This guide provides a method of painting your British Epic Battles miniatures quickly and easily, to get them into action on the tabletop in good order! These simple techniques will allow you to get your forces painted in minimal time and to a decent tabletop standard.
We find it is quickest to paint all the models in a unit in one go, applying each stage to them all before moving on to the next stage in a technique called ‘batch painting’.
The core colours found in this guide have been conveniently collected in the British Napoleonic Paint set. This contains eight Vallejo paint colours perfect to set you on the path to painting up British Infantry figures (in any scale) ranging from 1789-185.
These paints can also be purchased separately. Where we have used any paints not found in this set, we have linked them for ease.
Step 1: Block Colours
After carefully removing the strips of infantry from their frame, apply an undercoat with Army Painter White Spray Primer. Then paint all the jackets with (957) Flat Red. Be as neat as you can but don’t worry about getting red onto other parts as they will be painted over in later stages.
Then paint all the trousers with (836) London Grey. Be careful not to get any grey onto the red jacket area. While you are already using the paint, paint the roll on top of the backpack grey too. After applying these two big blocks of colour, it’s just a matter of adding details.
Step 2: Details
From this point on more care must be taken not to let paint stray into unintended areas. Paint the whole musket Wood Brown followed by picking out the barrel, firing mechanism and bayonet in (865) Oily Steel. After that, paint the hands and face Caucasian Skin.
Paint the hat (shako), shoes, cartridge pouch and backpack with Pitch Black. Then carefully pick out the shako cords, plume, bread bag and straps in the backpack with (820) Off-White. Paint the shako front plate and the bayonet scabbard with (801) Brass.
Very carefully paint all the leather straps, buttons and lace on the jacket in (820) Off-White. After that, the facings (cuffs and collars) can be painted to match your chosen regiment (see below) in this example it is (899) Prussian Dark Blue. Finally, paint the water bottle with a mix of Royal Blue and (820) Off-White.
Step 3: Shading Wash
For this, you will need some Army Painter Dark Tone Quickshade. However, as the detail on the miniatures is so small, the wash will need to be ‘thinned’ with either water or, ideally, Army Painter Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium. Mix it roughly two parts Dark Tone to one part mixer and apply over the whole strip, taking care not to let it ‘pool’ too much in any one area, and leave to dry. Lastly, paint the integral base with Wood Brown.
Step 4: Basing
Paint the whole base Wood Brown. Once dry, the strips can be stuck to their base. Once that is dry, apply a layer of PVA glue to the top of the base and cover with Army Painter Battlefield Grass. Once dry and the excess shaken off, the unit is ready to have its flags attached.
Beyond the Basics
The preceding section is only intended to get your models painted quickly. However, there is a rich diversity in the detail of Napoleonic uniforms – much more so than can be addressed here. Thankfully, there is a wealth of information available online about the different uniforms, which is especially useful when painting your cavalry as the different units can be quite varied.
Cavalry and Commanders
With the basic colours already mentioned, you can paint the horses in variations of (820) Off-White, (836) London Grey, Pitch Black, or Wood Brown. Note that in the main all bugler horses will be white.
Artillery
Artillery crews are painted in a very similar way to the infantry, only their jackets are (899) Prussian Dark Blue with some (957) Flat Red and Submarine Yellow details. The wooden carriage can be painted a mix of (899) Prussian Dark Blue and (820) Off-White, while the barrel is painted (801) Brass and the wheel rims (865) Oily Steel.
Regimental Colours
Collecting British in Black Powder Epic Battles: Waterloo
Wellington’s British Army starter set provides a solid core of a British army serving in the Hundred Days campaign – 10 units of line infantry, 3 units of 95th Rifles, units of each type of heavy cavalry (Heavy Dragoons, Scots Greys and Household Cavalry) and light cavalry (Hussars and Light Dragoons), ably supported by 16 pieces of artillery and brigade commanders. Also included are an MDF building of La Belle Alliance Inn and a bespoke A5 softback rulebook with Napoleonic-specific content.
Expand your collection with additional brigades of infantry, light cavalry and heavy cavalry, or add a dash of Scotland with the Highlanders & RIflemen boxed set.
