Tuesday 26 February 2019

Some Swiss and smarter British!

With the French 40mm's now organised into five battalions of 24 figures plus command I found myself with four fusiliers left over and four unpainted Grenadiers left in the drawer. Having decided that battalion number six was going to be Swiss, I wasted no time in producing this little group being the first figures towards the next unit. The officer was also a spare and he got a repaint. Blue appears a little light here, but suffice to say I'm rather pleased with them.




Some might recall that when this collection arrived in Spain back in May, a number of the infantry were as described by Andy, 'blocked in'. I have since been gradually working through those figures, bringing them up to scratch. This British battalion was built from those figures with additional command figures painted my myself. Basically it involved repainting the white belts and lace etc, working on the faces, repainting the facings and finally giving the trousers a repaint as they had been given a kind of Army Painter dip treatment that did not appeal to me. I used Ivory directly over them, leaving some of the shade showing and I'm much happier with them now.


The Highland battalion is also due for a but of a touch up to those kilts again, while I like the pattern the spacing is too wide and I think a few more lines will improve the look. Some of the faces are still a touch too 'toy soldier like' mostly those painted by myself last year, the command group won't be touched though, I love the piper with his ruddy complexion.

Awaiting regimental Colours.







I have also been giving some thought to the inclusion of the mounted officers and decided they look better without them, allowing the colours to be closed up together. This will free up the mounted figures to create a couple of command bases, 3 figures and two figures. I'll also do the same with the French battalions.

The lovely Spanish gun team with the huge 12pdr based on the 1957 film 'The Pride and the Passion' has had a good dusting, it makes me smile every time I look at it. Andy (Copestake) tells me that it was created from various ranges and is not commercially available as a single piece so it's quite unique.


8 comments:

  1. Before I read your coments, I browsed the pictures and rather liked the faces as there are some characters in there. I am also a big fan of ivory as something that is less harsh than white.

    I recently put a couple of Tiger I Italeri tanks together. they are the fast build two in a pack (wargames approved!) kits and wondered whether they are the same as the warlord ones, simply upscaled, as Italeri do a bit for warlord. I don’t recall the tracks being a particular issue, but the hull parts did not particularly meet that well and needed a bit of green stuff added.

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    1. Hi Norm, could well be the Italeri Tiger is the same as the warlord kit, did it have 4 part tracks? They were a real pain as comprised the two main sections plus a small section front and rear and was a bit of a stretch to get them all to fit together. Overall though the Tiger makes up to a great model.

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    2. I have checked the 1/72 and they really are fast build, I think they just had 10 parts. Each track is a single full assembly with track and running gear all in one piece - very much the way to go for a wargaming product.

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    3. Norm, single piece tracks and running gear would be so much easier in the larger scale too. I note the resin version of the Warlord Tiger does indeed feature that, but when I built one of those they were a bit warped and I could not get a snug fit. It was recommended to place them in hot water and then gently bend them, but at £25.00 a time I chose not to risk that! Just one more Panther to build now, any small gaps in the track joins will be filled with 'mud/ice'.Enjoyed you latest post T34 v Tiger 1 tests.... will leave a comment.

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  2. The Napoleonic units look absolutely splendid.

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  3. Nice Swiss,lovely Brits,I think the scots are great! I didn't think the panther was around for Barbarossa,I thought it was developed in response to the T34?
    Best Iain

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    1. Ah Iain, so you spotted the deliberate mistake then! The sloping frontal armour should have reminded me of that. Well it looks like Winter after all, which I don't really mind as I have been looking at the Winter infantry both German and Russian and fancy painting them. I'll catch a couple of youtube vids today on the Panther and Tiger production dates :)

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