cheers
Dave
Showing posts with label Old School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Old School. Show all posts
Monday, 21 January 2013
Marshal Marmont & staff
A recently completed bit of "Classic Shinyness". These lads are by Elite miniatures , a mix of the ordinary and Collectors ranges. The figure used for the Marshal had some conversion work done to him adding a sash, order badge on chest from green stuff, twisted wire lanyards , and flattened wire into the hand to create a better finish the reins. Horses were done with a mix or wiping and proper colour blending. The base blue was the ever dependable Andrea Blue. A real treat to top it off with Gloss , really makes the colour shine - so unfashionable...but i love it. Proper toys!
cheers
Dave
cheers
Dave
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Some "Old School Shinyness"
What with all this matt finish of late - it was time for some real old school shine - so get you sunglasses on. Here we have the 5th Line - Northumberland Regiment. Mainly Connoissur with an odd Bicorne. A nice coat of gloss over those scarlet tunics - all the better for seeing off Johnny Frenchman!
Only real challenge with these lads was the facing colour variously described as Yellowish Brown , through to Gosling Green - dunno about you but I have never seen a green gosling (maybe it is American superhero?) . So something I have never seen before is more or less yellowish green , than some else I have never seen... hmm. I took a cue from the excellent as ever GMB flag. I created a mix of Vallejo Middlestone and Golden Olive - seemed to do the trick. So that is the painting table completely empty. Ready for new shinyness & projects - Huzzah!
Only real challenge with these lads was the facing colour variously described as Yellowish Brown , through to Gosling Green - dunno about you but I have never seen a green gosling (maybe it is American superhero?) . So something I have never seen before is more or less yellowish green , than some else I have never seen... hmm. I took a cue from the excellent as ever GMB flag. I created a mix of Vallejo Middlestone and Golden Olive - seemed to do the trick. So that is the painting table completely empty. Ready for new shinyness & projects - Huzzah!
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Salute 2012
So it is off to Salute 2012 this weekend . Two wargames shows in the same year, blimey, the bug is obviously well and truly back. I am probably in danger of catching The Painting Disease or Shinybloodyitis!. I do recognise those symptoms - wonder if you can get a "fit note" for it, figures on prescription would really help - don't you think?
But as the Vogon says "Resistance is useless," - Time to embrace some shinyness.
The last time I went to Salute it was still in Kensington & Chelsea town hall , and it was packed out thoroughly unpleasant.So I am looking forward to seeing the new venue. As it is good distance from God's Own County I am making a weekend of it and going to be a tourist on Friday too. I go to London almost weekly with the day job , but never really get chance to see anything of interest to me. So I will see what time me and friend Steve (aka GINGA - guess why?) land and see where we end up.
So having downloaded the helpful plan and list of traders what are to be the targets of the shinyness logistics corps?
Mutineer Miniatures - Thanks to Michael and his 28mmvictorianwarfare blog will be top of the list for Gurkha's and Naval Brigade units. - they should have you on commission!
Empress Miniatures. For the new Zulu releases - A "film" and historic versions
The second pack contains historical depictions of Chaplain George Smith, Corporal Friederich Schiess of the Natal Native Contingent, Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton, Surgeon Reynolds and Private Hitch.
Testudo to pick up some more mounted commanders and foot for the upcoming Teutonic mini project.
Dave Thomas - to pick up some more bits for the El Teb project -
Followed by a good old mooch about , and meeting up with some old friends , and hopefully some new ones from the blogosphere (it looks like 1-2 in the seating area at the end - but if anyone wants a more definite arrangement use the "contact me" link in the sidebar and we can sort something out) . Perhaps I may even partake of a sherbert or two - or 3..
Well I can't just ramble and then not show you something new , from the "Old School" . 28mm French Dragoon officer - consulting his map.
Pretty sure he is a Connoisseur casting. Some work done to add wire reins, other than that a standard oil horse done with a mix of Raw Umber and Lamp Black over a Humbrol 62 leather undercoat. Greens as per the previous lot of Frenchies. Finished in lovely shiny gloss - like all proper toy soldiers.
If you are at Salute have a great weekend - if you not , have an equally good one too!
cheers
But as the Vogon says "Resistance is useless," - Time to embrace some shinyness.
So having downloaded the helpful plan and list of traders what are to be the targets of the shinyness logistics corps?
Mutineer Miniatures - Thanks to Michael and his 28mmvictorianwarfare blog will be top of the list for Gurkha's and Naval Brigade units. - they should have you on commission!
Empress Miniatures. For the new Zulu releases - A "film" and historic versions
The second pack contains historical depictions of Chaplain George Smith, Corporal Friederich Schiess of the Natal Native Contingent, Acting Assistant Commissary James Langley Dalton, Surgeon Reynolds and Private Hitch.
Testudo to pick up some more mounted commanders and foot for the upcoming Teutonic mini project.
Dave Thomas - to pick up some more bits for the El Teb project -
Followed by a good old mooch about , and meeting up with some old friends , and hopefully some new ones from the blogosphere (it looks like 1-2 in the seating area at the end - but if anyone wants a more definite arrangement use the "contact me" link in the sidebar and we can sort something out) . Perhaps I may even partake of a sherbert or two - or 3..
Well I can't just ramble and then not show you something new , from the "Old School" . 28mm French Dragoon officer - consulting his map.
Pretty sure he is a Connoisseur casting. Some work done to add wire reins, other than that a standard oil horse done with a mix of Raw Umber and Lamp Black over a Humbrol 62 leather undercoat. Greens as per the previous lot of Frenchies. Finished in lovely shiny gloss - like all proper toy soldiers.
If you are at Salute have a great weekend - if you not , have an equally good one too!
cheers
Friday, 1 April 2011
The white mob.
I have been working on a contingent of Austrian Grenadiers for a friend and these have been completed apart from a couple of flags that will need adding.
These guys are again "Elite miniatures" and they were all of the German - Austrian variety not Hungarian. I did some basic conversion work with the turning of heads (gently as I find with more modern metals there is less give in it and can be prone to snapping easy fixed if they do with drilling and pinning , but more work) I also repositioned some of the officers arms to give some more variety. I replaced all the officers sabres from the thicker cast versions with curved and flattened pins. I use an ordinary pin for this , not dressmakers as they are too hard and don't bend so easily nor flatten out so well. I use a Vee block when bending & flattening . Feed the pin over edge of the Vee and gently tamp it with a hammer to form the curve of a sabre. It is then flattened out on either side of the curve and cut to size. The figure then has a small hole drilled in the sword handle and the cut down pin can either be superglued or soldered in. If I superglue it in I also try to nip the metal around the end of the pin using a pair of snipe nose pliers.
Once ready for painting , they were given an undercoat of light grey - Humbrol 64. This provides a ready made shade area in the deeper parts of the figure - the belts etc. It means I only have to put the white paint where it is required. I would not want to use a wash over white to achieve this as it would mean re-highlighting the white again.
These figures have really good faces which come up really well. More about face painting in April. The flags are from "GMB", the finials and chords are "Front Rank" the flagstaffs are made from Piano wire.To give some additional variety I have also replaced a couple of the mounted officers with some spare Austrian General type figures in bicornes - again to give a bit of individual flair.
These guys are again "Elite miniatures" and they were all of the German - Austrian variety not Hungarian. I did some basic conversion work with the turning of heads (gently as I find with more modern metals there is less give in it and can be prone to snapping easy fixed if they do with drilling and pinning , but more work) I also repositioned some of the officers arms to give some more variety. I replaced all the officers sabres from the thicker cast versions with curved and flattened pins. I use an ordinary pin for this , not dressmakers as they are too hard and don't bend so easily nor flatten out so well. I use a Vee block when bending & flattening . Feed the pin over edge of the Vee and gently tamp it with a hammer to form the curve of a sabre. It is then flattened out on either side of the curve and cut to size. The figure then has a small hole drilled in the sword handle and the cut down pin can either be superglued or soldered in. If I superglue it in I also try to nip the metal around the end of the pin using a pair of snipe nose pliers.
Once ready for painting , they were given an undercoat of light grey - Humbrol 64. This provides a ready made shade area in the deeper parts of the figure - the belts etc. It means I only have to put the white paint where it is required. I would not want to use a wash over white to achieve this as it would mean re-highlighting the white again.
These figures have really good faces which come up really well. More about face painting in April. The flags are from "GMB", the finials and chords are "Front Rank" the flagstaffs are made from Piano wire.To give some additional variety I have also replaced a couple of the mounted officers with some spare Austrian General type figures in bicornes - again to give a bit of individual flair.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Out with the soldering iron and the oil paints.
Well having located a bunch of old "Connoisseur" Russian Uhlan castings in the depth of the cupboard. I thought I would bring them to life.I always really liked the original Peter Gilder light horses as they have a a good sense of movement, and they paint up nicely too.
Having consulted my reference material I settled on Lithuanian Uhlans purely for the aesthetic reason of the white czapka. I always think it is important that units look good together rather than just individually and try and make them tell a story. As these are lancers I wanted to give a a reasonable impression of movement with pennants flying. The lances were created from "Piano/Music Wire" (also known as spring steel wire .I used 1/32" or 0.813mm which is 20 AWG available from Mugi in Barnsley in 36" strips for 59p)
This is very hard stuff and will easily ruin your cutters , so it was cut to lengths using a mini drill with a carborundum disc. These lances were then soldered into the hand positions of the figures to give the front squadron with lances down , 2nd dropping them down and 3 and 4 upright at a range of different angles. In addition as Peter Gilder never seemed to get round to niceties of things like standard bearers and trumpeters these had to be created too. A trumpet was fashioned from brass wire and the cone formed from solder and it was added to officer figure to replace a sword.
Unit flag and pennants were ordered from Grahame Black at GMB. Makes life so much easier than back a few years when these had to be fashioned by hand too.
Painting commenced. 4 White horses created and 28 others in differing brown shades. To paint an oil horse you start out painting it yellow... yes YELLOW. I used Humbrol 74 to undercoat, allow at least a couple of days to fully dry. Then paint in the horse furniture with black. Once dried it is out with the oils "Burnt Umber" and a big brush and work it all over. After doing that to all of them, take a piece of sponge and some tissue wipe off all the excess paint and it leaves a thin covering over the horse and naturally more in the creases etc. Leave this to dry somewhere warm , and forget about them for a least a week. Once dried , add socks , blazes , mane and tail highlights and any metallic horse furniture.
Meanwhile waiting for the oil to dry it was on with riders. An undercoat of Humbrol 67 worked in by brush, this allows all the crevices to have a dark colour in them but not black which shows up far too glaringly under a gloss varnish.These were pretty simple mainly being dark blue and crimson. I did add extra detail on the czapka for effect.
Some teased out sisal string was added to the basing to give a grass effect. Overall as the first cavalry unit completed for many a year I was very happy with them. These took just over two weeks from start to finish , about 30 hours altogether.
Having consulted my reference material I settled on Lithuanian Uhlans purely for the aesthetic reason of the white czapka. I always think it is important that units look good together rather than just individually and try and make them tell a story. As these are lancers I wanted to give a a reasonable impression of movement with pennants flying. The lances were created from "Piano/Music Wire" (also known as spring steel wire .I used 1/32" or 0.813mm which is 20 AWG available from Mugi in Barnsley in 36" strips for 59p)
This is very hard stuff and will easily ruin your cutters , so it was cut to lengths using a mini drill with a carborundum disc. These lances were then soldered into the hand positions of the figures to give the front squadron with lances down , 2nd dropping them down and 3 and 4 upright at a range of different angles. In addition as Peter Gilder never seemed to get round to niceties of things like standard bearers and trumpeters these had to be created too. A trumpet was fashioned from brass wire and the cone formed from solder and it was added to officer figure to replace a sword.
Unit flag and pennants were ordered from Grahame Black at GMB. Makes life so much easier than back a few years when these had to be fashioned by hand too.
Painting commenced. 4 White horses created and 28 others in differing brown shades. To paint an oil horse you start out painting it yellow... yes YELLOW. I used Humbrol 74 to undercoat, allow at least a couple of days to fully dry. Then paint in the horse furniture with black. Once dried it is out with the oils "Burnt Umber" and a big brush and work it all over. After doing that to all of them, take a piece of sponge and some tissue wipe off all the excess paint and it leaves a thin covering over the horse and naturally more in the creases etc. Leave this to dry somewhere warm , and forget about them for a least a week. Once dried , add socks , blazes , mane and tail highlights and any metallic horse furniture.
Meanwhile waiting for the oil to dry it was on with riders. An undercoat of Humbrol 67 worked in by brush, this allows all the crevices to have a dark colour in them but not black which shows up far too glaringly under a gloss varnish.These were pretty simple mainly being dark blue and crimson. I did add extra detail on the czapka for effect.
Some teased out sisal string was added to the basing to give a grass effect. Overall as the first cavalry unit completed for many a year I was very happy with them. These took just over two weeks from start to finish , about 30 hours altogether.
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