Semphill’s Foot Finished (Off Topic #32)

You may remember that about a year ago I started work on a unit of British 28mm Crann Tara infantry for the Jacobite Rebellion. I don’t like to leave units part done but I was finding it hard to fit these in with my Hinton Hunt production schedule, so my New Year’s resolution was to crack on and get them finished.

The Crann Tara range has some lovely sculpts, the flags are by Flags of War.

I’m very pleased with how they turned out and it was great fun sticking the foliage to the bases, which is something I don’t get to do with the Hintons. I decided to use a gloss finish on the figures because I find it helps to hide the painting imperfections and anyway it’s hard for me to change old habits.

I used a bit of artistic licence with my basing for Culloden Moor as there probably wasn't any heather growing on it at the time of the battle but it just seemed right!  

This was never supposed to be a proper wargame project, so these lads were destined for the display cabinet however, as it turns out, the flags make them too big to fit on the shelves! I have really enjoyed painting them so there may be another battalion in the future and in the meantime, I do have a unit of Jacobite Highlanders to take care of when I can get up the courage to tackle the tartan.

More 1745 British (Off Topic #30)

I have spent a good part of today staring out of our kitchen window as our neighbour’s car across the lane has gradually disappeared under a layer of snow now 8 inches thick. It’s getting to the point where we probably couldn’t get our own car down the lane even if there was somewhere to go.

With a forecast of minus 7 Celcius tonight (and it always gets 2 degrees colder here than the BBC says) I took advantage of a short break in the weather to remove all my paints and the painting tray from the cabin so I could set up work next to Mrs S’s jigsaw puzzle workstation in the kitchen (“do you really have to bring all that in here?” – “YES” I answered).

I'm going for a 1:20 figure to man ratio which makes Semphill's Foot 20 figures strong. The Grenadier companies were split between the flanks so there will be 2 figures at either end of the line. This will mean they are over represented but they will look pretty.

I did manage to finish up the first ‘base’ of Semphill’s Foot a couple of days ago. I have really enjoyed painting these, but they were more time consuming than I hoped (I’m always over optimistic about how long it will take to paint something). My plan is to base the British infantry in 4’s on 40mm x 40mm bases. At the moment the figures have a layer of gloss varnish but I’m not sure yet of the final finishing or basing style.

Finding any information on the backs of the Grenadier caps has proved more difficult than the fronts so there is some artistic licence here.

I will be returning to the Hinton Hunts soon but I have a few items for my Boer War project to complete first.

Sempill’s Foot (Off Topic #29)

I have had an interest in the ‘45 Rebellion for quite a few years fostered in part by visiting the Culloden battlefield back in 2011. As a wargame project though it has remained pretty much a pipedream due largely to the lack of any figures that took my fancy.

Just after we moved to Scotland four years ago my son-in-law took me to the Falkirk wargames show (Carronade) where I first laid eyes on the superb range of 28mm Jacobite wars figures made by Crann Tara Miniatures. It was a temptation I resisted until now.

This is my test figure - a British Hatman from the 25th (Sempill's) Foot. The figure is beautifully sculpted and was a joy to paint - no need to make up any detail on this one!

This will not be a major project and for the moment I only have enough figures for one British regiment and one Jacobite regiment. I’m not sure if I will ever get as far as wargaming with these figures and they may just become a display case item, but I do always like having something else on the go as a change from painting Hintons.