Figure Mods - Waiting for Bits

I wasn't planning on another update this soon but I broke my last decent drill bit for my Dremel rotary tool so thought I'd post some more on the command figures while waiting for some more drill bits[1] to arrive courtesy of Amazon (hopefully today).  

My last post saw the three command figures largely dismembered; the ensign needing a new head, the officer a head swap, and the drummer a head and arms swap!  So, after crafting another solder hat for the ensign, here they are put together and starting to take on their final appearance.

Since then, all I have managed is a bit more filing and some final detailing added with greenstuff as going near them with a soldering iron at this stage would undoubtedly see any solder on them revert to a shapeless blob. 

So, with still some tidying up of the greenstuff still to do, here's the officer, ...

... the ensign, ...

... and, the drummer.

I'm quite pleased with these, especially the drummer as he looks quite natural despite being a fairly extreme cut and shut job.  The officer and the ensign will both have boots, the ensign some nice tight ones that can just be done with a paint job.  I'm not sure whether the ensign would've worn a bicorn but I didn't want him in a round hat or competing with the officer's cocked hat.  Anyway, I think he's turned out okay and I like the tilt to his head that looks like he's paying attention to what he's doing with the colour.

Notes:

[1.]  Good drill bits are essential for drilling holes into the heads and torsos of figures having head-swaps to allow a steel wire to be inserted in both to provide a robust joint.  Without one I can't get on with all the rest of the planned head-swaps.

Figure Mods - a WiP Update

The last post which outlined some ambitious figure conversions to make a round-hatted unit of 20mil Napoleonic Spanish Fusiliers seemed to spark some interest.  So, while progress is slow, I thought I'd post an update, mainly to try and keep my conversion mojo ticking along.

First, the test figure, which has now been blocked in with the intended paint scheme.

Getting some paint on him has shown I need to be a little less generous with the 5SecondFix for the trousers and do a better job smoothing them off.  Also, I think a quick bit of greenstuff around the neck to make a more prominent collar will help.  That said, I'm pleased with the colours, the first blue (Humbrol 89) was too light so I gave it a wash of thinned down mid-blue (Humbrol 25) and got exactly the colour I was looking for to match based on an illustration in an Osprey[1].  I will probably highlight with the original light blue colour but I need to attend to the black lining first.

The rest of the figures, head donors and recipients, have all now been through the bleach-bath and had their paint cleaned off and the British revolutionary grenadiers (BRGs for short) have been cleaned up and had their 'wings' removed.  

Today has focussed on the command figures; officer, ensign and drummer.  These are all being worked up from HH (recasts?) BRG command figures.  

First the drummer.  I have no BRG drummer, so have used a sergeant figure and removed his head and arms, the latter in order to fit the arms and drum from a Napoleonic British fusilier drummer - see below.

You will notice his loins have been hollowed out to fit the drum which will be glued in once the greenstuff repairs to the drum and shoulder strap added to the figure (no photo) have cured.  The arms will them be soldered in place at the shoulders for a strong joint, he will also a round-hatted head like the rank and file.

The officers are BRG officer figures, one waving his sword being converted to a standard bearer and the other will be marching as is with his sword at the shoulder, as shown below.

The ensign has had a blob of solder added that will be filed down to create the 'bucket' that the flagstaff is placed in; the shoulder belt from which it is suspended will be added with greenstuff.

As officers I don't want these figures in round hats, so I took one of the spare BRG heads and cut the bearskin down before adding a cocked hat from solder - shown between the two figures in the photo above.  This took several attempts before I could get the solder blob to vaguely resemble the over-sized cocked hats favoured by the Spanish.  This was then followed by lots, and lots, of careful filing, a real chore but the end result is worth it (IMO).  I intend using this head for the commanding officer but haven't yet decided what to do for the ensign ...

... watch this space.

Notes:

[1.]  Man at Arms 332, Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars Part 2 1808-1812, Plate G1.  I would put in a picture but again I'm not about the copyright position for doing this. 

Figure Mods - Work in Progress

Having got seduced into the niche that is vintage 20mil Napoleonic's, I compounded my foolishness by opting to focus on the Peninsular War and in particular the Spanish Army.  The Spanish were never a popular choice so few come up on eBay and the choice is limited as back then figure companies didn't make many as the demand wasn't there.  

So, typically I have to modify figures, especially for some of the mid-period new, and volunteer, units in their round hats like that in the photo below - an Austrian fusilier in shako filed to look like a round hat.

Wanting another unit in round hat I started on some more Austrians, but having cherry-picked the best for the above unit the remaining figures were in very poor order and kept breaking.  After drilling into my thumb while trying to mend the latest breakage, I decided I needed to try something else.

Rummaging through my lead pile I decided it was time to make use of some figures actually wearing round hats; an eBay purchase of thirty figures, three of which are shown below.

These figures are almost certainly the same castings as those featured on the 'Hinton Hunter' blog site, which includes a suggestion about their about their origin - see composite screen-shot from the, now defunct, blog below.  Whatever these figures are, if anyone out there has more they are willing to part with do please get in touch.

As I didn't want the unit to be at the attack march, I decided I would swap the heads from these onto some DK(?) British Grenadiers in bearskin from the French Revolutionary period.  These figures are also a good choice for Spanish as they have a simple blanket roll and no back-pack; Spanish troops are rarely shown with back-packs as worn by most other armies.  Anyway, they were consigned to the bleach-bath to remove their paint-jobs and came out after just one night looking pretty clean after a quick scrub with an old toothbrush.

Not wanting to overcommit, I put just one of the round-hatted figures through the bleach-bath.  While he emerged from his bath with his paint job looking untouched, it peeled off with little effort and the stripped figure can be seen below posed next to the grenadier selected for a trial head-swap.

The next photo shows the grenadier after the head-swap and with his 'wings' filed off his shoulders and some 5secondFIX on his legs to make them resemble trousers rather than breeches and gaiters.  The head is secured by a length of steel rod inserted into holes drilled into the head and torso.  BTW don't feel sorry for the headless figure as he is being kept for another unit I have planned.

And, with a quick white undercoat to give a better idea of what I have to work with when it comes to the paint job.

Next time I should have the sample figure painted and progressed on modifying the rest of the figures for the unit.  Not sure if this is too much detail or whether more like this is of interest - if you have a preference do let me know in the comments.

Fusilier Chasseurs of the Guard

These are the latest to emerge from my glacial painting process for a quick photo shoot.  Firstly some 'studio shots'.

The command strip, as Hinton Hunt (HH) never did standard bearers or drummers in greatcoats these two had them added with solder, followed by much filing.

Then the men.  These are a mix of original HH "FN/6 Voltigeur 1807/12 in plumed shakos (marching)" and recasts.  The large plumes, and the opportunity to paint the greatcoats blue, inspired me to paint them as Fusilier Chasseurs of the Imperial (Middle) Guard.  In this photo I meant one of the 4-figure bases to show the rear view but didn't notice their reluctance to show their backs.

The only changes to the rank and file were to repair about half of the bayonets, beef up the plumes a bit, and paint eagles instead of lozenge shaped cap badges and eagles as opposed to bugles on the cartridge boxes.  The latter required the badges to be filed down a bit so the bugle device was not proud.

And then all together...

...all twenty eight of them!

My foot units are all usually 24-strong but these are 28-strong, using every figure I had.  I did this because wielding a soldering iron entails some risk, so I was expecting some losses, but all went well so I thought I'd paint them all up.

And so, into the field: in line...

...in square...

...under Cambronne's command...

...and finally.

=============ADDENDUM=============

Spotted I had left something unpainted!  No prizes for spotting it - here's the finished article.

"Merde!" It's Cambronne AGAIN!

After my last post, a friend told me I had opted for the wrong colours on Cambronne's sash as, being a maréchal de camp, he should have a gold and blue sash not gold and red.  So, as my incipient OCD would not let that go, I have repainted his sash, and this time I think I've made a better job of it.  Yay!

At the same time a slight error was pointed out in the accompanying Young Guard Voltigeurs so they were also corrected.  The change is rather small and I'll leave it to the viewer to see if they can spot it.

Suchet and Friends on the Catwalk

Finally, delayed by a nasty bug, Christmas, and the New Year, the first completed figures of the year - these were among those posted as a work in progress (WiP) back in November!

First on the catwalk is Suchet, nonchalantly showing off his shiny brand-new Marshal's baton and accompanied by an ADC...

...and again, this time hogging the camera, from the other side.

Then, somewhat miffed by having to cede first place, to a mere Marshal, it's Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain.  

Joseph was a bit of a pain as for some reason I didn't check how well he fitted onto his horse before painting him - mistake!  Trying to carve away at him and his horse to make him fit without messing up the paint job was no fun.  In the end I settled for a less than satisfactory fit, but with little re-touching required.

.

Joseph, an S-range Minifig and probably feeling looked down on by all the Hinton Hunt figures around him, insisted on a final close-up before he would leave vacate the catwalk.  

Next up, and the paint job I'm most pleased with from this batch, is General Pierre Jacques Étienne, 1st Viscount Cambronne.   He is seen brandishing his sword which was broken but rebuilt with solder - a worrying process wielding a soldering iron in close proximity to the that impressive conk.  

I did originally paint his breeches blue, as he is sometimes depicted at Waterloo, but decided to go with white breeches as in other depictions for more contrast and found I much preferred that look.  Also, I couldn't confirm the colour of his sash, whether it was red or blue with the gold (I used a mix of gold and silver paint to get a shade to match s) so opted for red - anyone know different?

Also, appearing from the Imperial Guard is an officer from the Foot Artillery.

Finally, representing the men who actually do all the fighting, a 6-figure skirmish unit of Young Guard Voltigeurs.  These, were quite fiddly uniforms to paint and took me a long time - every time I painted something on them, I seemed to spoil something else making yet more work.

Whoops!  I spoke too soon; only one photo of the new ADC to a General of Division?  Better rectify that.

Another Classic Range Passes Away

Yesterday I received the following email from Mark Lodge that Jacklex Miniatures has ceased trading:

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PERMANENT CLOSURE OF JACKLEX MINIATURES

Unfortunately, I write to announce the permanent closure of Jacklex Miniatures from today (3 January 2025). This is, in the main due to the ever increasing costs of running a small hobby business including raw materials, postage, business insurance, electricity and EU regulation (I thought we had rid ourselves of the latter?) As many of you will know, my primary goal has always been to keep a fine range of model soldiers, sculpted by the very talented Jack Alexander and Andrew Stadden, available to the hobby. It is, therefore with a great deal of regret that I find that I am unable to continue to do so. 

Please be assured that any orders made through the site on or before 1 January will be fulfilled in the usual manner.    

Thank you for your custom over the last five years, it has been a pleasure to do business with you. I wish you the very best for the New Year and for all your future hobby endeavours.

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I would like to record my gratitude to Mark for all the hard work he put in keeping the Jacklex range in production.  He was also very helpful willingly breaking up figure sets to provide specific items and, in this way, provided all the baggage mules and oxen together with some of the drivers that made up my Spanish Napoleonic baggage train and pull my huge Warhammer Great Cannon for my 'The Pride and the Passion' project.  

I hope the following photos provide some idea of how nice this range was: 

The PoO in the Light Box

Having just completed my Hinton Hunt Prince of Orange I thought it an ideal opportunity to try out a light box I bought with the hope of improving the quality of my photographs.  So, here he is:

As usual, close ups show up the difficulty I always have with metallic paints - why will they never flow like other colours?  As for the light box, it doesn't seem to produce enough light and I had to put a box under the back drop (need some better back drops) to bring the figure nearer the lights.

All in all, I'm a little disappointed with the light box, but then it was the cheapest I could find (c. £7) so I guess cheap is as cheap does.  Unfortunately, it hasn't really answered the question as to whether it's worth investing in a more expensive version.  If it weren't overcast days, I'd be happy using natural sunlight but waiting for better light at this time of the year seems hopeless. 

WiP Crack Away...

So, after the Tolkien interlude it's back to some more traditional wargame figures and a work in progress (WiP) shot.

Yes, it's back to some vintage 20mil Naps, with a few interlopers in the shape of some 28mm Napoleonic Norwegian Ski Troops, who just need the milliput covering the arm joints filed down before undercoating.

The 20mil Naps are a mix of Hinton Hunt, recasts of the same, and some S-range Minifigs, one of whom is destined to become King Joseph.  These were mostly bare castings but a couple did go through the bleach bath to strip off old layers of paint.  The cleaning up for these was straight forward but while doing so I noticed two of the three Young Guard Voltigeurs advancing with musket at the trail were missing most, or all, of their musket butts.  So, out with the soldering iron and then a lengthy grinding process with my Dremel.  Normally I file solder additions with my mini hand-files as it's gentler, but the butts were in too awkward a location to allow easy file access.  I'm fairly pleased with the end result.

A few more figures are still resting in the bleach bath which has turned a fairly revolting shade of green.  

Hopefully, this means the paint is coming off, as a couple of the figures (to be revealed at a later date?) are having a second bath after their paint jobs proved pretty impenetrable first time around. 

I'm ready for my close-up Mr DeMille

Having seen some photos being shared of a beautifully painted up 20mm Alberken Napoleonic personality figure I thought I'd post some photos of the only one I have painted up.  I think the figure was intended to be the Earl of Uxbridge but as I have a Hinton Hunt casting of him awaiting painting...

...I present Major-General Stapleton Cotton, a.k.a. the "Lion d' Or".

I slightly modified the figure to reduce the size of his rather extravagant headgear and the tiger skin saddle cloth was 'pimped up' with some green-stuff modelling putty.  The tiger skin was fun to paint and gives him some real panache.  As I paint with enamels and tend to mix them there's no point listing which paints I used, assuming I could even remember at this point in time.

Anyway, I hope you like him, so, here's a few more close-ups.