Samples finished

Wurtemburg NCO

Managed to finish the ten sample Wurtemburgers in a couple of evenings which was pretty good, they were nice enough to paint, and I quickly got back into the swing of it after a 2 year layoff. It was quite peculiar to paint bright colours again instead of continuous Khaki's and greys.

The change up from 20mm to 25 wasn't too bad either, not as drastic as I thought it would be.

Infantryman charging at high-porte
I quickly got back into the groove, though re-learning to deal with expanses of white took a little longer to remember!
All in all a straight forward paint job. Grey undercoat, then Vallejo acrylics apart from an India Red oil wash on the flesh and a bit of black magic-wash on the white, plus a Burnt Umber oil wash on the pack.


Officer
High-lights were just mixed up from the basic colour, and given a further small highlight.
Wurtemburg uniforms are a bit of a pain. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, down to even disagreements over facing colours for different regiments. The whole thing is not helped by them adopting the German practice (funny that, being Germans) of naming the Regts after their Colonels (Inhabers) particularly as a number of them died between 1809 and 1814. So the same units have different names at similar times, plenty of scope for confusion.
I was helped by having the North edition of the Faber Du Four collection of prints drawn during the 1812 campaign. A lovely book and useful contemporary reference. I went through it and it was quite handy despite concentrating on the artillery.
These figures are painted up as the 5th regt, I've ordered the requisite miniatures to make up the rest of 2 x 32 man battalions for this regt, then I'll embark on 2 more Battalions for the 7th Regt which had red facings. Standards for these are en-route from GMB

I can't wait!!

Momentous Day!

Firing Line miniatures: Line infantryman, Sargent, and Standard Bearer

Today is a momentous day. For the first time in 2 years I'm picking up a brush in order to paint some 25mm Napoleonics! After spending the weekend re-aquainting myself with my Napoleonic collection I'm suficiently inspired to have a change from the unrelenting WWII Soviet hordes in order to fulfil my idle promise to Noel that I'd paint up some Wurtemburgers for him...I'm starting with the samples I bought and will now order the rest + standards etc

Infantry march attack

Looking forward to this, I'm using the Firing Line miniatures figures, Firing Line are a well kept secret of the large 25mm world. They are carried by the guy who does Bicorne and Connoisseur, and are highly compatible with the latter, and Elite miniatures. However, although they are in the "Peter Gilder style" of figure sculpting they are IMHO superior to the mentioned ranges. No-one knows about them because the above company never advertises and the only picture on his website is of a Jaeger which is about the worst figure in the range! (marketing doesn't seem to be a strongpoint)

They do a lot of Wurtemburgers and a small French range (along with ACW and gunfighters). They also do a fantastic range of heads which are excellent for conversions -all the Wurtemburgers, and most of the French come with seperate heads so theres plenty of scope for minor changes within a unit without altering the overall pose and "feel" of a battalion.

Here goes!

(I hope you still want these, Noel)

Weekend at John's shed

French 4th Hussars romp over the bunny fur
Spent the weekend up at Mr Landers' - The majority of which time was naturally passed in the shed, apart from the time in the pub, and being entertained by the viperish tongue and hospitality of his svelte other half. - Incredibly, we didn't actually manage to play a game, the time being spent in tidying up the shed, which was a tip after John's massive Arnhem efforts. So a happy time was enjoyed with John chucking stuff out and me dusting off (and I mean Dusting) the Napoleonics.
Having cleaned some up, I had to take a few photos (only about 200). Given that I reckon I only managed to clean about 15 to 20% of the assorted 25mm Napoleonics there is still work to do.

A lot of time was also spent discussing John's next possible demo game for Salute. Here is not the place for to steal any of his thunder but a picture is forming, both for the subject and innovative methods of displaying it. It promises to be as spectacular and as unique as we would expect from the absurdly high standards John sets for himself.
I did show John some of my latest 20mm stuff, though he remains suitably unimpressed, which is fair enough given that he's got it all already in 1/35th. However, one thing he did seem to like was my new bunny-fur terrain mat. This was an idea slavishly nicked off some other geezer here on the world-wide-inter-web, and it looks alright. There will be LOTS of pics of soldiers swarming all over it.


The bunny mat: Xena looks on approvingly, but John shows his back.

Anyway, we explored its possibilities and Lander has some ABSURD plans.
We like the way it "clinged" to the terrain beneath it and created a truly undulating effect, giving a real feel of hills and dips

Prussian infantry enjoy the luxury of the bunny experience

Its relatively easy to produce, though colouring is quite difficult given the current dearth of decent spray paints in the UK at the moment (they have ALL been withdrawn, due to H&S...wankers). but with a bit of work, poster paints and a razor some good effects can be obtained. Might not be a universal future but it has possibilities.
Anyway, enough for now...More Napoleonics will follow in due course.