New Recruits

If you frequent TMP you may well have seen my good friend John (Von Blucher) post up some of his excellent troops for sale with the proceeds going to help out a family member. I have always admired John's brush skills so when the chance came up I managed to pocket some for myself (If you read my blog regularly you will know that eventually I have designs on putting a French army of my own together so John's French commands are a welcome addition). We had a wee bit of a bother with the post, however this pushed me to re base the troops in my own style. John, I hope you don't mind?
  

1st up Lefebvre Desnouette's command stand chasing down a Prussian reserve infantryman from the 6RIR. Hopefully this matches in historically?). Craig was good enough to point me in the direction of a regiment that was overrun by the retreating french in 1813. Phil this 1 is for you with an allied figure in a bad situation for a change!!!

John originally had converted a trumpeter to go with the main officer figure but unfortunately it was damaged in the post, I have now repaired the trumpeter and he will be included in the main regiment. I like to have 3 figures on my cavalry bases so I pulled 1 of the flag guys from the regiment to make up the numbers. I had to do a wee bit of retouching of the figures after the postman had, had his fun but I think they came out well.
Great figures John!!!
  

The new trumpeter pinched from the regiment.

I have wanted to use this figure for a long while, Run Forest Run!!!

I also received a brigade stand that I re based in my own style.

Again I messed around with the uniforms and faces a wee bit to make them into my own style however the figures were already spot on. 

And a French Marshall command stand. John I'll need to discuss your method for French blue with you again as I can't get it quite right.

The infantry colonel was added in by me as John's Infantry officer was in the earlier uniform. Well it's fair to say I'm very happy with my new troops and . . .

. . . still to come a full regiment of Guard chasseur a cheval!!! John sent me 24 and I took 1 out for the command. I matched up 9 to give me 32 however I will be painting up more to make a full 40 man regiment (they will also be re based on 48mm x 30mm bases as soon as they arrive). John has very kindly sent over some Mamelukes to add into the group as well!

Thanks again John, brilliant figures!!!

Kutuzov 1812

So here he is at very long last my old buddy Kutuzov. His command stand is the 2nd of the big 3 I plan to paint, with Blucher already completed I aim to do Napoleon and then everything afterwards will be a bonus.

  

As you probably will have guessed the story of this scene is a type of Borodino 1 although not specifically the great redoubt. You'll have to give me a wee bit of breathing space here as there are a few mistakes such as the damage to the gun (how did it get in that state?). Also I would like to point out that I wouldn't myself cut up an AB gun at £3 a pop! I received the gun with figures from a friend in Germany and he had already done the damage for a command base.
  Obviously he's some sort of millionaire type? I myself would have hunted down an OG or Minifig gun. 

Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it has turned out. I have settled with my new greens for all future Russian troops (the Foundry French chasseur greens x3). I have found them to shade very well and have a nice depth to them. The Russian greens from the set appear far to dark to my eyes for 18mm.

  

I think Kutuzov came out well. The head swap looks a wee bit more like him than the original although his hair is a wee bit thicker than maybe a man of his age would have but who knows?

   

As I mentioned the sash bugged me but not that it was wrong, just that I didn't notice it until I had pinned the head and made the cap as if I had noticed I could have used the original figure I took the head from! Anyway I see that Sho (Boki) will be doing a Russian set similar to the Perry set sitting so will look forward to doing them when they are released.

   

These 2 are my favourites of the base as both are head swaps with the guard officer coming out the best.  

   

Maybe a wee bit crowded? Would they leave a wounded Frenchman so close to Kutuzov? I'm sure there are a few Opolchenie on the way to take care of him (Phil again sorry for yet another French casualty however I have balanced it up a wee bit with a few Russians to show the ferocity of the fighting).

  

My knowledge of French cuirassiers is lacking at the moment and I painted him with pink facings. I just hope they were around somewhere in Russian where Kutuzov was fighting?

    

The Russian casualties were good fun to do and I feel came out well and tell a story of their own.

   

Ok, so thankfully some more of the lead pile is finished and a main command stand for 1812 at that but still a lot more to do. Now that it's finished I'm pretty happy with the layout and I'm sure it will be used a good few times in games to come.

I now plan to do a Bavarian command for a friend and finish of the Von Lutzow conversions.

Happy wargamining and painting!

A wee bit of progress

Well things are slow around the painting table, been spending some time looking through what I have in my unpainted pile and scouring books for info. I have a good few command bases in various states of completion so decided I would slowly pick away at them until I have a real plan on what to do.

This unfinished and rather messy looking one is for Kutuzov, I'm not 100% happy with the layout or the Kutuzov figure for a couple of reasons. I lost hope witch Kutuzov as he wears the sash on the wrong shoulder (this red one is fantasy as to my knowledge he never received it). I had already replaced his head and heavily converted him when after researching the penny dropped. After that I hurriedly stuck it all together (last year I think?) in a hope of bashing it through. It's a shame as the guard and grenadier officer figures conversions came out pretty nice.

Also, as I was doing Russians I thought I would have a wee go at some new toys. Sho, (Kutuzov) has his own line of 18mm naps on the go, the company is in it's infancy and is producing some really interesting figures. They are not so finely cast or sculpted as AB at the moment but he is certainly progressing and deserves supporting, also a wee bit pricey but for myself a range that holds lots of interest and potential as subjects you will only need a limited amount of. This unfinished portly gent is the mounted officer of Russian infantry from Borodino, only sporting the earlier shako.

Anyways, that's it from me for the moment and I'll post nicer pics when done.

Anyways thanks for visiting

Happy painting and wargaming!

Best Paul

Tacloban Relief Goods

Hello, It's been a while, a good long while as my last post was way back on 20th January. I'm sorry as this again is not a hobby related post but hopefully I will get back to hobby stuff soon. If you have been following my blog you will know how the typhoon in the Philippines November last year effected our family and friends. So Mai and I have been spending our time working extra shifts and mostly gathering donations on our free time.

  

In total we have packed 6 boxes to be sent to Tacloban for our family and their local community and I would like to thank everyone who helped out in some way! Tunnocks of Uddingston, Lees of Coatbridge, Asda New Mains, St.Vincent De Paul Lanark, St. Margarets Hospice Carluke, Deans shortbread, Margaret and Bill plus the congregation of St. John's Church Carluke, Seewoo Chinese cash and carry, Jamie and the guys at Lanark job centre, Sana and his brother of The Raj in Carluke, Welsh Pharmacy New Mains, Jim Smith plus family my family as always and all the guys who contributed from Mai's work, Marizon, Ceasar and family plus farm foods Wishaw, you are all amazing!!! You all helped a great deal with essential goods. Also Jamie, Stuart and Cameron at the club donated their toys for the kids. My bro David and my Mum were brilliant when the typhoon 1st hit and helped us keep everyone with at least some food through the hellish 1st weeks and month.

Everyone thank you so much!!!

These were the 1st 3 boxes to depart on 9th Feb. Everything was broken down into manageable portions to fit every available space. To send over goods would not be a wise option normally as the postage for 3 is £130 and to fill them would take around £500-£600 however with all the help and prices being sky high for the basics it has been very worthwhile.

  

It is amazing the amount you can squeeze into the boxes. Almost all this lot went into 3 boxes as well as clothes to fill every gap. So 6 boxes away in total and we will be sending 3 more filled with goods mostly for the families down by the shore line who lost everything, mostly kids clothes, beddings etc. I'll post pics of the guys receiving the boxes soon. 

This was a wee idea of my own helped by the guys from the club to give our tribe of nephews toys to play with, probably not the best use of space in boxes so I will take them over myself next year and teach them how to play.

I had been picking up odds and ends for a good while that I planned to paint for them as the boys had all shown interest in the blogs. Just need some dice and measuring tapes now. Jamie very kindly donated some old codex.

The Skeletons were fun to paint as were the space orcs.

A good wee force that fits nicely into the blue box show in 1 of the pics and light as a feather.

  

Anyways guys thanks to everyone who offered support over the past few months, I really appreciate it. These are as you can imagine still tough times for the guys who are still in Tacloban but there are little signs of improvements. Communications are poor as the phone lines are still down but they are working hard to get the power up and running again.

So hopefully I'll be back doing Naps related posts soon guys. I have a long running project with Craig and also a wee project with Ken I need to get back on track (sorry gents!). I have a few more crazy shifts then I can get my head together. I noticed I dropped a few followers recently, all I can say is I'm sorry for the delay in posts but there were far more important things going on in our lives.

Best regards
Paul