French line foot artillery (7)

Here's another Napoleonic piece from much earlier in the year, which I forgot about.  This is the limited edition set released at the end of last year by Martin Kelly of the Befreiungskriege website and which was sculped by Peter Fitzgerald of Calpe Miniatures.  The process behind the design and commissioning of this set is explained on Martin's website and he has some very good tips on how to paint these figures.  The figures are quite specific: two soldiers of the artillery train; a foot artillery drummer; and a "Marie-Louise" infantryman carrying what looks like potatoes.  There's also a campfire with a "marmite" cooking pot over it, which I'm afraid I totally forgot about when taking these photos!  So Martin's site is well worth looking at for information on painting these types of soldiers.  And if you look here you can see these figures painted up as Italians by young Simon Haldezos in Kapiti, NZ.

The bluey-grey of the artillery train's uniforms is a tricky colour to pin down.  I used the Foundry palette "Confederate Grey 117", which has a tinge of blue in it and I think works ok. The blue facings and trousers on the drummer were painted with Foundry "French Blue 65".  There were quite a few straps and bits on these figures, some of which I couldn't immediately identify - those sort of things are always painted with Foundry "Canvas 8" or "Deep Brown Leather 45".  I confess the precise colours to use on the whip eluded me, so I just used various browns.    

This is a neat little set - it's not often you have the chance to paint members of the artillery train on foot. These were the first Calpe figures I've painted.  They were enjoyable to do, with clean surfaces and carefully sculpted detail.  The figures are a tad larger than Perry sculpts, but look fine together on the table.   The Calpe website states that French (and Saxon) artillery pieces and crews will be available in September or October, so I'll be sure to pick up some French artillery when they are released.  I'm tempted to look at their French line infantry too at some stage.

4 figures. Painted February 2013.