SYW French and Armypainter

I'm starting on my French WAS/SYW army in earnest and with Regiment Limousin, one of my favourites. The figures will mostly be Crusader (excellent and more about them in future posts) mixed with some Front Rank officers and wounded figures. I like to have as many varied officers as possible and I've found that you can mix figures from Front Rank, Crusader and Foundry without serious size anomaly. So, work has started on the 32 figures that make up this two battalion regiment.

I have obviously used Armypainter quite a bit in the last couple of years and it tends to work better on lighter uniforms than darker ones. To that end, I was not sure how it would work with the pale grey (I know some people swear the colour should be white, but I’m a creature of habit and my French have always been pale grey!) so here is the result. The top picture shows a completed pair of figures – with new figures I always paint myself a sample – with the lower picture showing the same figures but with Armypainter (Strong tone – the middle of the range). By the way, and I’ve said it before, but I really suggest you don’t dip the figures but rather paint on the product with a brush. Then matt varnish to finish.

Now, to my eyes, the Armypainter gives a much more realistic campaign look to the figures. These guys look like they have walked a good twenty miles, though just about everything that Mother Nature could throw at them, to reach the battlefield and that is a thumbs-up from me. Your comments are always appreciated.

The rest of the regiment will be ready to display over the weekend.