Inability to focus

Before any concerned blog readers think I have some sort of problem with my eyes, I should clarify it's about an inability to mentally focus on producing something of note. I have not touched a paintbrush in a long time now....

Mostly it's due to two factors; depressing grey days; I really need bright daylight to even get motivated to paint; secondly, time....

The weekends go very fast. My last leave over Christmas was stymied by illness and prevented me from doing much of anything. I seem to find the weekends taken up with things I didn't have time to do during the week, so have not even forced myself into doing much except tidy up and think.

I'm conscious I should be focussing on Pavia. To that end I have been translating (with the use of a translation pen) an Italian book I picked up from eBay. I was looking for more information on the Mirabello palace and the park walls, primarily their appearance. Sadly, much is lost. The best we can hope for are the various woodcuts, paintings and tapestries of the battle.

What it has done is completely change my thinking on the battle. What I have realised is that all the modern accounts are selective, ignoring some sources at the expense of others. There is a well reasoned argument, supported by a contemporary source (from Pavia) that the entry point must have been the Duo Porte in the east, not the Porte Pescharina - the latter would have needed the Imperialists to break through TWO walls - the walls enclosing the new park and then the walls of the old park - which none of the sources mention. Often modern accounts just repeat the Pescarina gate theory without addressing the problem of the two walls - in some cases the map cuts off the new park wall altogether!

There is the possibility that the Old park wall was already breached or that the new park wall was in disrepair, but the sources are clear that the Imperialists broke into and pulled down the park walls to gain entry, which delayed them. There are also doubts about the French King's location - the Repentina may just have been a rural cottage and the Duke of Milan's Kennels pure invention....

Along with these doubts has come even more discouraging news. I had been toying with putting Pavia on as a game at a show. I had thought about Britcon, only to discover that this year due to Nottingham University not accepting external bookings, it has had to move to Leicester. Logistically this is too far for me. That leaves the Newark shows, but I'm now getting cold feet about the whole idea. I have even found myself wondering whether I shouldn't just go back to my idea of DBA sized armies or even using the 15mm I have.

The lack of producing anything has also led to considering renovating or restarting old projects rather than new; that is projects I never finished but have painted stuff for. In this mood I have found myself looking at my SYW but more particularly, French & Indian War. I have the figures, a lot of the French and Indians are done, so I have found myself buying large pine tree models from eBay....

I have struggled a bit to find a set of rules I like; before anyone suggests any I have explored many! I need a set that can cover both battle and skirmish - most F&IW rules cover the latter or require large figure to man scales. I quite liked Habitants and Highlanders, but don't like the predictable shooting. I have dug out the old WRG 1685 to 1845, but have also toyed with VnB variable scales. I suspect it may end up as a Frankenstein of several......

Expedition to lead mountain......

In an email conversation and comments on this blog, I mentioned to Andy McMaster of "Another Slight Diversion" blog https://blog.belisarius.org.uk/ that I thought I had some RSM Hanovarians "somewhere" .

As I spent Saturday cleaning up officers, drummers and ensigns for the British line, as well as repairing 8 who had lost bayonets while listening to the last disc in the audio book of Last of the Mohicans, I thought I should perhaps try to find them......

The reason was I wasn't sure whether they were Hanovarians......there was an inkling they may be British, in which case I needed to find them to work out if there were enough officers.

Now expeditions to my particular "lead mountain" are not to be undertaken lightly , not I hasten to add due to the risk of wild animals or tropical diseases or even cannibals or lack of oxygen, rather it can be a most frustrating experience.......

The "garage" (which it's clear was never intended to be used as one) is crammed full of junk, not all of it mine. Most of the older toys are under what I hoped one day would be a wargames table again. So I roughly knew where the SYW box was. However, I remembered that when purchased many moons ago for a bargain price from a certain online auction site, they had originally resided under the other end of the table, but I was certain I had reorganised them (the foam they came in being visible).

Torch in hand I delved under the table where I thought they may be after moving some boxes and found a box which I thought was mostly Russians and Prussians. Extracting it, I looked inside and there were the RSM figures!

Instead of Hanovarians, I found 36 British including command, 28 Prussian grenadiers and various command, plus some generals with horses and around 3 artillery limbers plus guns and gunners! A rich haul! What is more, digging around in the main SYW box I found more officers and another French line unit (which I had completely forgotten about) as well as what looks like a Soubise conversion!

I had bought some surplus RSM bits from Andy, so with my discoveries I have more than enough for British as well as expending the French and can use up various command figures for other armies.

It's amazing what you can find.......this is despite having a reasonable mental inventory of what miniatures I have lurking in the garage!

First of the British line

While conscious I probably should be concentrating on the next Soldier King army, I have found myself distracted by the French & Indian War......

Many years ago when up in Newcastle, I had eventually embarked on gaming the Seven Years War after a couple of abortive or half - hearted attempts (15mm followed by Spencer Smiths) in what was then 25mm scale.

While I really wanted to do Austrians, I found my opponent, Pete Foggin had British and some Austrians. We lacked Prussian, French and Russian armies. I therefore found myself building an army of the hated Prussians (using Pete's sculpted and cast figures - having to add command figures as Pete was too egalitarian to make any!).

Parallel to that, I contemplated French, but soon found myself straying from Europe to North America.....

Hence, although my French army had cavalry added, the infantry were the regulars sent to Canada. Native Americans were added, along with other bits. At some stage we refougt the battle of the Plains of Abraham (or Quebec if you prefer). The armies had been built for WRG 1685 - 1845 at 1:50.

I think for the battle we may have used an adapted version of Loose Files and American Scramble. While I had enough French line and we could scrape up enough British from Pete's figures, there were a few gaps that needed filling. I painted very quickly using washes, Canadian militia, Marine and some British light infantry (as Pete had none). I also had a sculpt from Miliput I'd made intending it to be a Native American. It turned out too tall and gangly so was abandoned. Discovering the figure when preparing for the game, I looked at it and started seeing a very close resemblance to General Wolfe......

A bit of work and a unique figure for Wolfe emerged. I don't remember much about the game apart from the adapted rules not working that well. The LI performed magnificently.......for the other side as I was playing Montcalm!

For years, the LI and Wolfe have been the only British completed; looking at the unpainted items, it seems I bought some British and Americans to provide opponents to the French. The recent purchase of the RSM / Pax Britannica 30mm and Rafm 25mm have added to the pile. However, I now have enough British to provide opponents (or will do once painted).

After much contemplation, it seems fitting to build the British around Wolfe's army at Quebec; 2 units with yellow facings, two with white, one each with orange, black and buff plus Highlanders, converged Grenadiers and a few Rangers.

The first 44 rank and file have been cleaned up.

While cleaning them up I listened to an audio book of Fennymore Cooper's Last of the Mohicans.

Injuns and IDF (or Hurons and Halftracks)

Unseasonably warm weather in the UK meant painting was out of the question; a wet palette might have coped but I find it requires a slightly different technique as the paint becomes thinner.

I therefore spent the weekend between two projects. Firstly some Rafm Native Americans / First Nations warriors were cleaned up with some requiring the addition of weapons.

Next the IDF M3 halftracks for the 35th Para Brigade attached to Ugda Tal.

Finis!

At last, I have finished painting the two battalions of Regiment du Berry.

What I thought would be a quick job has turned into a marathon! I spent lots of time getting the gris-blanc to a colour that wasn't to far from the existing French. The hard bit was trying to paint in a style that would not look completely different while getting something I was happy with.

Need varnish and flags and basing, but they are done for now.

The existing regiments are awaiting their flags refreshing as the varnish has yellowed considerably, Bearn was especially effected.

You can't go back.....and why maybe you shouldn't try!

A cautionary tale....

I embarked on the painting of the two battalions of Regiment du Berry on the expectation it would be a quick job. After all the bulk of the figures had already been blocked in so would just need touching up and a few figures added to fill the gaps....

Well it turns out it wasn't that simple. First I had to add around 8 figures to the same style as the previous painter. OK done. It was then that I examined my existing figures. The new figures were way too dark. Far darker than even my darkest figure's "Gris-blanc" coat, the particular French grey-white shade.

So I tried to remember how I'd painted back then. It was just before switching to black undercoat and layers. It must have been washes and drybrushing (as per Peter Gilder's guide from Military Modelling). So I tried a drybrush of lighter grey. No still too dark.

Part of the problem is my old figures are varnished and the varnish has discoloured giving an antique yellow hue. I cannot see how they were painted.

So, a thin light grey- white wash was applied over the dark drybrushed colour. Red was applied to one battalion. At this stage I began to realise that I would have been better to simply strip the figures and start again.........

Maybe, I'd have been better to not try matching, but just paint in my current style or using Contrast Paint? What was I thinking?

While intellectually I realise you cannot go back in time and be the person you were 20 years ago, I'd assumed you could replicate your painting style? 

It turns out trying to paint the way you did 30 to 40 years ago is harder than it seems....

Even realising how long ago it was gives pause for thought......

Anyway, this is where I've got to. I need to finish off a few more colours to see how they look.

Les Francais...

After completing 2 units of infantry for Banst (previous post) I decided the motivation wasn't there and rather than it become a chore, I put them away and did something else.

As my reading (and brain) is stuck in a French & Indian War theme, it seemed sensible to work on that.....

After sorting out the marching figures and strengthening weak bayonets, followed by some sorting of units, both RSM and Rafm, I put to one side some French bought part painted. This was interrupted by a parcel which needed collecting from the post office. This turned out to be Rafm Flint & Feather range packs from Australia, mostly canoes, something I had not bought originally (but always coveted).

The figures were part of the lots which had lead rot. These however, had been part painted. The bases had something on the underside, which didn't look like the lead carbonate bloom on the others, more like undercoat or results of glue.

I debated stripping the figures, but in the end decided not to. If they had been primed, then it should have prevented the lead rot developing. As a precaution I removed the residue (which didn't produce the same black on the gloves) and brushed them with the gum turpentine and mineral oil solution.

My idea was that the pre-painting should save some time. It did mean trying to match someone else's painting style and somehow blending them with my existing figures. My French had all been painted just prior to switching to a black undercoat, so are simple block washes, without shading.

The figures appeared to have been painted black in most areas, followed by a drybrush of grey. After repairing areas in black where the paint had rubbed off, I coated some extra figures to make up the numbers for two battalions for Regiment Berry. Touching up the white meant I had a grey to use to blend in the new figures. After a couple of hours, I had this:

More work is needed to match my original units. In the background, is the command stand of Bearn - their flag has suffered the most from varnish discolouration and fading and I may attempt to freshen it up with paint. They are also there to provide a reminder of ancient painting style. 

The units were originally done for WRG's 1685 - 1845 rules at a 1:50 scale working on French units of 14 figures to include a separate grenadier and LI piquet figures. I'm not convinced the piquet skirmishers were around for the SYW, although in Europe, the French deployed entire regiments as skirmishers (from memory). I should re-read Lee Kennett. Anyway, for consistency, I have kept with 14 figure units even though Chartrand estimates the standard battalion of being 550 (11 figures), with Berry having 960 in its two battalions (480 or 9 -10 figures). The game works on 600 or 12 figure battalions. Real life unit strength varied due to captures at sea, reinforcements, desertion, death and disease and towards the end, the regulars were made up to strength with Canadian militia.

The extra figures will allow for the formation of ad-hoc grenadier battalions (as at Ticonderoga) or for variable scale games; for smaller battles, a higher figure ratio is probably needed, such as Lake George where the 200 men of La Reine represented by 14 figures = 1:15. Of course this does mean more figures for militia, native Americans etc.

Keeping busy - slow progress

In an effort to combat the listlessness and lack of motivation, I started with a relatively simple task.....

Some nicely painted figures acquired from eBay (I don't normally buy painted figures) had suffered some bent muskets and consequent paint flaking as well as some loss of paint where they had been "rubbed"; it seems the painter had not bothered with either primer nor varnish!

The figures were simply touched up where paint was missing.

Some French Canadian militia (or Habitants) for the French and Indian War. The red "tunque" identifies them as from Quebec.

Today saw me revisit my Arab-Israeli project, inspired by Joao's wonderful blog and comments about IDF M3 halftracks, I remembered three were awaiting conversion in the project box.

http://jpwargamingplace.blogspot.com/2023/07/rfrable-archer-israeli-army-for-lebanon.html

Digging them out resulted in more work on the M-50 Shermans as they were in the same box and when looking through the project box I found a piece from an M-40 spg which I realised would convert to the gun travel lock missing from the models....an oversight which has bugged me since I realised I had not added them earlier.

All in all, a satisfying day of modelling.

Keeping busy

Despite oppressive heat, today I pushed myself into doing something. Although it was a challenge, with paint drying on the palette, I had a go at the Contrast painted Egyptians.

A spot of drybrushing and touching up and they don't look too shabby. The good thing is that you can go back over with Contrast paints as a pinwash to restore shading.

Meanwhile, the French and Indian War obsession continues with the purchase of more reference material:

I've also dug out some that I already had. I know now that painting with Contrast paints should hurry things up.