Vivandieres

These are the first figures I have painted from Fantassin (now War Modelling Miniatures) and they were a pleasure to do.  I did them as a Xmas present for a friend which is why I haven’t based them.  I was a bit late getting them and with the hot weather I haven’t been painting much so they have turned into a late Xmas present.

Vivandière is the French term for these troops and while I don’t recall seeing them in any army list, they certainly should keep the lads’ spirits up.

Cheers!

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivandi%C3%A8re

And for the figures themselves: http://www.warmodellingminiatures.com/index.php?id_product=265&controller=product&id_lang=1



Projects 2013 – Terrain and Miscellaneous

Tree bases, fences, barbed wire and vineyards (and much more) all required for my wargames table.

 

Supply markers, hasty barricades, some random entrenchments and a lone ACW marker.

 

ACW is my fourth period I game in, but I have no projects in hand (only a hankering to play Fire and Fury with the forces I have).

Projects 2013 – WW2

My early war Australian force is in a half completed state with figures painted but not based, figures being painted, figures ready for painting, models to be assembled and painted and even some that I got for Xmas still to be opened.

 

Those are all my 15mm WW2 figures and models, but I still have a heap of 20/25mm WW2 units under various degrees of completion (including rebasing).  This German artillery is the one “on hand” project that I have, but that is not to say I will not get enthused (or distracted) to have a go at something else in this period and scale.

 

Projects 2013 – Ancient

I have been working on my dark ages DBA armies for a long time and still have a few different stands to complete.  I am hoping that the new DBA 3.0 rules will not change the compositions too much.

 

With a few games of FOG completed and more planned I am keen to see if I can get my Burgundian Ordonnance army mustered.  I just need to complete one unit of pike, one of knights and do some commanders.

 

I still have some bases of my Hellenistic army to complete affixing magnetic strips to their bases so they can be transported, but that will happen on an as needs bases and not as a project (yet).

 

Projects 2013 – Napoleonic

For Xmas I received some Fantassin Prussians, mainly grenadiers; so far two done and thirty six to go.  I am thinking of using paper flags for the two units I am building which will be something different and basically a first for me.

 

I am also working on some “deads” (these are Fantassin) and commanders (Old Glory), including the special Blucher command stand(s) for Napoleon’s battles.

 

Along with the “deads” I have been experimenting with some ways of doing unit status markers using some beading materials, but it is still early days.  This is another area where I want to try paper flags – have colour printer, not afraid to use it!

 

There are still three Battle Honours Prussian units underway from 2011.

 

Plus some Old Glory Prussians from last year.

 

Finally there are the 25mm Hinchcliffe French I want to do for skirmish using Songs of Drums and Shakos.

 

More bocage, a field and a lone Highlander

Around Christmas I completed 2.4 metres of bocage.  It doesn’t go very far and so i plan to do another 2.4 metres.

I wasn’t happy with the photo, realising I needed some fields so I had a bit of the cardboard that comes with boxed chocolates in my terrain box and decided to fix that up.  Of course it warped when I glued it to a solid piece of cardboard, but I was ready for that and after a bit of bending I smeared glue on the bottom side and that seems to have fixed it.

While I was doing the bocage I also made up some stone walls (kitty litter glued onto a pop stick) and these, along with the sheep (six bases which I used for my DBM/DBA camps) pretending to be another field (maybe a meadow) are featured in the photos.

Recently I had read a post about a flaw with the mounted officer in the Airfix Napoleonic Highlanders set.  The rear belt is not moulded on the figure.  As I didn’t recall this I dug up the figure I had painted and sure enough, I had painted on the belt to cover up.  I painted this figure in the early 1970s (forty years ago) so no wonder I didn’t remember the flaw.  I was just glad to see I had compensated for it.

Anyway, here he is, front and back, lost somewhere in the bocage in France.

Prussian Blues

For Christmas I received some of the new Fantassin Prussian Grenadiers.  I particularly wanted the figures to have the distinctive monstrous plume and had been putting off raising a grenadier unit as the figures I came across, while looking good, were always in campaign dress.  With my new figures I thought I would also treat myself to a new Prussian Blue and got the Vallejo colour 70965.  I was happy with the first few figures I painted, but then worried that the blue was too bright and not as dark as I wanted.  So I went back to Humbrol’s Prussian Blue colour 5077. 

I over painted a few figures and painted a few more.  The result looked good.

When I came back the next day I couldn’t tell the difference.  Doh!

 

Of course now I have taken a photograph I can see a difference.  The wounded officer on the far left is the Humbrol Prussian Blue over painted on the Vallejo.  But as to the other two figures... 

What the camera captures and the computer displays are not necessarily how the colour appears to the naked eye, especially taking into account the light (and it is hot and sunny where I am).