French line artillery Napoleonic 58

 Here is a line artillery piece, another nice Perry metal model, probably the last thing done before Christmas. I'm not doing the analogue painting challenge as I'm only home for two weeks of it and only in the UK for a total of four weeks so a bit difficult to keep up with the painting , basing and posting! 

Sorry for the pictures, done against the kitchen splashback on the last morning in my digs, best lighting but still not that good! Didn't really need another artillery piece if I'm being honest but it came as part of the Perry Imperial French brigade deal so it would have been churlish not to paint it! Lovely figures, I enjoy painting artillery as there isn't too many figures and you get a unit!

Anyway, Merry Christmas everybody, hope you have a good one.

All the best 

Iain 

French horse artillery Napoleonic 57 and a Wednesday WIP

 Here's an artillery piece for the horse artillery, a nice metal Perry model, all primed based and painted as one.

Lovely figures that have come up well. Lurking in the background are some Perry plastic French line, who as they are in the process of being painted I thought I'd show you how they are done after the last posts comments. 

As you can see they're part way through the process and almost usable!  To save a bit more time the bases are coloured with some dilute stain and varnish in a tub and the base dipped in ot enough to come up to their boots and then removed. The commander and the honour guard's halberd heads and brace of pistols are Victrix and the eagle and ribbons are warlord

Four more figures to the total, 264, every little helps!

All the best

 Iain 

Second battalion of the chasseurs of the Imperial Guard Napoleonic 56

 Finally finished off the second battalion of the chasseurs of the Imperial Guard, much like the first battalion except these are all Foundry casting room figures, much more in line with 28mm than the other Napoleonic figures I have from Foundry.  I'm quite happy with the monopose for these chaps obviously I'd prefer them in full dress but at least it's not greatcoats! 

Usual fast and dirty paint job, primed black, then I've used colours as a form of highlight, no fancy washes or triads but good enough. Painted in exile so the lighting isn't great, once they're flagged I'll squeeze them into another post.There is one more unit left to prep and prime from the French army, another all metal unit, I treated myself to the second battalion of grenadiers of the Imperial Guard from the Perry's again not full dress but not greatcoats, once they're prepped and primed, plus some Guard horse artillery  and a 3d printed supply wagon and various other mdf support wagons other than that I think that's it for Napoleonic French, all at least primed which is good, still got lots to paint but at least the end is in sight and virtually all the  French plastic is built and primed. Coming back to this unit, the flag like the first battalion will be from  GMB but currently in a draw at home , pleasant to finally paint another twenty four figures to add to the Napoleonic total of 259, I think 400 might be out of reach by the end of the year but I will push on!

And for Tim some work in progress, converting plastic Austrian Uhlans and hussars, from British light dragoons and converted 1809 Westphalians from Wargames Atlantic Prussian reserve and various other Germanic figures! Well James will be happy with the time spent on them!

All the best 

Iain 

Welsh castles no figures!

 Still finding it difficult to finish painting figures at the moment, preparing lots, a world of plastic conversions! Napoleonic Hungarians and Grenzers, Westphalians for 1809, Austrian dragoons, hussars and uhlans so fun but no finished product. I have spent the summer working in Wales which is stuffed with castles but I only went to two, one of which I failed to take photos of and another I walked through to go and get a coffee at the weekend when my wife came down to Cardiff. Caerphilly castle is the second biggest castle in the UK after Windsor and I got to go there for the first time since March 1st, 1979, I happily climbed all over the castle as a pre teen child on my own as health and safety was something that largely didn't apply much in those days, my dad was working in the area so I had to tag along which in the quid pro quo meant I got to go to a castle.  It's enormous with a moat and concentric walls and lots of towers including one that's at a mad angle which is supposed to be after it was slighted by team Cromwell, either that or lousy foundations?

It's a great big monolithic lump with only the windows and doors dressed masonry.  It survived a few sieges but the same family owned Cardiff castle and once it wasn't in the front line after Edward's conquest of Wales it fell into decline and a lot of what we see is late nineteenth/ early twentieth century reconstruction but definitely one of my favourite castles. 

The other castle is  Cardiff castle which is in the centre of the city and was nice to wander through it to get a coffee, more reconstructed Roman walls around the outside, paid for by the same family who funded Caerphilly and lived in the other castle we visited, castle Coch, which they pretty much entirely rebuilt and I haven't got any photos of  , the keep on top of the motte is still original .

Other than that lots of prep, but I will finish painting some stuff sometime! 

All the best,

 Iain