Painting Progress: Basing #1

Pictured above is the scene of prolific semi-organised chaos on my 'workbench'*. 

I decided to unearth some 10mm Napoleonic 1812 battalions - only two: one French, one Russian - and think about basing some figures, at long last. In the process I recovered some other almost forgotten figures, including four 40mm AWI figures by Front Rank, which my wife bought me at some show several years ago, in a bid to get me working in a scale she could appreciate without an electron microscope.

AW 15mm Peninsular Brits (discontinued?) [1]; Magister Militum 10mm French, and Old Glory 10mm Russians. [2]

Unfortunately I have very little to hand suitable for basing, as I've yet to come up with definitive decisions on my methodology. I have, however, collected some odds and sods, in the form of a few packets of various sized pre-cut MDF bases. Mostly by (I think?) Minibits.

I soon discovered that, out of all the odds and ends I can currently find, only two, or perhaps three, at best, were suited to my current wants and needs: consequently I could only base one French 10mm battalion, an (under strength) 15mm British Peninsular battalion, my 20mm SS Cavalry, and the 40mm Front Rank AWI guys.

I opted to pair these guys off, excepting only the dismounted fellow...

... who stand guard over an assortment of temporarily discarded gear...

... whilst his buddies are out on patrol.

I used to base my old Minifigs 15mm and the like on card bases (!?), onto which I'd superglue the figures, before 'bedding them in' with Milliput. This last step was done to create a stronger base where the white metal bases of the figures would be flush with the tops of the scenic bases. I used to texture the Milliput with a pin (!?), before blocking in with grass green, and finally doing a dark green wash, followed by a light green dry-brush. Before the enamel paint had dried I'd scatter some green railway modeller's scenic flock over them. Presto, my basing was done!

Fast-forward 20+ years, and these modern MDF bases are so much better than my flimsy card bases ever were. But I thought I'd honour the old tradition, at least on some of the larger scale figures, and use Milliput on some of these bases. So rather than starting on the 10mm or 15mm units, I went with the SS Cavalry and AWI bases. The process can be seen in the two accompanying sets of pics on this post. This time around I used an old toothbrush and a cruddy paintbrush to texture the Milliput.

40mm giants ...

... trudging through Milliput snows ...

... with some Spring in their step.

I'm actually quite pleased with how these came out. I will be working further on them; adding sand, grit, grass, etc. But I have to confess I do like the rather toy-like simplicity of blocked green bases!

* The dining-table!

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NOTES:

[1] Looking at the AW Miniatures site today, it appears they no longer do their 15mm Napoleonic figures. A pity that, for me, as my two 'battalions' - one Frnch one British - are both woefully (but, historically speaking, more accurately, perhaps?) under-strength.

[2] These 10mm units were amongst the first units to be painted on my return to the hobby, and have sat, unfinished and gathering dust, for a number of years. Until now!

Painting Progress: 1/72 Britannia Miniatures SS Cavalry

Pictured above are the nearly completed miniatures. But let's go back a few days first...

I was working on a whole load of stuff...

... and I decided to single out the SS cavalry.

I bought these seven Britannia Miniatures SS cavalry figures at the most recent Partizan. I really like the idea of fielding a small number of cavalry in my 1/72 WWII German army. And I love these figures. I've only got seven - I'd have liked eight, but they didn't have the panzerschrek toting fellow I wanted as #8 (he'll be a future reinforcement I think) - but that's fine. I don't want too many.

Over the recently finished half-term (damn, that went quick!) I prepped a fairly large quantity of figures, mostly in 10mm Russian Nap, 1/72 (plus a few 1/76) German WWII, and a bunch of 28mm Napoleonics (mostly Foundry Napoleon & staff sets, on foot and mounted, and sundry other oddments, inc. a small collection of Front Line French Nap drummers!). Some if which can be seen in the second  pic, near the top of this post.

I got rid of the tank commander figures on these lolly sticks; they were getting in the way.

Starting on the camo'.

Once I'd got a battalion of 10mm Russian Nap Gren done, I decided to turn to these guys, whilst also doing a little on some other stuff. And today I did very little besides work on these dudes.Having stopped for the day, they're well on their way. It's really just the horses that need attention now. There's still some shading/highlighting and detail to do as well. But I feel the end is in sight.

I think I'll base these guys individually. I envisage my WWII troops being made use of in smaller skirmish type scenarios. The larger figure size - and esp. if armour is also involved - means I'll have to be clever with space!

A fair way off being finished, but starting to look ok, I hope!?

UPDATE: Work intervened, and progress slackened, but yesterday I did a bit more. I transferred the figures to individual wine-cork 'plinths', as handling groups of them on lolly-sticks meant I kept rubbing paint off exposed areas. 

I've been constantly touching up and re-touching areas, and have added some detail to collars and caps. Overall I'm quite pleased. But I've learned from experience that acrylic on acrylic washes aren't that efficient, so I'll be gloss-varnishing these today, and then trying my first oil paint washes since returning to the hobby.

When I left off, donkeys years ago, one of my final units were some 15mm Eclaireurs, of the French Imperial Guard, and I recall that they were almost as much painted in artists oils as Humbrol enamels, a process I'd been evolving toward over a period of years. It'll be interesting to try again, now I'm older and perhaps (I hope!?) a little wiser!

Partizan, 2016

I don't know why, but I felt I had to go to Partizan today. Teresa didn't come with me this time, alas. And it was such a nice day for a spin up the A1 with the top down! The sun shining brightly, it felt like a proper little holiday jaunt.

The former Partizan venue, Kelham Hall.

The new venue, the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall, Newark Showground. Outside view.

The George Stephenson Exhibition Hall. Inside view.

I was intrigued to see what the change from Kelham Hall would feel like (I never went to the show when they had it in tents!), and was unsurprised to find that - despite the worthy invocation of a Victorian giant - the George Stephenson Exhibition Hall was just another characterless marketing shed. But, on t'other hand, it is a more practical and better lit space. What a pity we can't have both character and adequate lighting! Surely it must be possible?

I got there early enough to enjoy queuing for about 15 mins, and to bag the commemorative figure - a miniature steampunk (that theme again!) Stephenson. Frankly I'd have preferred him without the steampunk overlay. 

The show seemed well attended, and there were plenty of traders and games. I must confess I didn't think the games were all up to the old aesthetic standards of some previous Partizans. 

And there weren't enough Napoleonic games for this old grognard. I think I saw just three: one naval, one very small skirmish game (Sharp - or is it Sharpe? - Practice), and one in which Austrians troops were, rather unusually, fighting their old allies, the Rooshians. 

Austrians vs. Russians on the teddy-bear-fur Steppes.

It was nice to see these two reliably recurrent antagonists of the French slugging it out with each other for a change, in what I assumed must be a Russia 1812 scenario. 

I assumed this for two reasons: the only time this happened, I believe, was when Schwarzenberg's Austrians formed the Grand Armée's southern flank, and had some run-ins with the Russians in their sector; oh, and there was one of those onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches.

Exquisite miniature fleets - Dutch foreground, English background - afloat on what looks like a blue faux-leather sea!

There were some other interesting looking games, but I didn't get as snap-happy at this show as I usually do. One of my favourite tables, from a purely visual point of view, was probably the 1666 Anglo-Dutch naval battle. The 'scenery' element was perhaps a little too basic for my tastes, but the sheer quantity of miniature fighting ships was a delightful sight.

As an aside, with reference to the above six pics: By and large I try and avoid getting sucked into new areas of wargaming interest. Potentially every book or film or whatever it might be can spark a desire to buy another army in another era. 

At present I'm confining myself to Napoleonics and WWII (with the ACW lurking in the background!). But I have to say that when I recently listened to an audiobook of extracts from Samuel Pepys' diaries I found it hard to resist the idea of getting all marine and 17th Century. Nautical but nice, as I like to say!

Above and below, SS cavalry, 1/72 by Britannia Miniatures [1]. I love these guys!

Due to limited funds figure purchases were severely restricted. There's another figure in this set, toting a panzerschreck. But they didn't have any (unpainted), alas.

I had second thoughts about going along to Partizan all, both 'cause I'd be on me lonesome, and 'cause our attempts to buy a home mean funds are severely limited.

In the end I only bought two 1/72 WWII German tank kits (an Italeri Hetzer and a Fujimi Tiger I), a nice little group of mounted SS WWII German Cavalry (both these lots from Grubby Tanks/Britannia Miniatures), a magnifying-visor for painting (Barwell Bodyworks), and a biography of Baron Larrey from David Lanchester.

The Baron bandages a biffed bonce, in a detail from Lejeune's fab Borodino painting.

Despite only stopping at the show for a measly two hours, I had fun - except for the moment when I nearly fainted! [2] - and came away with stuff that's both useful and enjoyable.

I had wondered if any bloggers might meet up at the show, as they do at Salute, but I only got wind of such a meeting when I got home afterwards and googled the subject... Doh!

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NOTES:

[1] I realise now that some of the WWII Germans of unknown manufacturer origin in my recent previous posts - the rather dynamically posed if somewhat chunky and oddly proportioned white metal nebelwerfer crew, to be precise - are Britannia figures.

[2] It was the price of ... no, I can't lie... it was purely and simply that I'm apparently inexorably evolving into the archetypical overweight unfit wargamer! The fare they served up at the Bistro didn't exactly help me wage war on my waistline. Oh no, it was more like reinforcements!