Prussian Progress

I had hoped to start the Prussian infantry before the start of March but in the end I got them started just as March was settling in. Only had a few sessions on them so far so lots to do. I have 12 units to paint up in total, all Line Infantry and the schedule I have worked out calls for three bases per month to have enough ready to re-fight Waterloo on it's 200th anniversary.

This half of the pile still has the blanket rolls to be painted, behind them you can see French and ECW waiting their turn (again). Each base will have 24 figures in column or line with a further four out front as a skirmish screen. As is most of my Napoleonic's these are Baccus and paint up really quickly.

These brave boys have the blankets done, need to crack on with the other half to get them to this stage. Then it's muskets, backpack, shako cover and odd paper rosette, drums, swords, facings etc. if all goes well I will have them finished early next week though painting time is in short supply for the next three days. I am hoping to get on to what is probably the last entry in the challenge from me.

The sages to date are. Prime in Ultramarine Blue, heavy dry brush Dark Prussian Blue, light dry brush Prussian Blue, Red Leather for the flesh then paint cheeks  nose and chin in Flat Flesh. Trousers in Blue Grey Pale. Then a white strap for the backpack (other hidden by the blanket roll). Then the blanket roll in Sky Grey. I think I am about half way through these but no matter as when done I will be way in front of where I need to be.

The Friday Quiz 6

Right I will from here on in be picking the questions rather than going with a set, so I hope these will be somewhat easier than they have been. 1-2 will be Ancient to 1600, 3-4 will be Early modern 1600-1914, 5-6 will be 1914 onwards and 7 will be a question I come up with. Hopefully making this a tad more fun than the last couple.

1. How would Romans have used a tortoise.

2. What does the term janissary mean?

3. Who was the first commander of the New Model Army?

4. Which Napoleonic marshal sat on the touch-hole of an Austrian cannon to prevent the destruction of the Danube bridge at Spitz in 1805?

5. What was a Big Wing?

6. What kind of warship is the Kiev?

7. Which Nations troops were first to suffer the gesture of having two fingers raised at them as an insult?

Well I hope this one appeals to you guys and gels

3D Sniper's The Russians Arrive

Painted up the Forged In Battle Russian 3D Snipers which more or less will bring this project to it's close. I will only do the other Nations in dribs and drabs if I can find small quantities of each other Nation. The Russians for me have been a bit of a disappointment as the castings whilst quite crisp tended to have issues with sculpt. The biggest issue being straps that are plainly visible on one side of the figure disappear once over the shoulder. Also one pose all had a big flap of flash covering the bottom half of the face. 

Whilst this can be dealt with it's a fair drop in quality from both the Germans and Americans. Let's just say that if I was to do more 15mm Russians I would be looking for another supplier but would still consider Forged for other Nations.

Still they painted up fairly quickly and now are ready for anyone who want's them. I would have loved to take them up to Heroes this weekend where I am sure I could have sold off a number of them as well as the Sniper Reminders but better still I could have a great weekend of ASL, still I plan to have my own ASL weekend in a week or three or.............

This is the one I am keeping, I painted him up as a Commissar so he should bag he a Hitlerite or two. Given that the Sniper Reminders are still being panted up over 18 months after the project started I am rather happy that these guys were on and off the desk in such a short period. Another thing I am rather pleased with is that I have just finished off the Baccus WSS command for Matt making that the fastest I have painted up a whole army. I am now going to throw myself at twelve bases of Prussians for a total of 336 figures, I want them based by this time next week then it's probably back to the 15mm and 6mm ECW the first lot being with Curt awaiting scoring.

Just The Base`ic` Facts

So I have the sand, the paint and the flock, all that was required was the action. So I played about with all the components which included trying out three different final dry brush, these being MP Pale Flesh, Coat De Arms Unbleached wool and Vallejo Ivory. These were blind tested on Cath and she picked out the same as me which was the Pale Flesh, go figure?

This is the result after flocking. The top highlight being strips of the three different colours and two slim strips of no top coat. Would you have known that if I had not mentioned it? I have the thing in front of me and it's not that obvious.

I have not varnished the base yet, will do this when I do a number of other bases I have done. I now have three 30x60 bases done this way (same size as this) and the crews of two gun crews all ECW as these poor guys have been neglected. I have to say I am rather smitten with the result and I will be doing the Prussians in this style. You won't have to wait too long for these as I have them set up next, well after the WSS command I have looking at me right now.

I should get the next lot of figures off the bench today or by tomorrow night so once they have been up on Curts blog for a couple of days I will post the pics of the ECW which will give you a  better idea of how the base plays out.

Third Annual Painting Challenge Painting Fee

I've finally got round to paying the fee to enter the Challenge for this year. I've had the figure since about two weeks into the Challenge but waited till  had the urge to paint it up. I have to admit that I copied the overall theme from the web site selling the figure but the pattern on that figure was kind of no how so went with a fairly simple design but tried to replicate throughout. Not too ashamed of the end result though some of the other Samurai I have seen makes it look like I used crayons!

The figure is more like a true 25mm than 28mm though it should fit in with the others Curt will be receiving. At this point I did not have the sand and paint's for basing so went with the ballast I bought for the Deluxe Snipers a month or so back. 

This is my first attempt with static grass and I quite like the result though I had another go yesterday and like the result a lot more with sand and warmer paint colours for the ground.

Cath was not at all impressed with the Pampas Grass saying it added nothing to the figure so on sending images to Curt asked him if he wanted to keep or have removed the long grass stating Cath's opinion. Being a gentleman he wanted to keep it as shown. Of course this does not mean Cath was wrong, but I do prefer the added detail if only because that hand sticking out just needed a thumb adding to make like he is hitching for a lift!

WSS Cavalry and Dragoons.

First an heads up that Dux is offering a rather nice giveaway on his blog for hitting 20,000 page views, not at all a bad achievement. The prize I like the most being some 28mm SAGA figures that he will paint up for you (well hopefully me LOL).

Finished these about a week ago but did not want to post about them till Matt had them in hand as it were. I am quite happy how they turned out but even happier to have them behind me. Don't get me wrong I did not dislike doing them but a mix of cavalry being one of the less fun types for me to paint and having done so very many figures with similar dress left me a little flat. I just have the command to finish now which I will concentrate on once I have the ECW that are on my desk finished. This should be the next two days I think as all all coming close to being finished.

Each regiment takes up two sticks, here you see Le Roi and Nassau, with the black primer to work up to these came out quite punchy in colour, an effect that is growing on me.

Here we have Cosse and La Vallier, the colours (flags) are conjecture based on some examples I found on the net. Seems cavalry standards more than infantry are lost in the mists of time.

Regt. Royal is the fifth regiment and has two command stands to make it up to the twelve figures that Matt had planned each regiment to be. These all are typical of Baccus cavalry in pose and make up. Nice and easy to paint up though the black priming did make it a bit harder to pick out some of the detail.

Here is a shot of all five line cavalry and the three dragoon regiments. The dragoons were a little more fun to paint as each regiment had the colourful hats and the musician was a drummer in all regiments whilst only a couple of line cavalry had these.

The Friday Quiz 5

This is not the monitor in question five but it is at Hampton Roads.

Again I will post answers on Sunday, so how will you do?

1. Which Confederate commander was dubbed the "King of Spades"?

2. Who led the relief force to Kandahar in the Afghan War of 1879-80?

3. Where did Thornhill's Rough's (also known as the Carving Knife Brigade) gain fame?

4. Where did Napoleon first employ his lozenge attacking formation?

5. Which ironclad monitor was sunk at the battle of Hampton Roads?

6. Who said The object of artillery should not consist of killing men on the whole of the enemy's front, but to overthrow it, to destroy parts of this front... then they obtain decisive results; they make a gap?

7. Who, in 1902 said We are a bloody cheerful-looking lot of British subjects?

Well I scored a big fat zero after passing over what would have been my only correct answer. Oh well, hope you guys do better.