Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Marins de La Garde

Here is the other unit of models from Franznap miniatures that I've recently painted, the Marins de La Garde. These gentlemen enjoyed an excellent reputation with the Empereur, and it's my hope that their performance on my battlefields shall present the same high standards!


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Tuesday, July 2, 2019

French Line Infantry - Franznap Miniatures


Anyone who collects 1/72 napoleonics knows that there is a lack of quality French infantry in that scale. Not for lack of trying - there are a lot of kits from several manufacturers on that subject in that scale - but they are either poorly sculpted, their uniforms historically inaccurate, or both.

I've always especially resented the lack of a good option for pre-Bardin french infantry in gaiters - for me the most beautiful infantry uniform of the period!

Luckily, if not in plastic, at least in metal there are options in that regard in 1/72, offered by Franznap Miniatures, so I decided to give them a try, even though I was not looking forward to working with metal for my napoleonics.


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The models are beautiful (though I find some of them to have excessively long necks!) the uniforms are accurate, detail is crisp and they paint up really well. The downside, as I already suspected, lies in how flimsy the tiny metal parts - such as bayonets and extended swords - can be. I had a few of them break in my hands as I was attempting to put the models together, regardless of the care I was investing in that task, so I fear for their durability in the gaming table.

While I was going through the ordeal of assembling and dealing with fragile metal minis, I often thought it was not worth it, but now seeing the end result, how beautiful this unit looks, I kind of feel tempted to do more of these (!)

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I have another unit from Franznap to show here in the blog in the coming days, the Marins de La Garde, so stay tuned!

I'm finally better from that tendinitis I had on my elbow for the last several months, so I'm going to pick up the pace on my painting now - or at least that's the plan!