Saturday, December 20, 2014

3mm Saxon command stand

I've been tinkering with my 3mm Napoleonics over the last few days. Although these little guys actually paint up quite quickly, I've just been poking along. For me, a hobby is supposed to be leisurely. I already get too much "work" at work. 

I'm not the most technologically adept person in the world (are any academics?), so when it came to the subject of standards for 3mm command stands, I enlisted a bit of help. I had no big problem reducing images to a size appropriate for 1/600, but my home printer's best resolution was still quite grainy and indistinct. Luckily, at work, we have an ultra-high resolution industrial printer and Gerold in the Drafting Dept. was kind enough to give me a bit of his time. I think he was a bit bemused by the tiny flags (he's not a wargamer), but he quickly got them looking quite crisp and professional. Thank you Gerold!

So, without further ado, two companies of Saxons of the First Battalion, Kürfurst Regiment: 
The other two companies are still in the works. Alternatively, they could represent the entire regiment in larger scale games, with the addition of the second battalion's command stand. 

I clipped off the flag and pole cast as part of the standard bearer figure. It was easily replaced by a short bit of .015" galvanized steel wire. I made the pole a bit taller than it really ought to be, just as my printed standards are a bit bigger than true 1/600 scale. These little guys benefit greatly from an extra bit of eye-catching "bling" and slightly over-sized standards on extra tall poles really help with that, as well as aiding in identifying the standard at arm's length. 

As with the supernumeraries at the back of each company, my command stand figures aren't intended to be historically correct in either number or placement. They're purely for decoration, given that the standard itself is the actual point of the stand. 

These white uniformed, bicorne wearing infantry with red facings can easily represent Saxons, Spaniards, Dutch, French in the short-lived 1806 uniform, and possibly early Italians, so separate command stands facilitate this interchangeability. 

More from me next time!

1 comment:

  1. Very nice - I agree that the oversize standards help a lot.

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