Richard Sharpe as I've always enjoyed this since I was too young to remember! As I got older I spent many hours playing Total War: Empire and Napoleon as well as The Napoleonic Wars Expansion for the good old Mount & Blade, it's all very much melted into the fiber of my being now, you only have to see my Steam profile picture.....

..... Obsessed!

So upon seeing the new WHFB *Cough*.... AoS, I instantly saw The Empire with their cannons, mortars, hand gunners.. etc etc as a perfect excuse to do what I've always wanted to... Create my own physical Napoleonic army. I know that there are many other modelling companies that make actual Napoleonic models and rule sets but they have very small communities and I'm sure as a very casual tabletop gamer, I wouldn't fare so well.

So I'll forget the dreams of large battles and stick to the smaller skirmishes of AoS, creating a Napoleonic-esk? army with influences from all over Europe as well as still sticking to the likeness of The Empire.

As stated in my first albeit small paragraph, this project is already underway and at the time of writing this I am way behind in posting progress so I won't bore you with insolent ramblings of my love of the era any longer and get right to it!