Monday 18 March 2024

40mm Peninsular War Napoleonics - a long sad journey but happy ending.

Regular followers here will recall I'm sure the collection of 40mm Peninsular War Napoleonics that I purchased from Andy Copestake of Old Glory UK just after I moved to Spain back in early 2018. At the time I was looking forward to being able to enjoy the large scale as I had the space for them and once they arrived on the Costa Blanca in the boot of my Son in Law's car I started work on enlarging the collection. This involved my wife and family carrying heavy packages of metal soldiers through customs on a regular basis, much to the amusement of Customs Officers!

A couple of years later and we had decided that life in Spain was not for us and we decided to return to the UK. Lovely as it was living on the side of a mountain looking across the orange groves towards the Mediterranean twenty minutes drive away we had started to miss being around our family and to be honest I was quite homesick. I loved the Spanish people, the weather and the laid back lifestyle but I was missing Blighty.  So again we sold up and thus ended what I refer to now as 'The Spanish Campaign'.

The now much expanded collection - over 400 painted figures - travelled back again this time in the boot of my car along with my wife the dog and the cat. When I eventually unpacked them it became clear that there was no way I was going to be able to use or even just display the figures as I had in Spain, so I made the decision to let them go to a new home where they would be enjoyed and played with. 

I put the word out and was contacted by Daniel Peterson in the United States who was extremely keen to add them to his existing 40mm collection that he had acquired from Australia, and was more than happy to cover the high shipping costs involved. I agreed, but then found that the stress and worry of shipping 400+ valuable 40mm painted figures overseas, many of them multipart with separate heads etc was more than I cold cope with. I informed Dan, who understandably was not entirely happy but accepted my decision. 

By this time I was in regular contact with Graham Cummings and Ian Smith (prolific 40mm collector).  Graham was keen to buy my collection and the figures were duly packed up for the short overnight courier delivery which was a 48 hour fully insured service. Despite the time and care I had taken to pack them within  a large container clearly marked Fragile they arrived with the box bashed in at one corner. Luckily there was very little overall damage once Graham had unpacked everything, a few lost heads and bent weapons mostly. I offered to supply replacement painted heads, ( I must admit I was somewhat devastated when Graham sent me photos of the interior of the container), and all was restored in next to no time. Graham, in his usual easy going way, just plodded through the minor repairs and was delighted to be the new owner with plans to expand even further. Shockingly Graham passed away a few weeks ago following a very sudden illness. 

Last week I was surprised to receive an email from Dan in the States telling me that he had finally acquired the collection that he had tried to purchase from me several years ago. Dan had spotted them on eBay being sold by a Military Bookstore in York following Grahams death, and placed the winning bid, apparently there were very few bids on them. So the figures are now in the States alongside his existing 40mm Peninsular war collection, but the story does not stop there!

Sadly Ian Smith had also passed away a couple of years ago, again following a short illness. Ian and I had corroborated on a 3D print project to produce a set of resin RHA crew in 40mm scale and as a result I got to see lots of his wonderful collection. When Ian was planning his amazing Sharpe meets Hornblower display game (see video below) he asked me if he could buy my French 2nd Hussars. There were 16 of them beautifully professionally painted - not by myself I hasten to add - and as he offered me a straight £20 per figure for them I let them go. To be honest it was as much the thought of them being involved in that game as much as anything else that persuaded me to sell them. I replaced them with 16 Chasseur a Cheval that I painted myself and they were part of those sold to Graham. The 2nd  Hussars can be seen thundering across the bridge in the video, Ian had replaced the swords and added a little more animation work before he passed away. The game was eventually put on as a memorial by his friends and won 1st prize, a fitting tribute. 

So last week Dan also informed me that he is in the process of purchasing Ian's entire Peninsular war collection including the terrain boards and two waterline ship models that I know were his pride and joy from his Son. Dan's plan is to house everything in a permanent  room and then to tour the game around the States to wargame conventions. So three 40mm collections will have shortly come together, one from Australia (Dan's original collection), and two from the Uk. I must admit we did have a joke about The Curse of the 40mm's but Dan said he will take his chances!

I hope you enjoy reading this and with luck you guys in the States will get the opportunity to see this in person in the future. 

Below are a couple of shots from my collection including a couple of close ups of the French Hussars and a link to the Ian Smith memorial game at Partizan.


And those fine 2nd Hussars on the day they arrived to me in Spain, now part of the Late Ian Smith collection on the way to the States soon.







And their new home, Dan's 1809 Log cabin!




Monday 11 March 2024

More ACW's photos for Old John!

Really enjoyed painting these. Following on from the Reb Generals box set here is the Union Personalities box set, the 4 wonderful old Airfix US Cavalry, 10 Union Infantry ( ?) and 4 Russian Falconers. This is the March batch for John. Just waiting for a new varnish brush to arrive and to see what John wants me to do with the card bases with the names on.


Union Personality box set 35 figures. 

Spot Custer and Abraham Lincoln!



Oh the nostalgia, takes me right back to childhood!





Epic ACW/ Battle Cry next, coming along, added a few more bases and started adding flags. Went with the Epic flagsheet as the poles are a bit short but they look OK. Also adding additional command by trimming away muskets and using dress makers pins for poles and officers sword across shoulder. All Union strips cut down to kepis.







Monday 4 March 2024

March already - time for more ACW's!

First signs of Spring in the air here, the Crocuses are popping their colourful heads above the ground and it's warming up .... just slightly.  I'm working out the months painting schedule and the plan is:

Old John Strelets mounted Confederate Generals set (x12), Strelets Union Personalities on foot (x35) plus assorted plastic Engineers and gunners, 4 lovely Russian Falconers and finally 4 Airfix US cavalry which are not on the order of painting list BUT I simply cannot resist them! 

Geoff 2mm bases for half scale DBA. Now I'm back in the swing of things I'm sure I can get these painted as Geoff has been incredibly patient.

Noel The final 5 Epic ECW infantry sprues/regiments before we  start on the cavalry next month. This will be a total of 21 Regiments of Foot each of 80 figures painted so far. This will be a solid couple of weeks work.

April will then begin with more US cavalry for Mark.

'Battle Cry' ACW side project. The above represents a comfortable amount of painting for me and still leaves me plenty of spare hobby time for the start of 'Twydall' shunting layout and the new side project using Epic ACW sprues. I have now decided that I'm keen to carry on with this but I don't want to go down the whole expansive terrain building rout again so I'm going to build it based on the simple 'Battle Cry' ACW board game using 60mm frontage bases and a printed 13 x 9 hex grid fleece mat from Tinywargames with 75mm grid. I'm sure this will keep me engaged for a good 6 months or so at least.

The Epic ACW's are coming along and I'm enjoying doing some again. Progress photo below. I'm just deciding which flags to go with as the Epic flags are on the small side. I think I may go with wargame Designs. I bought a box of Union Cavalry and Zouaves from Ebay for just £22.00 which will give me my Union and Confederate mounted and dismounted cavalry bases, a couple of skirmish bases (2nd Sharpshooters?) plus the two  Zouave bases which is all I require. As the box includes 3 sprues each containing a command strip and 3 infantry strips there will be a leftover 60/80 figure Zouave unit going FREE is anyone doing Epic ACW can use it (Norm?).

Photos below show the fine Strelets Confederate Generals set. I noticed that the horses feature a mix of nosebands and non nosebands which seems to be born out as correct at the  time of the Civil war by research, a nice touch Strelets!). The black undercoat and flat brown drybrush is my go to method now for ACW's (both sides) and the Pony Wars commission, in fact I even use it for the Epic Pike and Shot as it quickly establishes high light points and gets all of the tricky pikes and muskets/rests/ etc done from the start and an additional careful dry brush of Flat Earth gives a highlight. Let's just say that it works for me.

The great man himself!

Superb detail in these plastic figures.

John Bell Hood, Texas.

Tried to get variety into the Reb uniforms.

Just bases and varnish required.




Todays painting, Zouaves.

A great value set for £22.00! ( note, same set for Rebs just Grey sprues!)

The alternative to a wet palette, useful for dry brushing and horse painting etc.

Pure nostalgia, Decades since I last painted Airfix US Cavalry! 






Wednesday 28 February 2024

7th Cavalry nosebands, a bit of detective work!

The Pony wars commission for Mark is coming along nicely and I have just opened the last box of 100 mounted Plains Indians as I finish off the February batch of 60. Mark has collected 240 mtd and 100 foot warriors plus the first troop of 20 7th Cavalry.  I have another troop of 20 cavalry painted plus 60 more Indians. There remains around 100 more mounted Indians, 80 US cavalry and 67 civilians/cowboys that I have here and the specially commissioned dismounted cavalry that are being sculpted and cast for the project.

I mentioned early on in the project that the Native American Indians rode their ponies with just a single rein running along one side of the neck as correctly featured on the Qualiticast horses, often braided rope. No nose or cheek pieces or headbands ( and of course no saddles or stirrups!).

As I was painting the second troop of US cavalry a couple of weeks back I became aware that the horses were cast minus nosebands  and that I had painted the first troops as such. Given the high level of detail on the castings I could not imagine this was an error but determined to do a bit more research on the subject. Mark has supplied numerous Osprey books on the subject and in all of the illustrations the cavalry horses are depicted with nosebands whilst in contemporary illustrations it's difficult to tell but some clearly do not. In reply to my previous 'Custer' post Rob posted a link to a painting of the man riding into battle in his blue cavalry shirt with piping and a red neck scarf as a suggestion for the dismounted figure. What struck me was the fact that the horse was depicted minus noseband! As the work looks well researched I'm taking this as further evidence that this is correct and as sculpted on the metals horses. I will need to do more research around this but if anybody out there knows about these things do please let me know.





Monday 26 February 2024

George Armstrong Custer (x2) !

I'm just over half way through another batch of 60 mounted Plains Indians which will be finished by Friday. Over the weekend I spent some time painting these two lovely models of Custer for Mark and tried to capture the spirit of the man as best as I could. In the mounted version we is wearing a fringed buckskin jacket and dismounted he is wearing the US Cavalry shirt and has lost his hat in the heat of battle. I think the sculpt captures the desperate situation of the 'Last Stand' very well. Currently unvarnished as I'm just waiting for Mark's feedback ( black hat possibly?) but these are painted as a little thank you for the commission. 

George Armstrong Custer. 1839 - 1876. 20mm scale figures.





Since starting this commission I have been watching a lot of YouTube content on the subject as I paint. Two videos in particular have stuck in my mind and I would like to share them here.

The first is a superb presentation by the Little Big Horn Battlefield guide, I thought that the chap did a great job of bringing the history to life, everything a tour guide should be in my opinion.


The second is somewhat more controversial. The theory that Custer might have taken his own life in a final moment of desperation to avoid capture has long been around, but the official account has always been that he died from Indian gunshot wounds. I stumbled across this compelling film some time back which features evidence from the surgeon who rode with the 7th Cavalry and small arms historians who suggest  that the  bullet in the temple could only have come from a rare Colt revolver issued to just a few people including Custer. It is a fascinating background listen whilst painting.




 


Friday 23 February 2024

Now what's he doing!

 It's just an experiment OK! I happened across a video of DBACW the other day and it kind of piqued my interest as a potential painting project on the side. I had a couple of ACW Warlord Epic sprues here and thought how would they look if just painted and based as individual regiments, 20 figures per base? Slightly deeper MDF bases (60mm x 35mm) so the strips could be based with enough space between them to get the texture brush in comfortably without getting it all over the figures AND leave a 5mm strip along the rear to be able to attach printed unit labels. So I knocked this up yesterday evening and I like it. 

Decided to keep everything slightly bright looking so those coats are Vallejo Flat Blue with a touch of Blue wash added when dry (I think you can see this on the kepis where I just touched a bit of wash into the centre). I did make a point of cutting all the hats down to kepis, a quick and easy task if doing just 2 strips at a time. I also broke with tradition and am going with matt varnish. To add to the look I will add 15mm scale printed flags which will be slightly tattered and holed in true Civil war style. The base I also kept bright and simple, Vallejo Earth texture highlighted buff and Javis fine turf as a change from static grass. All in all I'm rather pleased with the result and will doubtless have to paint some more, that's all I'm going to say at this stage :)






Thursday 15 February 2024

HMS Dudley!

 I think it was over a year ago that fellow blogger Mark Dudley (Ilkley Old School link at right) gifted me another Langton Models Napoleonic ship to add to the two I already had. It is an older model from the range, produced I think around 20 years ago and features the white metal sail set rather than the more recent etched brass sails although the metal sails are still available for the larger vessels. I told Mark that once built she would be named HMS Dudley as a thank you.

So here she is, built  and painted just waiting for rigging, the addition of etched brass ratlines (best done after the rigging) and ensigns. A lovely little model and I must say that I fond the metal sail sets far quicker and easier to work with. There is a slight noticeable difference of course in the thickness of the sails but I would be very happy to use these on any future models. You can see the difference in the third photo between the metal and brass sail sets.

I can see myself collecting more of these going forward. Unfortunately in the recent move the big 74 gun was de- masted and lost her topsails so I removed the masts, re drilled the holes and will replace them with another white metal sail set rather than the brass set and will also order another model, possibly one of the named ships and I'm thinking HMS Victory which is a huge model! Victory was of course laid down at Chatham Docks just a few miles from me here in 1759. The bulk of the docks is now a designer shopping outlet but much survives of the original buildings including the superb ropery, well worth a visit.

I'm definitely going to get these fully  rigged in accordance with  the Langton guide book, something that I have done before and enjoyed the challenge. It really makes all the difference as you can see from the little Frigate I built and rigged back in 2013!







Lost in the mists of time, but I still like the photos of her!