Re-basing the 6mm Napoleonics

 Ah, re-basing don't you love it. I'm hoping this will be the very final iteration for my 6mm Napoleonic stuff. I've been somewhat inspired to do it by the various ACW games we've played recently, as I've realised that a cunning rules-agnostic basing system will always be best. I also wanted to do some modelling/painting as I haven't picked up a brush in ages as I've spent the last few months playing Fallout 4 (again) instead.

Here are some of them in one of the boxes. Some British on the right, various French on the left. I've already re-mounted several leader stands onto pennies and cut down the artillery. This lot are currently based for the second version of Horse, Foot and Guns with various 'brigade' sized elements with typically 12 x foot or 6 x horse on them. 

The British figures are mainly Irregular, from one of the Division packs they did back in the mid 1980s, although there are some newer additions. They were originally based for WRG, and then HFG version 1 from the late 90s, so this is their fourth re-basing. They generally have two ranks of six infantry on each base.

The French are much older and are my original H&R figures from the mid 1970s. They were also originally based for WRG, but prior to that they were based for a long forgotten 6mm set which used  individually based figures(!) on 10mm bases. This will be their fifth re-basing. The infantry are arranged in little columns of twelve figures in three ranks - a few voltigeurs, then the line companies and a couple of grenadier figures on each ie my original WRG battalions all glued together in a big mass!

Some of the French stuff. The HFG artillery bases are huge, but I've kept the 30mm frontage so in most cases all I had to do was (carefully) cut the bases down after prising off the integral limbers. In the foreground are some Lancers based in sixes, also on huge 30mm deep bases. These  started life as Polish Lancers, but I repainted or at least tidied up, a lot of the figures when I rebased everything for HFG 2 back in the noughties.

Some Prussians. These are also Irregular,  but unlike the British they are based in columns like the French (three ranks of four). The Line units usually have some Fusiliers or Jaegers in front, while the Landwehr are just in massed columns.

The general plan is to thin them out a bit as the figures are really crammed into the HFG bases. Phil Barker was always a big optimistic about figure counts and base sizes. I'm looking at something similar to the ACW basing with eight infantry per base or four close order cavalry. I like using two ranks as it gives much more flexibility about how the figures are arranged, which can be used to give visual clues as to what unit type and quality they are. 

The general process for some cavalry. They are currently based sixes, so lever them off the old bases with a sharp craft knife - some are still stuck down with two part epoxy, so it can make it a bit challenging to get them off.

Then rearrange them neatly on their new 30x20 bases in groups of four. The Irregular stuff is cast in fours, but I had to cut quite a few of those bases up for the individual figure removal required by WRG, and the H&R figures are all individual but if you are lucky they come off the old bases in groups. These chaps look like French cuirassiers.

I'm aiming for generic infantry and cavalry 'units' of four bases each (ie Neil Thomas style), but with some extras to mix and match, and obviously the bases can be used as individual elements in their own right or mounted in appropriate groups on my ever increasing collection of sabot bases. The units can be anything from Battalions to Corps, depending what I'm doing, but I'm a big battle sort of guy so they will more commonly be on the bigger end of things. 

It is going to take me quite a while do the whole lot, and I'll re-paint some of them as I go along, so I'll post updates as they occur. I nice Autumn/Winter project.