Assembling & Painting 28mm Napoleonic French Infantry

In this video we take a look at the process of turning a plastic miniature from parts on a sprue to a finished article; painted, varnished and ready to be based. This is a quick guide to my process, so don't worry about being overwhelmed with information!
The figures shown are from the most recent plastic French Infantry (1807-1814) set released by Perry Miniatures. The set is versatile enough that a number of different Franco-Allied nations can be represented. In my case I have chose to build units of the 7th Italian Line Infantry Regiment for the 1813 campaign.
0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Clipping & Preparation
2:52 - Assembled Miniature
3:05 - Priming in Groups
4:27 - Painting Individually
5:10 - Completed
6:29 - Replacing Flag Poles

[@TheCryptFiend]

Great video! Always nice to see how others organize and execute their hobby projects. Top notch painting!

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed the video.

[@bobbym.1367]

You are an exceptionally good painter. So crisp and clean, yet soft transitions. Very complex colors. Lifelike, almost waiting for the models to speak.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much that’s kind of you to say so! One day will paint some more when there’s time.

[@stevejennings2394]

Fantastic thanks!

[@thelastbattalion3509]

You’re welcome.

[@jonpauladams4095]

Brilliant work mate I love your process

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much. In the future I'm going to post similar videos going into the painting in more detail and the basing techniques that I use.

[@paintinghistory1475]

Thanks for the tutorial I'll try out the techniques with my left over french!

[@PattyIce93]

Amazing work!!

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much.

[@CullodenPaintingStudio]

Excellent video. Lovely looking Italians.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you, it can be a slog but it's worth it when they're all finished. I look forward to showcasing the whole brigade in the near future.

[@e-4airman124]

thank you very good info

[@bonysminiatures3123]

thanks for that , look forward to your painting guide, subbed

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you, welcome aboard!

[@Thecrankybarber132]

Thank you some great tips 👏

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Glad to be of help!

[@e-4airman124]

you are soooo good thank you

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Glad to be of service.

[@SolventAbuseUk]

real nice dude

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much.

[@bebopkirby]

Excellent painting sir!

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much, glad you like them.

[@bebopkirby]

Also impressed with how you manipulate the flag to get it to look so natural. Is there a particular method you use to get the folds in the flag.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

@@bebopkirby Thanks, it's relatively straightforward: carefully cut the flag out, loosely fold it in half around the pole (don't harshly crease the edge it needs to wrap), then either faintly wet the inside or else water the PVA down. You don't need too much, it'll just ooze out when you press it together. Fold it together around the pole, then whilst it's still drying I use a spare piece of steel rod and gently form the waves back and forth, using the rod as something to bend the flag round (again avoid harsh folds). It's up you you in what direction you form the folds, but I run mine diagonally and irregularly rather than regularly spaced and perfectly vertical (for example).

[@roberthuffman2620]

You have a very good speaking voice and presentation. The videos are short and to the point. Your painting detail is exquisite, can you please have a painting video where you show how to do faces or details like the patches on the pants (knee area)? Also what brushes do you use and how you care for them. I find keep them into a good point shape is incredibly difficult.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much indeed! I certainly intend to create more hobby videos in the future, they’re just particularly time consuming. In the meantime this might of use: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4aTnmCEos-JoMU

[@mtnman8783]

Great video. Just getting into wargames and this was really helpful

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Awesome, I hope you enjoy the hobby!

[@mtnman8783]

@@thelastbattalion3509 I've started with sharps practice and I'm loving it so far.

[@ernieme101]

another good one ! i'd like to see a full painting video , if you think it will be too long break it into parts .

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you. I would certainly like put together a painting walk through for these. It takes me regular hours over a whole week just to paint six without filming so you might have to wait a short while!

[@dominicquast5083]

Great Video! Please do some painting Tutorial. Your style is beautiful.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much. I am working on a painting guide that goes into more detail as to how I painted my Italian infantry, so look forward to that!

[@AnExtrovertPaints]

@@thelastbattalion3509 Any update on that painting tutorial?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

@@AnExtrovertPaints Yes, I had planned how I would structure it, but I made the fatal mistake of painting all of the miniatures I had available to be Italians. For now it's on hold, if I have some spare figures (and time) I may come back to it at some point in the future.

[@scottsharp7589]

Extremely well done. Where did you get the flags?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you, all the flags I use are from GMB Designs.

[@AnExtrovertPaints]

Excellent! Where did the chasseur heads come from? The Cav sprues?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Yes that’s right they’re the elite company heads from the Chasseurs a Cheval set. I used them for colpacks on the elite company of a light infantry battalion still yet to get painted.

[@theflyingspaniard6881]

Great video! would you recommend priming with a white primer for a largely white uniform?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you. I personally don’t and wouldn’t - I prefer to work up from darker than make things darker later. Also blocking in dark colours I find less forgiving. I basically prime almost everything black but I have experimented with grey and brown on occasion.

[@malcolmrose3361]

They look very good - rather than breaking popsicle sticks in half have you considered Coke bottle tops? They work very well and are easier to pick up! And you might want to try clipping your figures from the sprue with a good pair of side cutters - you will get a much closer and neater cut.

[@thelastbattalion3509]

I did consider bottle tops and similar but I like this method, I find it easier to manoeuvre. In terms of clipping I'm not worried about how neat the cut is, it's often fine and if it's not it doesn't matter because I will consume the same amount of time cleaning up the mould lines in any case.

[@basicminiaturepainting]

Beautiful Italians Tim just subbed justin

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Thank you very much and welcome!

[@danielrodriguezgallardo1770]

What's the set of paintings you used for these nice-looking italians?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

I mostly use Vallejo Model Colours for all my painting, alongside Scale 75, Foundry and Citadel products.

[@jakobmertens3142]

Since their website doesnt say, how many miniatures are in this box?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

The ‘battalion box’ contains 44 figures in total. A command frame, five frames of marching/advancing troops & two frames of skirmishers/elites.

[@nunopinto5200]

what do you use to stick the figures?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

To the bases I just use PVA glue, sometimes with a dot of superglue as the two combine to form decent bond between the miniature and the base.

[@e-4airman124]

how did you attach to pop sicle sticks thank you?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

I used some white-tac and pressed the figures onto that. It holds them in place well enough and can then be re-used afterwards.

[@rcspaintservice]

do yo have a list of the paints you used here?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Apologies, I don't have it written down anywhere. I could try and put one together but it would be a very long list because of all the different details and because I make minor changes/variations as I go along. I mostly use Vallejo Model Colours, a few Vallejo Game Colours, and a small number of Citadel, Foundry and Scale 75 paints.

[@mandalortemaan7510]

What do you use to attach the figures onto the popsicle sticks?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

White tack. Just be careful removing them if they've been on the stick for a while as many of mine have waiting to be painted. They need a careful twist or similar when removing so you don't damage the miniature.

[@mandalortemaan7510]

@@thelastbattalion3509 thank you

[@SkyTrains7100]

What glue did u use?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

Contacta plastic glue.

[@paintinghistory1475]

Also I was just wondering how you paint Austrian/Italian uniforms I heard using a yellow ochre base but it be nice to learn from some one who actually paints a lot of them as a unit and not a diorama I dont might be a cool video

[@thelastbattalion3509]

There are lots of different ways to go about it, some people find that they prefer certain methods to others. Personally I find it quite time consuming but others really like painting white uniforms! I work up from a mid grey basecoat in a series of layers. I don't actually paint white uniforms white except for the most extreme highlight. I'm going to put together a video on how I went about these Italians, so look out for that as I'll go into how I do the whole process.

[@paintinghistory1475]

@@thelastbattalion3509 thanks mate I'll try that out

[@nunopinto5200]

28 mm is 1/72 scale?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

1/72 is closer to 20mm. Either 1/56 or 1/48 are equivalent to 28mm, as with all discussions of scale it varies a little depending on the manufacturer and sculpts.

[@SobotRex]

How do you varnish?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

For a number of years now I have consistently used the same method - Vallejo Matt Varnish, applied with a brush. I like the finish it provides and it works well at all scales for me.

[@SobotRex]

@@thelastbattalion3509 One or two coats?

[@thelastbattalion3509]

@@SobotRex One-ish? It sometimes depends on the miniature, I might do another coat or perhaps put another layer on some of the areas I think might be more exposed to wear and tear.