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.

Nostalgic butterfly or butterfly nostalgia?

Idly browsing eBay, some coincidental finds prompted some nostalgic reminisces and a diversion into a project from the 1980s.......

At some stage I became interested in gaming a childhood obsession - the French and Indian war or the Seven Year's War in North America. I remember a TV drama of "Last of the Mohicans" which stayed with me. I had borrowed the odd book; one I recall described Braddock's massacre with a French officer dressed like an Indian......I was hooked!

What clinched it was finding a copy of Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe" in a second hand bookshop for a bargain price at just the time I was looking for such a book. While dated by modern standards, it's a good read covering the whole war (despite the title).

My eBay browsing had revealed some old copies of Military Modelling; I'd had these but weeded them in a house move, they included one with a cover picture that has inspired others, notably Greg Horne at the Duchy of Alzheim:

http://mavisming.blogspot.com/2014/01/2014s-mystery-project-2.html

This coincided with the release of the Pax Britannica 30mm (now RSM miniatures) range as pictured on the cover...

I also came across some of the old Rafm Flint and Feather range at a very good price....

http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Flint_and_Feather_%28RAFM%29

I had started on a project using both ranges way back in the mid/late 1980s; a friend had British so I'd concentrated on the French and Native Americans. At some stage I'd become distracted and drifted into Europe, although did refight the Plains of Abraham unsuccessfully although with a historical outcome as well as some hypothetical engagements. My French line had spent more time in Germany than America....

My discoveries on eBay lead me to digging out the figures from the garage; I had remembered my painting as indifferent, but was pleasantly surprised to find they weren't that bad as I thought. The Rafm figures had been painted with washes which look very much like what would be achieved with Contrast paints........this got me thinking about how easy it would be to add some British infantry and American militia using Contrast paints......

Cue more digging into boxes in the garage for the unpainted figures I knew were lurking; I had vague ideas of what I had but was pleasantly surprised that I had some other bits. I also remembered I had a boardgame from around the same time.....

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17591/mohawk

I had forgotten how it resembled Soldier King in having point to point movement with battles being resolved on a separate "battle board" using the counters which represent roughly a battalion of 600 regulars or band of 500 indians; I'd been organising my figures into units of 12 or 10......obviously with a view to fighting a campaign......

Mohawk! Your time has come! It's only been waiting since 1982.......

Something different an ECW experiment

One of my future planned projects is ECW in 15mm.

My plan is to paint using some speed methods, such as black washes and Contrast paints.

I have experimented on my 20mm Arab-Israeli figures; my main reservation was the lack of a strong delineation between areas that you get with a black undercoat method.

So my experiment was to take 6 identical miniatures but prepare them differently.

Two each  were undercoated in white, grey and black. One each of the white and grey got a wash in a mix of Pledge Revive it (previously Klear), water and black ink. The black figures were drybrushed in white for one and grey for the other.

Step one undercoats

Step two flesh

Step three common basic colours

Step four all colours except coat and scarf - variations hat / trousers

Step five all basic colours variations in coat 3 blue, 3 red

The white undercoat gives brightest colours; all will benefit from normal acrylic white and some highlights and hair touched in. Still not decided which appeals the most. I'm coming to the conclusion Contrast paints are useful, but need extra work to look really good. They do speed up the basic colour blocking in and are produce less fatigue, as you are not concentrating as much.

Back in the black.....

After a short working week, back to the weekend workbench.....

Mood has improved, probably due to an improvement in the weather (I don't know if anyone else finds themselves impacted by grey cloudy skies or miserable weather, I seem to be more and more as I get older....), although the early part of the week I could tell I was really down and it was a bit of a struggle to concentrate or get motivated for work. My sincere thanks to those who commented with messages of support.

This weekend was in danger of slipping away. My intention was to undercoat the army of Waldow. I had bought the only can of black I could find which was for BBQs and was "heat resistant" . Nothing indicated it shouldn't be used on plastic, but not wishing to risk matters, I dug out some spare, partly broken Spencer Smith figures to test it on. By the time I had got organised, a breeze had got up. I tested the figures but decided to wait. No adverse effects and while I'd given up hope for the day, suddenly I noticed the wind had dropped. So late in the day, they were sprayed and finished off where the spray missed in the evening.

So, I now have two armies undercoated and waiting for paint. Which means I feel like I am rapidly approaching a conclusion or end point with the project. There are two small armies to do and I have decided Estavia needs a small expansion (4 line, 1 grenadier, 1 cavalry and 1 LI). To bolster the smaller armies, if they need to fight alone, I have been toying with creating some Imperial militia (4 line) and some civilian militia / rebels (the game allows for rebel provinces). Once those are done, then I only envisage further expansion as a result of a campaign (conquering provinces to gain extra resources for recruitment).

Of course there's still the small matter of terrain; lots of card houses and castles to build, trees to stick together or rejuvenate (Merit and Britains) and my old step hills to find and possibly repaint as well as all the other stuff like rivers and fortifications (have some old Bellona and new Amera vac-form plastic) and lets not mention the river craft / naval possible expansion........

Black dog instead of black undercoat.......

Best laid plans for the long bank holiday weekend did not, alas, survive contact with reality.....

I set myself a realistic goal, but despite taking Friday off, was unable to apply myself until very late in the day, and then it was forcing myself to do something......anything in fact.

I set to cleaning up more Spencer Smith plastics for Waldow; a happy discovery was that I had already tackled the cavalry. For the uninitiated, cleaning up these figures involves removing various degrees of flash and mould line running right around the figure. Some have access plastic (horses mostly) where the moulds were worn. This has to be done with a fresh scalpel blade; when you start getting "furring" or resistance it's time to change the blade. Fortunately, having worked in the medical profession, I acquired a lot of sterile expired scalpel blades and some disposable scalpels which I have been using over the years. I have lots of blades that are still perfectly serviceable after use, just not on the plastics.

It is laborious, tedious and unrewarding work. Despite wanting to crack on with it, I found myself struggling due to my mood. Come Saturday, I awoke with fresh enthusiasm and with the aid of podcasts, worked through to the point where they were cleaned, casting holes filled and flagpoles glued in place. Only two Grenadier drummers and four light infantry required head swaps.

My plan was to put on a coat of varnish to seal them before undercoating, which I managed. Unfortunately, while Saturday had been ideal weather, Sunday was cloudy and windy so no black spray.......

I still thought I'd manage to do something else, but the enthusiasm and positive mindset completely evaporated and I've found myself fighting off depressive thoughts - Churchill's Black Dog.  It's been a while since I've been so visited. I suspect it's because work has been so busy, not helped by someone recently retiring at two years earlier than I will be able to!

So I plod along dreaming of retirement or even a modest lottery win!

Banst in black

Fine weather yesterday allowed some undercoating with a rattle can car primer. Having only located one, I could tell it might be tight an so it proved to be, with it expiring just after the first two sides of the last tranche. Thought I had more, but probably not. One for the shopping list.

Anyway, as normal, they were finished off with brushed on black acrylic where the spray didn't reach.

the Elector of Banst and his forces in their box file awaiting painting.

I have the urge to spend the rest of the day reviewing the hordes of 15mm I have acquired over the years for the Great Italian Wars 1494 - 1544.

Slow but steady progress

The Banst army received a coat of varnish prior to undercoating (to give a surface to bind to) and I tackled the artillery. I had swapped heads and added some greenstuff, but it didn't look right. I was aiming for something like the American / French dragoon helmet meets a Tarleton. Ended up adding more greenstuff until I got something like I was after.

Here are the crews with guns (barrels to be added after painting as already bronze) and team to form the "flying artillery" - early horse artillery . Next to them are the amusettes with scratch-built mobile pavaisse / carriage.

Surplus heads were used on donor bodies to make citizen militia / rebels. I also played around converting some Spencer Smith Napoleonic figures. Militia in coat (from Garde Grenadier in greatcoat) and a pandour (from highlander) - aiming for a figure in long white shirt / tunic, waistcoat, skull cap and tight leggings a bit like Greek Evzones costume.

More head surgery....

 Following on from the last post, more head swaps, this time the cavalry and artillery....

So 8x dragoons, 6x artillery crew, 4x amusette crew with the donors becoming 15x civilian militia / rebels (the additional due to over zealous use of track cutters which chopped through the head resulting in another donor body).

The donors were Napoleonic Bavarian / Wurtemburg (helmets) and ACW all Spencer Smiths.

In addition, 4x hussars (unconverted) and another 3x lancers (helmets shaped from Czapska) were added. All required removal of mould lines / flash with sharp scalpel, where heads swapped, pins were inserted and cut down before gluing with excess glue and plastic removed and cut down. All but amusette crew had greenstuff added and shaped before liquid greenstuff used to smooth out conversions and necks.

Managed a particularly bloody scalpel accident when it slipped down out of my grasp and ended up in the ball of my thumb cutting a blood vessel which bled profusely. After this wore anti-cut gloves on both hands, including one holding the scalpel!

After this some may wonder whether it's me who requires the head surgery!

A chopping of heads....

Taking advantage of the long bank holiday weekend, I sat down determined to do something. After endless Spencer Smith painting I wanted to do something different, but whatever I dug out just didn't appeal. Fighting off apathy and low mood (if I don't make use of my time off I find I'm prone to slipping into depressive thoughts) I forced myself to get on with something.....anything!

Despite wanting to do something different, I found my mind is still stuck in Soldier King mode, so gave in to where what little enthusiasm I had was residing.

Pulling the next box file off the pile I found was Banst. An Imperial Electoral state, this one has diverged slightly. The Elector has turned out to be militarily gifted but not well disposed to his neighbours (there is some hint of a scandalous past). I decided this army would be very loosely modelled on De Saxe's ideas: there would be legions in classical helmets, dragoons and lancers. The uniforms would be green, buff and red.

The downside, is that unfortunately, almost every figure would need to be converted....

The origins lie in when the idea came of representing each state in the game to include the neutral provinces, I simply didn't have enough figures of the standard types and poses. What I did have were some spare figures: lancers and Napoleonic cavalry in helmet, plus some later Spencer Smith figures (not the Barry Minot Connoisseur) of a smaller stature, including light infantry, grenadiers and highlanders. I'd bought unseen from Peter Johnstone.

The idea came to use these "leftovers" . Part of me however, rebelled and I thought it would not quite fit. As time went on, I have been able to acquire more plastic Spencer Smiths and hit on the idea of head conversions, as Peter Johnstone has done with the replacement metal Spencer Smiths. I have used the grenadier in mitre for some of the Electoral army. The army of Banst makes use of the light infantry head. Grenadiers in fur cap were decapitated and a replacement head added with painfully inserted pins. Here they are awaiting glue. A sole experimental skirmisher stands at front (from Napoleonic grenadier). Just for Jonathan, the crude sketches and some other inspiration material sits behind them.

A belated welcome to some new followers who have joined in the last few weeks. I hope you find something of interest.

Several shades of grey....

Less than 50 ☺ but possibly as painful at times!

Last week saw me struggle through the army of the Prince Bishopric of Cleve, the final contingent for the Electoral Army. For some reason, they were hard going, but with the glue still drying on their bases, the military might parades in review before the Prince Bishop and his brother.

This completes the Electoral army and means that until I clean up and undercoat the next batch, I have no Spencer Smiths ready to paint, so will probably do something else. Hopefully, with a break, I will feel more enthusiastic about painting Spencer Smiths!

The next army is likely to be that of Waldow which have a very Swedish vibe to them.

Additional - a Grand Parade! The Electoral Army in all its glory!

Right Wing

Left wing

Bern baby Bern!

My apologies for the title of this post; it has been swirling around my head since starting the army. I was thinking more of music than civil rights when it popped into my head. However, judging by the psychedelic flags they have ended up with, I may have been thinking 1960s rather than 1970s disco!

They ended up as improvised on the spot when I realised I would need a third colour in the border; unfortunately, one had already been painted so it was too late to go back an alter it to merge with the others. I was working from what I thought was "the plan" for flag patterns when after drawing and painting them, found another version in a notebook.......always check all your sources! Even for imaginary armies! I have rationalised it as another earlier pattern. It would have allowed just two colours to be used and would have tied them together. Sigh! Never mind. There was no way I was going back to redo them; such things happen.

The flags are based on the heraldry. Parti per pale Orange tawny and Azure, a shield Or charged with a griffon Sable.

The Duke and his brother, the Erzfurst (who appears in his natural state in the page on the Soldier King campaign).

The army arrayed and the infantry manoeuvring to show off their flags.

And finally, just for Jonathan, a picture of the sketches for the next Electoral contingent, the Prince Bishopric of Cleve showing ideas for uniforms and flags.