Painting 3mm Napoleonic Cuirassiers

One of the iconic units of the Napoleonic Wars was the heavy cavalry, armed with swords and protected by metal breastplates- the Cuirassiers. If you've ever watched Waterloo (1970) then these are the French cavalry that Ney commits to attack the Allied army when he mistakenly thinks they are retreating. These heavy cavalry are one of the terrors of the battlefield, and so we must have some in our army!

It should be noted that not everyone had armoured cavalry. The British only armoured their cavalry after Waterloo and from what I can see the Prussians did not have regiments armoured after 1790, but as I am collecting Austrians and French, this will work just nicely for both. Russians also armoured their Cuirassiers, so this technique will work for them too.

The guide below is for my beloved French (of course), but it's mainly due to the fact that Cuirassiers are on the Order of Battle for Abensberg for the French, but not the Austrians. A quick change of colours would be required, but the colours are fairly easy to find (hint, Austrians love white). 

As ever, with my cavalry, start with undercoating in black and then drybrush in brown. I use Gorthor Brown from Citadel for mine, but remember you can drybrush in whatever colours you want. Drybrushing will pick out details and give the horses a decent colour.

Aim to drybrush mainly the horses, but essentially you're painting everything, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Next up, the main details. Paint the crests on the helmets a nice bright red, and then the helmets, swords and backplates with a bright silver. I used Mephiston Red and Runefang Steel, both Citadel, to keep in line with my other troops. Now, even though the front breastplate is the main focus of Cuirassiers, on a 3mm model you can't see the breastplate. The helmet will draw the eye, so focus on this. The black is really useful here, as it helps crate a shadow between the helmet and plume. If you want to do French carabiniers (technically only after 1809) you can replace this with a brass/bronze colour as the units are fairly similar.

Your eye will be drawn to the helmets due to that primary colour and the silver. Take your time and if you can leave that black line

Next up, paint the clothing. I went bright, so you can see them so for my French it's Temple Guard Blue and Dawnstone for the arms and legs respectively. Bright, yes, but at 3 feet away, you can make out the arms and that was my aim. Don't aim for anything fancy. One stroke, nice and functional, for each limb. At the same time, I did the scabbards in Rakarth Flesh - they are clearly visible, but in a nice neutral manner.

See the small castings on the crest? Neither did I until I painted them. Honestly, it's not worth ruining the paint job to clip them off, as you'll never see them from three feet away. Of course you could pay more attention and clip them before undercoating, but where's the fun in that?

Finally, add some flesh. Faces are blobs of colour, I like to do hands too, as I feel it's generally worth it on cavalry. For me the flesh is where the model comes to life, so it's always the most rewarding part.

Colours seem bright, but it works en masse and from a distance. You could also paint the saddles, but again, why make your life hard for very little gain?

After this, paint the flag. With the red of my Tricolore being the same as the crest, I aim to paint the red away from the crest, just slightly. You can, of course use different reds, but since we're aiming at that 3 feet rule, I find it's not worth it.

After this, base in your preferred style.

See the flag is barely red on this side? It's a much clearer Tricolore on the other side, which is all you need. 

These are very quick to paint, and as with most 3mm, look fabulous en masse. If you've checked out any of my other guides, hopefully you get that I'm aiming at speed rather than any sort of amazing paint jobs, but they do look good. Just look at my French and Austrians clashing below:

So, grab your paintbrush and get that heavy cavalry on the tabletop. Just don't let Ney make your tactical decisions....

Painting 3mm Napoleonic Uhlans

 Well, what a few weeks it's been! Two deaths in the family from Covid, a lot of work and a general icy feeling outside has meant that I haven't done half of what I wanted.

Still, this week I grabbed a half hour to spray my models, and got set on painting Uhlans. These particular ones are part of Regiment 3. Archduke Charles, and are Polish Uhlans in the employ of the Austrians as part of the 1809 campaign. If you are painting Uhlans, or any lancers, then you can follow this guide for a bit of help:

Once again, I'm starting from a black basecoat. At some point I might try grey, wash in Nuln Oil and then base from there, but I'm aiming for speed. I got three squadrons (45 men) painted in a single evening, so I'm confident of this working fast!

Firstly, drybrush with brown. I use Gorthor Brown, from Citadel, and this time the lances are an integral part of the unit, so drybrush the whole model. You'll be painting over anything that isn't brown anyway, so make your life easy. If you want, you can use a different colour for the horses, or even vary the colours if you're looking to lavish some time on them, but in Et Sans Résultat, cavalry is more of a one shot weapon, so I'm happy with speed.

Drybrushed. My models are always slightly variable when drybrushed, but I like the horses to be slightly darker

Next is the uniform. You'll want to research your colours, but in my case I've already looked them up - the Uhlans of the Audtrians wore dark green uniforms, with their hats (czapka) denoting the different regiments. The pennon echoes the Austrian Flag, with black and yellow, so that's nice and easy. As I've mentioned (and learnt through hard experience) choose brighter colours than reality. My uniform colour will then be Skarsnik Green from Citadel, as it's nice and bright. Paint the legs, back and arms. Don't worry about the front, as it's impossible to see.

You can see the green standing out. The black basecoat really helps here to define the figures. Most are two brush strokes at most

Next, paint the Czapka (hats remember!). As I'm doing Regiment 3. I need red, so a nice bright red is called for. I'm using Mephiston Red from Citadel. This is nice and easy, and really adds a lot of colour to the unit. In order to not take away anything from the model, I use Rakarth Flesh on the scabbards, but you could vary this if you wanted to.

The czapka look bright, but I think that's the point! At this point, I felt the models really start to come together.

The model is actually nearly completed. The rest is very much touching up. Use a bright silver for the lance tip (I use Runefang Steel), paint a yellow stripe on the Pennon and add the flesh. With the Uhlans, I think it is important to do the hands, but it's not vital. Blobs of paint on faces and hands gives a very good impression. At this point, you may be tempted to touch up the lances, but I would not, unless you've slipped with your flesh or yellow. The focal point for your unit will be the pennon and czapka, certainly if you're painting Austrians, so why waste time?

The final steps took very little time, but they elevate the model. You can see the "hands" and hopefully appreciate how they add a lot to the models. Also, it's a blurry picture, but horses are fast - it's not that I'm incompetent with a phone camera...

Finally, paint the flag and base to match your army. I haven't based mine properly on the photo below, but I'm going to do a mass basing at some point, so that's my excuse.

Ignore the blu-tack... Hopefully this gives you a great idea of the squadron.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. Once I base them, I have a hard hitting cavalry core, than is only slightly hampered by the Austrian decision to have infantry in the same formation. Ultimately though, they add a dash of colour to the army, much like the Hussars!

So add some colour and sweep away those cavalry that would dare challenge the might of Austria - even if you are actually employing Poles to show the might of the Austrians!!

Painting 3mm Napoleonic Grenzer Light Infantry

 The Austrian army was quite varied in it's composition and part of that army were the Grenzers - light infantry from the border with the Ottoman Empire. Fierce and possessed of the qualities that made excellent scouts, they make a interesting addition to the Austrian army.

Tactically, the Grenzers often formed part of a "light brigade" and so are often found in Orders of Battle alongside cavalry - in the case of Abensberg, they are alongside the Hussars and Uhlans.

So how do I paint mine? Well, the uniforms are distinctly different from the main infantry, so we're aiming for a brown uniform, with light blue trousers, so I used the following paints:
                    Jackets:                             Steel Legion Drab (Citadel)
                    Trousers:                           Hoeth Blue (Citadel)
                    Wood and Backpack:        Gorthor Brown (Citadel)
                    Bedding and Bandoliers:   White (Vallejo)
                    Bayonets:                           Runefang Steel (Citadel)
                    Flesh:                                 Barbarian Flesh (Army Painter)

We're following the same idea as with the French and Austrian Line Infantry, so if you've read those, this will be very familiar!

Start by basecoating in black. This does darken the model down, but it hides a multitude of sins if you miss things out. Remember that you are aiming for the overall effect of massed figures, so if you mess up a figure in rank 3, you probably won't notice!

Next paint the jackets. You want the brown to be different from the wood, so I went with Steel Legion Drab. You might want more of a terracotta or red-brown depending on what sources you look at, so amend as necessary. I've seen some depictions of them looking much closer to Austrian Line Inantry, so you could also do them in that style.

The covering on this is a bit patchy I notice when photographing them. Remember that in life these are 3mm high and you'll be looking at them from several feet away, so minor mistakes don't matter!

Next is the legs. You are painting them with quite a light colour, so you may need a couple of coats, or merely a "thick" one. Usually a "thick" coat is the equivalent of blasphemy, but in this case it's probably justified, given the size of the models. At larger sizes, you couldn't get away with this, but that's the joy of 3mm!

You can see that some models only have one leg painted. It's the same on the back and it gives the impression of marching. 

Next up, paint the muskets and the backpacks. The brown is close to the uniform, but it is distinctive enough so that you can see the difference. Thin your paints and use single brush strokes where you can can, so that you don't need to make too many touch ups.

Already starting to come together.

Next is the white. You are going to be painting the bandoliers and bedding, so it's single brush strokes again. Take your time, but don't sweat over minor mistakes. 

Final steps now. Paint the bayonets with a bright silver. I use Runefang Steel, but as long as it's bright, it'll work. The bayonets are a focal point and look impressive if they are eye catching. Then dot on the faces, and the hand of the standard bearer if you're feeling brave. Clean up the shakos with black, and paint the flag as with the Austrians - I use Black and Flash Gitz Yellow.

This is clean enough, though I did neaten some of the shakos up. The blue pants are very faint, but since these are in the middle of the unit, I'm not bothering doing more blue.

Base as per your army. I have 60 men per unit, so they come out looking something like this:

A bit blurry, but actually illustrates my points. The silver of the bayonets, the flags and the general impression of the units matters more than the neatness.

Grenzers add a flash of colour to your otherwise uniform Austrians and are an integral part of the light brigades in many cases, certainly in 1809. They are fierce troops and in concert with your cavalry can help push those French back to where they belong!

Painting 3mm Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval

 I have lumped these together, as the show offs of the French and Austrian armies are surprisingly similar to paint at this scale. I can see some purists already wincing, but in practice the uniforms are similar from a distance.

You can paint both using the same broad colour palette, which is good! Of course, depending on the hussar regiment, the colours may be very different. I happen to be painting the green uniform of the Chasseurs à Cheval and the Austrian 8th Hussar Regiment "Kienmayer", which has a predominantly green uniform. You may be painting other colours, so while I will give you my colours, you should use whichever you are aiming for.

One thing to note - I'd learnt at this point that I needed bright colours, so my choices reflect this.

Chasseurs à Cheval

Start by undercoating black. As with the infantry, this is a good base coat, and it hides any errors well. First is to drybrush the horses. I use Gorthor Brown, but choose your own colour. You will be seeing these from a distance, so I would choose the same colour for all the horses. Don't bother with painting blazes or stockings. 

Drybrushing is your friend - it saves you so much time!

Next paint the uniform. Chasseurs had green uniforms, rather darker than mine are, but you don't want the models to blend into a dark mass. I use Skarsnik Green, and a very delicate brush. The Army Painter: Super Detail brush is perfect for this. You want to paint the legs, arms and back.

This is very easy, but looks very impressive. Also, that black undercoat helps define the figures.

Next up is the saddle and scabbards. Saddles I paint a neutral colour - I use Rakarth Flesh, but what you're aiming for is a colour that does not overpower the uniform. The scabbards I paint in red and yellow. That's quite fancy, but since Chasseurs considered themselves as flamboyant as Hussars, I feel it's fitting. The saddle is generally a quick brush stroke across the back, so it's visible from the back.

Single line of paint. Vary the scabbard colours - change them at your pleasure. Gaudy is not bad!

Finally, paint the swords and flesh. Swords, similar to the bayonets, should be silver. The flesh is a bit tricky on these models, as the face is tucked away. A blob of paint is good enough, and try and paint the hand holding the sword. This is also a good point to paint the flag and touch up the Shakos.

Paint the bases as per the rest of your army. I base mine so that they are not directly next to one another. Close order suggests knee to knee, but it also looks less impressive!

I've also added some Rakarth Flesh highlights on the horses' tails. You can also see the saddles a bit better here.

Hussars

The steps are almost identical to above. Drybrush the horses first.

I can't emphasise how good drybrushing is. Mine looks very dark here, but you can lighten the colours with ease.

Next, paint the dolman, pelisse and breeches. The dolman is the jacket, the pelisse is the cloak and the breeches are the trousers. For the Kienmayer Hussars, the dolman and pelisse are green and the breeches are red. Paint them in:

Two colours and look how good they already look!

It's amazing the level of detail you can get isn't it?! 

Finally, paint the scabbards yellow, the swords silver and the faces flesh. Again, these are going to be seen en masse so minor mistakes are fine. Don't bother with saddles in my opinion - simplicity is key. 

Fairly little work, but they look great!

At this point, paint the flags and shakos, if needed. 

Overview 

I was terrified of the complexity of cavalry for a long time, but once I got going you can paint them quite quickly. Hussars and Chasseurs add some colour to the battlefield and you can use them to smash aside unprepared and tired infantry formations. Just don't let them near wine or women!

The start of two fleets - 1/6000 Naval Wargaming

 Sometime, over the lockdown period, I was lucky enough to be linked in YouTube to a channel "Drachinifel". If you like finding out information about anything warship related from 1950 or before, I highly reccomend listening to him. Anyway, (and for the record no I'm not on comission!) this ignited my desire to do Naval Wargames again.

But what scale, and what period?

This was quite easy. 1/6000 is fairly cheap, easy to paint and you can have battles at a decent scale, without needing a tennis court. I purchased Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts, read the rules and then I treated myself at Christmas to some WWI ships. This week I've painted them. Are they small?

It should be noted this is a destroyer, but gives a sense of the size!

Possibly.

If you want some quick and easy models to paint though? Amazing! Quick spray of grey, wash of Nuln Oil, paint the deck, wash, and then touch up with grey. All done!

So here's what I have so far:

For the Kaiserliche Marine we have 7 battlecruisers, an armoured cruiser and 8 torpedo boats. The battlecruisers are SMS Derfflinger, Lützow, Hindenburg, Von Der Tann, Seydlitz, Moltke and Goeben. The armoured cruiser is the Blücher. 

A proud collection of ships!

This is the core for a few refights, and a few hypothetical encounters.

Not going to lie, only noticed I'd put one on back to front when I clipped the photo.

The only minor thing with ships this small, is identifying them and putting them the right way around! As you can see from the ships above, you need to be careful as one of these ships is heading the wrong way! Fortunately, they are yet to be glued down, so for me this is easy to fix. The back of the base will have a number on, which will help identify the ship, but I may need to add a larger base to make identification easier. The destroyers in Naval Thunder represent flotillas, so I'm going to grab some circular bases and base a few on.

The Royal Navy forces are smaller, at the moment, though reinforcements are incoming. So they consist of HMS Tiger, Lion, Princess Royal, Queen Mary and 8 destroyers.

Splendid ships!

The Royal Navy ships are easy to identify, but that's more likely because the British built more ships in individual classes.

From Top to Bottom: HMS Queen Mary, HMS Lion and HMS Princess Royal. By the end of the war, only two would be left, as Queen Mary would detonate at Jutland.

 

Two destroyers accompany HMS Tiger

Once I get the Queen Elizabeths, this is the core of the Battlecruiser fleet, so I'm pretty happy with these!

It took me less than a week to paint everything you've seen on this page. If you're looking for a easy painting challenge - 1/6000 might be for you!

Why do I like collecting 3mm figures?

So while I do a bit of painting on some WWI warships, before I take on the Napoleonic Cavalry units again, I thought I'd jot down some thoughts on why I chose 3mm figures.

So firstly, it's not necessarily cost. You certainly get more figures per unit for a much lower cost, but if I'd done 10mm or 15mm then I'd have finished the units I'd need long ago for less overall cost.

I also didn't choose because of time. 3mm are quick to paint, this is very true, but there's so many of them that it does take longer than I'd necessarily want. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to painting. The figures are painted in far more detail than is needed!

So why did I choose 3mm?

This could be a division of 12000 men - it looks like it's a large amount of troops, which is apt as it's nearly 1000 figures!

Simple - spectacle! I've never been happy with displaying large units with small amounts of figures. Napoleonic warfare, in my mind's eye, is massed numbers of men marching towards each other before unleashing volleys of disciplined fire into each other. I blame watching Waterloo for this!

So I'm not happy with a division being a grand total of 50 men. It doesn't feel right to me.

Don't get me wrong - massed 28mm, 20mm, 15mm or 10mm Napoleonic armies look fantastic and are a real opportunity to paint detail. I love seeing other people's armies on the battlefield (and they don't take as long to collect!) - but they're not the right scale for massed battles for me.

So why not 2mm? It seems more popular than 3mm, certainly from what I've seen on Twitter and on the Great Wargaming Survey. There's even a wider range of figures and terrain. So why not this scale?

Strangely, it's too impersonal. For someone who wants massed battles and hordes of infantry, I like my painting and I like being able to see detail on my models. It's a strange dichotomy - I want small scale, but I want detail! I'm awkward, but I'm OK with this! I'm collecting two armies anyway. If an opponent wants to take a game of Napoleonics then I'll provide the armies.

Besides, as a clash of armies:

You can't tell me that these don't look a beautiful sight? Even on a plain board 😂

Painting 3mm Austrian Napoleonic Line Infantry

So last post was the French, this time we will tackle probably the most tenacious enemy of the French - the Austrians. Despite the general wargaming focus on the British in this time period, the Austrians fought against the French in the Revolutionary Wars, as the Holy Roman Empire, then the Napoleonic Wars. In total, of the Seven Coalitions that formed against France, Austria was in six of them. Did they do well? Not really, but against Napoleon I don't think that you can judge them too harshly. 

 My Austrians are for the War of the Fifth Coalition - in which Napoleon suffered his first personal defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, though of course he would shatter the Austrians, and the coalition, at Wagram. So what do we need to paint the Austrians? Well, we need these paints:

From left to right: Citadel Praxeti White, Citadel Gorthor Brown, Vallejo White, Army Painter Banshee Brown, Army Painter Barbarian Flesh, Citadel Runefand Steel, Citadel Abaddon Black, Citadel Yriel Yellow. You can mix and match brands as you need.

The Austrians are quick to paint, and again I'm going to suggest batch painting. Again, I do two battalions (12 stands, 120 men) at a time. You can do more or less with some ease.

My models are once again primed in black. This may seem silly for white uniforms, and I guess you could prime white and then wash with black shade, but I prefer this method.

First step is to drybrush white. You want to drybrush the body and legs, but don't be afraid to do the whole model. You can tidy up the Shakos later. If yours have helmets, the same applies. Try and avoid the bayonets if you can, but again not vital. I've found with Praxeti White it can look chalky and very bright to begin with, but it will fade to a rather pleasant grey-white. 

See, I've hit the shakos and some of the bayonets. This is meant to be an easy and effective method, not neat!

Next up, we're going to do the remaining large areas - this is the wood and backpack. I use Gorthor Brown, watered down slightly. I do the muskets first, as they are the most fiddly. Even so, it should be a stroke of paint both sides, followed by the backpacks. Remember, leave the bedding roll at the top unpainted. Minor mistakes can be ignored.

This is probably the most time consuming part. Take breaks if you need to.

The next two steps can be done in either order. My preferred order is to do the bedding first. I use Banshee Brown (or Rakarth Flesh) as it is distinct enough from the uniform, bright enough to be seen at a distance but not distracting. A quick stroke across the top is enough for this!

As you can see the colour is distinctive but not distracting.

Next up the bandoliers. There is one distictive bandolier across the chest and you should paint this white. Water your paint slightly, and use a fine brush and you should be able to do the bandolier with a single stroke. 

Now you can see why we want that pleasing grey-white as the uniform. The bandolier now stands out, and though the soldiers look more grey than white it works from a distance.

Final steps now - paint the bayonets with the silver so they stand out, and paint the faces. Remember, they are too small for detail, so blobs of colour is more than sufficient. If you are brave, pick out the hands on the officers, standards and musicians, but you don't need to. At the same time, use the black on the shakos and the flag. The flag is half black and yellow. I think the flag should actually be white with an Imperial Eagle, but for identification it is a hell of a lot easier to paint and identify the Flag of the Habsburg Monastry. 

The bluriness is more a product of poor camerawork than the painting! It's clear enough I hope.

You can then base them. I base them as 6 stands to a 30mm base. I'll do a seperate post on my basing, but in short, I glue sand to the base, paint it with watered down Vallejo Leather Brown and then drybrush with Citadel Usabti Bone and Screaming Skull. 

You can see the effect en masse. Yes, it's not bright white, but in my opinion it works well and is distinctive enough from the French infantry.

These are quicker than my French forces to paint and you can easily get two bases done per evening. As these are for Et Sans Résultat, each base is a battalion and you'll need two or three for a regiment. The individual men are not particularily impressive, but once you get a few battalions down, the effect is quite something.

The forces of Austria - the first to beat Napoleon, the most tenacious of his opponents.

In no time you'll build up an impressive force to liberate Europe from the Tyrant Napoleon and restore Europe to its natural balance of power!