Landwehr sample figures Napoleonic 81

 Not much from me recently, painting has been rather disrupted as my sister and brother in law have moved in , so I have to be sociable in the evenings and weekends, which means not painting! They retired to Loire in France twenty years ago and in Jacks case even got French citizenship but they've decided to be closer to family and buy a retirement flat in Hertford, so they've sold up in France and are over here finding a flat which is nice. So not much of a post , more an amuse buche ,as I think I could do with maybe four more Landwehr units, money is tight after the rather excessive spending earlier in the year so I have been looking through my bits box and having a bit of a think and I've come up with these two chaps. 

They're home cast Prince August late Roman bodies with Perry plastic heads and Victrix backpacks and arms, they don't sell this mould anymore for some reason. In the last photo they're next to a stand of Perry metal and plastic wargames Atlantic Grenzers, I think they'll do, what do you think?

They're ( loosely) based on these chaps, with thigh length jacket and black equipment,  I've got various caps ( and heads) from the American War of Independence , the war of three Kingdoms and the American Civil war that will give me a bit of variety  and stop them being too uniform as they're a militia unit. 

The price is definitely right so I'm aiming to cast up about 100 to give me my four units,  the metal is either recycled from cleaning up figures or some lead weights for fishing          ( which are of course now illegal to use) and my mains water supply pipe which I have replaced with plastic but have retained the lead to cast toy soldiers from, for some reason that seems old school? 

Anyway  two more Napoleonics for the total, so 406 this year, as I've said before,  we aim for adequate and sometimes achieve it! 

All the best 

Iain 

Austrian dragoon regiment no 1 Napoleonic 80

 Here's some converted Austrian dragoons, in the Austrian cavalry  set you have the option of chevaulegers/dragoon  torso's or cuirassier torso's and the earlier and later helmets or later helmets without crests as used on campaign which I've used here together with the leftover Austrian torso's, arms, carbines and sheathed sword sheaths ( with the handles cut off) and with overall legs from French and Austrian hussars mounted on British light dragoon horses with added  green  stuff tails and replaced heads.  ( without the light cavalry bridle) I also added the jacket tails and saddles with green stuff. I think they've come out well enough. This is dragoon regiment no 1, with black facings, which made it nice and easy as the undercoat/primer was black.

This pushes me up to 404 painted Napoleonic figures for the year so far,  just past the target which is nice! 

For Steve,  1950s Bundeswehr for his cold war gone hot scenario. 

 I've got another couple of these units in the pipeline,  at some point I'll have to do a post detailing all the leftover units combined together! 

All the best 

Iain 

Austrian and French support wagons Napoleonic 79

 Here are a pair of 3d printed wagons from warfayre.  These are from a really economical set of four wagons for just under £13.00 plus postage,  I've ended up getting another set and a pontoon wagon set. Unlike other 3d prints, they're more like scale models and the texture is more like plastic,  it helps they come in a matt khaki colour as opposed a fluorescent blue or clear, so you can understand what you are dealing with. Primed in Army painter leather brown,except the tilt, primed in Halfords khaki, painted in GW tau Sept ochre and Ieydann dark sun, both geriatric paints that I'll have to replace at some point I guess. 

 

These are Austrian wagons I've used as reference . 

I've painted mine up as Austrian even though strictly speaking they're probably French, I've got quite a bit of conversion work to change the forge set to the Austrian pattern ( to go with a French mobile forge I'm working on) but these are close enough to my eyes. The team to pull them is on order together with some limbers,  not Austrian but Polish horse artillery, they are wearing single breastfed jackets so with a head swaps they should work out pretty well. 

 There is also the French ambulance from the warfayre set, I've lightly converted it as it comes with the back doors open and I preferred them shut. Once again, army painter green spray,agrax wash,black, steel,bit of flock, good to go. Easy clean up and minimal supports, compared to Jonathan's recent 3d print.

 

The French mobile forge which is part of the set, I'm making into a little vignette which has included converting scale appropriate hammer and tongs and scratch building a mobile anvil, that's all been fun! 

My mobile pep kit in the car for Keith. 

 

While we're at it ,the chaos of the shed in mid terrain mode and current occupants of the painting tray in yhe house.

Next up? Terrain , Napoleonics, Napoleonic terrain, something like that?

All the best

 Iain  

Dark age church Terrain 30

Still on the terrain shtick. This church is the venerable dapol/ex airfix  church model from 1959, same age as my first car , dapol says they're still using the same 65 + year old moulds and the walls are a bit bendy but at £8 from the model shop in Shrewsbury it's a bit of a bargain I think?  I assembled the walls but with the exception of the bell tower left  the roof off as I wanted a thatched roof . I extended the wall height with foamboard, packed out with some card and added some of the rough brick work plasticard I've used on the burnt out buildings as brickwork, not the block work sheet shown, as that didn't work, I followed the piers down with bits of foamboard and covered them with some card and added a roof made of the same underlay I've done my other half timbered medieval and dark age buildings with. I've seen this church converted  before on a half remembered blog which I can no longer find to acknowledge it but I think it's a useful way of providing my dark age village with a focal point and I'll be using it as a chapel in later periods as well. 

Here it is with the card added to the foamboard and some underlay thatch

 

The image above shows it off it's hardboard base as I've made it detachable to help with storage, there are some foamboard lugs to keep it in position when playing. I've kept the small end roof piece to make a roadside shrine at some point, obviously I've kept the rest of the roof, I just don't have a plan to use it at the moment but as Donnie says, keep everything !

Bit of inspiration, Bengeo old church, it's a Norman church, that is often part of my weekend dog walk, you can see the additions of various finishes from varied periods, obviously not thatched but I'm trying to push it back beyond the 11th century!

Current thatched churches in East Anglia, they've not that unusual there but elsewhere churches were often thatched until they got modernised or updated to show status. These are all thatched in reed and are terribly neat, I wanted something more scruffy, I've seen some rather more overgrown thatch, in more varied materials, which I have tried to emulate.

Given a quick coat of Halfords khaki spray, then some raw umber on the thatch, wet mixed with another brown colour and a raw umber wash on the stone work, some stone colours ( all emulsion) and a bit of flock, seems to work well enough I think and gives my Romano British something to defend, probably with some classical ruins in the background? 

All inspired by Dave Stones Summer of scenery, even if it's a bit more autumnal! This also acts as a kind of prototype for when I start on my equally venerable airfix Roman fort which I'm going to increase in height and  possibly width?

Up next? More terrain, more Napoleonics? Both?

All the best 

Iain