May 2020 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Anyone that knows me, will know that I am a great admirer of the Duke of Wellington. Based on my interpretation of the Queensbury rules, he is clearly the ‘Champion General’ of the Napoloeonic Age, having beaten all comers and retired as the winner from his last and greatest battle. Before anyone gets too excited, this blog isn’t an attempt to start another one of those endless debates about who was the greatest General and ramble on about who won at Waterloo…It’s a tale of my dive into the lead pile and a realisation that perhaps that I have let sentiment rule when it comes to buying miniatures.

Wellington and Wellington and Picton

The models above are from Warlord Games. I decided to paint them as part of my isolation clear down. I particularly liked the Warlord version of Picton, and the Snoozing model of Wellington that comes as a bonus was rather good as well. Picton is going to be based with a Highland officer figure from Trent Miniatures and will become one of my Brigade commanders for my Black Powder games. Having read somewhere recently that Picton carried a white umbrella at Waterloo, I may update my model.

Picton giving orders!

The painted version of Sir John Sinclair. from Trent miniatures

The Picton base will go with my current Army Commander, Sir Sydney Ruff-Diamond (the Front Rank version of General Rowland Hill).

Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond watches on as Private James Riddles rebukes the French!

Sir Sydney Ruff- Diamond watches on as Private James Riddle rebukes the French!

It was when I went to the figure cabinet to get that model that I realised that I also had the Front rank models of General Sir Robert Craufurd and yet another Wellington! Both were painted but neither based. I got on with basing Sir Robert immediately, painting one of the DeeZee small dogs as a Dalmation and basing them together.

Sir Robert Craufurd (‘Black Bob’) and his dog.

Wellington – Front Rank Figures

I left the Front Rank Wellington un-based as I now had two very similar figures and I thought perhaps one could be used for the Peninsular army that I am very slowly building and one for the Waterloo contingent. I will need to paint some nice figures to accompany these versions of Wellington but I am still thinking of what would be appropriate. Is there a model of Maitland?

Foundry Wellington and Picton

Also tucked at the back of the cabinet was yet another model of Wellington and Piction – these are Foundry figures and I painted them about eight or nine years ago – I no longer use them for my army.

Four Wellingtons!

Mounted Wellington by Victrix. On foot by Wargames Illustrated.

So with four versions of Wellington, you would thing that would be enough. But no, as I was going through the lead pile I found that I had two more! I had bought the Victrix Metal one ages ago – I think these are now OOP in the UK but may be available from Brigade Games in the USA. The other model is from Wargames Illustrated and is from the Giants in Miniature series. So I have six versions of the great man, four painted and two unpainted.

Six Wellingtons!

Napoleon is definitely out numbered in this house!

Napoleon visits Little Bingham

Perhaps I wont be quite so quick to buy any more miniatures of Wellington….

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

Happy Modelling!

Having more or less finished Sgt Ewart and the wounded (dead?) French Ensign , it was time to move on to paint the other figures in the Vignette. First up was the French infantry man. Now at this point I need to make it clear that my knowledge of French uniforms is about zero. So it was a question of copying other peoples work. As well as the superbly painted models on the Perry’s web page I also found a work of art completed by the painter Sasha Herm. I don’t know Sasha, other than through his work but he is extremely talented and produces the most beautifully painted models. I wont show his work here but if you would like view it, click on the link to my pinterest board here:

BRITISH CAVALRY PINTEREST BOARD

French infantry man

I painted the infantry mans coat in Vallejo Stone grey and his hat with Vallejo Buff. The shading was done with Dark tone ink and then high lighted with the original colours with a spot of white added.

French Line Lancer

The final model to complete was the French line Lancer. I again copied the examples that I could find. So once again, I’ve no idea whether the colours are ‘correct’. I used Vallejo Flat Green with German Extra dark Green for shading and for the facings, Vallejo Beige red. This doesn’t match the colour that I found on the Mont St Jean site for French Line Lancers but It was close to the colour on Sasha’s model and I liked it! Again I used various inks to shade the figure and the base colours + white to highlight.

Positioning the models on the base – all four models completed.

With the models all completed, it was time to assemble the vignette. I used a Sarissa Precision Oval MDF base. I do intend to mount this on a nice wooden plinth but for now I just wanted to get the basic model done.

Textured paste on the base.

I covered the base with Vallejo Textured Dark Earth paste and used a sculpting tool ( a cocktail stick would do) to bring the paste over the bases of the figures. As I don’t glue the figures to the MDF base, there is plenty of working time to allow me to position everything. Once the textured paste dries off it is strong enough to hold the figures in place. I also sprinkled the paste with earth and small stones to add extra texture. You might have noticed that at this point I added the ‘stolen’ Eagle to Sgt Ewart as I could now handle the vignette rather than the individual figure.

Base painted and textured

The next stage was top paint the base and add some scatter. I’ve covered my technique for basing elsewhere, so if you would like to know more just check out one of my older blog posts!

Long grass added to the base.

The last task was to add some long grass to the base. I used Woodlands Scenics 12mm light green field grass and just dipped small clumps into PVA glue and added them to the base. The long grass isn’t strictly accurate – they were fighting in amongst the trampled Rye that was growing across the battlefield and according to some records, originally stood at six foot tall. I think that it gives an idea of the ground though. The vignette is about finished and ready for the cabinet but for a few additions. I need to order in a nice flag from GMB designs ( my favourite flag supplier!) and I have the lance and spare discarded sword to add. But for now, I’m calling it done and moving on to the next project! Below are some pictures that I took in a light box with a slightly better camera than the usual i-phone camera that I use for my blog. I hope that you like them!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

Almost all of the paints, miniatures, bases, basing materials and anything that you are likely to need for your hobby are available POST FREE from my shop here:

ARCANE SCENERY

Perry metal miniature are only available from the Perry web site but we have the Perry’s plastic range here:

PERRY MINIATURES

You can find all the Vallejo Model colour paints here. If you don’t want to browse, just enter the paint name or number into the shop search bar;

VALLEJO PAINTS

You can see the Woodlands Scenics Field Grass system here:

WOODLAND SCENICS

Happy Modelling!