As a disclaimer I would like to say that when it comes to painting I am an admitted total amateur. I love painted models, and painting for me is a nice way to zone out. I realize that I won't be winning any awards for my stuff but that's fine by me! 
I finally took the plunge! After years of playing the banner wargames I have finally started working on my first historical game. The granddaddy of them all, Napoleonics. Follow my progress here in my P & M blog, or if you'd like, on my general wargaming blog
here.
I've always been fascinated by the Napoleonic period. It was the last period where massed formations could be deemed practical (though not the last period where they were used!), it was an age of empires, and it was a time of radical change in Europe and in the world in general.
One of the biggest benefits for me, as a
FoW and
WH40K plater, of painting Napoleonics was the fact that I got to move into painting bright, bold colors. The move away from the earth tones of my U.S. Paras and mostly black of Sable Swords space marines offers a welcome break.
To start things off I decided that it would be proper to paint my line infantry. These guys are the most numerous troops on the Napoleonic battlefield and I feel it'll be good to put a solid dent in them before I move onto the more glorious toys
All models used in this blog are from Baccus 6mm. I want to give them a special nod, they're a fabulous company to deal with and the owner, Peter, handled all of my email correspondence and special order requests beautifully.
Painting the I and II battalions of the 76th regiment of Foot...
The first thing that hits me about these guys is just how tiny they are compared to the 15mms and 28mms I'm used to painting. I've been told that when you're looking to paint 6mm in any large number you should focus on the idea that these guys are used to provide a "mass effect" on the battlefield and not to showcase off the individual soldier. Keep that in mind as you read on through...
Bare nekkid models, fresh from the plastic. Teacher tacked to the bottlecaps that a friend has been saving up for me.
Primed black. I reason that black would help to hide any details I missed instead of drawing the eye like white would
Brown on the bases done. The first phase where a brush hits the models. Better to do the bases now then risk ruining a finished paintjob...
I've helped to cover up their shame by giving everyone some grey pants. I realize now that I should have used a darker grey. Lesson learned
Red jackets, giving the lobsterbacks their traditional look.
As I am attempting to speed paint these guys I decided that it would be ok to paint their backpacks red and then come back over it with black.
Brown muskets.
At this step I've painted the hands and faces, the backpacks were returned to their original black, the bayonets were painted silver, and I've painted the gold on each soldier's "shako plate" (I don't know the proper name for this piece of ornamentation)
All done except the basing. In this picture I've added the shako plumes and the white cross strap. I'm still adjusting to painting in such a small scale but all in all I'm quite proud of myself, especially with the short amount of time it took to paint these guys.
A different angle on the battalion
The finished product from this session.
scratch-build projects here: 
