Odds and Ents

In parallel with preparing some plastic Lord of the Rings (LotR) figures to send off for painting by Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka, I had been working on a few LotR odds and ends from eBay.

The Ent, Treebeard, was purchased assembled but unpainted, so I can claim this one, at least, to be all my own work.

The dead figure, is one of a larger batch I bought painted from eBay.  While nicely painted, I felt the grey scheme made them look more like stone than the ethereal figures in the film who had a definite greenish tinge.  So, as a trial, I gave one a couple of coats of dry-brushing[1] and re-did the basing to match the other figures in my collection; the photo shows the test figure and one as purchased.

The troll however, is just a re-touch.  I did mean to paint him/her/it(?) to match my existing troll who is much paler (based on the appearance in the film of the cave-troll encountered in Moria).  But ... I really thought the darker paint job was nicer, so I re-attached the arm that had come loose in the post and re-touched the paint job which had also suffered.

So, what next?  Well, I'm hoping to try and kit bash an Early Wars Miniatures UNIC P107 U 304(F) troop carrier into a 7.5cm Pak 40 Somua MCG S307(f) inspired by the fantastic memoir 'D-Day tank Hunter' by Hans Hoeller (who took the photo below).

A quick comparison of the kit against a drawing of the desired article shows that only the weapon, radiator grill and running gear don't need fabricating from scratch.  So, it's quite possible this may be a conversion too far and something else will end up taking its place on the work bench.

We'll just have to try it and see ...

Notes:

[1.]  The first cost was a mix of Army Painter Malignant Green and Vallejo Yellow Green, and the second a mix of Vallejo Yellow Green and Vallejo White.  Yes, Gasp, Shock, Horror - I used acrylics and not enamels, maybe old dogs can learn a trick or two.

[2.]  The original base texturing was, to be honest, nicer than my method, but my incipient OCD wouldn't allow them to be different to all the others.

Dunlendings - new(?) style GW figures

So just a quick post to get 2026 under way.  The festive season has seen all my gaming, modelling and painting come to pretty much a dead-stop, but I have just managed to start getting some plastic figures prepped to send off for painting to Fernando Enterprises.

Most will be more Lord of the Rings (LotR) figures as recent games has shown the Legions of Saruman somewhat overmatched.  As I like my evil types to rely on quantity rather than quality this lot will include quite a few more orcs/goblins and for a bit of variety some Dunlendings (aka Wildmen of Dunland from GW).  When I started putting the latter together, I was surprised by the new style GW plastics, these now being multi-part figures with many fragile parts as shown by the example below.

As can be seen, the body comes in two parts, a front and back, with the latter also having the back of the head - the rest of the head, really just the face, is separate.  Each arm and leg is separate, as are the hands in many cases.  The hands just butt up to the wrists (there is no socket joint) and are fiddly to glue on and leave me worrying over how sturdy they will be.  That said body parts and limbs go together really well, they have no male-female sockets but interlock so well they are not needed.

The down-side of these individualised interlocking figure parts (each figure in the 12-figure set is unique) means that swapping parts is not feasible without a lot of remodelling.

The next problem was the prevalence of figures carrying torches and bows, four of each - I'm okay with a couple of torches but I didn't want any bow-armed figures.  The archers come with a sword in a hand as shown above, but these are in a right hand leaving the issue of the bow in the left.  

Anyway, to cut a long story short, after lots of fiddling I managed to the following.

Overall, I think they look pretty good, with the possible exception of the figure on the right, at the back, an archer in a shooting pose that didn't offer much scope for an easy fix.  Also, shown in the above is the abandonment of slotta-bases, the figures are now attached by glueing the soles of their feet directly to the base!  I never liked slotta-bases but this does not seem like an improvement, not helped by the fact that most of the figures only have one foot on the ground.

I now have to finish prepping some goblins and a few other trial figures before sending them off for painting.  Then I have a few more Tolkien figures - I enjoy painting the odd figure but not whole units of these.

One Man and His Dog meet the Magnificent Seven

I've finally completed the batch of ECW commanders so, here they are with my shepherd who has now been joined by his dog - it's meant to be a Border Collie.

Well maybe they're not all that magnificent, but even the original seven had a few make-weights; I mean who remembers Harry Luck?  But here's a who's who of these guys.

But I guess not everyone is satisfied.

As my rules use card activation of commanders, and all the troops under their command, I've also made the necessary cards.

For those that are interested, all the figures are by Hinchliffe, except the Warbases dog.  Byron, Wentworth, Fielding and Heselrige have all had head swaps; Byron also had a new right hand with pistol added.  Byron was painted to match this portrait by William Dobson, complete with a patch on his left cheek to cover the scar from a wound received on the 30th December 1642 when his quarters in Burford were beaten up by Parliamentarian Horse and Dragoons from Sudeley.

All that then remained was to make up their cards for the activation system in my rules mash-up.

And as it's now only two sleeps to Christmas, may I wish all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Your Carriage Awaits

In the sidelines of the last two posts some of the currnet WiP batch have been completed.  These comprise the ECW Newcastle's coach command vignette, a retouching of Lord George Digby and a shepherd (his sheep are old figures).  

I am pleased with how the coach vignette turned out, with Newcastle alighting to speak to a Whitecoat officer while his servants take the horses away to care for them.  Clearly it's too late in the day to start a battle.

Pleased enough to do a quick light-box session.

The figures and horses are all Hinchliffe, and the Coach is by Minifigs - the paints are all Humbrol enamels.  

I have since ordered some luggage to place on the platform behind the passenger compartment but that can be easily painted and added later.

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.