95th Rifles

As well as the recent diorama set of these I have completed 12 of these individual pesky grasshoppers .  Riflemen based for skirmish games.
 
These are again Front Rank miniatures. Good clean high quality castings that took no real work to clean up. A nice variety of poses and headgear too. The green used is the Andrea Color shade 1 and shade 5 to get the main colour, with highlight and shadow work being just other colours from the set.

Nice to do some Napoleonics - few more coming up too

French Infantry Campaign style

Sometimes it seems the old workhorses don't get that much of a look in so here are some plain old PBI lads in greatcoat. You would think these are easier to do then a full uniform, but no there is just as much shading and highlighting required overall. I found these part done when I uncovered the caisson team so seemed like an idea to finish them off. The figures are Front Rank - nice again excellent quality of casting  They do a mix of head dress which adds a bit of variety , and I had turned some heads slightly to break up the completely uniform look.

 Something a little different up next "The Red Air Force"- to add to Gerry's madness over at The Situation Room - More 10mm soldiers than you can count on a massive playing area.  He's also currently working on building up a Napoleonic force and has taken delivery of 32,000!!! painted figures.

- then its back to some guys in Red...

Prep work also continues on items for the The 3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge run by Curt with talented painters from around the world sharing their work, with a little bit of healthy competition to spur each other on. Looking forward to it - and few good entries planned already. Well done Curt on setting it up again with all the work it entails. Well all those long dark night in Canada you need something to keep you busy right?

French Caisson team

This is other of those long ago started projects which i wanted to finish off this week. This is a nice Front Rank set of the Gribeauval artillery caisson and horse team. All were excellent casts - the horses in particular i thought were actually the best Front Rank ones I have dealt with. These have been completed with full oil painting - not just a rub, but actually using the medium fully with other mixed colours to provide shade and highlight. One of the reasons it had been parked so long was I had left it alone to dry and then got distracted by cowboys.

 Nice to see it finally completed. I think the winter period will see a lot more Napoleonic it's drawing me back - if there is one era you can't beat for colourful lads its this!

A couple of specials

Cleared the painting table ready for new projects. A rare (for me) Perry Napoleonic commander Colbert commander of the Dutch Lancers 1815. I had to tweak the figure, it had a lot of flash and cast lines,also  doing some proper cords and rackets for the Czapka, as the moulded ones are stuck down his neck - as if given his pose. Also replaced the sword with something somewhat less chunky - a curved  flattened steel pin, The casualty figure is a Front Rank one , with separate musket  again FR. I also had a play with the Silfur tufts adding a little PVA to the end of some and dusting in fine sand, and colouring for flower or weeds.

 Also completed the casualty eagle bearer for the Mamalukes.

 So that is the painting table completely empty for now, work on preparing a big batch of  the Mahdist forces commences next week, as well as a pile of horses for up upcoming cavalry units.

Polish & Bavarian Commanders

I have had very little painting time this week as I have been travelling in the day job, and called in at Marks WHC on Sat/Sun  to check out the new Arnhem game set up. I was cajoled into calling in the Allied air power - rolling Double 6 - 4 times out 5 Yes the dice were examined and proceeded to roll 2's for other people.  So  anyway I decided to complete a few more command stands last night that had previously been undercoated. (Usual Humbrol Tank Grey 67)

Two Polish divisional generals. Both by "Front Rank" again very nice castings. I used "Front Rank" horses  this time as I felt the riders pose went well with their walking horses , so I chose one with head up and one head down. These has been completed in the last big horse batch. As per previous Poles I used Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue , and lightening from there with Flat blue mix. These were finished in Matt varnish for their new home. Again this did mean a slight refresh of the metallic once that had dried.

The Bavarian General is again "Front Rank". This time he is a bit more animated. Looking through the completed horse batch there was an old "Connoisseur" heavy horse that I thought he looked really good on, so the two were paired. The basic block colour was Vallejo Flat Blue which was highlighted up gradually and finished with top highlights of Andrea Blue (70841). After the Matt varnish I again refreshed top highlights and metallic.

As for this week I have had a project bumped up the painting table with the arrival of castings from "Bicorne" of  a 20+ piece set for a French Guard Band. They look interesting and fun to do - a nice wounded pair singing along included. Plus more work on the castings for the Vistula Legion Lancers that are in progress.

General Dabrowski & ADC

I have been working on preparing castings mainly this week, but I have been able to complete another Polish command stand to give Prince Poniatowski someone to command. General Dabrowski and an ADC figure both by "Front Rank" - really good crisp castings a pleasure to paint. Dabrowski's horse is an old favourite light horse by "Connoisseur" and the ADC's is an "Elite"one.  I wanted the stand to tell a picture of the ADC having just galloped in and pulled his horse up and the look of an animated conversation. I think it has been achieved with the choice of figures and horses and how they are placed on the base. The horses were completed in the last big batch so they were all ready waiting for a project to come along. I did however have to add a saddlecloth and saddle made from Milliput to the Elite horse (took about 5 mins to do) as the ADC casting comes without one and would normally require a S1 type Front rank horse.

The blue used for main colours is a Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue (70899) which is highlighted with with a mix of the DPB and Flat Blue. The Polish crimson is created with Humbrol 73 (wine) as a base then highlighted with a 73 and Matt white (34) mix.

Silver used is Vallejo Model air silver as it it flows easily and works well on fine detailing. This was highlighted a little with a sligh mix of white in to too. Faces and flesh tones as per my usual 4 colour method.

More castings work this week as busy preparing a Vistula Legion lancer regiment and a Dutch Belgian Hussar regiment.

Some British

This last week I have been working on horses and completed 32 of them various browns and a few whites. The warm weather has helped to speed the oil drying time.I was even able to varnish them as well. I usually have a few command figures on the paint board at any time as they can be easily dipped in and out of and one of these has been completed as well. A British command stand with a mounted infantry officer and a mounted highland Black Watch officer.(who has a suitably stern look on his face!)

The riders are both "Front Rank"  as is the far officers horse. The highlanders horse is an Elite miniatures. I was in Hereford recently on my travels and I came across a really great model & railway shop The Hereford Model Centre (they are online too). The kind of place you rarely find these days a real Alladins cave and.with friendly knowledgable staff.  I picked up a range of supplies including the "grass" used on this base . Made by  Noch and marketed by Gaugemaster - Code 192 Rough Grass Beige. It comes in a matting form about 9 inches by 7" and is about 1/3 inch thick (it was not the cheapest item  - it was about £7 for the pack but it will last a good while) . It can be cut or just torn to shape. I think it gives a really good look for dried out grass/scrubland. It was attached to the plywood base using white PVA prior to adding the sand and stones mix. I was very happy with the finish.

Prince Poniatowski & ADC

After a few weeks of completing larger units it was time to do something from the "for my enjoyment" collection of metal. I bought some Front Rank command figures earlier in the year and really liked the look of these two and had some good reference library pictures to work from. I decided to stick with Front Rank horses. (I don't mind the light horses standing or walking - not so keen on the faster moving lighter ones or any heavier ones though - it's a personal taste thing). I looked through the horses completed earlier , but found i was going to need one of their S1 type with cast on saddle cloth for the ADC which only came with part sheepskin saddle . I did not have one of those already completed so decided just to add a saddle cloth to a completed one from a small amount of thinly rolled out Milliput (a two part putty that is easily worked into shape). This was shaped with some sculpting tools and a scalpel blade. Took about 5 minutes to do.

The rest was a simple paint job. Undercoated the figures in Humbrol 67 (Tank Grey).

Poniatowski - Has a large fur cloak on , this was blocked in Vallejo flat brown and then drybrushed lighter shades by mixing with Khaki and white until happy with the effect. His tunic was blocked Dark Prussian blue, then highlighted with a Medium blue/Flat blue mix.  The polish crimson trousers were blocked Humbrol 73 to start , then had a little white 34 added and used to highlight knee tops and creases etc. Czapka top was to be white with a cross on and then additional line detail added - this was blocked light grey first. Face as per usual. Various chords etc were added using a Vallejo Model Air Silver - this is thinner and i find it easier to use for small fine detail - as this usually involves using it in dots or dabs to suggest or pick out detail rather than just paint it all. His horse was a standing one which i had bent the head slightly before painting.

ADC-  the main block colour was Humbrol 73 (Wine) which was then over painted to gradually highlight with Vallejo Red, Flat Red, Scarlet. . Shako was blocked Vallejo Medium Blue, and highlighted with Flat blue , and hint of white then added to that as well.

They were finished in proper varnish - Gloss!

It is always important to keep the creative enjoyment going , and doing these helped.



I also completed a small screen of Connoisseur Brunswick skirmishers to add to the two battalions completed a little earlier. These were a very simple grey paint job , just a case of highlighting up after undercoating (Humbrol 67) with a Vallejo Neutral Gray and a bit of light grey really then piping facing colours and muskets. Faces as usual. I added some bit of beech branch to bases to give a more interesting effect (I now remember why i did not cut down the beech hedge.. good for nicking bits for basing!). They were based in pairs, one firing one moving,

These took about 30 minutes to complete.

Guardsman

Last weeks project was a unit of British Guards - 3rd Foot 48 figures in all.. These are "Front Rank" figures apart from the horse which is an "Elite miniatures".Castings are stock poses from the manufacturer apart from the wounded sergeant where I took a soldering iron to his early pattern shako to form hair and a head bandage. I used a variety of castings some with covered shako some without to give extra variation. In addition the sergeants pike staffs were removed from the casting and replaced with higher strength piano wire with head being replaced onto it by drilling and soldering.

I really enjoyed doing these using a full range of techniques using washes and dry brushes etc. The red a Vallejo flat red, which was then washed with a Citadel Devlan Mud and once dried it was highlighted over elbows, muscle top , cloth fold areas again with the flat red or Vallejo Scarlet for the NCO's and Officers.

There are a number of wounded and dead on the stands , each different as the manner of falling can be posed by simple bending . These were then supported by drilling through the plywood base and pinning into the figure  prior to basing to give extra strength.

Flags are from GMB and excellent as usual. Glued together using white PVA and shaped before drying.

These were varnished using humbrol Matt from the tin on the heads and elbows , backpack's etc to give a thicker covering, and once dried given a spray matt varnish to tone it all down. At this point bright silvers,shiny brass & rich gold was added as required to brighten things up. I even was able, to use my old metallic "ROSE" paint powders in a Vallejo thinner and it worked fine.

The officers horse was completed as part of the last batch of horses , using oils.

Defending the orchard wall at Hougomont at the WHC photo courtesy of Mark Freeth at the WHC

And seeing off some Frenchie types further along the field

More pictures from Mark Freeth WHC website

It's not rocket science.

But it is a "Rocket Troop".

I have had it my head to do one of these for a while. The figures are RHA from "Front Rank". I had two with rammer which had it cut away and had my own home made rockets added. They are made from piano wire, , some milliput rolled into a small sausage and fixed to the end. A couple of thin bits of paper cut and stuck to wrap them on and finally a small ball bearing added for the ball.

The rocket firing apparatus is made from brass wire and sheet, soldered together. It may not be 100% accurate to the originals (thats is another project with the heavier version launched from the wagon) , but put it on a table and people will see its a rocket troop. As far as i have read they fired a lot straight from the ground as well , so who knows that may be another one to do.

Background to the photos courtesy of Mark Freeth at the Wargames Holiday Centre (Yes that is La Haye Saint in the background)

Too many chiefs?

Well , I have a British Guards unit on the painting board for April and while I was rooting around in the pile of unpainted metal at the weekend I came across a part painted British general and decided to pair him with a horse that was finished 10 years ago. With a little bit of work this morning I was able to finish the combination. The general is from "Front Rank" The horse was an "Elite miniatures" but with some conversion work as both front feet off the ground as if about to jump. To help support the casting when used on the "battlefield"  I had inserted a pin underneath the horse & into to the base which  is then hidden within  the added grasswork (my usual teased out sisal string). So now all I need to do is paint the chap some guys to command.

Total time to complete 2 hours .. plus the 10 years from actually starting it.