Half Life

I've finally finished the first half battalion of the Garrison Leib Grenadiers.

I couldn't work out why it was taking me so long to paint these, but when I thought about it for a bit the fact that it takes nine separate steps just to paint their wee cuffs and collars probably has something to do with it.

Thankfully, I was able to rescue the flags by coaxing just a little more blue out of my tin of Humbrol 89: Middle Blue by mixing the paint properly. They're still not all that vibrant, but definitely a bit bluer.

The last shot illustrates the difference in height between Garrison RN 8s, Hinton Hunt RN 17s and Lamming FI/1s (Lamming didn't do any Russians, unfortunately). The HH is definitely on the short side compared to the other two, but it's nothing that can't be cured by a bit of stand thickness variation.

It'll clearly take me a while to get the second half of this battalion finished, but I've a new general to show off in the meantime who'll probably be making an appearance next week.

Toodle pip,

WM

Flags for the Lads

My Russian Leib Grenadiers have been going a bit slowly lately, not least because I decided that they really ought to have two flags rather than just the one. Apart from anything else, this meant I had to carve out another standard bearer despite the fact that he was already partially painted.

The first battalion of the Leib Grenadiers were entitled to carry a "white flag", being a white cross on a field of pale blue, and a "coloured flag", where the colour scheme was reversed. These flags were issued in 1797 and not replaced for another thirty years, apparently.

My main issue with my version of these flags is that the new tin of Humbrol 89: Middle Blue I had to break into produced a blue which was not really all that blue when it came down to it. This concerns me a bit.

I'm all of a dither about this. I've been loyally painting almost everything in Humbrols since I started this project, but the decline in quality in some of the old standards is starting to get really noticeable. The metallics are particularly awful. When I finally run out of the old stock I've managed to scrounge off a few mates I may be forced to take up acrylics. I'm really not happy about this.

Yours, somewhat dejectedly

WM

Black Banner

Painting time was a bit more plentiful this week, thanks to a cold, so I made a start on Rob's Westphalians and even managed to paint up a flag for them.

It's another one of those tricky Prussian cross jobs. Something black and menacing seemed to be called for, I thought. Just the ticket for storming Plancenoit.

I made a slightly better job of it this time, I reckon, by making a paper template. This was used to create an impression on my fizzy can metal by placing the template onto the flag and pressing onto it with a ballpoint. It sort of worked.....

Auf wiedersehen,

WM

Harps and Lions

I've been as sick as a dog over the last few days, so with nothing to do between coughs and splutters I sat down to finish something for my friend, Rob G. I've been heavily in debt to him for ages.

Rob has a magnificent collection of vintage Hinchliffe English Civil War figures, which also happen to have been what my first wargames army was based on, so I was delighted when he asked me for a flag to go with them.

It is the Royal Standard of Charles I. Back in the day I longed for a flag like this from the moment I saw the version being carried by the King's Lifeguard of Horse in the classic 1979 Asquith-Gilder Osprey Wargames volume, The Campaign of Naseby 1645.

Rob supplied the pike, which is a little thicker than the wire I normally use. The flag dimensions are 3cm x 7.5 cm for each side of the fly, plus 4mm added for the hoist. It's made of my usual fizzy-can metal, and the colours used were all Humbrols. The yellow parts were something new for me - Humbrol 99: Lemon Yellow, which has much better adhesion than the Humbrol 24: Trainer Yellow I've been painting with lately. It's also a lot brighter.

This is my second attempt at this flag. The first attempt turned to custard because I tried to hurry it. For the second attempt everything was tried out first on a piece of paper.

Conversions to follow in the next post. I would have done some of these today, but we had a city-wide power cut. Every now and then NZ likes to remind us that we're out on the frontier out here. The next stop is Mars.


Yours,
WM

Pretty in Pink

The Command Group for my Prussian 18th Infantry Regiment is finally complete. I'd have done more, but after returning from my travels (to Australia, this time) I was kidnapped by a deckchair on a sunny porch that refused to release me. I put my captivity to good use by reading up a bit more on the Prussian army.

The command figures are:

Hinton Hunt (David Clayton) PN 20: Prussian Landwehr Officer, marching;
Hinton Hunt PN 5: Prussian Infantry of the Line 1810-15, Private advancing (Separate Musket); and
Der Kriegspielers Napoleoniques # 120: Prussian Infantry 1813-15 Command, Drummer.

They were all donated by Don in the US a little over two years ago (sorry, Don).

The officer has had his rather chunky Clayton base cut down and reshaped a bit to reduce his height and help him fit in a little better with his men (the original version can be seen here). The drummer, believe it or not, is the first proper Prussian line infantry drummer I've painted.

The pink colour on the facings is my own creation as the pot of Humbrol pink I had in hand was an absolutely ghastly colour that was also so watery that it was almost impossible to paint with.

Spring in Wellington tends to be a rather wet and miserable season, so the chances are that next weekend I'll be able to get stuck into the rest of the battalion without too many other temptations.

WM

Putting out the Bunting

Ian S, more famously known as Stryker and the primary inspiration for my own gloriously deranged project, has supplied me with all manner of vintage goodies over the years. Pictured below is my latest feeble attempt to reciprocate.

Ian wanted a flag and a drummer for his Russian grenadier battalion (which was the very first to be presented on his famous blog), and the same for the new battalion of French Young Guard Voltigeurs that he announced he was planning to do a month or two ago.

Hinton Bunting

They are my usual fizzy-can flags, which I've started to get a little better at since I discovered how to inscribe designs onto them. If the inscription is done too deeply it will cause the metal to split when it is bent, so it requires a very light touch which is only just visible beneath the undercoat. Ian also asked me to adapt two officer figures to carry them. This was very simple to do for the Russian, but more complex for the Frenchman as I had to remove, remodel and then re-attach his left forearm.

The drummers were a separate challenge. Both started out as charging musketeers and although removing the muskets was simple enough, I had a few dramas before I was happy with them. In the Frenchman's case, his left hand came off and needed to be reattached.

In the Russian case his right arm needed to be almost completely replaced. This was because he had an exceptionally weedy right forearm which disintegrated as soon as I tried to bend it! I've found that Scruby parts are rather good for these sorts of repairs as the metal is soft and has a low melting point. The drums are from Musket Miniatures, which were very generously donated by Monsieur Foy.

Just to prove that I haven't been totally neglecting my own troops, pictured below is the new flag for my Prussian reservists. I'd been dreading this one a bit due to the requirement for white lettering, but was determined to give it a go nonetheless. I think it went about as well as I expected!

I haven't quite decided which regiment I'm painting yet, but as many of the reserve battalions were uniformed identically there's a bit of scope for identity flexibility.

The reservists will start to appear in the next post, I promise, although this may be delayed a little as I'll be travelling overseas again soon. It's a busy life.

WM

Dubious Standards

The completion of the Field Battalion Bremen has brought my coalition army up to parity with the Franco-Bavarians. Next off the blocks, I've decided, should be another Allied battalion. I may even follow this up with more Allied units in order to give my honourable opponent, JC, a decisive advantage in our next encounter.

The only thing I've got to show at the moment is the flag, which is another of my coke can efforts. It's rather speculative, but not entirely so.

Can anybody guess who might have carried it?

All will be revealed in the next post....

WM