Monday 13 July 2020

40mm Polish Lancers - a therapy challenge!

Whilst this blog was started 10 years ago as a therapy blog for my battle with chronic depression I don't generally these days bang on about it too much here, but rather try to keep the focus on painting model soldiers. But sometimes living with Dysthymia, (Persistent Depressive Disorder as it's more commonly known now), does present challenges that can be difficult to cope with, and on the occasions when a major depressive episode comes along (delightfully known as Double Depression), things can get very tough indeed. Knowing the illness as well as I do after so many years I am at least able to recognise when the latter is the case and just recently I have been locked into a period of the DD's! It's more than just a touch of Lockdown Blues, I coped well with that and the DBN painting project certainly helped to get me through the days. It's a kind of 'locked in' syndrome where simple everyday things just become hard to get done, you feel constantly fatigued, an overwhelming sense of sadness, low self esteem and just generally mentally blocked. I almost deleted this blog over the weekend.

Yesterday I decided to try and give myself a push in order to fight back against it, by amongst other things setting myself a new painting challenge, to paint the 40mm Polish Lancers that have sat in my drawer for almost a year. I know that completing a unit of 40mm soldiers gave me the strongest sense of hobby satisfaction, a really uplifting sense of achievement that I just don't get with the smaller scales.

So, I'm going to paint a unit of 8 Sash & Sabre Polish lancers and probably record the various stages of progress to keep me focused. I'm starting with the officer, trumpeter and two lancers with a further four lancers to follow to complete my standard eight figure cavalry unit. So far I have blocked in the two main shades and done a bit of work on the faces. I'm keen to get the colours right which is tricky as almost every reference shows slight variations in shades between the 'blue' (actually a dark blue/grey) and the 'red' ( which varies from crimson to deep red to almost pink in the references). I settled upon the reference image you see below as being most representative of the true colours and these are what I'm attempting to match. Early stages but happy so far, obviously I need to find a suitable highlight for the main coat colour without going to light.

Lances will be made from brass rod and I will need to create the sharp point, add the lanyard and the pennon and I'm wondering how best to do this. carbines will be painted and added separately and reins will need to be added to the horses as I did with the 13th cuirassiers, then I used card but this time might go with foil from wine caps. I estimate the unit will take a couple of weeks or more to finish and that they will give me a real boost at a time when I could do with it.






14 comments:

  1. Hi Lee , these lads are looking good, i've never tried doing 40mm figures stuck to 20mm since about 1959!!! you are indeed a talented painter, impressed, hope your mood lifts soon, look after youreself, stay safe, cheers Old John

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    1. Hi John, I have made a couple of attempts to get started on your figures, most recently only a few days ago when I actually had some up on the wine caps but just could not do them, I'm sorry. I'm not giving up yet though.

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    2. Hi lee, no worries or rush in doing my figures, just look after yourself, and don't forget you have a lot of support out there and we all here for you
      stay safe cheers Old John

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  2. Polish Lancers will be a superb distraction and give a result worthy of the time invested. I have always thought of 28’s and 40’s as being the most ‘joyous’ of scales and perhaps that is exactly what is needed right now. I bet the difference in weight in the hand while painting will be hugely noticeable ...... but also a delight :-)

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    1. Hello Norm thanks for the comment. I think this could potentially be a superb unit once finished and I intend to take my time and give them everything I can.There is indeed something about holding a 40mm figure that is a bit special, especially the cavalry, and these will bring my total of mounted figures to 82!

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  3. Lee,
    Glad you didn't succumb as you know part of coping with this black dog is being aware and putting coping mechanisms in place.
    Well done, keep focused and get these damn lancers sorted.

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    1. Hi Graham and thank you, I know you understand only too well. It's a bast**d at times but there are far worse things out there, I know that :) I know that I am still coming to terms with the death of my Falklands war veteran Brother Bob who served in the RAMC, he died of a heart attack early this year aged just 59. I'm 100% focused on painting these lancers now :)

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  4. Great progress and look forward to seeing your work on these. Never tried 40mm figures myself

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    1. Thank you Neil. I have 600 of them painted, still in storage boxes. One day they will get to fight a battle, possibly when life returns to normal and the clubs and conventions start up again.

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  5. I'm glad you didn't delete the blog Lee, that would have been a dreadful shame for everybody who reads your blog and for you personally.
    Figures look great, I hope they help you cope with your terrible condition.

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    1. Cheers Ray for your support. I did not want to drag anyone down with that post, but anyway the lancers are underway and coming along nicely so far :)

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  6. It is fabulous that you share your wonderful painting and depression. I'm sure that it is really helpful for others to read how you are dealing with episodes and we all love seeing the progress and results of your wonderful, wonderful painting.
    Kind regards, James

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    1. Thank you James, I did think twice about mentioning it on the blog, but it was originally started to help me to cope with the illness and it certainly has done that over the years.

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  7. Somethings are best not hidden despite the very natural urge. I'm with James in thinking the courage of others can inspire people.

    Those lancers are going to be a treat to see as they get painted.

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