Thursday 23 April 2015

A block appeal, and cuirassier progress.

With the Waterloo anniversary fast approaching I need to get a shift on painting the units that I have here intended for the Vintage Waterloo game planned by Ian and Roy. The 12th regiment are done (save for a final check through for errors/touch ups etc), and the 4th regiment are about half painted. These cuirassiers have taken some work and progress is slower than anticipated, but I won't rush them as I want to produce a couple of special units. I'll follow up with a couple of Prussian Landwehr battalions! I'm also painting more ACW's for John in the background as well as slowly adding to my WW2 late war collection in 15mm.

12th Cuirassiers - still need final detail checks and a satin varnish. No doubt I'll also add more highlights to the horses to bring them 'up' a little more.




A Waterloo block appeal!
Having made the decision not to build up armies of my own and instead to fight the Commands & Colors Napoleonics Waterloo scenario on the day, I am on the lookout for a few spare wooden infantry blocks. These will be used to create Highlanders, Brunswick, Dutch & Belgian, Polish, Swiss etc using the nice 'unofficial' stickers that are to be found on the C&CN forum. Some examples you can see HERE. Should anyone happen to have a couple of leftover blocks they won't use I would be delighted to make use of them. Any colour will do as I can repaint them to match. Please drop me a line:   lgramson@yahoo.com  Many thanks.

Memoir '44 adaptions.
Having completed painting of the Open Fire box set I must admit that currently I'm happy to enjoy using all of the miniatures with memoir games! With a lot of other commitments at the moment it's probably not the right time for me to be learning a new set of rules. I have the basics of Flames of War, I have played through the main rules, but the next stage of collecting and building scenery/terrain etc is not something I can get into right now.

I was pleased to read of some interesting variations on Ross' blog of the Memoir rules and I will be giving these a try next game. Makes a lot of sense and does not affect the overall flow of the game, for example artillery need spotters to range in, infantry cannot hit on armour unless armed with bazooka/panzershreck/ panzerfaust etc or in direct assault, and commanders are added. Should be fun, and of course with Memoir '44 what it may lack in fine detail it makes up for it in sheer speed of play and excitement.




In order to  use my own 'air support' rule with memoir I now have an appropriate model plane for both sides - purely for show of course! - having added a JU87 to my little late war Spitfire. I might go for the Typhoon next, in fact I can see myself building up a collection of these aircraft models.



And finally for now DOG NEWS! ... it's been unseasonably warm recently here on the Kent coast, with loads of day trippers over on the beach. Even the sun lounger hire guy had his loungers out (£5.00 all day), and we don't normally see him until June. On such days I like to be out early in the mornings with the dogs when it's quiet. Poppy the pup has come on very well and is still kept in her place by Marcie the Retriever, who at 12 years of age is in remarkably good form for her breed at this age. I love to watch them play fighting, huge sharp teeth, but so gentle together, occasionally if Poppy gets a little too feisty she will get a little reminder who's boss, but once tired Poppy will fall asleep on top of Marcie, who seems not to care.





11 comments:

  1. 'Lee, your cuirassiers are coming up beautifully! Any tips on how you do the steel bits?

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    Replies
    1. Cheers Matt :-) Let's hope they don't come up against your magnificent Prussians during the game. Funny enough I was thinking about the issue of painting steel a couple of days ago as I'm not yet happy with the finish. I was going to ask for recommendations for 'steel' and 'silver' other than vallejo 'model' colour. I was planning to try something else. Not often we can get away with a polished steel look so I'd like to get right. So far over the black undercoat I used silver as a base (knowing it would dull down over black), followed by a wash of vallejo model 'black wash' in shade areas and a touch more silver highlight here and there.

      What are you currently using?

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    2. The only steel I've had to tackle so far is muskets barrels, swords and bayonets! I use just a simple mixture of humbrol black and silver. I suspect this isn't going to work too well on breastplate and helmets!

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  2. The cuirassiers look well - though I think the work you've done on the dogs is probably your best.

    What sort of varnish do you use on their coats? Is it brush on or spray?

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    1. Sent you a note re: blocks.

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    2. Satin varnish on the dog's CK, and they look almost real don't they :-)

      Many thanks for your kind block offer, I'll reply shortly. I have requested the guy who produced the block artwork if he could change the wording on the Highlander labels from 'Grenadier' to 'line' then they should be fine to label up maybe 8 blocks.

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  3. Adopt stephen Fry tone'Splendid Cuirassiers, Splendid!' They do look the business
    Sn't that a Ju87 though??

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    Replies
    1. Gawd! yes it is, cheers Roy, duly corrected. Lovely little models though :-)

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  4. As a suggestion regarding silver I have had some success with a silver pen, the type with to pump action fibre tip. The ink from that is very shiny and works for applying highlights of silver to armour.
    Roy

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