French 129th Line Regiment

 These figures are from Piano Wargame Miniatures printed at 18mm. The church and the gabion set are Time Cast.

This unit is painted to represent the 129th Infantry Regiment. They matched into Russia as part of Ney's 3rd Army Corps. 10th Division under Brig Bruny.

The 129th was badly mald at Smolensk and left there. They didn't fight at Borodino. But heavily engaged defending the bridges at Berezina.

French 33rd Light Infantry

 The 33rd Light Regiment was in the 4th Division of Davout's First Army Corps.

" This Regiment of Dutch origin did not have the same discipline as a Dovout style Regiment. So on the 10th of July, the Marechal had them file past, barrel downwards." F.-G. Hourtoulle

He left them at Smolensk.

French 7th Light Infantry Regiment

Brig Gerard's 7th Light Infantry Regiment were in the 3rd Division of Marshal Davout's First Army Corps.

These miniatures are 3D printed from Lucus' Piano Wargame Miniatures. I reduced them to 60%. Which got them to the 18mm height. 

They are painted with Speed Paint and other Contrast style paints. Plus highlights with acrylic paint.
 

Basing, part 4

For the basing I like square 1.5 inch bases from www.litko.net GMB109H. After the miniatures dry from glueing them with pva. I use School Elmers to attach grout sand to the whole base. I think I paid $5 for a one pound bag 10 years ago. The beauty of the grout sand is how fine it is right out of the bag. There's no sifting required.

When that drys I make a wash of brown craft paint. The paint gets absorbed into the sand and wood.  

Then after that drys I get the school glue out again to fasten the static grass from Woodland Scenics and Gail Force 9. My recipe is to first put a dark green grass down and then a spring mix on top. The dark green gives a little shadow and the spring mix pops. The next step is to add the coconut grit.

The final step is to paint the rim of the base Wedgewood green. And I'm done.
 

Varnished and ready for mounting, part 3

 I used some Scale 75 Instant Colors for the back pack, bed roll and water bottle. And I did some highlights with some acrylics. Then finished with a matte varnish. Next I'll mount them to their stands and finish them.

Speed Paint base coats part 2

 

So far I've only used my new Speed Paints.

Priming and dry brushing the under coat

 I have become a fan of "Slap Chop" under coating my miniatures. I've always primed in black anyway. Now I have added two coats of dry brushing before using a Speed Paint or Contrast style paint. In my version, I like to use a majority color as the middle coat instead of grey. For these French I used a blue. 

The next step will be priming the skin areas in Vallejo light flesh.