Monthly Archives: September 2015

A confession.

Yes, I need to start this weeks blog with a confession, I’ve been guilty of cowardice in the face of the enemy! But before I explain my sins, an update with what I have achieved in the last week. If you read last weeks blog you will know that I am working my way through some Galloping Major Mohawks Indians. After deciding that it wasn’t practical to batch paint them, I went for the one figure at a time approach. The result is that I have finished one figure – Doh!

The latest Indian to join the war party!

The latest Indian to join the war party!

Not exactly the progress that I was looking for. It seems that by painting one figure in isolation, I seemed to be drawn into correcting the most minor of errors, experimenting with different techniques and generally wasting time to produce a figure that whilst it is marginally better than my usual table top standard, is not going to win any prizes in a painting competition. So another readjustment is needed. Don’t misunderstand, I do want my figures to look as nice as possible but at the rate of one figure a week, it will be October 2016 before my Muskets and Tomahawks war band will be ready for the table…

The Latest ladies to join Little Bingham

The Latest ladies to join Little Bingham

Having said all of that, I have been painting some other bits and pieces. I completed another four civilians for the town of Little Bingham. These are Female civilians from Redoubt Enterprises that I picked up at the Derby Wargames show last year. As this years show is approaching, I thought that I better get them painted. My rule is that if I haven’t painted what I bought at last years show, I wont buy anything at this years show. Well traders, you can relax, I will be open to buy! The ladies were a quick paint job though. Just block painted, coated in Army painter Dark Tone to get the shading, Matt varnished and then the lighter colours re-highlighted. Little Bingham now has a population of 14!

The Market Square in Little Bingham - Not quite as busy as I would like!

The Market Square in Little Bingham – Not quite as busy as I would like!

And so to my confession. The other project that I have started is Napoleons Carriage, a really nice model from Warlord Games. When it was first released, I really fancied having a go at making and painting it. Now the observant reader will have spotted that this subject would not really fit in with my desire to have a collection of British Armies and their Allies through the ages! The plan was, however, to make the model with it’s doors open, surrounded by Prussian Hussars, capturing it just after Waterloo! Well it’s one thing to imagine these things and quite another to produce it.

Napoleons Coach assembled.

Napoleons Coach assembled.

The model itself is quite complex but after the pieces have been cleaned up, they do go together nicely. As you can see, the model itself builds into something quite imposing. It was at this stage that I had my wobble. I went to take my scalpel to cut the door and chickened out! I had good excuses – the resin is too delicate, the door frame will be too thin, I’m not sure where to cut it, How was it hinged… and so on. Ah well I thought, I’ll just build it as it is supposed to be. I can still have some Prussian Cavalry halting it. And then I wobbled again. What colour should the coach be? Warlord have both Green and Red versions. What about the interior? How should I paint the horses?

All good questions and all good reasons to pause. So the coach is on the work board awaiting for me to pluck up my courage and get on with it. The truth is there are three things that are really stopping me, all of them in my mind. 1. I may ruin the coach when I cut into it, spoiling the model. 2. I might choose the wrong colours because I didn’t research the subject thoroughly enough and some clever dick will point this out to me. 3. The finished result will not be good enough and wont match the perfect image in my head.

Napoleons Coach under coated - dare I take a scalpel to it?

Napoleons Coach under coated – dare I take a scalpel to it?

Of course, I know the answers to all of these. 1. I can always buy another one or just finish it as a battle damaged version. 2. Does it really matter, I’m not trying to create a museum piece but a talking point for the wargames table. As for clever dicks, I’ve yet to meet one that has painted his own models. 3. That’s always the case but at least I will have tried.

Right! Self talk over, where’s that scalpel!!!

There’s something about a uniform….

I mentioned in a recent blog post that I was having a break from painting my Napoleonic army and I am now concentrating on clearing down my back list of projects. This is really my way of painting all of those odd figures that I have picked up from shows over the past couple of years. To be fair, I am fairly disciplined when I  go to shows and only tend to pick up items that will fit in to my planned collection. I have yet to go off on a complete tangent, tempting though it is!

Mohawk Indian Character

Mohawk Indian Character

So next on my list of painting subjects were some very nice Indians that I had picked up from ‘The Galloping Major’ at a show at Owthorpe, of all places. ( see my review of the show here). I intend them to be the start of my French – Indian Wars/AWI skirmishing force that I will use in future games of Muskets and Tomahawks. My initial thought was that these would be quick and easy to paint, after all, there was no uniform to worry about. I could paint them in what ever colours I fancied. Well, not quite, it seems. Even Indians have their own style and one Indian tribe will tend to be slightly different to another. I guess it makes sense. If you are a Mohawk Indian, of the Iroquois tribe, you would not want to be mistaken for a Huron Indian, your deadliest enemy.

Mohawk with two Huron friends...

Mohawk with two Huron friends…

Fortunately, there is a great painting guide on the Galloping Majors web site to help out, so I had somewhere to start. I had of course chosen Mohawk Indians as my force ( they were allied to the British) but had also acquired a couple of Huron Indians – they were limited edition figures that had been given to me by friends that didn’t need them. Regardless, I decided that they would be part of my force and I would include them in the painting project. It was now that things began to get complicated.

Woodland Indians a bit more at home

Woodland Indians a bit more at home

When you are batch painting a group of troops in uniforms, once you have worked out the colours, it is just a question of working in a logical manner and every figure gets the same colour painted in the same sequence. These Indians weren’t like that. They are all dressed differently and would have been wearing different colours – they wanted to stand out as individuals! So even with just three figures, two of which were identical, I just couldn’t get a painting rhythm going. Sure, the flesh was all the same colour – I used Vallejo Beige red, washed over with a skin coloured wash and highlighted with the beige red again, with  Flat flesh mixed in to provide top highlights. The hair is black. The muskets are painted the same, Flat brown stocks with light brown to give a bit of wood grain effect, Steel gun barrel & lock, brass for the fittings, Beige/Ivory powder horn. But after that, although the colours that I used were similar, they were not the same and they weren’t going on in the same place at the same time if you see what I mean! It has taken me as long to paint three Indians as it would to paint eight Napoleonic Prussians!

Mohawk Character is waiting for his base to be finished!

Mohawk Character is waiting for his base to be finished!

I eventually decided that the best way was to pick a few good colours  and use these. So, Prussian Blue, Light Blue, Burnt red, Leather Brown, Light Brown, Iraqi Sand, German Camouflage Beige all made it on the the work board and I finished each character individually. The first three Indians are more or less ready for the basing process. As you can see I have started, with my latest preferred basing method. Vallejo Desert Sand paste spread over the base, the figure pushed into this and then a sprinkle of real sand as I wanted a bit of a rough texture for the bases – I’ve also added a ‘rock’ or two. I now need to paint these and add some grass & tufts.

I’ve certainly learnt a lot whilst painting these three characters and there is another six to go! Rather than trying to batch paint them, I think I’ll do them one at a time, it might be faster and will save me faffing about trying to figure out if I can use the same colour more than once!

An offer of roast Chicken fails to impress the Indians!

An offer of roast chicken fails to impress the Indians!

 

STOP PRESS!

I managed to get the basing done, a few little corrections and took a few pictures using a light box. Here are the results. I’m a bit happier with these now. They are ready to endevour to persevere!

Mohawk Character, AKA Bubba!

Mohawk Character, AKA Bubba!

Huron Warior 1

Huron Warior 1

Huron Warrior 2

Huron Warrior 2

Three indians

Three indians

 

Wheel Wagon, Pig and Partizan

It’s been a bit of a hotch potch week for painting. I’ve managed to finish a few bits and pieces. First of all, I was very kindly given one of the Historicon figures by those very nice guys at Warlord Games. The figure is based on a scene from the film ‘Waterloo’ when a soldier of the 1stBattalion 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot is caught stealing a pig by none other than Wellington himself. You can see the clip here on youtube. Rather than add the figure to my ‘lead mountain’ I got on with him straight away, using the superb painted example by Andrés Amiàn on the warlord site as a guide. I had intended to rebase him and perhaps add a figure of Wellington but in the event, I finished him as intended. I can always revisit this option but for now he is done and in the cabinet!

Historicon Figure

Historicon Figure

Defending his position!

Defending a hopeless position

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next project that I managed to complete ( well nearly) is my Napoleonic Wheel wagon. Based on a drawing from C E Franklins superb book on British Napoleonic Field artillery, it is now almost ready to take the field. The sharp eyed will see that I just need to make some wheel hubs to finish the wagon. I couldn’t find my leather punch that I use to make the wheel caps with, so rather than wait, I painted it as it was and I’ll add them later. I am writing a step by step article on how to produce the wagon and hope that it will be included in a future issue of Wargames Illustrated. If not, you will read all about it here!

Wheel wagon and Limber

Wheel Wagon and Limber

Incidentally, if you, like me are interested in the various support wagons used in the British Napoleonic army, you might find these two previous blog articles of interest:

Wagons Roll!

Water Wagon

Thanks to a very last minute invite, I was able to attend the Partizan Show at Kelham Hall in Newark. As you can see, I had a small stand of DeeZee Miniatures, Sarissa Precision buildings and Lucid Eye figures. This is the last time that Partizan will be held at Kelham Hall, the venue is moving to a much bigger and brighter venue at the Newark Show ground.

The Arcane Scenery Stand at Partizan

The Arcane Scenery Stand at Partizan

I enjoyed the show and although I was busy on my little stand – I was sharing with Trent Miniatures and squatting in some spare space between them and Wargames Illustrated – I did manage to have a look around. I wont review the show here, I would refer you to the Wargames Illustrated site for an excellent round up. The real drama for me was that during the set up, I managed to drop a case with all my painted figures…Aargh! So the last couple of evenings have been spent, retouching all of the chips and breakages that occured. Next weeks blog might not have much in the way of painting progress to report….

The DeeZee display before it was dropped....

The DeeZee display before it was dropped….

The National Civil War Museum Newark

A rainy bank holiday Monday should have been an excuse to get on with some painting and modelling but it seemed a shame to stay at home. So I persuaded Julie, my wife, that a trip down the road to Newark to do some shopping and call into the new National Civil War Museum would be a good idea.

The museum was a bit of a disapointment – perhaps I was expecting too much. First of all though, it’s a great idea that such a place should be built and perhaps overtime it really will grow into a tourist attraction that Newark can be proud of. The building has been beautifully refitted – it’s a bit telling that having visited, I have no idea what it was before it became a museum other than at some point in the long distant past it was a school.

Costumes from the civil war

Costumes from the civil war

The staff get 10 out of 10 for enthusiasm and courtesy, they certainly were doing their best to ensure that visitors made the most of the visit. The final highlight was the presentation given by a Civil War re-enactor who gave a very entertaining and enlightening lecture on the roles of the Infantryman & Cavalryman during the civil war. The talk was illustrated with replica weapons, armour and clothing and delivered with knowledge, enthusiasm and humour.

Weapons Display

Weapons Display

The museum itself was disappointing. There was one room devoted to the Civil War with the main focus being the seige of Newark. Attached to this room is a small cinema with a rolling presentation. There were two other rooms with exhibits related to the town of Newark. Upstairs, there were three or so rooms with a temporary display of photographs of recent civil wars around the world. Some of the photographs were quite graphic and at odds with the ‘child friendly’ ethos of the rest of the museum. The final room that we discovered (I use that word deliberately – the directional signage is not great) was an empty room that was once a dormitory for a school and the sole exhibits were the ancient graffiti left by the students.

lecture

The Museum has been lottery funded and most of that money seems to have been spent on the building and the technical gadgets that modern museums love these days. I’ve hinted that the museum was child friendly and there is a good ‘dressing up’ box so the kids can pretend to be soldiers of the time and there is a selection of interactive video displays. As to the displays themselves, it’s a bit like trying to solve a mystery by looking for the clues. The labeling is all over the place and difficult to follow, the logical sequence of the displays escaped me and the general layout seemed counter intuitive with no narrative. I think that it would be quite possible to visit the museum with no knowledge of the Civil war and come away with no knowledge of the Civil war other than it happened…

The cinema presentation was just as confusing. The films were of high quality and well acted but without context. One concerned the execution of Francis Hacker, the other the relationship between Charles 1 and Prince Rupert. If you didn’t know who they were before the films, I’m not sure if you would afterwards.

The final attraction is the augmented reality phone app that lets you follow the civil war trail around Newark. I didn’t try it as it was a rainy day, so I cant really comment as to how good this is. Newark Town and it’s surroundings has a fantastic history and heritage. I feel that the museum itself has missed the opportunity to tell the story and explain it all.

I guess my view is coloured by my hobby and as a war gamer with a keen interest in history, I found the museum disapointing and for it to claim to be the National Civil War museum is a bit of a stretch. My advice would be to save yourself the £7.00 entrance fee and go to the tourist information office and pick up a town trail leaflet and visit Newark Castle ( entrance free), go to the Queens Sconce (entrance free), go to the Polish Cemetery (entrance free) and spend your £7.00 in one of the historic coffee shops!