Another diversion

This week I have focused on 54mm. I picked up some very battered Britains lead guardsmen.

First I stripped off the paint. Boiling water and bicarbonate of soda and a nail brush brings the original metal back. I then cut the arms which are cast close to the body, and re-soldered them to give a swinging effect. Added a chin strap with milliput and bulked out the arms. Finally a Matt repaint with Vallejo and gloss shoes. The base is painted using Pelikan plaka paint (yellow ochre), which is made in Germany and hard to get hold of right now. Finally a sprinkling of sea sand on the base to finish the figures.

Also back to the 3D printer, printing 28mm regimental tents.

They have come out very well. These are for my fellow Wargamer Stuart I who needs a dozen of them. I can only assume he wants to set up a Boy Scouts summer camp display to celebrate Baden Powell. I may try some in 40mm for a 7YW camp scene.

eBay addiction

Of late, I have developed something of an obsession. I have been relentlessly trying to hunt down reasonably priced 30mm Phoenix parade figures. “Reasonably priced” is open to debate as the Phoenix stuff, beautiful as it is, being very well cast and sculpted, always goes for inflated prices. 

My other recent addiction is to seek out cheap and battered lead Britains and restore them and paint them to collector standard in Matt. This is in conjunction with a kindred spirit who I recently met on a toy soldier Facebook group. Great fun and reasonably cheap to buy now, as many of the older collectors are selling their collections and surplus.

Most days I eagerly await the postman, and my eBay “watch list” is my first port of call each day, now that John R has put his AMG blog on furlough. !

Next Friday I go into hospital for a hernia op. For the next 12 weeks, no cycling, no gardening, but hopefully lots of hobby time and ebay-ing!

Looking through an old soldier magazine today and found the cartoon below.

It seems to perfectly sum up my life right now !

Saxony IR6 Prinz Karl Maximillan

Some progress make on this Saxon regiment with another couple of stands completed. I was contacted to say that the flags I have used are from a later period, but they have been so wonderfully painted by Mark A, and kindly gifted to me, that they need to be displayed.
I normally base a colour party with two musketeers in the front row, but having an excess of drummers in the metal mountain, I decided a different combination for this regiment.

The flags were quite fragile and I did not want to curve them too much in fear of damaging the paint. Hence the “flat” effect and the fact that they are blowing in the opposite directions. Gusty winds blow  in all directions in Saxony, down the Elbe 😉. Still it shows them off well.

Back to French cavalry

Cavalry can be a chore to prep and paint, so I tend to try and discipline myself to produce a regiment on a regular basis. My French army is still under strength in cavalry and as the regiments tend to be smaller they are less of a task to produce. For some time I have mulled over my next French regiment, and today I have started prepping up the Gentleman regiment of the Duc de Noailles.
This regiment ticks all the boxes for me. It has a pretty red jacket (which I wanted as a contrast), blue horse blanket, which also contrasts nicely, and buff waistcoat and pants.
My airline pilot friend from Argentina, Daniel recently posted the image below on a Seven Years War group page. For those of you who do not know him, Daniel has a wonderful collection of Trident 40mm French army figures. He is a superb painter and converter. Trident now operate from NZ. The quality is fabulous, but the scale is slightly too large for my collection, and would fit with Perry 40mm or Front Rank. Daniel's work features on the 40mm Facebook group and other 7YW groups and is well worth a look.

The illustration below is taken from Kronoscaf and shows a slightly different lapel colour which I will go with.

My other main reason for choosing Regiment Noailles, is because of the actions that it fought in.
Hastenbeck, Krefeld and Minden amongst others. This is important to me, as I like to make regiments that saw action and featured historically, rather than just looked pretty. Hastenbeck was the most enjoyable 7YW western battlefield that I have visited, with Warburg a close second. Both battlefields are well preserved, and have convenient hills/high points to allow the visitor to get a panorama view of the whole site. Hamelin itself was a slight disappointment. This was to be one of the highlights for my wife with its "Pied Piper" connection, but the town itself, although interesting in parts was not as quaint or appealing as many other German walled towns... Just my view... Our accomodation was very pleasant, central in the old town, but the bedroom had a rat theme running through it which was not really to our taste !!
Regiment Noailles presents a dilema, because in 1756 it consisted of 2 squadrons, but after Minden where it took heavy losses it was down to a single squadron. I normally reflect the smaller French regiments by painting 12 figures on 6 bases. For this regiment I may reduce the number to 10.
If I continue with my French army in 2020, by the end of the year it will outnumber my Prussians.
But do not fear, as the Prussians will be revisited. I currently have 15 full infantry regiments, not counting grenadiers, so there are plenty of gaps to fill. I have never been happy with the sculpting of my Prussians. They are chunky and the leggings are too thick and resemble boots. I will attempt to remodel my infantry figures at some point and introduce them to the existing collection. I have already converted an Austrian figurebut my Austrian collection is nearly complete, however the figure will be useful for the Reicharmee.
Enough of my rambling.... Back to prepping and Saxon infantry.

A mixed bag

A mixed bag of figure painting in the last few days.
I have finished my 30mm Phoenix Scots Guards unit by finishing the band, although still some pipers to do.

The pipers in particular show up the detail very well. I have used the later version of the Scots Guards   Pipers which wears the bonnet, rather than the earlier version with glengarry.

The “western front” is currently on furlough, and I have gone back to my Saxon army and I am currently working on IR6 Prinz Maximilian.

This unit will eventually have 7 bases of musketeers and 2 grenadier bases.

Finally I still have concerns with the new blogger, and in particular losing the link with the AMG blog. John did mention considering bringing back his wonderful forum, which has become part of wargaming folklore for 18th century buffs. It took a lot of work to run, but possibly it could be revived on a part time basis, say only open at weekends or limited membership. Anyway, we will see.

Another book ordered for lock down

Just ordered this book from Helion. A bargain at £14.95 post paid. Good on Helion for keeping production going at this difficult time. They have some very tasty 18th century publications in the pipeline. Particularly looking forward to the Rossbach book, and the second Christopher Duffy book on the Austrian army.
I have a soft spot for Spain/Portugal, probably because of my frequent stays in the Canaries and my visits to the wonderful Military museum and library at Santa Cruz.. At some point a Spanish army will appear with those wonderful Spanish flags.

I am a bit concerned about the future of Blogger, and I fear that my blog will come to an end if the current format cannot be continued. I did have a look at the new version, but was less than inspired.
I get a great deal of pleasure and inspiration from other blogs, and it helps to know that there are other like minded people out in the world, who have the same aims and objectives in modelling and collecting. Sharing your hobby is one of its main pleasures. If we do see the demise of Blogger, then hopefully we can find a new solution. I don't think emails are the answer.

Update

Not much to report this week, but the painting continues. With lock down it can be difficult to be creative and too much hobby time can lead to “burn out”. The author of the “A Military Gentleman” blog where I acquire much of my inspiration, is feeling much the same, but I do hope he continues with his blog. One worry is that blogger are changing the format shortly and I do not like the new setup. Unless I can continue with my existing blog in the same format, I also fear that it may come to an end.
So some progress made with my first base of Saxons.

My main diversification is an “upscale” to 54mm, where I have revisited my first love and repainted some old lead Britains in Matt style. I think they are very nostalgic, and they remind me of the wonderful artwork of  Simkin and Harry Payne who painted uniforms of the British army in the period 1890 to 1914. I love old photographs of regiments on manoeuvres wearing full dress before the  Boer War, even the guards regiments on route marches with their bearskin hats in high summer.
Remarkable that the Great War was only a decade ahead !

Scots and Coldstream guards on exercise.