Some Guards for King Louis ~ Gardes-Françaises

I thought I was finished painting French for my War of Spanish Succession but, as I was getting some Allied battalions ready for painting I decided to complete a half finished guards battalion that I started at the start of 2023. It was actually painting these figures that stopped me painting WSS in the first place.

The reason I stopped painting earlier in 2023 is that these figures are just too detailed for 10mm. They're Van Dyck Figurines and whilst they look outstanding and have beautiful detail I find them really hard to paint. You'll often hear people say about the smaller scales: "I could never paint those they're too small!" the usual reply goes along the lines of: "But you don't paint them in detail. It's all about the mass effect." 

Unfortunately this doesn't hold true for Van Dyck Figures. They have fantastic detail for 10mm. The level of detail would be great even if they were 15mm and because of this they almost demand detailed painting. This for me is a deal breaker. My recent love of 10mm is that they are easy to paint and I can pump out big battalions and squadrons at a heft pace... But not with these figures.

The first battalion was half done and still took me about 4 days to finish whereas I've been doing 36 figure battalions in about 3 days from scratch. That's two per week (or three squadrons of horse in the same time). The second battalion took me about a week of some pretty solid painting sessions. That's what I'd spend of a 28mm battalion. That's not good!

Also, these figures don't fit with the Pedraken figures very well and that, plus the high detail is why I decided to do them a Gardes-Françaises. The uniforms aren't quite right so I just gave them a perfunctory "paint conversion," to give them a representation of the proper uniform. As it is; they're 10mm and using the 3' Rule they pass muster well enough. Just don't look too close and expect perfection.

Anyway, this was a labour of love and now they're part of my army. They do look nice and I intend to add a Gardes-Suisse battalion to complete the brigade some time in the future but for now I'm going to concentrate on an English brigade: Rowe's Brigade @ Blenheim - First regiment is Ingoldsby's Foot ~ the Welch Fusiliers, who later became the 23rd Foot. They are primed and ready to go.

One thing I realised as I was taking these photo's is that I forgot to give them a brigadier. I'll have to find a figure and rectify this situation.