Category Archives: Whats on the work bench?

The Christmas holiday break can be a good time to get plenty of modelling done but for me the opposite is true. We were actually working through the break, as long as the post office was collecting, we were packing. Although there was time off on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, hobby time was at a premium. After all, it’s a social time of year and sneaking off to the garage for any length of time to paint models is somewhat anti social when you have invited the family over for Christmas. Besides, there was alcohol to drink and food to eat – always a distraction for me!

It’s not just models that I like making! Scotch eggs, Cranberry sauce and a home cooked ham – Lovely!

Mind you, nobody complained when my Granddaughter, Emily, came out with me to paint a DeeZee Platybelodon. She decided that a nice light blue shade would be best for her version of the beast! We actually managed to get the model based and she was very proud to take her new model home. At five years old, she did a pretty good job! Kids love painting and modelling, they just need some help at an early age and if they get the bug, they will be producing better models than us old ‘uns!

Emily and her Platybelodon!

So, apart from the Platybelodon, I actually haven’t finished anything over the break but progress has been made. As a change from painting battalions, I decided to paint four Officer figures that I had in the lead pile to bolster my command structure!

New officers!

Three of the figures are about finished but all need basing. The two staff officers are Warlord figures and will just be added to the appropriate battalions. Wellington and Crawford (in the Background) are from Front Rank and I will probably mount these on 60mm round bases as part of a vignette and use them as Brigade commanders but I have yet to finalise details in my mind.

I also cleaned up and undercoated a couple of other random figures as well as starting to assemble some more Victrix Highlanders.

A mixed bag on the workbench

The other task that I completed was to go through my ‘lead pile’ and list down just what I had squirreled away. I wont be making any rash promises about how I will finish everything this year but the exercise was worthwhile and reminded me that I had bought some of the items for a reason and it was time to get them painted! So rather than starting the year with a firm plan and a promise that I wont keep, for the tiome being, I am going to go where ever the modelling muse takes me.

At the moment, that means that I will be making 48 highlanders to complete the 42nd and 92nd Battalions but if I take a break to complete a Samurai or piece of  Caribbean scenery, then I wont get to uptight about it. Having lists, challenges and goals can be very effective in achieving results or kick starting you after a lull.. However there is a danger that they can turn your hobby into a chore. Everything in moderation, is a good motto, and long as I am modelling, I will be happy!

Once again, Happy New Year and I hope that you enjoy your modelling.

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

The Arcane Scenery web store has a huge range of products that will help you to complete your modelling projects and we dispatch post free to most worldwide locations. Just click here to see our ranges.

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I would like to point you towards the Albion Alloys Abrasive ranges. You can see that I am using the sanding sticks to help assemble the Victrix Highlanders – The sanding sticks are excellent for use with plastics – I wouldn’t be without them and a pack will last for ages;

ALBION ABRASIVES

We also carry the Victrix plastics range – they are without doubt amongst the best plastics around. The highlanders are simply lovely figures.

VICTRIX RANGE

Yes, it’s a horrible title, Paintvember, but it did capture my imagination and as a result of a challenge issued on the Painting and Sculpting facebook page, for once I joined in one of the social media challenges. I normally steer well clear of such nonsense (I’m talking social media challenges – not painting), regardless of how worthy the cause, so no moustache growing, abstaining from booze, chucking ice cold water over myself or any of the other mass madness that goes on. This was simple, just commit to painting, sculpting or modelling for 30 minutes a day for the month of November and post your progress up on the facebook group page. It seemed like a good way of focusing on my hobby and it would be interesting to see just what could be achieved if I spent some time everyday doing some painting.

Victirx Highland Infantry assembled ready for painting.

To be fair, it wasn’t a great stretch, I paint for a short period of time on most weekday evenings but usually have at least one evening off, if nothing else than to actually wargame! The weekends can be mixed. In the summer, there is plenty of other distractions and even on rainy winter weekends, there are things to do and people to see, meaning that my hobby is put to one side.

So what have I learnt?

The first thing was that it turned what can be a solitary part of the hobby into more of a social occasion. Social media can be useful when those contributing are not only giving encouraging feedback but also showing what they are painting as well. I looked forward to seeing how my facebook chums were progressing with their projects and the skill and variety of projects on show was certainly inspirational. Getting a few likes was heartening and helped to keep me focused.

Red coats on!

Batch painting is ideal for this sort of challenge. It helps that I have a work area that I can leave in a mess and know that it wont be disturbed. So if I am working through a batch of figures I can easily find just 5 minutes to get a bit  more colour on a figure. I think that this becomes more difficult if you are working on a ‘masterpiece’, one figure to a high standard or trying to paint a larger model. When I was working through my Highlanders, I had a set sequence, Flesh, Hats, Boots, cartridge case, jacket, bread bag, water bottle and so on. So I always know which colour I would be blocking on the next model.

The 30 minutes a day (minimum – I often did more!) does keep a project moving and so even when I thought that I might stall or wimp out of the challenge, the small goal of just paint for 30 minutes meant that I picked up my brush and did some more. The ‘Elephant’ was eaten a spoonful at a time!

79th Camerons close up.

It helped that I had a couple of projects on the go at once. As well as painting the Highlanders, I was working on a new batch of movement trays for my collection. So if I wasn’t in the mood for painting or if I needed more than 30 minutes for a stage, I could switch from painting soldiers to the trays. I think that having a couple of different projects on the go at once is quite useful but would suggest that they do need to be different. Perhaps a scenery piece alongside a unit of figures is a good mix.

The 79th Camerons finishe as part of the Paintvember challenge!

The challenge also focused me on to the question of when could I find 30 minutes to paint as opposed to the oft reached conclusion that ‘I haven’t got time to paint today’. As a result, I have been grabbing short periods of time in the morning and evening to get my session in. The nights when I might have succumbed to watching the idiots lantern have been replaced with something more productive. It’s taken most of the challenge but I now have a completed Battalion of Cameron Highlanders, which in themselves have completed my representation of the 8th British Brigade at Waterloo, complete with their own new labelled movement trays!

Labelled trays completed as well!

I dont think that I will be quite so relentless with my painting over the next 30 days. Sometimes, a break can be refreshing – absence makes the heart grow fonder – but I hope to keep the attitude of looking for opportunities to paint rather than finding excuses not to. As a final thought, social media, when it is social, has been a great help to my hobby. I have been fortunate enough to part of groups that have either provided me with encouragement with my hobby or inspired me by showing me what can be achieved. So no commercial links below, just a few of my favorite facebook groups!

So, finally, a big ‘Thank You!’ to Alfonso Oclaf for posing the challenge. I’ve never met Alfonso but I am grateful for his idea and for helping me to get my Highlanders done!

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In last weeks blog, I showed you how I have gone about batch painting my Battalion of 79th Cameron Highlanders for my Waterloo project. In this weeks blog, I show how I went about breaking down the tartan into a process that I could cope with to produce a reasonable table top standard finish to my troops in tartan.

I am no artist, more of a paint by numbers man, so I hope that this blog is useful to other gamers that have perhaps, like me, been put off from attempting to paint this complicated pattern on their troops. The idea is to give a representation of the tartan pattern on the troops that will look nice when the unit is complete. It is entirely beyond my skill to reproduce anything other than this on a 28mm tall figure.

The 79th Cameron regiment of foot, Centre Companies.

I did look at a number of references for the actual tartan but decided on a simple version based on what I could actually see when I held the book away from my face rather than the close up scrutiny that would show every colour! I should also confess that I am slightly red/green colour blind, so although I can see close up that there are fine red stripes running through the cloth, my overriding impression is of blue, green and black with a fine yellow/beige stripe, so that is what I would paint!

Before I started on the figures, I tried my hand in a larger scale in my note book to see how things would work out. The base colours that I chose for the tartan was Prussian blue 70965 and Reflective green 70890. I tried painting blue over green and green over blue, but decided that I preferred the latter.

Tartan practice – just going through the process helps fix how I will paint the tartan.

Having had a little practice I jumped in and made a start. First job, paint the kilts prussian blue.

Blue kilts to start!

Next, I painted a series of vertical stripes in green.

Green stripes added

Followed by the horizontal stripes. I tried to keep the stripes as uniform as possible, letting the paint brush do the work and determine the width. Having the paint thinned to a milky consistency helps.

Horizontal stripes added

The next part of the process is to outline the green strips with a fine line in black. I did consider using a fine liner pen at this stage but managed with a fine brush again, thin paint helps the flow. It is obvious from the close up pictures that my brush work is a bit raggedy and the consistency in line width varies from figure to figure.

The green stripes are then outlined in black.

Finally, using 70913 yellow ochre, I painted a larger cross hatch to give the impression of the yellow thread that runs through the tartan. With the later figures that I have painted, I was a bit more careful with the placement of the yellow line, trying to ensure that it bisected the blue/green squares. I also have made the blue green squares larger to make the task easier. As I have said, I have chosen to ignore the fine red lines that are woven into the Cameron Tartan. This means that the tartan for my Camerons will be similar to the tartan used by the Gordons. Fortunately the facings are different, yellow as opposed to green, so I hope that will be enough to differentiate the units on the gaming table!

Tartan completed – or is it..?

So with the Tartan done, the next job was to paint the red cross hatching on the bonnet and the socks. Once again, I have cut corners to make life easy. The cross hatching on the bonnet should have small green squares at the junction of the checks – I’ve left these off.

Red Cross hatching added to bonnets and socks.

The next stage was to lightly dry brush the bonnets with light grey to bring out the detail of the feathers and then I carefully painted on the Army Painter Dark Tone quick shade. This really brings out the detail on the figures, covers up some of the smaller mistakes that I have made  and seals the paint onto the figures.

Quick shade carefully painted over the models.

Once given a coat of matt varnish, I go back and re highlight the lighter colours, particularly the white. I also paint the bayonets in bright silver and paint the bases with chocolate brown to tidy things up.

Figures retouched and white highlighted.

The figures are now ready for basing. I may need to retouch some of the figures with matt varnish in places. I tend to be sparing with the varnish as I have had too many accidents with it in the past!

STOP PRESS!

After all that I had said about ignoring the red in the kilts, my OCD circuit was niggling away at me saying ‘the Camerons were the only one’s with red in the kilts – how could you leave it out…’ I also kept thinking that I didn’t want them to look too much like the Gordons, with their Yellow square pattern.

After much thinking I decided hell, just do it, and painted a red cross hatch pattern in between the large yellow pattern. I haven’t got a picture to show the close up of the technique – I was too busy just cursing myself and getting on with the painting! I even went back over the troops that I had finished.  But painting red was the same as painting the yellow stripe, just exactly in the middle of the yellow grid. The result is below. My concern was that the tartan would look a bit ‘busy’ on the small figures but I think it looks OK.

Red added to the tartan!

This is typical of my approach to my modelling! I convince myself that I cant do something and then decide to have a go any way! So, with 16 of the troops completed there is just another eight to go to finish the battalion. Having learnt how to paint tartan, I suspect that the next eight will be a bit more straight forward, especially as the officers and ensigns aren’t in kilts! Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll show you the final results with the battalion all based and ready for action.

A close up of the Camerons – the red stripe is a bit broad on some figures!

Past experience has shown that once the basing is done, the figures will look even better.  Having completed the Camerons, my intention is to paint the other two Highland regiments in kilts, the Gordons and the Black Watch. It looks as though the tartan for these two are actually less complicated than the Camerons and having now tackled one set of tartan, I’m hoping that these other two battalions will be more straight forward.

The Commercial Bit

Another lazy link this week…nearly everything that I use in my hobby is available post free from the Arcane Scenery shop. So Expo Brushes, Vallejo Paints, Victrix figures, Renedra bases, tools and sanding sticks – they are all there , just have a browse! Use the manufacturers category or the general category to browse products.  If you want a specific paint or item, just type the number or description into the search box, hit return and it should appear!

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

Last week I mentioned that I went along to a play test of the forthcoming Ancient Greek skirmish game, Mortal Gods – A test of Courage. I have on the work bench a small band of Greeks and Skeletons for this game and I will return to these in another blog – they are providing light relief from my ongoing Napoleonic project.

The next Napoleonic unit on the paint station is the 79th Cameron Highlanders. I have started to batch paint the 24 figures that I need for the battalion and the first 8 are about finished. In this blog, I’ll show you step by step how I went about the task of painting these eight. Incidentally, I had initially thought that I would paint 28 figures for the battalion but I have reined in my ambition and will go for the usual 24 figures. This isn’t quite the climb down that it looks like. Having painted the first eight, my confidence has grown and I have decided to paint all three Highland regiments at Waterloo, a total of 72 figures. The other reason for the smaller Battalion is that all the Highland regiments at Waterloo had been quite badly mauled in the fighting at Quatre Bras, two days earlier, so a standard sized unit makes more sense.

I’ll rely on the pictures to show the sequence in which I have painted the models, so a picture heavy blog – hopefully more use than me waffling on…I hope that the step by step method that I use will be useful.

Step 1 Flesh

Once the figures have been primed with Army Painter grey, I start with the flesh – face, hands and knees! Vallejo Flat Flesh 70815. I’m using an Expo sable ‘0’ brush for most of the painting.

Step 2 Black

Black 70950 for Hats, Cartridge Box, Bayonet scabbard and boots.

Step 3 – gaiters

Black grey 70862 for the gaiters.

Step 4 Hair and sideburns!

Chocolate Brown 70872 for hair, although I painted one as ginger haired using 70981 Orange brown!

Red coats on!

Flat red 70957 for the Jackets.

Food bags painted

Iraqi sand 70819 for the food bags – you could do these in white and I should really paint the strap in Iraqi Sand to match but I actually paint them white as it makes the front of the figure look better -call it artistic licence or laziness…

Water bottles painted

Pastel blue 70901 for the water bottles. This looks on the light side but when I use quick shade on the figure the colour will darken and the texture of the bottles will show. Painting the unit number on the canteen is beyond my skill, eye sight and patience!

Facings in Green – spot the ginger….

Flat Green 70968 for facings – collars & cuffs.

White lace & straps

The longest stint in one colour! 70820 Off white for tufts, turnbacks, belts, socks and lacing.

Muskets & Water bottle strap

Flat Brown 70984 for Musket stocks and I cheated and used the same colour for the canteen strap – leather brown 70871 would perhaps be a better choice. Some painters like to paint a grain effect on the wooden musket stocks – again, a step too far for me and I think unnecessary.

Metallics done.

Metallics! Steel 70864 for the musket barrel and other details, Brass 70801 for the buttons, belt plate and details on the musket.

Tartan Paint – it’s magic!

Vallejo Tartan paint….Well, not exactly but just to tease, I will explain how I went about painting the Tartan for the Cameron’s in more detail. This was the test shot and once I had gotten my head around the process I reverted back to the batch paint job.I’ll say up front that it is by no means an accurate representation, more a nod in the general direction of how Tartan looks. When it came to it, painting the tartan to this standard wasn’t as difficult as I had thought but it is time consuming. The first 8 figures that I have finished are looking OK for the table top, though I say so myself – you can an idea for yourself next week! But, there are a few steps yet to take, including the daunting task of painting the figures with quick shade and hoping that I didn’t lose too much of the detail.

I’ve also painted the red cross hatching on the hat bands and the socks. So until next week,  you can see how I tamed the tartan terrors!

The Commercial Bit

A lazy link this week…nearly everything that I use in my hobby is available post free from the Arcane Scenery shop. So Expo Brushes, Vallejo Paints, Victrix figures, Renedra bases, tools and sanding sticks – they are all there , just have a browse! Use the manufacturers category or the general category to browse products.  If you want a specific paint or item, just type the number or description into the search box, hit return and it should appear!

ARCANE SCENERY SHOP

One of the pleasures of the wargaming hobby for me, is watching my collection grow as I add each new unit. My Napoleonic collection is broadly themed around the Battle of Waterloo and the 100 days Campaign. This gives me a structure to work to when building my army. I don’t intend to make every unit that served in the Allied army, although sometimes it feels like that is what I am doing!

32nd Foot ready fo action!

I have been working on what I think is one of the most interesting of the British Brigades that fought both at Waterloo and at Quatre Bras, two days earlier. It is the British 8th Brigade, commanded by Major General Sir James Kempt. The brigade consisted of the 28th North Gloucestershire’s, 32nd Cornwall, 79th Cameron Highlanders and 6 company’s of the 95th Rifles.

As I have mentioned, the brigade fought well at Quatre Bras, with the Rifle Battalion occupying ‘Cherry Wood’ just north of the Namur road to stop the French encirclement. With just 550 men, they managed to throw the French into confusion and push back the 2e Leger, some 2000 men. The French unit ‘fled without awaiting the enemy and the rest of the division fell into disorder and, not content with abandoning it’s ground, did not stop, even on reaching the high ground beyond Gemioncourt.’

Lady Butlers painting of the 28th at Quatre Bras.

If the rifle battalion had performed well, so to did the rest of the brigade who were thrown into the battle against the French advance. They blasted away Bachelu’s leading regiment, 61e Ligne with their disciplined fire, again causing the French 5e Division to fall back. Later in the battle, in what seemed to be a rehearsal for the events that would occur two days later at Waterloo, The brigade formed squares to resist the French Cuirassiers, pouring volley after volley into them without breaking.

The Brigade went on to Waterloo and faced D’Erlons attack – but that’s another story – back to the modelling!

As well as their contribution to the 100 days campaign, from a modellers point of view, it is the variety of units in the brigade that interests me. The 28th were wearing Stovepipe shakos and had yellow facings as well as having an additional badge on the rear of their shakos. The 32nd Cornwall battalion was a standard battalion with Belgic shakos and white facings. The 95th, are of course the famous green clad rifles, which leaves the 79th, a Tartan clad Highland battalion with green facings.

I have already completed the 28th and 32nd – you can read how I went about modelling them in my earlier blogs. Here are two of the articles to get you started!

THE 28TH STARTER ARTICLE

THE 32nd STARTER ARTICLE

I had decided to use the Victrix Plastic Highlanders to make the 79th Camerons. I am happy with plastics as opposed to metals and like the process of putting plastics together. It also means that my army is lighter when it comes to moving them around! The other benefit of the Victrix set is that you get 60 figures plus plenty of spare pieces, so conversions are straight forward. The Victrix Highlanders come as either a centre company boxed set or as a Flank Company boxed set. I went for the Centre company set as I have a box of Flank company line infantry and I will use the arms from this set to make my Flank companies.

Victrix Centre Companies Highland Infantry.

Assembly of these models is quite straight forward, there is minimal flash and mould lines to remove. As always, I use polystyrene cement to glue them together. This gives plenty of working time and results in a much stronger bond than using super glue. You will also find that the joins fill if you let the cement soften the plastic for a minute before you press the pieces together.

Victirx Highland Infantry assembled

The assembly instructions are sparse but do make it reasonably clear what arms go with what body. There is a choice of heads. Some have a peak on the highland bonnet, some do not. I am told that the highland troops were ordered to remove the peaks for the Battle of Waterloo but I haven’t worried about this level of detail and my unit has a mixture of peaks and no peaks! I know that some modellers will find this casual attitude unacceptable but I am happy to mix it up. My troops aren’t meant to be frozen in time to one Battle and I’m happy to believe that whilst the troops may have been ordered to remove the peaks, what they actually did at the battle when the sun came out may have been different to what they were ordered to do!

The 79th Cameron regiment of foot, Centre Companies.

I have assembled 28 figures. The main Battalion will be represented by 24 figures, this includes the Grenadier Flank Battalion. I have also put together an extra four figures to represent the detached light company so that I can use them either for skirmishers in Black powder or as separate figures for Sharp Practice.

So I’m almost ready to start painting. Indeed, I have undercoated the first batch of eight figures. I will use the Mont St Jean reference sheet ( shown above) as my main painting guide but I will also have a quick scan of my other references, Franklins British Napoleonic Uniforms, The Companion to Waterloo, the appropriate Osprey and of course pinterest/google. I don’t expect this to be a quick project as I am concerned that the Tartan and detail around the head band and socks will really take time. If all goes well I’ll update my blog with my progress. I have half a mind to carry on and paint the other two highland regiments but one step at a time….

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

If you would like to get hold of the Victrix Highland sets, we carry them as part of our Victrix range here:

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Happy Modelling!

A short and mixed blog post this week. Just to record that my Royal Horse Artillery Battery is now complete and ready for action!

Royal Horse Artillery moves into position!

I have been very busy though, but the projects that I have been working on have yet to come to full fruition so I’m not in a position to write them up!

Another shot of my Royal Horse Artillery Battery

I have completed an article for the next issue of Wargames Illustrated, reviewing the new Black Powder rules but I don’t do spoilers so if you would like to read it, you will have to grab a copy of the mag – incidentally, Arcane Scenery send the Magazine out post free, worldwide, so no excuses for being able to get a copy. Mind you, I wont be offended if you decide that my article isn’t a big enough draw…

Black Powder 2ed. has arrived!

Inspired by my current reading, I have put together a small Black Powder Scenario to start to use the new rules with my gaming friends. We are due to play this through tonight and so I am not yet able to bring you the battle report. I am concerned that it is overly ‘asymmetric’ but as I am playing the Prussians, It should be OK…. Here’s the briefing for the players:

Dear General Reille,

You are commanded to lead the advance Corps into Belgium to split the Allied and Prussian Army. Having crossed the Sambre successfully and moved past Charleroi you have encountered a small force of Prussians that are holding the route onto Brussels as well as preventing access to the Brussels – Liege road. You must push on and brush aside these defenders. Time is of the essence.

Your scouts have informed you that the Prussians consist of approximately 2 brigades of Infantry, some artillery and a small brigade of Cavalry. There are other Allied and Prussian units in the area but you are confident that it is unlikely that they will give support.

The Prussian detachment has already deployed and is barring your advance.

You have one brigade of 3 regts of Light Cavalry already in position as well as one brigade of Infantry (including one light infantry battalion). These units do not have artillery. They are deployed as you wish anywhere within 8 inches of your table edge.

As the attacker, you will have the first move.

On your turn two you may deploy an additional brigade of 4 Battalions + One Artillery piece OR a brigade of 3 regiments of Cavalry + One Artillery piece of your choice. They must enter the centre of the table through a 12″ window depending on orders thrown. All French units within 12″ of their own table edge (on or off the table) will benefit from a re roll in the case of a failed order. Blunders excepted! Your command level is 8 – no ‘pa de charge’ but column movement bonuses apply.

On turn three you may repeat the above, and so on until the end of the game.

It is not possible for the French Army to be Broken….French Brigades that are broken will Rally automatically at their table edge and any casualties reduce by one. Routed units will be removed and will not return.

All French INFANTRY units will roll off disorder on a 5+.

Victory will be achieved if you can remove the Prussian barrier before turn 5….

Good Luck – the Emperor is watching….

I will report back if it works.

British Foot Artillery and …..

Back to the painting desk, I have the Foot Artillery crew on the go to complete my Artillery project. Some progress was made before a certain new game started a new itch to scratch! I am lucky enough to be close to the new games in development at Lenton in the heart of the Nottingham lead belt, and rarely comment on anything before it is released. However, The new game from Warbanner, Mortal Gods, A Test of Courage, is currently being play tested and I just happen to have an old box of War Games Factory Greeks on the Kit pile… It wouldn’t hurt to put a few test pieces together now would it?

More to follow!

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Happy Modelling!

A somewhat appropriate combination you may think, but merely coincidence that I am reading one and watching the other! I will explain more later. My Artillery Autumn is still rumbling on and to be honest, I have been suffering from painting fatigue. To be fair, painting yellow is always difficult but trying to paint yellow piping and lace has left me somewhat frustrated. I had forgotten how difficult it is and this probably explains why it has taken so long to add to my artillery collection.

Artillery Collection – still plenty to paint!

Nevertheless, I am making slow progress, with three horse artillery crews now painted and awaiting basing. Also on the go and nearing completion are the three cannon to go with them. As usual, I am block painting the figures, then painting over with Army painter quick shade, coating with matt varnish and finishing by re painting the lighter colours and metallics. Oh Joy! This means that I have actually painted most of the piping and lace in yellow twice to try to make it stand out.

Move that Howitzer!

Some of the lace work doesn’t bear close scrutiny but from a distance, the figures are looking OK. Once they are based with the cannon, I think that I will be happy with them.

Battery ready for action! – Well…. nearly!

Painting yellow is always fraught with difficulties. I have tried undercoating with white first, and Orange and sand yellow ( which is almost acceptable on it’s own) and I have tried many different manufacturers to find a yellow that covers in one coat – Vallejo is the best that I have used, albeit with some difficulties.

The cannon are also still in progress. I’ve stuck to my original method and paint scheme despite reservations as to how ‘accurate’ it may be. However, I have taken on board comments made regarding the wheel rims and despite initially painting them black, along with the other iron work, I will heavily dry brush with natural steel. I’ll also apply a light weathering of ‘mud’ to the wheels and spokes.

You will see from the pictures that I have some foot Artillery crew also waiting for their turn on the paint station. Whilst my painting mojo is being severely tested, I have decided to plough on regardless and finish all the artillery that I think that I will need for my army over the next month or so. I am being ‘helped’ by both my current reading and of all things, a drama on TV.

Vanity Fair…really?

I knew that Vanity Fair was set around the Battle of Waterloo but most TV productions have ignored the battle. So I thought that this was a program more likely to appeal to Mrs W than to me. However, to my surprise, I have very much enjoyed it. The costumes and uniforms look fantastic (as do those wearing them), the acting is excellent ( Martin Clunes steals the show for me) and the modern take on the story has worked very well as far as I am concerned – even the soundtrack is excellent. The new ITV production has very much included the battle, with some excellent action. The scene where the infantry form square to fight off the Cuirassiers was excellent. I know some have raised eyebrows at the fact that the dismounted Cuirassiers attempted to press home their attack on foot but I wondered if it did happen. Who knows? What does one do when the blood lust is up, you’ve had your horse shot from beneath you and the bastard that did it is loading his gun ready for the next shot. Running away clearly isn’t going to work….

As if this wasn’t good enough, the next battle scene showed the French Old Guard, in all their glory, marching up what they thought was a deserted hill, only for the English to stand up and pour fire into them. Well, my imagination went into overdrive and I couldn’t wait to get back to painting my army!

John Hussey Waterloo Campaign

On a more serious note, I am currently working my way through John Hussey’s first volume of the Waterloo campaign. There’s very little action in it so far – having reached page 373, we are just at the 15th June 1815 and the first encounters between the French and Prussians. BUT John Hussey has done a superb job with his forensic research and analysis of the campaign. Having read many accounts of the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo, so far, this book has been the best that I have read in helping me to understand how and why the battles took place.

This isn’t the place for me to do a full review but one rather simplistic impression stands out. If Wellington was trying to herd Cats to get the allies in place to fight Napoleon, Napoleon at times seemed to be herding snakes! There’s no evidence of a conspiracy in the French camp – they just don’t seem to like each other! Once again, each time I read a chapter, I am inspired to get painting again. I want my army ready to fight the French!

Black Powder 2ed. has arrived!

Finally, my copy of Black Powder 2ed. has arrived. Just in time to provide a tonic for the troops! I’d better get painting!

Horse Artillery colours.

Back to painting – the colours that I have used for the Royal Horse artillery are as follows:

70955 flesh; 70950 black; 70899 dark Prussian blue; 70984 flat brown; 70901 pastel blue; 70871 leather brown; 70992 neutral grey; 70947 red; 70953 yellow; 70801 brass; 70864 steel; 70997 silver. That is also pretty much the sequence in which I have painted as well.

Happy painting!

THE COMMERCIAL BIT

All of the paints used are available post free from my shop here:

VALLEJO PAINTS

Use the search function if you are just looking for a specific colour

At the time of writing, you can still pre order Black Powder second edition through my shop and get the free figure and of course it will be sent out post free on 6th October, the official launch date. Hurry up though, I am running out of the preorder stock with the figures!

BLACK POWDER