Whats on the work bench? – Page 15

Napoleons Carriage on the Workbench.

Napoleons Berlin Carriage

It was some time ago that I mentioned that I was about to start work on Warlord Games version of Napoleons Carriage – see my blog entry ‘A Confession’ . I was hesitating to start the project for two reasons. One, I was struggling to find the information that I needed regarding colour scheme etc and two, I had decided that I wanted the door to the coach in an open position for reasons that I will explain later.

Well, I’ve tracked down a brief account of the famous carriage. I didn’t have to look too far – on page 419 of the book ‘Waterloo Companion’, by Mark Adkin is a short description of the coach and how it was used. Incidentally, Mark Adkins book is a must have item for any Napoleonic Wargamer. If you haven’t already got it, then put it on your Christmas list now!

Waterloo Companion

The carriage is described as ‘ a large green carriage’ used by Napoleon as a mobile command post. It had strength, stability and manoeuvrability and was weather-proofed. It must have been quite a large affair, as one seat across the back was partially partitioned so that two persons could work, without being thrown around. Opposite was a lockable cabinet that could be converted into a writing desk. There were other cupboards containing everything that Napoleon might need. A silver chronometer hung on one wall and Napoleons seat could be transformed into a bed!

Napoleons Coach assembled.

The Warlord Games version is clearly not a scale model of this actual coach but is a very good representation as far as a wargaming piece goes. Which leads me to remind myself that I am neither interested or capable of making a detailed scale model of this subject, merely a passable representation that will look good on my wargames table as an objective or conversation piece. In this respect the Warlord Games model is an excellent model.

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

The real coach was captured and plundered in the chaos and confusion after the battle of Waterloo. Indeed on the 19th June 1815, Commissariat officer Tupper Carey passed it, still surrounded by Prussians ‘scraping and sifting the ground, in consequence of a report that some diamonds had fallen from their settings in the night scramble’. Although the Prussians stripped and plundered what ever treasures were aboard the coach that day, the coach itself was returned to England where it eventually ended up in Madame Tussauds in London but was destroyed by fire in 1925.

So having decided that I would like to build the model, I decided that I would depict it as being captured after the Battle of Waterloo. In my minds eye, this would simply involve the Carriage being halted by the Prussians and the start of the search for plunder. It is quite an ambitious diorama for me to build and I suspect that it will take some time. The first task was to see if I could safely remove the door of the coach. Using a new, sharp scalpel blade, I carefully cut around the frame of the door, both inside and out. Fortunately, Warlord Games use a good quality resin, rather than the cheap & nasty brittle sort used by some manufacturers, so after about 20 minutes of patient cutting, the door was safely removed!

Napoleons Coach – door removed

And that’s about as far as I have progressed with this particular project. I think that it will take me some time before it is actually completed. I intend to paint it in stages and the horses are the first on the painting table. Having undercoated them, I’ve given them a coat of light grey, the idea being to gradually highlight them up to white. I’ll post updates as I progress with the painting.

The horses get their first coat of paint.

Hello Sailor!

Royal Marine officers

Perhaps a subtitle of ‘Where’s Wally’ would also have been appropriate – you will see why later. This weeks blog will be a bit of a short one. I’ve been diverted from the painting table by a number of distractions, from family weddings to a nasty cold and I have been working on a set of Black Powder campaign rules for the club. However, I have made some progress with my shore party of marines. Having completed 16 Royal Marines, my next task was to start on the Foundry Shore party and Boarding party sets. The Former contains two Royal Marine officers as well as some well armed sailors, the later pack, just some mean looking sailors. Finishing these would complete my raiding party.

Sailors join the action!

As you can see the first batch of officers and sailors are just about completed with the basing to finish. I also have 4 more sailors at the ‘Dip’ stage- although I actually paint the quick shade on. That leaves another 4 to paint in the coming week and then it is on to my next project. I have been a bit lazy when it came to researching the sailors ‘uniforms’ and just copied the painted versions on the Foundry web site. To be fair, although sailors were issued with some sort of basic kit, from what I have read they made their own clothes and wore what was available. There was a bit more of a relaxed attitude taken to their appearance than to the Royal Marines on board. So when it came to painting the soft hats of the sailors, I went for a nice stripey design which in hindsight does look a bit like a night cap or a ‘where’s wally’ hat! Sometimes things dont turn out quite as I planned but I don’t plan to repaint these. It will no doubt amuse my friends when these figures do appear in battle…

Where did you get that hat?

For the time being, these figures will go straight to the cabinet, although there is a chance of an appearance on the table later in the month. For now though, they are part of my growing Caribbean/Naval force.

The last of the shore party to be painted.

Making the mountain into a molehill.

The Lead Mountain is sorted!

I’ve been banging on about my lead mountain for some time now but after some steady progress, I thought it was time to sort it out once and for all! So a rainy afternoon was spent going through my collection of figures and putting it into some sort of order. Thankfully, there wasn’t quite as much there as I thought. The first job was to get rid of all the figures that I had acquired that ‘might come in useful’ or although broken, could be repaired. These went into the spares box or the bin. No point in them hanging around.

The next category was the free figures given out at shows or exclusives given out with purchases. I am a real magpie when it comes to these figure but they dont always fit into the period that I am interested in and I have kept them because they are ‘collectors’ items. Some of them aren’t even very good figures! Well, they all went into a box marked appropriately ‘exclusives’. I cant see me painting any of these in the near future but at least I now know what is there.

Sorted by Category – Napoleonics win!

As I was going through all the odd figures, I sorted everything into rough periods. They were either ‘Ancients & Medieval’, Black powder era or World War Two. I only have a few bits & pieces for World WarTwo so it was fairly easy to box most of these up and they were the first back onto the shelf. The next category was the ancients and medieval figures. I’ve got a few Roman figures for that Legion that I will paint one day, some Dark Age Warriors that will expand my Saga Band when I get around to it and some War of The Roses Infantry to enlarge my Lion Rampant Retinue into a full army. None of which is going to happen in the next six month, so it was all carefully boxed and added back onto the shelf!

Finally, my Black Powder & Napoleonic figures. As this is my main point of interest at the moment, I sorted them out into Battalions where possible and boxed or bagged them as such. I have it in mind to paint the British 5th Infantry Division at Waterloo. It consists of The 28th North Gloucestershires (yellow Facings), The 32nd Cornwall ( White facings) , the 79th Cameron Highlanders (Dark Green Kilts!) and a detatchment of 6 companies of 95th Rifles. That said, it isn’t going to happen anytime soon, so these figures can go back on the shelf! And so it went, until everything was tidied away, in some sort of order and with some idea as to what I was going to do with each batch of figures.

Somehow, the process of sorting and tidying everything clarified what I need to do next to extend my painted army and of course reduce the unpainted stock to a manageable level. I dont expect to just keep ploughing through the pile in a set order but at least there will be some direction to my painting now. I’ve also resolved that all units will be finished using my ‘batch painting’ system. At least this way I will be able to complete 8 – 12 figures a week to table top standard, so about 2 to 3 weeks for a battalion.

However, for my ‘personality’ figures, I will try to develop highlighting and shading through the more traditional method of blending, ink washes etc. Perhaps, with practice I can raise the standard and speed of both methods.

Royal marines nearly ready for duty!

In the meantime, just to show that I haven’t spent the last week dreaming of future projects, my next batch of Royal Marines are nearly complete, I’ve started on my last batch of civilians and lurking on the back of the paint station is my Shore party, primed and ready for painting.

In fact, I was so pleased with my progress and the organised state of my collection that I decided to treat myself to some new Front Rank figures. Their latest releases includes some lovely civilians that had caught my eye and while I was looking through the web store, I thought that I would have a few of their British Commanders. After all, my lead mountain isn’t that big after all…

The Marines are coming – Part 2 – first batch arrived!

Royal Marines Shore Party

What! Two blog posts in one week! After the excitement of completing the Moai I thought that I would round up my progress elsewhere. As you can see my first eight Royal marines are complete and ready to take to the table. Fortunately, my gaming buddies are very easy going and they wont object if I deploy a unit of Royal Marines along side the rest of my British Army. As I have previously mentioned they will be part of my Caribbean force although they will also see service as part of a detachment in my Peninsular army – when I get around to starting it!

I’ve photographed the final stages of these figures being completed as part of my batch painting process. Once they were block painted, I gave them a coat of Army Painter Quick Shade.

Quick shade Dark Tone applied

The next stage is to give them a spray of Army Painter anti shine.

Anti Shine applied sparingly

Once the Anti Shine matt varnish is dry, I add highlights to the figures. This often just entails repainting the lighter colours – white in particular, the red on the jackets and retouching the metallics with Gold & silver as they can look too dull in places. On this occasion I also attempted to paint in the eyes and added some highlights to the faces – not something that I normally worry about with rank & file troops. Looking closely at the picture, you can see why I tend to leave the eye’s… A couple will need retouching.

Highlights added & basing is started

The final touch is to finish the bases. I used my usual ‘recipe’ of Vallejo Desert Sand to cover the bases. Then painted them with Vallejo Chocolate Brown, highlighted and dry brushed them with Flat earth & increasing amounts of Iraqi Sand added. I then added some green scatter & some of the new Gamers grass tufts and they are done.

Basing completed

The final process of repainting sounds as though it is a bit of a chore but in reality it is quite a quick job. I think that it is worth the time as it also gives you the chance to correct any obvious painting errors. For some troops, it is just as easy to leave this part out and go straight to the basing. After all, these are rank and file troops to be used on the table, not painting competition entries. It all comes down to a matter of taste and of course, time. If you would like to read my blog giving details of all the colours used in the early stages of painting, click here.

MOAI!

No, it’s not the start of an Arcane Scenery Haka, but the first in a series of terrain pieces that are being designed for us in conjunction with Nick and Tasha, two very talented people that make up the N-FX team. N-FX have produced special effects for the TV & Film industry as well as producing custom built costumes for the Cosplay community. You can see some of their recent projects here:

https://www.facebook.com/nfx.gds

We are working with them to produce a series of terrain pieces that will compliment our DeeZee range of animals and provide interesting and different subjects for dioramas and war games scenery.

The first piece out of the moulds was this Moai, or as most people will know them as, Easter Island heads! The model isn’t designed to be a scale replica of a Moai – more of a nod in their direction… If you haven’t come across these before, there is some terrific background on Wikipedia. We thought that they would be superb background pieces in many a setting. Once I had one to ‘play with’ I wanted to get it painted and based.

It’s a very quick and straight forward paint job. Simply spray with a black primer and then when dry, use a standard dry brush technique with various shades of grey up to nearly white to bring out the texture. I mounted the Moai on the MDF base using Vallejo Desert Sand texture. It was then just a case of painting to my usual method and adding some green scatter, static grass & tufts to finish. The plan is to do a step by step video together with N-FX in future so watch this blog!

In the meantime, I’ve just placed a couple of Lucid Eye figures on the base to how effective they will look. It was great fun painting the Moai – back to Napoleonics in my next blog!

If you would like you own moai, please visit the Arcane Scenery shop or just click here:

MOAI

The Marines are coming!

After lasts weeks adventure with Lion rampant it’s back to the painting table and the next project from the lead mountain. I have finished my small war party of Woodland Indians and they are waiting for reinforcements before they can take to the table. However, there is no rush to add to the band at the moment. Muskets and Tomahawks are on hold at the club whilst we explore a couple of other options – the Sudan is looking like the favourite at the moment!

Indian War Band

Of course that can be the problem with our hobby. Too many choices and distractions with the result that you can start too many armies and not finish any of them! I will add to my Indian war band in order to finish a skirmishing army for M&T’s. My next purchase will be a couple of packs of Rodgers rangers before deciding on which regular troops to add into the mix.

In the meantime, it’s on with ‘climbing’ the lead mountain that I already have. I would like to be in a position where I have painted everything that I have bought, so that in future, when my wargaming buddies at the club decide to look at another period, I can join in with a few figures of my own fairly quickly. And here’s the point of my ramble. The reason that I have a small lead mountain is that I bought the figures with a project in mind or because I liked them. Not to paint them is just silly. So as I surveyed my collection I saw a batch of Foundry Royal Marines lurking on the pile!

I bought these marines and a naval boarding party for a couple of reasons. They sort of fit in with my plans for the Caribbean force that I have been steadily building (Use this link to bring up a few of my blog posts on this subject). I already have a few ‘Battalions’ of Caribbean troops ready for action and adding a detachment of Royal Navy Marines seems like a good idea. The Royal Navy Marines saw quite a lot of action across the world during the Napoleonic period, obviously fighting in all the major sea battles and of course taking part in all the amphibious actions, particularly in the Peninsular War. In fact on this very day, 8th October, 1806, British forces, including the Royal Marines of course, lay siege to French port of Boulogne using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve. They were also very much in action during the war with America in 1812 ( another one of my interests), so having a detachment in my army makes sense.

I also fancied a ‘quick batch paint’ job after getting a bit bogged down painting the Indians. So with this in mind, I cleaned up the first 16 figures ( two packs) primed them with Army Painter grey and got to work painting them. I tend to paint rank and file in batches of six or eight figures. This method allows me to paint one colour on each batch of figures in a reasonable time and stops me getting bored. Using this method I can turn out about 8 figures a week to a reasonable table top standard. As a painting guide, I used the recently published, Issue 4 of Painting War, Napoleonic British Army.

That said, it was more of a colour guide and inspiration rather than a painting guide. I mentioned that I was going to batch paint these figures, which means I will block paint them with the basic colours, shade, using Army Painter Strong Tone, Matt varnish them and then re highlight the lighter colours to give a sharper finish & correct any obvious errors.

Batch Painting Marines

The colours that I am using are shown above. They are all Vallejo Model Color as follows:

70955 Flat Flesh – Face and hands

70950 Black – Hats, Boots, Cartridge box

70822 Black Brown – Hair

70984 Flat Brown – Musket Stocks

70864 Natural Steel – Gun Barrel, Bayonet & Buttons

70947 Red – Jackets

70899 Dark Prussian Blue – Facings ( Collars & Cuffs)

70820 Off White – Webbing, Lace, Trousers

70862 Black Grey – Gaiters & highlights on Black

70801 Brass – Webbing plate, badge on Cartridge box, detail on Muskets.

There are three other colours that I will also use for highlighting, 70996 gold and 70997 Silver to re-highlight and emphasise the metal work, 71077, Wood, to highlight and add detail to the musket stock and 70951 White, to really brighten up and highlight some of the white areas.

Block Painted nearly completed – just Brass to add.

You can see from the pictures above how far I have got with the Marines. They look a bit bland and washed out but the Quick shade will do a lot of the work needed to add depth and detail. The other massive difference will be finishing the bases of course! More to come next week!

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!

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

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!

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.

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?

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

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…

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

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!

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!

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!

Huron Warior 1

Huron Warrior 2

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 1^stBattalion 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

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

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

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 Legend of the Hartlepool Monkey!

Arrest that French Spy!

I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent since finishing my last Battalion. I mentioned that I fancied a change and whilst sorting through my ‘lead mountain’ I came across a limited edition figure of a Pirate Monkey, issued by North Star. It instantly reminded me of the Tale of the Hartlepool Monkey. I wondered why the Hartlepool Town football supporters were known as the ‘Monkey Hangers’. Every Saturday on Soccer a.m., Tim Lovejoy would refer to the Monkey Hangers and laugh, so I had to find out what the joke was.

The story goes, that back in the Napoleonic Wars, a french ship was wrecked off the coast of Hartlepool. The only survivor was a monkey, who was dressed in french uniform to amuse the crew. The locals who found the monkey, had neither seen a monkey or a french man before, and decided to hold a trial, accusing the monkey of spying. Unfortunately for the monkey, he was unable to answer the questions put to him and was indeed found guilty of being a french spy. The poor monkey was duly sentenced to death and hung on the beach!

There are two other versions of the story. In one of the alternative versions, the poor unfortunate that was caught and hung was just a poor cabin boy, or ‘powder monkey’. The most plausible (for me) was that the whole episode was based on a comic song from the 18th century that was simply poking fun at the locals in Hartlepool. You can read the official versions on wikipedia and see the song lyrics for yourself!

Hartlepool Monkey!

So I decided to paint my own version of the Harlepool Monkey to use as a French spy in my wargames! It would amuse me to be able to poke fun at my French opponents and come to that, some of my friends from the North east – little things please little minds and all that… The plan is to create a little vignette, with two of Hartlepools’ finest, arresting the monkey. You will get the idea from the picture at the top of the page.

I painted the monkey using Vallejo paints as usual, the main colours being Beige Red (flesh), Beige ( Shirt), Off White (Trousers), Prussian Blue (waistcoat), Gold (trim) Black Brown ( fur). I use these little projects as a chance to try my hand at ‘proper painting’ rather than using the army painter dip method that is so useful for churning out Battalions! So, I’ve highlighted with lighter shades of the base colours and used a couple of thin washes to add shadow. It’s just the basing to do – I’ll keep it quite simple – perhaps just a sandy base! I haven’t yet decided whether to use the figures that are in the picture (a couple of spares from my earlier attempts at building battalions) or remodel some new ones. For now, I think I’ll go with what I’ve got, after all. it’s just a bit of fun.

A Clear Work Bench!

Osterode Battalion Hanoverian Landwehr

Well, not quite, but my final Battalion of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion are finished, based and ready to take the field. As you can see, I’ve used my standard basing, four figures to a 40mm square rendra base. The base is coated in Vallejo sandy paste and then the figures are just placed into the paste. I use a sculpting tool to bring the paste up and over the actual figure bases to blend them all in. Once the paste is dry it seems to be strong enough to hold the figures in place. From there, the bases get a coat of Vallejo Chocolate brown, highlighted and dry brushed with Flat earth and then Iraqi Sand.

The final touch is to add some fine turf scatter and then a few grass tufts and of course, flowers! There was one other little addition that I made to the basing. The unit consists of Warlord Hanoverian infantry but I have used a command group from the Perry’s metal range. The Perry’s figures looked a bit on the short side compared to the Warlord men, so I added a thin piece of plasticard under the Perry Command figures to raise them up a bit. They now blend in quite nicely.

I’ve decided to take a break from churning out units for my Napoleonic army and just focus on a few of the random projects that have been lurking on the to do list.

Spare Wheel Carriage

The first of these projects is a spare wheel wagon for my artillery park. Ok, so it’s still a Napoleonic subject but it involves a bit of a conversion using a Trent Miniatures gun carriage and a pack of their British wheels. The picture above shows progress so far and if I like the way it turns out, I’ll provide a full blog post with the modelling details.

Next up, and totally different, I’ve been playing with the new Diorama bases and Standing stones from the DeeZee range and I’m looking at using one or more of the Lucid Eye Neanderthals to make a small diorama as a display piece. Here is the test shot of the layout so far.

Lucid Eye Diorama

So that’s it for this week. They say that a change is as good as a rest so I’ll finish with a couple of pictures of the Hanoverian Brigade in all it’s glory! There are a total of 96 figures representing the 4th Hanoverian brigade at Waterloo, commanded by Colonel C. Best and comprising of the Verden Landwehr, Luneberg Landwehr, Munden Landwehr and Osterode Landwehr.

hanvoverian brigade close up - Command Figures

Hanoverian brigade close up – Command Figures

They were initially deployed left of centre at Waterloo under the command of Picton as part of the British 5th Division and presumably were in action or at the very least in close reserve as D’Erlons attack was made. As the day wore on, they were joined by the British 10th Brigade and placed under the command of Colonel Lambert as part of the 6th British Infantry Division – I think guarding the crossroads and the right from La Haye Saint towards Papelotte.

Hanoverian Brigade advances out of Little Bingham!

Rain Starts Play!

I have been doing quite a bit of painting this last week. Unfortunately, it was with a four inch brush and a can of Dulux Weather Shield. As you can see, I have been up a ladder, painting the exterior of the house, so the important job of adding to my Napoleonic Army was put on hold. Fortunately, that all changed on Sunday, when the weather turned and the rain came down all day. No doubt, many people were dismayed but not me! It gave me a break from the chores and a chance to get on with the last regiment of Hanoverian Landwehr, the Osterode Battalion.

Hanoverian Landwehr Osterode painting guide from Mont St Jean

As you can see form the pictures below, the first 12 troops are done which is half the regiment. I followed the colour scheme on Mont St Jean, which may be incorrect but as I said in my last post, the chance to paint a slightly different looking unit was too good to miss.

Hanoverian Osterode Landwehr

The colours that I used are shown in the picture below. I followed my usual procedure of block painting everything and then used Army Painter Dark Tone to provide the shading. Once the dark Tone had dried for 24 hours, I used the Army Painter Anti shine to matt the figures down. I then repainted some of the lighter colours to give a better highlight. So the red, Yellow, white, green and metallics were all touched up. This last stage is not really necessary but does help the brighter colours to show up on the wargames table.

Vallejo Model Colour

The basing scheme was my usual method of Vallejo Sandy Paste, over painted with Chocolate brown, highlighted with Iraqi Sand for the ground work. I’ve added the basic green scatter but will also add some tufts & flowers and static grass for a bit of interest once the whole battalion is complete. With another 6 troops and the officers and ensigns still to paint, it will be at least another week before the battalion is ready for the table. This will definitely be my last batch of Hanoverian troops for some time now!

I’ve got a number of small projects lined up once these are done, most of them small dioramas that wont really add to my Army but will add a bit of interest to my collection and provide a bit of ‘flavour’ on the occasional big set piece games. These projects include a spare wheel wagon, Napoleons Coach, a Prussian mule train, a Vivandiere, and a tribute to the Hartlepool monkey.

All I need to get these finished is a few more rainy days……

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