Progress report - a slight bendy Pole issue!

A few photos of the lovely Ral Partha Polish winged hussars in progress. I thought the horses were going to be a pleasure to paint and they certainly were. Not yet satin varnished as I might do a bit more work on the blanket detail, must say I'm really pleased how they turned out. One slight issue is that of the bendy wire original Ral Partha lances, as usual I fit these only once the figure is painted and drill out the hand before undercoating. This avoids it getting in the way of the brush. However the thicker lances - and I did a test run before painting - refuse to push through and are very soft metal so bendy, and there is the potential to scratch the paintwork. The thinner wire lances similar to those supplied by Hinchliffe is no problem as you can see, John fitted the flags to all ten lances so don't really want to see them wasted. Mmmm bit of a tricky one but nothing that can't be resolved.

Edit: Gave them a good coat of varnish so will let them dry overnight. In the morning I'm going to use a fine pointed file and mini plyers to push the lances through. As the lances are integral to the original castings it makes sense to keep them, a steady hand and eye will see the job finished then I'm going to follow with 24 Strelets dismounted Dragoons by way of a change. I do like the Vallejo satin varnish, it goes on quite thick but dries to a pleasing sheen which really brings out the colours, especially the horses. Note the hanging strap beneath the horses front legs, I have never seen that on a casting before, in fact I almost trimmed it off when I picked up the first one thinking it was excess metal!

 

ECW regiment of foot and another Reb unit for Graham.

This weeks output, more lovely Peter Pig figures for Graham. I don't know what it is about these Pigs but I find them such a pleasure to paint. First was a Confederate regiment of infantry 36 figures in total and as I mentioned previously I wanted to try to capture a few more of the 'cream' tones of faded butternut for this one, so effectively they are brown, faded grey and cream tones. The important thing is to try not to get too much contrast so that they all work together and hopefully I have achieved that and there is a bit of contrast with the previous two regiments. 

Then another regiment of foot towards Grahams Edgehill project, 28 figures, blue coated Royalists. I like these musketeers firing with rests and you can see the match hanging from between the fingers, a nice touch in this scale.

Today I'll be prepping up 10 Ral Partha winged hussars for John and some more 18mm AB Napoleonics for my own little C&C project of individually based figures with gloss varnish.

 

That's another box done!

With John's box of figures now completely painted it's time for my weekly Sunday tidy up and planning for the week ahead. So having sorted out the next box and got everything organised into the desk drawers - figures and printed reference sheets/notes/ box art etc - I check through the paints and make a note of any that are getting low for which I don't have replacements, (what you see are just my most commonly used colours, I have about 100 unopened spares together in a drawer below). 

This week I'm going to be painting Peter Pigs for Graham. I have another ECW regiment of foot and 38 Confederate's. I do enjoy flipping between scales and periods like this as it keeps things fresh. When I get to start John's latest box I'll be starting with the lovely Ral Partha winged hussars that you see below, the horses are especially good sculpts.

Meantime I continue to keep an open mind and one eye out for something a bit different to do for myself on the side

Old John's big bash!

John has been sending me pictures of a big game he is getting set up for later this month, which will be his first game since Covid and lockdowns. It will feature many of the Ottomans that formed the Eric Knowles collection as well as a lot of the figures that I have painted over recent months on both sides. As John does not update his old blog and is not on social media I'm sharing them here with permission as I think there are others who would enjoy seeing them. The Ottoman commanders from my previous post will be marching to join the battle on Monday along with the last painted figures from 'Box 1'.

I'm sure John will fill you in on the makes and manufacturers of the figures involved. 

A dash of Ottoman colour!

Thirteen mounted Ottoman command figures for Old John. Ten of the horses (rear) are ex Eric Knowles collection and supplied ready painted, the front three are painted by myself. As John had more or less given me a free hand with these I went for plenty of colour and quite a bit of gold. The banners were also supplied and I just gave them a gold edging before gluing them on.

Robs magnificent Hinchliffe ECW collection!

With kind permission of Rob who has spent the last three years working away on my old ECW collection, I present to you these stunning photos I don't think I have ever seen it done better, they are simply exquisite.

Link.

More ECW's, Ottomans and VSF!

For the week ahead I'm going to be finishing off the previous box of goodies from Old John before making a start on his latest box. What's left is an interesting batch of figures, Ottomans, WSS Scots Greys and some dismounted dragoons. There are a few horses included that are painted and from the late Eric Knowles collection and while I would love to add highlights etc I think given the due reverence shown to this collection by other bloggers they are best left untouched and I will only paint the bare metal riders. 

I had a few days away from the painting desk this week but still managed to paint some Prussian Uhlans and artillery crew for JBM, and a regiment of ECW foot plus petard crews for Graham. There is another ACW regiment coming over from Graham this week and I have some ideas on trying to capture  some of the cream and faded butternut tones illustrated in the image below of SOSKAN re enactors. From my time as a member twenty plus years ago I know that those guys put a lot of effort into research on cloths and fabrics going so far as to buy in rolls of cloth from the original US mills.

I was of course a 'Bucktail' (42nd Pennsylvania), and proud to wear that badge of distinction on my kepi. Quick story, when I was given my tail with great ceremony I found it really stank. When I got home I gave it a thoroughly good shampooing - you  should have seen what came out of it, the sink was black - and next event I had the whitest, fluffiest bucktail in the company, something that did not go unnoticed as I stood out a mile!

Painting service - I'm finding that I have really settled back into this and can comfortably paint for several hours each day, what's more I'm enjoying doing it, there is a delight in sending back nicely painted soldiers that arrive as bare metal. Currently I paint for Old John (10 years plus) and Graham with some additional figures for JBM as and when. If anyone is interested in using my service and would like to discuss it with me please contact me for details, but please note I only take on 15/18mm & 20mm scale figures, individual units or longer term projects, but can only paint in my own modest long established style to what I consider to be good wargaming standard.