Project Quebec: Regiment Guyenne

I've really enjoyed building this unit. For those of you who follow my blogs, it should be understood I am enthusiastic about too many periods and armies. Each project distracts me from the other and it's no small wonder I have plans and desires which can take years to achieve - many years in fact. Well this is one achievement which was well overdue. I have wanted to build a French Seven Years War regiment for the French Indian War since the 1980s ... and now I have.

My auto-focus caught the drum!

I have also enjoyed it because it's a small unit (only 22 figures at 1:9 representative scale for the Plains of Abraham) and because of the fine quality of these Crusader Miniatures - they really are a pleasure to work with. Oh, and it makes a pleasant change from all those red-coated British I've been banging away at. By the way, after I painted the drummer (pictured above) even with my magnifying lamp I couldn't pick out the buttons on his lace to paint them. The pin-dot lace proved too disruptive for my ageing eyes.

To differentiate the two officers I amputated and re-set one of the arms (left). It's an imperfect result but not so much that anyone will notice. I used grey and shaded up to white on all the coats but used ochre as a base for the gaiters. Not sure if it made any real difference in the end and I'm going to try the beige base for the next regiment.

This is a poor photo but I took it to highlight one thing I've changed in painting bayonets. After the blackened steel base coat and steel dry brushing I run silver just along the edges of the bayonet to simulate a sharpened edge. I've also started copying other techniques such as using grey on the faces for that unshaven look - I always used thinned black wash before.

I also love the flags - colourful and best of all, simple. The colour panels are done in three tones. I left the regimental colour (right) to dry over night before painting the white cross otherwise the colours would smear. The left colonel's colour is white on white so I've base coated the panels light grey and the cross beige/white prior to dry-brushing white to better pick up the design. Oh, and before anyone asks, yes, I made sure the flags of the regiment are also on the drums which you might make out on the drummer picture above.

I've struggled with how to base my French. I was always going to base them in three ranks but by how many files per base? In the end I went with four and three figure frontages on four figure frontage bases making for less handling.

The next unit will be identical in size and they are my smallest regular foot regiments. They are also Crusader Miniatures figures but I will be buying some Black Hussar figures for a firing line or two next time around and I'm looking forward to find out how they are to work with.

I've only tacked down the standard bearers as I'm still finishing the colours and will be transporting them separately back to Canberra. Last time the finials broke off and I'm still waiting for mine to turn up. I've opted for the Front Rank French finials with the cravat as I didn't care for the fiddlier and smaller Crusader Miniatures finials. I use thicker steel wire for my poles and they couldn't be seated securely. The Front Rank finials allow for deeper holes to be drilled.

I finally finished the colour party and I'm happy with the results. The finials arrived just after the original posting - so here they are. The finials are Front Rank and they are great.  word of warning - when twisting the ribbons be super careful - they are on the brittle side and I came within a whisker of snapping one.
Anyway, their accompanying war-party are on a go-slow as I decided to take a small break from figure painting and finish a couple of early DH2 pusher-type 1/72nd scale bi-plane fighters which I suppose I'll post next.