15mm Napoleonics: AB Napoleon & Staff, pt. III

Boney and Staff, AB Miniatures.

Some years ago I decided that I'd treat myself to certain things by Anthony Barton, from his 15/18mm Napoleonic AB range. As a kid I'd had some of his Battle Honours figures, and loved them.  Even though I'm building my major forces in smaller scales - 6mm and 10mm - I wanted some command bases, and perhaps even some display bases, of 15mm.

In part this is something I've always thought would be good. But I think I might also have been influenced by having seen such ideas manifested in reality. Doesn't Callan fight wargames with Schneider in the Callan feature film A Magnum for Schneider using Peter Gilder's armies which have larger scale commander figures?

Slightly closer view...

In the end I might wind up with smaller 15mm armies anyway, as a by-product, which'd be good. But at present all I have is a rather motley selection: Napoleon and sundry staff; a load of Guard Lancers (my putative 'display' unit or units); and some non-AB oddments (one mini-battalion each of French and English Peninsular Naps by AW Miniatures). I also have a similarly ragbag assortment of 25/28mm stuff: Boney and staff (again!); a whole load of the Perry's Retreat from Russia series, and sundry random boxes of 28mm Nap plastics, mostly unassembled, never mind painted!

... after basic Milliput basing.

Having been mega-sidetracked now for several years by building 1/72 (mostly German) WWII stuff, and constant reading,  I've been determined to get back into painting minis. I'm getting there in a roundabout way. First I built and painted some Airfix 54mm Nap plastic figs, and then I started painting some 20mm WWII vehicles and figures. But, dang it, I was still avoiding the 6/10mm stuff!

I figured maybe if I finished the Boney and Staff 15mm stuff, all of which was already started, this might help edge me back towards my original goals? All of this has been very slow in happening. But today I finally got to the stage where I felt happy enough to start basing these command group figures. The painting part is, I'd guess, about 90% done.

Bases painted with Vallejo flat earth.

Pictured above is how they're all looking at close of play today: Milliput 'soil' on MDF bases, somewhat texturised, painted in Vallejo 'flat earth'. Tomorrow I'll detail the soil a bit with washes and dry brushing. Then I'll give the whole lot a dull-coat lacquering, before doing some final washes and highlights (on the figures/horses). Then it'll be time for final earth and grass basing, a last layer of lacquering, and they should be done.

Painting Progress: loadsa figures...

Nothing too specific in this post, just keeping myself motivated on the painting front, really.

I bought a can of matt grey undercoat paint, from a car parts shop in Ely, on a friend's recommendation. You get more coverage for your buck! I bought the can Saturday, it's Tuesday today, and I've emptied it already. 

Proper 'toy soldiers' these!

These fellows in zeltbahn needed their right hands adjusting, to look more natural/realistic: left as bought; right, after plastic surgery.

But then I have sprayed base-coats on quite a bit of stuff: about 150 1/72 plastic figures (not the hard plastic type either, but the 'toy' soft plastic sort!), from several different brands, inc. Airfix, Revell, and Caesar; then there are about 40 or 50 28mm Retreat From Russia figs, almost all of which are Perry (there's one figure, of Ney, in the famous musket-toting, long fur-lined-jacket wearing pose derived from that famous painting of him fighting with the rearguard... but I forget who the manufacturer is!?); and fourteen 28 hard plastic hussar mounts (Perrys again!).

Ready for undercoating.

I love these figures!

Can you spot the lone non-Perry fig?

The can also saw service on Saturday and Sunday, as well as today, covering a further 10 or so mounted 28mm figs, and around the same number on foot, both groups being Napoleon and staff. 

There are also a few random extras, like some Salute figures from various years. And then there are all the ongoing 20mm WWII Germans, that I started during Half-Term. Oh, and the 10mm Russians, and the 28mm Front Rank drummers, and...

At left, Gringo 40's rather nice 28mm Murat, a pied; centre, a Salute ACW officer (shades of Custer?); right, Foundry's Murat, also in Polish garb.

One of my several 28mm Napoleon's, this a one-piece casting, from Foundry.

Another great Salute figure: Colin Maud, or rather Kenneth More, with blackthorn stick and faithful mutt, Winston.

Well, it's all proceeding in a rather haphazard manner. That kind of bothers me on one level. I feel I ought to fix on one project, and see it through. But, thus far at any rate, I seem incapable of doing that. So, never mind, I'll just follow my whims for now!

Figure World 2014 & More work on Perry Boney

Ol' Boney his-self.

Last Saturday, 19th July, Teresa and I visited Figure World for the first time. In the beautiful setting of Oundle School, itself set in the very picturesque village of Oundle, enthusiasts for figure modelling put on a show that's still quite new, and is, apparently, the only UK show solely dedicated to figure modelling.

This is actually the view looking out from the venue, but it's still part of the school, and gives the flavour of the setting.

I was there to further work on my Perry 'Bonaparte Crossing The Alps' figure. I wanted a wooden base, and some matt enamel. A pretty short shopping list for me! I was tmpeted by some nice but pricey 54mm metal Napoleonics, and also some superb books on modelling trees, by Gordon Gravett. But I managed a rare feat of self control, and only got what I'd originally intended to buy. Phew!

The wooden base I bought. Laburnum, apparently!

Today I boldly embarked upon the next, and to me the scariest step: modelling a scenic base. I've never done anything like this before. Even the bases for wargaming figures I made over two decades ago, when I originally built up armies as a youngster, were nothing like this is intended to be. I want to emulate the rocky ground in the David Painting. I'm also setting the miniature on a round wooden base, so I needed to somehow cut out a neat circular section of the rocky scene.

I wanted to use the modelling of the rocky setting as an opportunity to tilt the horse into a more reared-up pose, as per the painting. The figure as is, if based directly onto a flat surface, is in quite a different pose to the very alive and energised David renderings.

In the end I used some yellow/grey Milliput. This Milliput is as old as some of my older Humbrol enamel tinlets, i.e. over 20 years old, minimum! But, amazingly, it's still usable. Having mixed the epoxy materials together, I started modelling a sloping disc, using various knives and sundry other tools. I then used a plastic lid, from a cylindrical spice container, which I'd found was more or less the perfect diameter, and cut into the Milliput, cookie-cutter style.

I like this view, as it shows clearly the jagged rock edges that I've modelled in the style of David's Belvedere painting.

I superglued the Milliput to the wooden base, and went around the edges attempting to tidy them up. In the process my nice clean cut cookie-edging lost a bit of its sharpness. But I'm satisfied, especially as this is a first ever attempt. I then put a it of superglue on the base, and pressed the painted figure into the Milliput 'rocks', before going to work to try and achieve a satisfying balance between preserving aspects of the sculpted base, and integrating it into my David-style rock scene.

Where the integration of the figures' base and the Milliput rocks looked pretty clumsy when unpainted, I think this black undercoat draws it all together quite nicely.

Impatience then lead me to paint the Milliput, after it'd only sat and 'gone off' for around about one hour. So far it's just had one coat of 'Umbrol matt black. Tomorrow I'll work on painting the rocks. Then I need to varnish the whole thing - figure and rocks, but not the wooden base - which is another stage I'm a bit worried about: as the figure stands (I know, I know, he's actually sitting!) I've used a mix of matt, satin and gloss paints, not to mention several metallic colours.

A guy at Figure World sold me a spray can of Testors varnish. It doesn't actually say what finish it is anywhere I can see, rather alarmingly and annoyingly . I did specify matt... so I very much hope it is matt! I'm feeling very chary of spraying Boney and his horse, as I don't want to wreck all the paint work with a uniform lacquer. But I need to do domething, as the Army Painter Quickshade wash I used on the mane and tail is a bit glossy/shiny, and I don't like that!

Once the base is modelled and painted, I think I'll commission an engraved 'plaque'. I got the contact details for someone who can do that at Figure a World as well. So it was a useful trip! Below are a few examples of the kind of eye-candy that was abundant at this show. There was all sorts of stuff, but I continue to confine myself mostly to Napoleonics. 

I couldn't resist the WWI artillery diorama though. There was also a guy at the show trading as Tommy's War, and his WWI figures were both very impressive and highly tempting. And that's saying something for me, as it's a period I'm not much drawn to as a rule (mind you, I do like German lancers mit pickelhaube!). I also very much liked this WWII 'Landser' as well, modelled on a photo from the German Signal magazine.

The photo that inspired the model, from my copy of Swastika At War (Hunt/Hartman).

This post was originally done from my iPad, using the Blogger App. Looking at it in Safari it needed some serious editing. When I publish from my desktop at home I always Photsohop pics etc., to get stuff sensibly sized and reasonably consistent. Publishing via the Blogger App seems a bit less finessed! Still, it's another option, and trying to publish via Safari from the iPad has problems of its own! But I've been back over this to tidy it up.

28mm Perry Salute 'Boney Crossing Alps' Figure

Jacques-Louis David's 'Napoleon Crossing The Alps'

Jacques-Louis David's 'Napoleon Crossing The Alps' is one of the most iconic paintings from that colourful era that bears the name of the man also known as 'Le petit Caporal' and 'The Corsican Ogre'.

This painting features on many books about the Napoleonic era, unsurprisingly (and is currently the screen-saver on my various mobile devices). But the image hasn't just become popular over time: in Napoleon's and David's own time it was also immensely popular. So much so that David ultimately painted five versions of it.

When I returned to the hobby, I was on a mission to find out if someone had sculpted this fantastic image as a miniature. I felt sure someone must have. And in the end, after buying a few other Napoleons, such as the Warmodelling 'Borodino' 15mm figure pack (Napoleon seated on a chair with one foot up on a drum, accompanied by a telescope-wielding ADC), I learned that yes, there was such a figure.

Made for Salute (I don't know which year), and sculpted by one of the Perry twins, it was also sold as a limited edition by Foundry, raising money, if I recall aright, for a charity in aid of an ailing friend in the industry. Every show I went to I'd buttonhole and badger anyone I thought looked like they might know about the figure, and ask how I could get one (I don't do eBay, so that was out).

And finally, at last years Salute I got lucky. I can't recall who it was - if the guy who posted the figure to me reads this, please remind me who you are, so I can thank you in public! - but someone I mentioned it to said they had a spare of this figure, and would post it to me for a modest amount (and it was modest, probably very little over the postage cost).

Having had the figure for some time now, and having nearly gone mad and blind painting a bunch of 6mm stuff, I figured a break from the micro-world would be good. I spent a while perusing the various David paintings, cogitating on which one to work from, and eventually plumped for this one:

...known as the Belvedere version, because I like the colours and the contrast in this reproduction best.

I did consider amalgamating aspects of several, and in the end I probably will have done so, to some limited degree. My choice was also governed in part by liking the white/grey horses better than the piebald or the brown.

Alan Perry's Napoleon Crossing the Alps

I contacted the Perry's via their website, to find out a bit more about the figure: Who'd sculpted it? When and who for? Is it still in production? Alan very kindly replied. Here is the relevant part:

'I made it many moons ago, in the early-mid 90's I think. It was for charity, connected to someone who worked at Foundry. If anyone has the mould it'll be Foundry.'

Having applied a black undercoat not long after receiving the figure, I finally started painting it properly last Saturday, blocking in some base colours. This whole paint job, like all my figure-painting at present, is done entirely using Humbrol enamels.

Then, on Sunday, I worked a bit on the horse. Both of these occasions were very time-limited.

And only today did I finally get a good few hours to work at it, in a leisurely yet intense way.

The above pair of pics are lit by a lamp in what I call my overhead 'midday' lighting position. The remainder below are lit with the lamp in what I term a 'late-afternoon/evening' position!

Whatever I or anyobdy else thinks of my painting skills here, I have to doff my bicorne to Alan Perry. I think it's an amazing little figure, full of the vitality that animates the painting.

It's interesting to note the differences between the sculpt and the painting. Some are very minor, such as how the sword sits relative the overall pose, whilst others are more major, like the less reared-up pose of the horse, and the fact Boney has both gloves on, whereas in all the David paintings his upraised hand is sans gant.

At present I'm building armies for Russia 1812 in 6mm and 12mm, but I like the idea of having 28mm figs for key commanders. This figure would be the first such commander, and they don't come more key than Boney himself! I have a fabulous Murat from Gringo 40s, waiting in the wings. 

My rendering of this beautiful Alan Perry miniature is still unfinished, at this moment in time - the gloves, sash and sword all need doing (as well as sundry other little details, plus a bit of general tidying up) - but I'm already quite pleased with it. That's reasonably unusual for me, so I'm doubly happy/chuffed!!

Stirrup of Figs

As a footnote: the following pics show how one of the stirrups was incomplete on my casting. I used some superfine white Milliput to make a repair, before undercoating it. This is my first successful conversion (attempts to add plumes to some AB 15mm Polish lancers were abortive!) since resuming the hobby, and I think it's come out okay.

Right foot with stirrup.

Left foot: note missing stirrup!

My Milliput repair: does it look a bit clumsy?

Well... I reckon it looks fine once undercoated.

UPDATE: 17/7/2014 - Nearly finished the painting!

I managed to squeeze in a little more work on this figure last night. The three pics below show Boney as he stands now, complete except for his gloves, and a little bit of tidying up and some washes to bring out some detail here and there. 

I have to say that I feel this is my best paint job to date. I am actually pleased! A lot of the credit has to go to Alan Perry, for sculpting such a beautiful and iconic figurine.

I've more or less followed the Belvedere iteration of David's work, only diverging from his colour scheme in that the horses 'cummerbund' (or whatever it's called: the band under the saddle, going around its belly) is brown in mine, and Napoleon's coat is a lot lighter/bluer. I like the 'tricolor' effect this gives: blue coat, red cape, white sash (and horse... -ish!).

There's a show dedicated to miniature figurines coming up fairly local to me, this coming Saturday, 19th July: Figureworld Model Show, in Oundle, nr. Peterborough. I intend to visit and see what I can do by way of a nice base for Boney.