Wednesday 3 November 2010

Bavarian 11th Kinkel

Thankfully my new book gave me a bit of inspiration to pull my finger out and get some of my Bavarians finished. Straight out sorry about the pictures as I just don't have the proper light for it

So this is the 1st battalion of the 11th Regiment Kinkel for the period 1812-13 and the figures are from AB with a pioneer from Fantassin.



RtL these are especially for you as I know you were keen to see how they would turn out, thanks for all the help on the uniforms and I hope they don't disappoint!

There is a mix of painting styles in here with the figures at the back of the bases mostly earlier repaints of figures I bought on ebay so are a little rougher looking and also too light and the figures at the front of the bases were done after RtL gave me the low down on the correct shade of cornflower blue.

My grenadier base with the Fantassin figure added in. I am not a big fan of the Fantassin range but this guy fits in really well and I feel completes the unit (you can buy him in packs of 8 which is very helpful!).

To try and make my figures look a little different from each other I twisted a lot of their heads up/down/left/right and thankfully the Bavarians big hat made it pretty easy to do.





A little head swap here, the officer is from the AB Austrian range. In a lot of the pictures of the 1812 period the Bavarian officers have single breasted coats and this figure fitted perfectly. I probably should have added a gorget (if that's what you call it) to him but I totally forgot. I couldn't resist adding trousers with green stuff, they are a little rough on the repainted figures.






The drummer was pretty tricky with all the chevrons and I wasn't exactly sure how the edging went at 1st but I am happy how he turned out.

I was lucky to pick up some AB flags on ebay a while back. I drilled out the hands and used a straightened paperclip as the flag pole (cheers for the tip Robert).






I'm well chuffed I have my little Bavarian army on the go. I remember buying a couple of battalions of Foundry 25mm Bavarians many years ago and just didn't feel right with the shade of blue. I really think the 3 shades Foundry offer are excellent for the job. I blocked in the uniform with the cornflower blue shade and the mid cornflower blue is still deep and can be added to the shade to keep the uniform dark.

I decided to use the mid tone neat then added a little bit of the light to the mid tone for my final highlight and I feel it works pretty well.


It is darker than these pictures show

Next up unit wise will be the 5th Preysing, 1st battalion (pink facings Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!) before that I will post some pictures of my finished Bavarian limber and some in progress pics of my commands.

I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has dropped by, left comments and sent emails about my wee blog. It's been great fun and very helpful. It's great to know there are loads of other people who share the same interest. My knowledge in the Napoleonic period is very limited so again thanks to everyone who have filled the many gaps for me!!!

19 comments:

Giles said...

Paul - those are fantastic; gorgeous painting. The Fantassin guy fits in very well; I would have assumed he was an AB figure if you hadn't pointed it out.

Best wishes

Giles

Paulalba said...

Hi Giles,
Wow that was fast, I hadn't even stopped typing yet. Thanks a million, really enjoyed them. Yeah the Pioneer is a nice figure from Fantassin and i'm glad they make him (I didn't fancy converting 1:-)
Best regards
Paul

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Got to agree with Giles - they are very neat figures with a lovely paint job...

Peeler said...

Yup, as above, you've done a great job there Paul. I always think Bavarians are difficult to get right, but they look spot on mate.
Regards,

Stryker said...

Hi Paul - Beautifully done! Your skill in painting these little figures is quite mind boggling and you could easily pass them off as 28mm to the unsuspecting. I'm also impressed with the speed of production. I look forward to seeing the armies grow!

Ian

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Very nice work!!

Cheers
Christopher

Anonymous said...

Simply gorgeous! Bavarians are always tempting, even with pink facings! Keep 'em coming!

Paulalba said...

Thanks very much guys,
I must admit avoiding Bavarians for a very long time because of the coat colour and even the 1st dozen did put me off a little until I got pointed in the right direction for the darker colour. Next battalion i'll be painting from bare metal so hopefully should be cleaner painting.
cheers
Paul

Ken said...

Hi Paul,

Again a nice job! I've often fancied painting up some Bavarians in their cornflower blue uniforms. I noticed that you changed basing from 8 to 6 figs any reason?

Cheers

Ken

Paulalba said...

Hi Ken,
Thanks very much, yeah the 6 bases of 6 figures is to show the French system of 1 gren, 1 light and 4 fusilier comps (36 figs). The Prussians are in the 4 bases of 8 figs to show their system and the same with the Russians only they have 1 base split (4 gren figs and 4 light figs) to go at either end of the line (32 figs). The brits I believe have big battalions of 5x8man bases with 1 split like the russians (40 figs). Hope this makes sense.
Regards
Paul

Ken said...

makes sense for the tactical games based on companies.

On another note I actually picked up the brush again on some 15mm prussian reserve inf.

Cheers

Ken

Anonymous said...

Paul,

I've left more detailed comments on the GdeB Forum, but in essence, these are the most accurately painted Bavarians I have ever seen in any scale/size.

You have done a superb job.

RtL

Paulalba said...

Hi Ken,
That's great to hear, I had noticed you hadn't posted in a while. I thought your 10mm had knocked your 15mm naps off a bit. I was really enjoying your 15mm figure updates (your 10mm were ace too). Look forward to seeing your reserves all finished up. I am not sure what to finish 1st as I have so many on the go.

Hi RtL,
A huge thanks for the help and I'm glad you like the figures. I decided to strip the painted bavarians I bought instead of struggling to repaint them. It's much easier. The Bavarians are great to paint once you know the colours.
Best regards
Paul

Brett Trevalyan said...

Funnily enough, I'm painting 36 Bavarian Kinkel (Foundry) right now and found your blog by typing this into Google. I'm using a much lighter shade of green facing folowing the Osprey suggested colouring - any reason why your green is so dark or do we simply not know? Also using the Foundry cornflower blues.

Any ideas on where and when Kinkel regiment actually fought?

Like you, I also bought some Bavarians on E-Bay. They were NOT good. I dipped them all in Quickshade Army painter (a lot quicker than repainting which is always unsatisfactory) and they look a lot better!

Buying on E-Bay is a mixed blessing. Sometimes it's fantastic. Sometimes, it leaves much to be desired......

Rgds

Brett Trevalyan

Brett Trevalyan said...

Also, can you tell me what you use for your bases? I fear that my bases are a little thin compared to most I see - what techniques do you use?

Please post to brett@ddcltd.co.uk if you have time.

TY

Paulalba said...

Hi Brett,
Have sent you all the info I have by email. Should put you on the right direction.
Cheers
Paul

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Not sure if anyone else saw it but that was the weirdest spam comment I have ever seen - a history of the dishwasher forsooth????!!! :o))

Paulalba said...

Hi Steve,
I didn't see it myself? I'll check my spam chest. LoL
Cheers
Paul

warpaintjj said...

These are lovely - really very impressed! I have just taken delivery of a 25mm Foundry battalion which are only marginally better! Congratulations and keep it up,
Jeremy