Napoleon and Chums

Like many I have been having a hard time with blogger to the point I was just going to give up on it. I have followed all the advice fellow bloggers have given me but still I cannot post comments on others blogs. huff! And there are loads I would like to comment on! Also it seems that my followers have disappeared from the screen?

Anyway I have been working all weekend and I have a short break this evening before starting back shift again tomorrow. I didn't plan on painting until my wife mentioned that I hadn't painted anything in a good while. Since we've been away in the Philippines my brother David has been rattling through his Perry French (3 battalions and 3 guns plus crew finished and they look cracking) and he was telling me the other night on the phone that he had ordered up a howitzer, limber and a few command sets (1 of which was Napoleon). He wasn't sure about having a go at Napoleon yet and I said I would give him a go.

So over dinner Mai produced a little black box with the above Perry figures that David had passed onto her the other night while she was visiting . Mai suggested I chill out with a glass of red and get my paints out (I love my wife :-) So for the 1st time since we got back I got stuck in. Gave the figures a fast clean up and glued them onto some bases, blackened them up and blocked in some colours. I have only spent 2 hours on painting them so far as I want to knock them together pretty quick and I'm glad to say I'm really enjoying them. The camera hasn't picked up the shades great but they are there. In closer inspection I could have spent a bit more time on the clean up but I am sure David will be pleased with them when they are done. Hope I don't upset anyone here but I have to say I am finding the 28mm Naps much easier to detail and also faster to paint than 15mm AB figures.

I'll just add they have given me the chance to try out some Foundry flesh I picked up at the Falkirk show. I used the native American tones mid and light with a final bit of white added to the light for the highlight. I must say I am very happy with them so far

(cheers for the tip R)

28mm West Prussians

Well my wee camera came back in good shape from those nice Samsung people so hopefully it should last me for a good while now, however as I had no spotlight I wasn't sure what to do? I tried cleaning up as many 15mm naps as I could but the lack of a spotlight was straining my eyes something awful.

So I decided to fish out my 1st love, my old 28mm napoleonics.




My brother used to bring home wargaming magazines when I was a lad filled with the most amazing colour pictures of 28mm battles and figures so when I had money of my own I started buying them by the bucket load. The only problem was there wasn't a person I knew who shared the same passion.

Jump forward 20 years and I've decided to keep my Prussians and French and ebay the rest. Here is my 2nd West Prussians (Silesians originally but I lost my old yellow and I figured I'd stick with what I knew!) finished the other night. I was short a few figures in my 28mm battalions (I think it was 24 figure battalions I was aiming for before?) so I ordered up some extra's from Elite Miniatures (only to discover they had changed design!). No matter they'll do for me.

And here they are with their battle hardened little brothers.





With hindsight I should have dropped the flagman and made these guys the fusilier battalion with black belt as I don't know when I'll get round to buying flags?

So 20 years in the making and I finally got them based and varnished . . .

I hope the second battalion doesn't take as long!

Napoleonic Nostalgia

Well I had a little bit of a lucky find the other day, I was up in the loft getting the Christmas decorations down and stumbled across my old Airfix 54mm Napoleonic figures.

I must have done these around 19 or 20 years ago when I was still at school. I remember I had broken my leg playing rugby and had to fill my time with something other than sport. The 1st figure I did was the Scot's Grey (my wee mum still has it in her glass cabinet) then I moved onto the Polish Lancer. Please excuse any little inaccuracies as I didn't really have a clue back them and I just thought it would be a nice idea to post pics of them.

This was my favourite figure. I know they are a little glossy looking and the blue is a little light but I still am proud of them.

I have bases for all the figures and I think I will finish them off for when my loft is finished and get a gaming area set up. It's nice to look back at what started off my hobby.

Over the years a lot of the little accessories have been knocked off but thankfully I have a little bag with them all safe and sound.

And of course being from Scotland I had to have this guy.