Napoleonic Essex 15mm French Campaign Dress

I have had mostly Essex Napoleonic's kicking around for 20-30 years. I seemed to think at one stage I was quite pleased with the paint job I had made. Eventually I think I became disillusioned with my overall paint job and truly hated my basing. In fact all of the figures were based according to "The Sound of Guns" rules. This meant 0.75mm per foot figure. That is tight by any standard, even at the time trying to squeeze an already plump Essex figure onto a base giving only 0.75mm was going to make them look like people heading through the doors of a Supermarket on Black Friday. Plus the fact I was just going crazy with the scatter grass. It all culminated in me throwing in the towel. But, the Napoleonic itch was always there. Eventually after 20years I started reading the blogs of people like Paul Alba, Loki's Great Hall, Furphy's Brush with History and Mac Phees Miniature Men (apologies for all the other great blogs that have inspired me) I knew I could learn the lessons and give it another go. So I got out the old miniatures....

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress

 I thought I would do a before and after shot. This old paint job was getting very messy.

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress with a bit of new paint

 The figure were ripped off their old bases ready for a spruce up (this photo is after the spruce up by the way, please do not raise your hopes too high).

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress rebased too

 On a figure by figure basis the painting was not great, but overall I was pleased, like an X Factor contestant that has got through to the "lives" they were looking smarter with more purpose. I followed the basing tips from Paul Alba's blog which helped a lot. Although I was bit nervous of raiding my local golf course for sand so opted for a bag of kids sand from Mother Care (I think that one bag is going to last me 30 years).

Essex 15mm French in Campaign Dress looking a bit better

In fact at some point as I got into the rhythm of the painting I bought some extra figures and swelled them to 3 Battalions (very easy to go a little megalomaniac, I guess without any checks and balances  I can see why Emperor Qin Shi Huang ended up with over 8,000 figures in the Terracotta army). The command figure I based separately. I think I was going for a "realistic" Battalion look in a fit of pedanticness. But when you have 36 figures representing 700 people I later felt a bit ridiculous. Now the officer based separately has to rattle around the storage box and get in the way of everything. But at the time I was felling quite smug, Then I had a glance back at Paul Alba's blog, I was totally crushed !