I'm very pleased to welcome a refurbished battalion of French infantry - this is the Regt de Nettancourt, beautifully painted by Aly Morrison.
I have attached laser printed flags - a new experiment for me. The flags are from the excellent Not By Appointment blog - with the author's approval, and certainly laser printing shows off the quality of the artwork, but I need to do some more research on this - I have some issues with this first trial batch. The paper, at 120g/sm, is a little too heavy, and the satin paper produces flags which are probably too glossy - I'll work on this. I think this is promising, but I need to discuss the matter with Malcolm the Printer to see what works best. Since I am gluing the flags with PVA, I can remove and replace them very easily.
What a fine little battalion! Very nice. I wish it well in its coming campaigns.
ReplyDeleteThank you Archduke - you are a good fellow.
DeleteI had to laugh at the irony of you saying the satin paper flags were too glossy! I needed sun glasses to look at the shiny gloss on the figures Aly has painted for you....and I do realise it's an intentionally nostalgic look!
ReplyDeleteYes - the problem with the paper is primarily that it's too thick - the flags printed up beautifully, but won't fold and tuck in around the flagpole nicely, without splitting the coloured patch. This is just an experiment at present, so I'll get Malcolm to run them again on lighter paper. I've printed my own flags for years, but I used to use a 70g/sm photo-quality paper which was only coated on one side, which was wonderful stuff - unfortunately it is no longer made - in fact no-one admits there ever was such a thing! I wanted a nice print job to do David's flags justice, and laser-printing seemed the way to go. Malcolm the Printer printed some uniform books from pdf for me recently, and the results were excellent, but I'll have to experiment with paper thickness. All good fun.
Delete...forgot to mention - my successful printing in the past was all ink-jet stuff.
DeleteA fantastic looking regiment beautifully painted, an iconic look with David's wonderful flags.
ReplyDeleteI must ask you to stop posting those Les Higgins miniatures, you are tempting me to buy several hundred to paint, as I have loads of 20mm plastics waiting for a lick of paint its not fair for a weak willed wargamer having to suffer the pains of temptation.
Keep up the good work.
Willz.
Thanks very much Willz - I seem to have a fixation with using long-OOP castings from defunct makers, in odd-ball scales. Apart from that, I'm one of the lads!
DeleteLovely - they look like porcelain figurines, proper old toy soldier style. The flags don't look too glossy to me, they go with the figure style, but I think I would paint the edges to disguise the thickness of the paper. Getting a colour match might be a struggle though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris - I'll do the flags again with thinner paper. The ones in the photo don't sit comfortably around the flagpoles - I found a purple and a red whiteboard pen, to touch up the fold around the pole, where the fused toner had cracked slightly - that worked fine, and I could now touch up the edges, as you say, but I'd be struggling for Saintonge or Dauphin! I will, in any case, get in a cheap rainbow set of felt-tip pens, but first off I'll get the printer to run the flags again on lighter paper - I'm waiting for a phone call him as I write!
DeleteThis is just proving that French infantry can look smart too - wonderful work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian!
DeleteTous ensemble: "Malbrook s'en va-t-en guerre...."
Very pretty indeed. Congratulations to you and Aly.
ReplyDeletePerhaps pre-coating the flags with varnish before you cut them out and fold them would help with the cracking issue?
That's a good idea WM - I shall certainly think about that - we'll try some fresh flags on 80g/sm first, but if I don't care for the results, I'll spray the beggars and see how that goes. I actually have a can of spray - I wonder if it's still liquid?
DeleteThis was indeed another enjoyable little distraction Tony…
ReplyDeleteThe drummer was a lot of fun to paint as well…
All the best. Aly
Once again, Aly, my humble thanks!
DeleteTake care.
The first of your French. Wonderful. Well done Aly, well done you!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Assuming I can get myself organised, the French units can get involved in solo games right from the start as they emerge - they can be auxiliaries for my Bavarians against the Austro-British alliance! Plan is for 14 foot, 8 horse, 2 dragoons plus artillery and staff - should take most of next year, I think! I've actually got the OOB decided, and thus far have selected figures for the foot - there are a lot of horsemen fermenting in the Stripper Jar, then I can choose and box up cavalry figures too.
DeleteI think both the figures and the flag look fabulous, Tony!
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter - hope you get a good break at Xmas - comfort and relaxation!
DeleteSorry to be so slow responding - I seem to be running like crazy and still not keeping up with myself these days... Lovely troops and great to see the flags in action too. Yes, laser printing certainly helps with the quality, I think! And thinner paper is also the way to go, I'm sure. Even bog-standard 80gsm would work perfectly. Do you have my flags for all your projected French regiments? If not, let me know what you need and I'll add the ones not yet covered to my list; I do love the French flags. (Many of the units disbanded in 1715 and also in the 1740s have much more attractive flags than many of those of surviving regiments, sadly...)
ReplyDeleteMerry Xmas and a Happy New Year.
Cheers,
David.
Good morning Professor - my best wishes to you.
DeleteThe thick paper was Malcolm the Printer trying to be helpful - he's going to do the job again on 80gsm, but he's closed for the holidays until 6th Jan, so we'll resume then. All this is new research as far as I am concerned.
My "first phase" French army has 14 foot battalions planned, from (I think) 9 regiments. I was delighted not only with the quality of your flag images but also the extent to which the French flags were unchanged between 1700 and the SYW. The only unit in my plan for which I couldn't find a flag on your site was Toulouse (which is Plate 038A in the Robert Hall Louis XIV book).
I intend to use your paler version of the white colonel's colour for all units - in 20mm scale (1/76 for me) the pale one works best. The issue of cracking finish when rolled around a flagpole may be solved by the thinner paper, or maybe by a coat of (matt) spray varnish, or maybe just some artistic touch-up with felt pens. I fixed the first-shot Nettancourt cracks with a couple of whiteboard pens I found in the back of my desk drawer, but a big pack of assorted kids' felt-tips might be a good after-Xmas present for myself!
At present, my plan for the 2-battalion regiments is that the 1st battalion will have the 2 flags, and the 2nd battalion will only have the coloured one - everything is a dirty compromise in 20mm units with 18 men! Logic vs appearance - a balance trade-off!
Thanks for getting in touch.
Thanks for the explanatory reply; interesting. Yes, laser printing does sometimes have this problem of the coating cracking when subject to stress e.g. being wrapped round a flagpole! So a good idea to have the tools for touching up. :-) Thinner paper should help, though. I shall add Toulouse = later Penthièvre to my list; it's an attractive flag with those anchors. When will you need it?
ReplyDeleteI look forward to seeing more of your splendid French regiments with my flags!
Cheers,
David.
David - I am not constrained about the order I paint up the units, so if you could do a Toulouse flag that would be fantastic - any time in the next year, really.
DeleteNice idea - thanks very much!
Great, I'm glad it's so flexible - will do the flags sometime soon-ish, I hope. :-) I'll let you know when it's done and posted on my blog.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
David.
Hi, I´m printing flags for my 18 mm minis on 60 g/sm Paper, ist is stable enought and the print is not shining through. I have no bend problem and glue it with PVA glue. After attaching it, I varnish the complete mini including the flag with brush or spray
ReplyDeleteInteresting - is this laser printing?
DeleteYep, I own a (really) old Laserjet Color from HP, the only thing I have to do, choose the right paper type from the printer menue. For my 28 mm minis I use paper of 80 g/sm, this works fine for this scale
ReplyDelete