Vintage Building Kits

A short post on two buildings I quickly painted up for possible use in some games this coming weekend.  They are both, I believe, fairly old kits and so fit in with the old-school vibe of some of my armies.

And, from the other side.

The two craters in the foreground were made from surplus Milliput and had been sat on the painting desk getting ignored for some time, so, got included in this painting batch.

To give an idea of scale, here's the church again with some 20mm Hinton Hunt marching past.

The church has come out a bit duller than intended.  I deliberately didn't paint it white, as white buildings always glare under flash photography, but I may have overdone it.  I got the church ready-made off eBay and don't know who manufactured this kit and suspect it may be a kit bash made up from several different models.

The church is just resting on the base, which I detached before painting, as I'm intending to build an enclosure for it within which defending troops can be placed.

And finally, the windmill again, this time with a 25mm Hinchliffe ECW command group (actually I believe the preacher is an Essex Miniatures).

Although the windmill, by Dapol, is intended for smaller figures it still works with these (IMO).  The windmill itself also works; the sails turn and so does the upper wooden building which rotates on top of the lower brick structure.

¡Coraceros Españoles!

Fresh off the painting table, and ready for their photo-shoot, the Spanish Cuirassiers.  An unusual unit but, as they primarily served in Catalonia, ideal for my army intended for the fighting in eastern Spain.

The regiment was formed to make use of captured French cuirassier equipment supplemented with red uniforms provided by the British.  There was only enough French equipment for half the regiment[1], exactly what the remainder wore, especially with respect to headwear is less well documented.  So, while I used French cuirassier figures for the first squadron ...

... I used Bavarian figures, kindly provided by David of 'Miniature Minions', for the remainder ...

... as their helmets are similar to those worn by Spanish dragoons like the rather smart trooper below.

The trumpeter figure was converted from another Bavarian trooper while the officer started life as an Empress Dragoon ...

... and was inspired by a wonderful contemporary(?) illustration of an officer from the regiment that I found online.

Usually in my cavalry units, the trumpeters accompany the officer in the front rank, but as neither wore cuirasses, I felt that would reduce the impact of the regiment, in both senses of the word.

After their studio session the unit had to dash off to report to the army ...

... where they paraded past my Spanish cavalry general who was delighted to no longer be a general with only one regiment of dragoons under his command.

The parade ended with the regiment swearing to faithfully serve His Most Catholic Majesty, King Ferdinand the Seventh, and drive the hated French from the land.

They will only have to wait 'til next weekend for a chance to prove their mettle; and break the curse of the newly-painted unit.

Notes:

[1.]  The regiment had two squadrons each of three companies.

4th Hussars on Parade

Decided I couldn't wait to get them out to the cabin so as it wasn't raining as had been forecast, I nipped out and got them on the table.  The table was still set up from my last Chain of Command game as we're shortly fighting the same scenario again.  

So, they rode out into the field for their first parade.

Then, once Lasalle had placed himself at their head, they were reviewed by the Emperor and his extensive entourage.

His majesty was pleased to see that at last one of his cavalry regiments had managed to field more men than he had generals.  The 4th Hussars are bigger than my standard 12-figure units as I didn't have enough for two units and didn't want to leave any of them unused.  Also, the 4th Hussars, along with the 13th Cuirassiers, seem to have kept up their strength better than most.  Out of the 28 Nafziger OOBs that list the 4th in Spain they are 600+strong in 20 of them and in two of those they are more than 900-strong.

4th Hussars WiP now Complete

While at times it seemed these guys were doomed to be a perpetual work in progress (WiP) they are finally finished.  So, here's a quick lightbox session to show how they turned out.

Not the flashiest of the French hussar units when their red pelisses are not in view, but from some angles they're pretty enough.

As always, the command group and elite company are the showiest (is that a word?): as can be seen from the front ...

... the right profile ...

... the rear view ...

... and the left profile.

The trumpeter is a conversion of an elite company hussar resting his carbine on his thigh.  The modifications included a head swap (from a Garrison French hussar) and a hand grasping a trumpet from Newline Designs trumpeter (I forget exactly what type of cavalry figure).

The officer figure was also made from same figure as the trumpeter but he kept his colpack, just having the carbine removed from his right hand which was raised as though giving an order.

In my first WiP post on these guys I said I was going to fix a trooper's broken sword.  In the end I decided I'd use a spare elite trooper and just do a head swap.  This showed that the elite figure is a better casting and not identical to the line figure.  The main difference is the carbine.  As can be seen in the photo below, the carbine is longer and better modelled and rests under his arm (he's the figure on the left of the photo. 

I am pleased with these but it will be a while before I paint more hussars, something a bit simpler being in preparation for my next unit.

The 4th Hussars will be reporting for duty in another post to follow.

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

I thought I should own up that the number '4' on the sabretaches is a home-made decal.  I had several attempts at painting it on and they were all rather disappointing. 

Bring on the Empty Horses

Just a quick progress update on my Hinton Hunt French hussars which have suffered from a number of distractions slowing progress.  The latest distraction from the hussars is their mounts.  As I've no doubt said before, I enjoy painting horses a great deal more than their riders, and the net result is that I've finished their mounts while making little to no progress on the hussars themselves.

I'm pleased with how the horses have turned out so thought they deserved a quick post.  So here are the 'empty horses'.

And some close-ups of the different painting schemes / markings - some of these show up some of the casting flaws in some horses that escaped my clean-up and fill process.

That's all for now, but for anyone following the Caesar's Camp, Chain of Command, campaign the next game is now scheduled for the 15th of the month.

Lasalle & Drumming Up a Special Figure

A while ago I posted a WiP piece, the French 4th Hussars, and a personality figure of Lasalle.  As I find painting one-off figures much more enjoyable it's no surprise that Lasalle is the first to be finished.  I present: General Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle.

The figure is a Hinton Hunt (HH) casting except I added a pipe in his right hand, as he is so often depicted with one.  I painted his uniform, horse colour, tack and shapbraque based on an illustration by Patrice Courcelle (I think) showing him leading a charge by chasseurs á cheval.  

I'm guessing the picture is meant to depict him at the Battle of Medina de Rioseco (14 July, 1808), and as my collection is primarily Peninsular War focused that seemed most appropriate.  Anyway, that's why he's not on a tiger skin as in the famous painting of him by Detaille.

Give us a twirl Antoine ...

... and then a curtain call in close-up.

In the meantime, while Lasalle has been hogging the painting table, and now the limelight, the lack of progress on the 4th hussars is getting embarrassing - see below.

But, Lasalle doesn't deserve all the blame for the sluggish painting on the hussars, as I've had a fairly ambitious conversion job running in the background.  

---

For some time now, I've been rather taken by this Knötel image of a Prussian drummer mounted on a coach horse during the Prussian pursuit of the French army after Waterloo.

The story goes that the sound of the drum convinced the fleeing French that Prussian infantry, as well as cavalry, were on their heels and thus they'd keep running.  Whatever the reality, I wanted to make this figure, and here he is.

He is an amalgam of an artillery draught horse (unridden), a pair of hussar legs and, from the waist up a Prussian drummer courtesy of 'Wellington Man' from 'The Hinton Spieler' blog.  I had all but given up on this conversion after working on the separate bits, but while cleaning up Lasalle and the hussars I put the bits together and realised it looked much better when assembled.  This was enough to revitalise the project, and it, together with Lasalle, then claimed most of my recent painting / modelling time.

So first, as I'm rather proud of him, a couple more photos ...

... and yet more.

This was a pretty ambitious conversion as removing the drummer's legs while keeping his coattails attached was a long drawn out and fiddly job.  Other challenges included: rebuilding some of the detail on the drum (it had to be repositioned for a riding figure); adding straps on which the drummer is resting his feet for balance; and, building a more animated horse tail out of solder.  The following montage shows some of these points in close-up.

Now he's off to find a Prussian army that needs him to help them whip the French and chase them all the way back to Paris.

WiP Complete - 3 Rare Tanks

With various jobs around the house complete I was able to focus on finishing the three tanks I started some time ago.  They are rare-ish because few were made in the case of the Tetrarch (100-177) and Panzer II Luchs (100); and the more numerous Panzer III was reduced to a handful of survivors by the late-war period which I game.  They are all 1/76 scale, white metal kits, by MMS Models.

The A17 MkVII Tetrarch, in this case the CS version, is intended to support my Airborne platoon and is painted in a two-tone brown camouflage pattern.  I had thought it was going to be pretty dull when I put it together but I find the finished look rather pleasing.

The Pz II Luchs, this was a nice kit although there were some casting flaws but it captures the rather 'cute' (can tank be cute?) look of the original.  The markings, for a 9th Panzer vehicle in Normandy, were a real pain.  The red, four-digit serial goes over some vision slots and decals refused to adhere to this uneven surface.  So, I had to paint these freehand, not great up close but from a distance they're okay.

The Panzer III, Ausf J, is one of my favourite tanks and I've painted it up as one of the training tanks forming Panzer Kompanie 'Mielke' at Arnhem.  That unit had several Pz III of various different marks not all of which are known so I've taken the liberty of assuming one was an Ausf J.  I've given it the serial number '28', as what I've read says they had black two-digit serial numbers on the turret and one of them was '29'.  The commander seems to be doing his Usain Bolt impression, what that's all about I'll leave to the imagination.

And finally, an even rarer flight of fancy.

ADDENDUM: I perhaps should've pointed out that the Airborne flashes on the Tetrarch are my first attempt at printing my own decals.  Didn't do too good a job of varnishing them before use to protect the ink from the water - but live and learn.

Modified Vintage 20mil Naps Complete

At last, my 2nd Burgos Regiment is finished, this was quite a long job given the amount of modifications made as covered in earlier posts.  That said I'm rather chuffed with how they turned out so now it's time for their curtain call:

First, the regiment in line, accompanied by a previously painted Major General.

Then some drill practise in formations less used by my Spanish troops, such as attack column[1] ...

... and square (I have a habit of relying on musketry to stop cavalry).

And, finally a close up of the command group.

Notes:

[1.]  In this photo an interloper can be seen behind the general - this was the test figure I did first just to be sure I could pull off the conversions before beheading an entire unit's worth of figures.  When I did the unit's rank and file, I did an entire unit's worth in case one of the conversions failed - they all worked so he's now a handy spare.

Old-School Ancients Top-Up Complete

I managed a bit of a push last week and today I finished off the last of the figures needed to bring some very old, old-school, units up to strength i.e., enough to occupy a 6" grid square.  In this case it was a couple of units of Successor pike.  I only had 16 in each unit plus 11 spare painted figures (5 of one unit and 6 of the other) so I needed another 21 to bring the two units up to 32 figures each.

And here they are, with the newly painted-to-match figures based up with the painted spares.

I am rather pleased with how difficult it is to tell the new from the old.  The best way to tell is to look at the hands grasping the pikes, if both hands completely enclose the pike, then it's a newly painted figure (I like to make the figures' weapons really secure).

Posed together with the old based-up figures, they make much better-looking units - bigger is always better with pike blocks. 

If anyone is interested the older bases are on the outer flank of each block.  I had trouble sorting them when taking the photos but finally realised I just needed to look underneath; the older bases have white steel paper underneath whereas those just based have black ferro-sheet.