Great-coated WiP

The latest batch on the work / painting table is a unit's worth of 20mm Hinton Hunt (HH, but most are probably copies) Napoleonic French infantry in greatcoats, all recently emerged from the bleach bath to remove their old paint jobs.

There's enough here for a 24-man unit (battalion) and a 6-figure skirmish unit, and rising above it all (on a cocktail stick up his fundament) is an HH personality figure of Dorsenne.

There's a fair bit of figure bashing happening.  The advancing figures used for the battalion (FN12) are all grenadiers.  This means all the figures in the fusilier companies need their epaulettes, sabre-briquets, and the shoulder-belt it is suspended from, removed.  All the figures are also getting their shakos changed to covered shakos courtesy of some thick coats of white paint.

The biggest job was to create an officer standard bearer from a firing figure, the arms requiring a lot of repositioning.  There's still more work to do on these can be seen below, but this is a WiP.

The rear view shows the backpack's removal (officers wouldn't carry one) and the extension of the sabre briquet into a sword.

This figure still needs the shoulder belt for the 'holster' for the flag pole, an eagle for the standard (to be taken from another figure) and a head swap for one more appropriate for an officer.

The head from eagle bearer will used to replace that on the Newline Design drummer I'm going to use for this unit; this will make him blend in better with the HH figures around him.

The drummer's greatcoat will also get more folds sculpted into it to look more like the HH figures in the rest of the unit.

Then it will be on to painting them, I want to paint the skirmish unit to look like this, for me iconic, illustration ...

... from this book.

For the larger unit (battalion) I shall base them on this illustration except with a grey shako cover to tie them in with the skirmish unit.

You don't get me, I'm part of the Union

With a hell of a shout, it's "Out, brothers, out!" And the rise of the factories [Parliament's] fall.  

To be honest I think ECW clubmen could be found on both sides, and neither.  But these, the latest completed items from my current WiP batch are destined to support the King in four days' time at the Battle of Whalley, 21st April 1643.  

The figures are all Minifigs, with the outer two bases being completed yesterday to bulk out my single clubmen base (the one with the banner), albeit I replaced the leader figure wearing a lobster pot helmet, with a dashing redhead carrying his hat.  I've added some figures with firearms to form rudimentary 'wings' of shot.  I couldn't resist adding a blunderbuss to the mix, and this figure is a Royalist cavalryman cut off at the waist and added to the legs of a clubman.

 

The mêlée weaponry is all scratch built from my bits box as the figures now come with very thin and dainty weaponry that will bend if you so much as look at it.  And, I wanted them to match with the weapons carried by the existing figures.  And here the temptation was to include one carrying a scythe ...

... and a couple carrying clubs, as nod to their identity, this one's dressed like the town's preacher.

Meanwhile, the rest of the WiP batch, various ECW command figures show little progress from the last time they appeared in a post.

In the above, the shepherd shown complete in a previous post, has now acquired a dog (from Warbases) and both are ready for basing.  Also, in sight is the Minifigs lobster-potted figure that was removed from the existing clubmen base.  These won't be ready for the Battle of Whalley game, which will be the next post but hopefully not too long after that. 

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.

Sidetracked

Along with an interrupt for the CoC game described in the previous post, my work in progress (WiP) was put on hold while the wife went away to visit friends for a few days.  While that has its downside, it also frees up the kitchen.  As this gives me a 6'x3' table and 4'x6' peninsular it allows me to spread out far more than is possible on my cluttered 2'x2' painting table.

What this means is I can do some terrain work that won't fit on the painting table.  And in this case, it was painting my recent purchase of latex tracks and cobbled town streets with pavements from Early War Miniatures at Partizan.

First, the country tracks and junctions.

The EWM range doesn't include any junctions between 7cm-wide cobbled roads and the dirt tracks so I had to bodge these.  Down the lefthand side are the cobbled roads cut from road T-junctions.  Butted up against two of them are the tracks cut from track T-junctions.  In the middle of the second column is a section of cobbled road with two track sections cut from track T-junctions to make a 'road-track' crossroads.

Some of these featured in my previous, CoC AAR, post.  The posts are out of sequence as I need to do AARs immediately after the game before I forget what happened.

The town streets, including some damaged (bombed/bombarded) sections were simply a paint job.  

The paints used were all acrylics by Vallejo and/or Citadel.

WiP Crack Away!

Not quite the Deadwood Stage, but close enough?

It's actually a Minifigs 17th Century Coach that I'm using for a command vignette with some Hinchliffe figures for my ECW Armies - all modified to some extent.  This is inspired by vague recollections of pictures of Newcastle's coach at Marston Moor - I may be mistaken but the idea has taken such firm root in my mind I'm doing it anyway.

This and the other works in progress (WiP) had all been stalled by the thought of upcoming Jury Duty which had killed my painting mojo stone dead.  But it turned out I only spent a few days at the court before being released as I didn't get selected for a jury on any of the cases (they call up more jurors than needed as some are excused, some are challenged, and some are 'no shows').  All that sulking for nothing - I really need to stop stewing about stuff and just get on with my life.

Anyway, the other WiPs mentioned above include some more Hinchliffe mounted commander figures (one-piece castings) many with head-swaps and Byron with a pistol added in his hand.

The 'empty horses' in the above are for Thomas Fairfax ...

... and Arthur Haselrig - a head-swap and trying for a 'browned' armour look. 

In parallel with this lot, I'm also expanding my single base of clubmen into a three-base unit, all Minifigs.

Rather unlikely, but I couldn't resist fabricating a scythe for one of them.

 

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. 

WiPs and Butchered Bits

With the WW2 items finished it's time to do some more vintage 20mm Napoleonics; in this case the French 4th Hussars, courtesy of a very kind gift from a fellow blogger (Hinton Hunt Odyssey).  I had been trying, without success, to obtain some of these figures since I had been seduced into this vintage madness by 'The Hinton Spieler' back in 2017.   So, having finally obtained some, they have been fast-tracked to the front of the painting queue.

Now, as is ever the case with vintage OOP figures, comes the inevitable cleaning up and repair of the castings; plus, converting some rank and file into command figures that were sadly lacking in the Hinton Hunt range.

First up the horses.  These have been cleaned of any flash and had any holes from in the castings filled with Milliput. 

The filling is rather simple but cleaning out the excess metal between the horses back legs would be a real bore without my trusty Dremel rotary tool and grinding bits.  As I didn't take any 'before' photos of this process, here's one of a handy one-piece casting showing the problem next to one of the 4th Hussar horses that was free of this flaw.

The troopers, seen in the first photo, now need cleaning up and the following photo shows the figures selected for conversion into an officer and trumpeter, ...

... together with one trooper who needs his sword repaired, the photo below showing the missing point that needs replacing.

The 'butchered bits' in the title to this post are standing by to be cannibalised for these figures; including a Newline Design trumpeter - trumpets are just too fiddly to fabricate from scratch.

To command these hussars, I've included a personality figure in this painting batch, and who better to command a regiment of hussars than the man himself, General Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle.

I hadn't originally intended to do any mods to the figure but his right hand resting on his thigh was just begging to have a pipe added as I've never seen an illustration of him without it.  

That's all for now, but these will take some time to complete so there will probably be another WiP post before they are completed and ready for a full-dress parade. 

Rabbit Holes and Sidetracks

A few posts back, before I started playing in the current Chain of Command campaign (the last three posts), I posted on some work in progress (WiP).  I had hoped to have completed those items by now, but in addition to the campaign and some DIY chores I also started on some other items.  Anyway, here's a quick update on what has been finished, including a few of the distractions.

First, here's my Bromefield[1] M1800 Iron 10" Howitzer, being tried out for size by one of my RHA crews (the RA crews are still in the painting queue).

Also, as I'm rather proud of them and haven't posted them before, here's my rocket troop, featuring a Phoenix Miniatures crew and scratch-built launcher.

Getting back to the original WiP items, here are the WW2 20mm items that have made it across the finish line.  

The Unic P107 half-track and Daimler Scout Car, with their respective crews are the only original members of the last WiP post.  So, they deserve a few more photos, starting with the P107 with driver, gunner and a few infantry ...

... and then removed for when they disembark to be replaced by based troops.

These figures are joined with steel wire inserted through them, the rigid grouping being enough to hold them securely in place without wobbling.

By contrast the Dingo Scout Car has its crew fixed in place - there is a driver in there, honest, you just can't see him.

The other completed items, indicated by yellow arrows[2], consist of two MG, and one ATG, entrenchments, a kneeling figure and some casualties.

The entrenchments were the result of messing with Milliput when filling the tanks that haven't as yet been completed - I always make up too much.  The larger gun emplacement was a set of plastic 1/72 sandbags that came with a Checkpoint kit (Hasegawa IIRC) and thought I might as well do them as well.

The dead figure was found when going through my stash looking for crew for the P107, and got included as I'm short of German dead.  Likewise, the kneeling figure was missing his right arm, and half his right leg, cut off for use in a previous conversion, but as I also found a spare arm I thought I'd repair him being short of kneeling figures.  And with some other spare parts (6 legs & 1 arm, mostly from the crews for the Dingo and the unfinished tanks), together with some of the spare Milliput I fashioned another grisly addition to the collection.

The final distraction was finishing off a Hinchliffe 25mm Hellenistic General that had been sitting half-painted on the window ledge for longer than I care to admit.

So, as the next CoC campaign game is not scheduled for a while yet, I should be getting on with completing the tanks[3], which are pretty well advanced, for my next post.  Well, once the last of the DIY chores is done - they don't take that long but I'm a world-class procrastinator.

Notes:

[1.]  I have seen various spellings for 'Bromefield', and last time went with 'Blomefield', but Bromefield seems more common so I'm now using that until corrected.

[2.]  The MG teams and ATG occupying the entrenchments are just added for aesthetic effect and to show the fit.

[3.]  A Tetrarch, a Pz II Luchs and a Pz III J.

The Old, the Quick and the Obsolescent

With another so-called heatwave making painting difficult / unpleasant, I am using the time to make up some metal kits.

First out of the blocks was a British M1800 Bromefield 10" Iron Howitzer ('The Old').  This will be a drop-in[1] option for my 20mm Napoleonic gun crews.  This piece, was only used in sieges during the Napoleonic period and rarely at that, BUT it's just so full of character I couldn't resist getting one.

The armoured vehicles are to fill out my 20mm WW2 collection, and add some recce capability ('The Quick'), and some second-rate equipment ('The Obsolescent') that was fielded in NW Europe when there was nothing better available - it's also cheap (support points) in Chain of Command.

The kits are by the now sadly defunct MMS Models, and clockwise from bottom left are: a Panzer II 'Luchs' (light recce tank); a Panzer III Ausf J (still awaiting its main armament, a 5cm KwK 38 L/42); a Unic P107 half-track (a French hand-me-down used by 21st Pz); a Daimler Scout Car[2]; and a Tetrarch CS to support my upcoming Airborne platoon.

Of these, I have to say my favourite is the Panzer III, and I'm justifying getting one on the basis of several being in Panzer Kompanie Mielke at Arnhem; and I'm particularly partial to the marks with the short 50mm gun.  But, having put the kit together I have to say I found the Luchs has rather caught my fancy. 

All these kits will need some additional cleaning and filling, but I'll do them all together in a single session when they're all ready.  With the exception of the Tetrarch, I will be fitting figures to the vehicles (removable in some cases) which is why most still have their hatches missing - they will be fitted when I work out how the figures will be placed / posed.

Notes:

[1.]  I mount my gun crews on a large base and their guns on a separate base that can be dropped in amongst the gun crew.  This has two benefits: one the gun being on its own base is closer to the correct height compared to the gun crew; and, two I can easily swap between 6pdrs, 9pdrs and howitzers.

[2.]  Note the roof folded back, Chain of Command only lists the Daimler Scout Car as roofless but all marks after the first had a roof that could be folded back.