Hello all!
First - Hi there! I'm new to FOG and Napoleonics in general. I've got more years than I care to think sunk into Wh40k. One day borrowed a friend's SYW army for Koenig Krieg, and the Historicals bug bit me. With the release of FOG-N it seems I'm finally going to take the plunge!
I must be honest, the interest in the Napoleonic period comes entirely from the Sharpe novels that I discovered during my tour in Afghanistan (I'm through Eagle right now, and reading Sharpe's Gold at the moment). Though I be an American, thanks must go to a friendly gentleman in the Australian RAF for turning me onto the books, and lending me Sharpe's Tiger.
My, what a diverse, and divided place the world of Napoleonic wargaming is!
I suppose I have many questions for you, the FOG-N community as a whole. First, the question of base sizing.
I've settled upon 1:72 miniatures to be the basis of my collection, notably because there isn't an established mini wargaming community near my post (unless you count the aforementioned GW products), and because they seem to be available in a staggeringly good figure:dollar ration compared to metals (and seeing as FOG-N is a mini's intensive game, and budget is a consideration...well there you go).
What does 1:72 convert to in XX mm terms? I assume its somewhere between 15mm and 28mm.
The rulebook gives me a quideline to follow for width...but having yet to order any models, I've no idea of a good depth (especially for cavalry). Does anyone else use the 1:72 scale, and if so, what bases do you use?
I'm tempted to use the Warhammer Fantasy Cavalry base (turned longways of course) as my standard base, (its 50mm x 25mm), this is a little off from the stated 40 or 60mm frontage I ought to be shooting for, but given that my figs are hanging out somewhere in the limbo between 15 and 28mm, I imagine this is just fine. Alternatively, there is the Flames of War Medium Base (50mm x 32mm) which seems a little big, tbh, but would certainly give my horses plenty of room to move around.
On a completely different tangent, the majority of game systems seem to be built around the idea of 4 men to a base. I've been tempted to base around this concept and just double up to reach the numbers that FOG-N seems to want. In this case I'd go with the Warhammer [25mmx25mm] base or the Flames of War Small Base [32mm x 20mm] .
Thoughts?
_________
I know I've got lots to learn, but I'm anxious and excited.
Cheers,
The Phos
New player and some basing questions.
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deadtorius
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Re: New player and some basing questions.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Napoleonics. If you are interested in 1/72 scale figs then you must have checked out the Hat website, they have the most extensive range of 1/72 scale plastic figs for the period. Some of their sculpting leaves a bit to be desired but....
My former Nappy figs were all 1/72 scale soft plastics and we have been using them as our starter set as they are slowly being replaced by 28mm plastic Victrix figs. Its an age thing, my eyes are not so good anymore and I really don't want to start adding to the small stuff, so its starting all over with the bigger figs, which look great.
!/72 scale has been referred to as 20mm in the hobby in the past, although they might be a bit smaller than 20mm if you measured the figs. I have always played 25-28mm so when I based my plastic figs I used the base sizes for 25mm, which for the old WRG rules was 60mm frontage. Some people would suggest going to the 15mm bases but its up to you, personal choice. So either go with the size that suits your circumstances the best.
1/72 figs will nicely fill a 60mm frontage with 4 figs, not too crowded. My figures were based on 20mm deep bases, which does make it a bit tight to get the second rank in depending on pose (old WRG again) but if you are not worried about attending tournaments bases sizes are kind of irrelevant. Try drawing a 60x45mm box on your basing material and see how the figs fit. If it looks too deep reduce it, but from what I have seen with my own figs, cavalry nicely take up a 45mm deep base. No head or tail overhanging.
As for number of figs per base, we are doing 8 figs for line infantry (4 up front 4 second rank per base) 3 cavalry figs for heavies, 2 for light (personal choice and it works better for buying the figs this way too) my light infantry has 6 figs in 2 ranks on 2 bases and 3 figs per base for the skirmish element. Once again personal choice but I think the skirmishing element should be more spread out. as thats what skirmishers did.
Try to place your figs on the base, use a small drop of glue if need be to hold them in place but still make it easy to remove them and see what seems most pleasing to yourself.
Having painted many plastic armies in the past here is some advice if you want
Wash your figs in dish soap before you take them off the sprue, it removes the release agent they use in manufacturing.
I used Krylon primer on my figs, model paint also works well.
For painting the figs though I can not stress enough that artist acrylics work the best. Once they are dry they are flexible and will bend with the rifles and swords, the primer won't be as flexible but if you have enough paint on them they will act as a flexible skin and you won't suffer from the dreaded paint chipping off your rifles syndrome. Model paints will chip off, they just don't flex and will crack and break if they are bent enough. Downside to this is that you will likely have to learn to mix certain colours, and the tubes vary in price by colour, but they can last years. I go to Michaels craft stores and buy the large Liquitex "starter" tubes because they are bigger and less expensive. Liquitex is the brand I recommend the most as it has strong pigments and better coverage than some of the other brands.
Hope I helped you out with some answers and good luck. Don't forget to get the army list book, the lists there are much better than the starter lists in the rules.
Vive le FOG N
My former Nappy figs were all 1/72 scale soft plastics and we have been using them as our starter set as they are slowly being replaced by 28mm plastic Victrix figs. Its an age thing, my eyes are not so good anymore and I really don't want to start adding to the small stuff, so its starting all over with the bigger figs, which look great.
!/72 scale has been referred to as 20mm in the hobby in the past, although they might be a bit smaller than 20mm if you measured the figs. I have always played 25-28mm so when I based my plastic figs I used the base sizes for 25mm, which for the old WRG rules was 60mm frontage. Some people would suggest going to the 15mm bases but its up to you, personal choice. So either go with the size that suits your circumstances the best.
1/72 figs will nicely fill a 60mm frontage with 4 figs, not too crowded. My figures were based on 20mm deep bases, which does make it a bit tight to get the second rank in depending on pose (old WRG again) but if you are not worried about attending tournaments bases sizes are kind of irrelevant. Try drawing a 60x45mm box on your basing material and see how the figs fit. If it looks too deep reduce it, but from what I have seen with my own figs, cavalry nicely take up a 45mm deep base. No head or tail overhanging.
As for number of figs per base, we are doing 8 figs for line infantry (4 up front 4 second rank per base) 3 cavalry figs for heavies, 2 for light (personal choice and it works better for buying the figs this way too) my light infantry has 6 figs in 2 ranks on 2 bases and 3 figs per base for the skirmish element. Once again personal choice but I think the skirmishing element should be more spread out. as thats what skirmishers did.
Try to place your figs on the base, use a small drop of glue if need be to hold them in place but still make it easy to remove them and see what seems most pleasing to yourself.
Having painted many plastic armies in the past here is some advice if you want
Wash your figs in dish soap before you take them off the sprue, it removes the release agent they use in manufacturing.
I used Krylon primer on my figs, model paint also works well.
For painting the figs though I can not stress enough that artist acrylics work the best. Once they are dry they are flexible and will bend with the rifles and swords, the primer won't be as flexible but if you have enough paint on them they will act as a flexible skin and you won't suffer from the dreaded paint chipping off your rifles syndrome. Model paints will chip off, they just don't flex and will crack and break if they are bent enough. Downside to this is that you will likely have to learn to mix certain colours, and the tubes vary in price by colour, but they can last years. I go to Michaels craft stores and buy the large Liquitex "starter" tubes because they are bigger and less expensive. Liquitex is the brand I recommend the most as it has strong pigments and better coverage than some of the other brands.
Hope I helped you out with some answers and good luck. Don't forget to get the army list book, the lists there are much better than the starter lists in the rules.
Vive le FOG N
Re: New player and some basing questions.
Welcome to this classic era - my frst wargaming love from seeing the film Waterloo at the movies in 1970/71.Phosis21 wrote:Hello all!
First - Hi there! I'm new to FOG and Napoleonics in general. I've got more years than I care to think sunk into Wh40k. One day borrowed a friend's SYW army for Koenig Krieg, and the Historicals bug bit me. With the release of FOG-N it seems I'm finally going to take the plunge!
I must be honest, the interest in the Napoleonic period comes entirely from the Sharpe novels that I discovered during my tour in Afghanistan (I'm through Eagle right now, and reading Sharpe's Gold at the moment). Though I be an American, thanks must go to a friendly gentleman in the Australian RAF for turning me onto the books, and lending me Sharpe's Tiger.
My, what a diverse, and divided place the world of Napoleonic wargaming is!
I suppose I have many questions for you, the FOG-N community as a whole. First, the question of base sizing.
I've settled upon 1:72 miniatures to be the basis of my collection, notably because there isn't an established mini wargaming community near my post (unless you count the aforementioned GW products), and because they seem to be available in a staggeringly good figure:dollar ration compared to metals (and seeing as FOG-N is a mini's intensive game, and budget is a consideration...well there you go).
What does 1:72 convert to in XX mm terms? I assume its somewhere between 15mm and 28mm.
The rulebook gives me a quideline to follow for width...but having yet to order any models, I've no idea of a good depth (especially for cavalry). Does anyone else use the 1:72 scale, and if so, what bases do you use?
I'm tempted to use the Warhammer Fantasy Cavalry base (turned longways of course) as my standard base, (its 50mm x 25mm), this is a little off from the stated 40 or 60mm frontage I ought to be shooting for, but given that my figs are hanging out somewhere in the limbo between 15 and 28mm, I imagine this is just fine. Alternatively, there is the Flames of War Medium Base (50mm x 32mm) which seems a little big, tbh, but would certainly give my horses plenty of room to move around.
On a completely different tangent, the majority of game systems seem to be built around the idea of 4 men to a base. I've been tempted to base around this concept and just double up to reach the numbers that FOG-N seems to want. In this case I'd go with the Warhammer [25mmx25mm] base or the Flames of War Small Base [32mm x 20mm] .
Thoughts?
_________
I know I've got lots to learn, but I'm anxious and excited.
Cheers,
The Phos
Then about all you could get in plastic was Airfix soft soapy figures ( 1/72 HO scale) which did not hold enamel paint well but you could "convert" realtively easily eg the French Cuirassiers into other nations' heavies with similar head dress. These days the modern hard plastics are so much better and absolutely go with acrylics preferably water based. My personal recommendation would be to go with the larger 28mm scale of plastics from the off if you can ( Perry Minatures also do them but I am not sure about US availablility ) because as time passes you may want to supplement them with some metals eg for generals where there is so much wealth of choice out there or for guns or less common types of figures that may not be available in plastics and as has been said much it is easier to paint 28mm than 20mm.
Our recommended bases sizes are pretty much about as narrow and shallow as you can comfortably manage with 28mm these days. The main thing is that both sides are compatible and that bases give that great look and feel. Whatever base and figure sizes you go with effort put into basing marterials is well worth it and can make average figures look much better .
