Bavarian Workbench 1

Well I'm still waiting for my camera to return but I managed to get a loan of my wife's friends camera when she dropped by a week or so ago so I knocked off some quick pics. Just for fun my painting light, that I also use for taking pictures decided to die!!! (Unfortunately not just a bulb as I have tried 2 others but the light itself). It was a very old light that I was given by my friend Tom down at Milicast and it will be sadly missed. However another is on it's way from ebay! So to save my eyes from torture I have been sanding and slashing and preparing instead of painting.

I picked a load of Bavarians up on ebay a while back from Dirk in Germany. I already had a stack of unpainted figures and another wee load is on its way to me right now as I type (cheers Steve) As they already have a coat of paint I will be giving them a quick paint into my own style and they will form the rear ranks of my battalions and the unpainted figures I will be starting from scratch will be at the front.

I have always fancied a Bavarian brigade or 2. The flags are probably the nicest of the Napoleonic wars plus the light blue uniform and unusual hat help make them stand out on the battlefield. I have been having a good discussion about their uniform over on the GdeB forum and I believe these guys are too light, unfortunately I had almost finished the 1st battalion before finding out. So this is roughly how they will be looking when they are finished. I have been trying out the foundry paint system on these and they were done with the Bavarian cornflower blue and highlight so for the next battalion I will try with the shade and Bavarian cornflower and see how it looks.

I rebased the artillery I got (a 3 gun battery thank goodness!!!). the guns are Old Glory and will get cleaned up and punted I think? I have 2 more AB batteries on the way all with lovely AB Austrian guns!!!!!

This was my test figure to see what blues I will be using. Some of the reference material I have seen show the uniform in very vibrant shades of blue but I have went for a duller hue.

My Prussian Guard jagers: I took the opportunity to get some sand o their base so as I can get them finished off. I read somewhere that some of them wore Hungarian style breeches so I thought it would be a nice talking point. I don't know the reason behind it? Maybe supply problems or a recognition of their allie? If you know the story behind it I would be interested to hear it!

And my Russian horse artillery battery: it's all finished now with varnish and grass (I have been struggling with the Foundry paints as I find it hard to visualise how they will look when finished because the paint is so satin) I'll post some pics of it when my camera returns. The green is very nice when varnished, I used the Russian green light shade as I felt the shade and middle colour were just too dark for 15mm.

Boy this was a job and a half and more so because I am not keen on painting artillery (I have no idea why?). 24 figures and 6 guns, well at least it's done now!!!