Bits and Pieces

As a change from painting ancients I looked in the “pile of potential” and pulled out a battalion of French Young Guard in campaign dress. These are from Elite Miniatures (who by the way give a unique experience in their online store 😉).

So the intention was to give a less uniform appearance so trousers were painted in multiple colours (blue, brown and white). However as you can see from the photographs I wasn’t paying attention when I based the figures up so all the white trousered individuals have been put in the rear ranks doh!

This also brought home why it takes me so long to paint Napoleonic figures when I put away the 23 paints I had used on the figures 😂.

The 02 Hundred Western Desert expansion came with a few unusual figures and I finally got around to painting them up.

These were a pilot and Rommel for the Germans to act as objectives and four LRDG figures all from Artizan Miniatures.

As a quick aside from painting ancient figures I knocked up a couple of dog handlers for 02 Hundred Hours, Now these are from the original starter box so are in European theatre late war uniforms but as is my want I use the rules for the North African theatre so they got the DAK treatment.

One thing I have to do is try and sort out where the leads got broken but that is a problem for another day.

While plugging away at my ancient romans I also managed to finish off another units of Confederate cavalry for the American Civil War.

These are Dixon miniatures (something of a marmite figure range) but I like them especially the ACW range and they do “take paint” well.

This unit has been completed in a range of grey and butternut colours to reflect the lack of “unformality” of the time in the Confederate forces.

Another find while searching for something were a number of “ducks”. Now don’t ask me where or when I bought these as I cannot remember (I painted the broo some years ago) but it must have been when I was thinking of running a Runequest game some years ago and didn’t.

However with the imminent arrival of Dragonbane (just received an email that the lovely books are due to be delivered tomorrow ?) it seemed the appropriate time to paint them (yes I play RPG’s in the wrong way ?).

So it was time for some research of the ornithological nature. The main colourations for the figures came from nature with half a dozen painted as mallards while the others were painted using the colours of the Eurasian Green Winged Teal and the European Pochard to give some variety.

In addition to the Compagnies de la marine  in the previous entry the box also contained another couple of gun crews for the French and Eastern American Natives for a couple of units.

The gun crews are in full uniform but add a bit of variety as they have blue uniform jackets with red waistcoats and trousers. They are also wearing the gaiters worn at the time.

I also noticed from the pictures that they need another coat of varnish as the original matt has dried a little gloss.

Next to be finished were the Native Americans. The flesh colour was completed with the Foundry Native American flesh tone and then multiple colours were used for the shirt and breechcloths. The “war paint” was then painted with colours that would “pop” at wargames view distance so I mainly used white.  This was intentionally done in a rougher style as I do not believe they would have taken mirrors and makeup artists with them on raids.

For those troops carrying torches I now have to work out how I can represent flames ?.

A few months ago I was searching through my “pile of pride” for something, I don’t remember what and I came across a box.

Inside were some figures for the French Indian Wars I picked up in 2013. So forgetting what I was about to paint we were off to the 18th Century and the Americas.

First on the painting bench were the Compagnies de la marine, these troops were raised in France and shipped to the Canada with the intention that they would be given land to settle after their service was completed. As well as being trained as traditional Regular Infantry their postings to the smaller garrisons also made sure that they were capable of fighting the “little wars” that abounded on the frontier so could fight as light infantry.

These figures are dressed in their “waistcoats” of dark blue and the leggings associated with the Native Americans they would have fought with against the British.

Following on from the Garde Francaises I found half a box of the old Wargames Factory War of Spanish Succession Infantry (now produced by Warlord but with less figures in the box ?).

These are basic marching figures but for rank and file in a “massed” battle game the are OK.

I decided to complete the unit as one of the Irish Regiments in French (Wild Geese) service as this would give me a brigade of 3 regiments.

I already had the standard (Reiver Castings) so the regiment would be Lee’s Regiment of Foot (this later became Bulkeley’s with the change of colonel).

The uniform was red with dark green cuffs and trousers.

To have a change of pace from the other projects I was working on I dipped into the “pile of pride” and dug out a couple of battalions for my War of Spanish Succession French. These were two units from the French Household troops the Maison de Roi.

First up was a battalion of Garde Francaises – in the field these units had the privilege of choosing their own position in the battle line and also they could claim the privilege of leading the assault on any breaches during a siege!!

The uniform was a relatively straight forward dark blue with red trimmings. The figures are from Front Rank and the only issue is that they do not carry the ribbons that were traditionally worn by the guard units on their shoulders.

The standards are from Warfare Miniatures and a tip here in make sure you have the fleur de leis the correct way up when you glue the flags on, I didn’t the first time but luckily I had a spare (doh!).

The next unit was a battalion of the Garde Suisses (Swiss) who both shared the guard duties in Paris and also fought alongside the Garde Francaises in the Maison de Roi.

This time in scarlet coats trimmed blue. The standards this time are from Maverick Models – and these particular flags have been printed on cloth material. They do need treating with PVA before being cut to size but are very nice standards.

One of my aims this year was to finish off the vehicles I had started for the Western Desert. I have finally managed this with 2 Opel Blitz’s and an Sdkfz 251/1 for my DAK forces. So actually finished one of my pledges.

Recently completed another unit of wandering Poles for my French Napoleonic Peninsular army.

These figures are from Warlord Games so do pose a couple of problems. They are based on the French Lancer plastics figures with metal heads and as such for the purist the jackets have the incorrect turnback’s for the Polish Lancers. Also I wanted to paint these as the Vistula Legion (pre 1811) and there is debate about when they went from the Polish Shako to the Czapka.

Talking of the Czapka there is also differing information regarding the colours and the years they changed was the top yellow or dark blue? Finally there is also conflicting information regarding the lance pennant! Some say it is red over white, while others say it is white over red!

In the end after consulting my library I went with the uniform details of a book I have had for over forty years that is Almark’s French Napoleonic Lancer Regiments (originally published in 1971!!).

Recently completed are a couple of Kubelwagons for my Afrika Korps platoon and they also show a salutary lesson. You will notice that one has a driver figure and the other does not. Well the reason for this is that after assembling the first I had the bright idea that I would leave the driver separate for the second for ease of painting. Once painted I then discovered that I couldn’t get him back into the vehicle ?. Lesson learnt for the future.

To give myself a break from painting Ottoman Turks I managed to finish off a couple more support units for my 28mm Africa Korps forces. First up was a Horch with a 20mm Flak 38 and the other is a Pak 38 50mm antitank gun.

At the same time I finished off a few “jump off” points for use in the western desert for “Chain of Command”.

Here is a collection of random figures that have been lurking on the painting desk for some time. The first three are from the Dark Ages (sorry can’t bring myself to use the Early Medieval that has suddenly emerged) which were a present a while ago. One I know is Uthred of Bebbanburg and his female companion and the last a druid or shaman. Unfortunately I cannot remember who the manufacturer is as I lost the original packaging.

The next three figures were all “specials” from Warlord I have acquired and will be added to my Very British War forces (I have way too many 20mm Soviets for WW2 and am not even tempted to go for a 28mm force ?). They are  Lydmila Paulichenko  – Lady Death,  Vasily Zaitsev and the one and only Churchill. Lydmila and Vasily will be added to my “Lancashire Reds” faction, while Churchill will be included in the “Royalist” forces.

The last of my recent completed figures was a refugee from my Infamy project that I found lurking at the back of my painting desk.

It was a Roman “medic” that I had not used when making up the various “ambush points” for the Roman forces.

It gave me the opportunity to paint him up and us him as the “Capsarius” support option within the game (basically a medic) to treat any wounded leader.

The figure is from Warlord and was painted in my normal, block, shade and highlight style.

The other unit I recently completed was another Infantry battalion for my French Peninsular forces, in the form of a Polish battalion I received as a present.

I decided that these were to be painted as the 1st Battalion, 1st Regiment of the Vistula Legion. I know there is a debate that they did not wear the Czapka in Spain but shako but they do look good. Also it was a struggle to identify the correct uniform details, some sources I have had them with yellow collars and cuffs, while others had them with blue collars lined yellow. There was also varying descriptions as to whether the pompom colour was white or black. In the end I decided to go with the uniform description I had in the old Almark French Infantry book I acquired in the late seventies when I had first started in the hobby.

The standard is from GMB Designs.

We recently swapped the rules we used for American Civil War to Picketts Charge and while it did not entail any rebasing it did mean a change from single model artillery batteries to multi model batteries.

So more guns were required ?

A quick search through the “pile of pride” revealed enough guns and crew for 2 Union 3 gun batteries and 2 Confederate 2 Gun batteries.

Basic paint jobs with block colour, army painter soft tone wash and a quick highlight got the guns ready for a game last Saturday.