Quick Painting Perry Plastics

Regular readers will know that I am quite comfortable painting around 20 25mm infantry at a time but find more than that, like the 40 figure Minden unit, a slog. So when I decided to paint up a Perry box of Napoleonics (42 figures) I decided it was time to change my style of painting and look at some quick cuts.

Firstly, a word about the arrival of Plastics in this scale. Wargaming was becoming a rich man's hobby and then suddenly along came not one, not two, but four manufacturers of 25mm plastics making the hobby affordable again. And it was Napoleonics that brought me into the hobby 35 years ago – I can remember my first game with my friend Andrew J down in East Croydon back in the ‘70s. We used 25mm Minifigs and my army (the first I ever painted) was Bavarian – I’m sure I lost too as there is something of a ‘Spanish General’ to my skill as a wargamer. So it’s fitting that I return to 25mm Napoleonics and the plastics allow that.

So, with these plastics I decided to cut painting corners. I got rid of eyes, and two tone faces. I kept to two-tones in larges colour areas – trousers, shako covers, coats, greatcoats and backpacks but used one-tone everywhere else. Then I used a ‘new’ product called Quickshade (Strong tone – the middle in the range of three) by Army Painter. This gave a gloss covering but more importantly it dirtied the figures and gave them, I think, a worn and campaign look. Given my last posting about a ‘campaign look’ you can see that I’m inclined to move more towards a less pristine look. Then, because the Quickshade was gloss, I gave a final matt varnish coat. I’m pleased with the results and each figure took about half the time it would normally take me to paint a 25mm figure.

On the subject of Quickshade, it says on the side of the tin that you can either dip or paint on the product. I tried the dip method and hated the results – too much on the figure and too much product wasted. These have the shade painted on and I think it’s most effective, not surprisingly, over white. At £11 a pot it’s not cheap but when this one is finished I plan to make my own using some oil paint mixed with varnish. More on that in the future.

Actually, this is not a new product. I had a friend back in the ‘70’s/’80’s called Martin C who always mixed a drop of black enamel paint into his enamel varnish to create this same effect.

One reason why there is no flag on the battalion is because I have not decided what period to represent. It will either be 1815 (unlikely as I’m not a fan of the 100 days) or 1812 (will someone please do Plastic Russians!!) or Peninsular. I know the Bardin uniform was not in use during the latter campaign but I’m no longer a complete purist and this is planned to be a ‘generic’ French army. You can be sure that I’ll flag the unit as soon as possible.

So next week its back to the SYW and the start of a Hanoverian brigade of cavalry.

SYW - The campaign 'look'

I'm sure most of you have seen this illustration before but I think its worth re-showing because it portrays Prussian IR 27 (Asseburg) on the march to the Battle of Custrin. In 1758 a Russian army roved through Brandenburg sacking several cities. On August 15 they laid siege to the town of Custrin (modern Kostrzyn) in Poland. The siege lasted for ten days, being lifted only when a Prussian army led by Frederick the Great engaged the Russians and defeated them in a very costly battle.

There are a number of interesting observations in this illustration.
1) The campaign look of the troops. The officer looks 'regulation' but the rank and file marching behind him look very worn out. I have tended to think of SYW soldiers as pristine, with leather whitened and everything just right, whereas the campaign reality was probably quite different. Note that some of them are either not wearing gaiters or are wearing white ones.
2) The size of the musket is worth pointing out. Most manufacturers of SYW figures
don't make a large enough musket.
3) The Officer is carrying his spontoon point down.

I have no idea who the artist was or when it was painted. But I think he or she has
brilliantly caught the feeling for the period - a hot August day (from the shadows cast the sun is at or close to its strongest), crops uncut, and tired and thirsty troops, with the prospect, perhaps, of many miles of marching ahead.

I wish a manufacturer of miniatures made figures like these.

40 figures of Minden Miniatures in Prussian IR 34

I’ve been busy the last two weeks painting up this 40 figure battalion of Minden Miniatures 1/56 representing the 1st battalion of Prussian IR34. Flags by GMB and finials by Front Rank.

These figures pose a dilemma for me as I absolutely love their poses and their incredible detail but, size-wise, they do not fit in with my 25/28mm WAS/SYW armies, pictures of which you have seen on this blog over the last year or so. So the choice that presented itself was as follows; either sell everything I had already painted and start all over again with Minden or just curse the bad timing of the whole thing and continue with my Front Rank/Crusader/Foundry combinations, which are, in fact, about 50% finished. I was genuinely prepared to go for the first option because I’m a bit of a fanatic about using the ‘best’ available and I thought a good way to resolve this conundrum was to time my painting of this battalion and see how much work was involved.

Given that this battalion had many more figures than I customarily paint in a single unit, the issue for me was painting time per figure. The result was a surprise – each Minden figure took me almost twice as long to paint as a conventional 25/28mm figure. The answer as to why lies in the fact that these figures are very detailed and don’t allow short cuts. You have to focus and concentrate all the way through the painting process and
that’s why I have decided, somewhat sadly, to sell this battalion and plod on with my existing armies.

So if anybody is interested in buying this unit please contact me. I’m looking at £240 for the unit which is a nett painting cost of £5 per figure. I’d also be prepared to add a small number of figures at that individual price if someone wants to make a larger unit or two smaller battalions. If there is no interest via this blog I’ll put them on eBay next week.

RE Savory book.
To update all of you who are interested in the re-printing of this book, it is with the printers as I write this and I expect to be posting out the first orders in May 2009. I’m also working on the website at the moment too. More news in the next couple of weeks.

Skytrex 1:700 Napoleonic Ships

A recent thread on TMP discussed this range of Napoleonic ships at 1:700 from Skytrex. I have only painted one and that was six years ago so she is showing her age slightly - note that cotton rigging attracts dust and the next one I do will have synthetic cotton rigging. In fact she is on my painting desk at the moment - HMS Bellerophon (74) but don't hold your breath as each one takes many hours to complete. The plan ( ambitious as usual) was to do small French and British squadrons of 4 SOL and a frigate each but who knows if I will ever complete this task. But they are lovely ships and if I could find someone who enjoys painting and rigging them I would be happy to pay for the service. Any ideas?

Dutch WAS Regiment Glinstra

The Dutch army in the WAS was very colourful - regiments of foot wore a variety of coat colours; blue, white, red and dark green. This regiment, Glinstra, had white coats with pale blue facings. Flags are by the excellent Vaubanner and the figures are from the equally excellent WAS range by Eureka.

Maybe not so "Lucky Luckner" II

I've gleened this potted biography of Luckner because he had such an interesting military career - from respected service in the SYW to a rendez-vous with Madame Guillotine.

Johann Nikolaus, Count Luckner (12 January 1722 - 4 January 1794 in Paris) was a German in French service who rose to become a Marshal of France.

He was born the son of an innkeeper and hop dealer on January 12, 1722 in Cham which is located in the poor, heavily forested Upper Palatinate. He received his early education from the Jesuits in Passau. Entering the Bavarian Army in 1737, he served with the Infantry Regiment Morawitzky. By 1745 he was an Oberleutnant in the Ferrari Hussars. In 1757, Luckner entered the Hanoverian army as Rittmeister, and he raised a troop of hussars, which took his name. The success of the regiment is reflected in the career of its commanding officer He rose in rank each year, Lieutenant-Colonel in 1758, Colonel in 1759, Major-General in January of 1760 (adding the title "von") and Lieutenant-General in 1761 (when he was only 39). He was held in great repute by the commander of the allied forces, Prince Ferdinand and this praise can be seen in a letter from Ferdinand to Lt.General von Wangenheim: "Your Excellency may also convey to Colonel von Luckner the particular congratulations of His Serene Highness, and assure him that our confidence in him is so firm that we are never in any doubt that, whenever he and his splendid regiment undertake a task, it cannot fail to have a fortunate and successful outcome.”

Luckner’s Hussars increased in size over the years, until, in 1760, it contained four squadrons. The first officers were Hungarian and most of the enlisted were foreigners, mainly Dutch. However, as the reputation of the unit began to grow, natives of Hanover began entering. The unit was heavily involved in the kleinkrieg in the Western theatre. There were two uniforms – one largely green with a mirliton and the more famous white and red one which came about in 1760. The unit was present at Warburg incurring the wrath of the British command because it stayed to pillage the baggage of the retreating French. At Krefeld, June 1758, the regiment was located in the left wing along with the cavalry regiments Hammerstein (No. 2B), Dachenhausen Dragoons (No. 5C), Ruesch Hussars (No. 5), and Grothaus (No. 3A) as part of the brigade under Lt.-Gen. Spörcken.

After the war, in 1763, he accepted an appointment in the French Army as Lieutenant- General and command of the Regiment Burgundy.

In 1784 he was made a Danish count. He supported the French Revolution, and the year 1791 saw Luckner being made a Marshal of France. In 1792, Luckner first served as commander of the Army of the Rhine, during which time Rouget de Lisle dedicated to him the Chant de Guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin (War Song of the Army of the Rhine), which was to become better known as the Marseillaise. As commander of the Army of the North he captured the Flemish cities of Menen and Kortrijk, but then had to retreat towards Lille. After the flight of Lafayette he was made generalissimo with orders to build a Reserve Army near Châlons-sur-Marne. However, the National Convention was not satisfied with his progress and Choderlos de Laclos was ordered to support or replace him.

After resigning he pressed his claim for pension on a bankrupt regime and headed to Paris in 1792. Under suspicion of the radicals, who were now in power, he suffered the fate of many who held a title - meeting the guillotine on January 4,1794 aged 71.
The carillon of the town hall in the Bavarian town of Cham rings the Marseillaise every day at 12.05 p.m. to commemorate the city's most famous son, Nikolaus Graf von Luckner.

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The hussar figures I have painted, 16 of them in total, come from the great new range of 25mm Saxon SYW from Eureka. Although the Saxons never had hussars wearing the colpack, Eureka have made both types of figures. There is a great variety in both the horses and the riders and I enjoyed painting them in their 2nd uniform.

Limbering Up

Firstly, let me apologise if my photography is not up to scratch but I’m experimenting with assorted photo-enhancement software at the moment and my techno-phobic brain is on strike.

(Top picture) A unit of Poles for my Renaissance Deluge armies. This is a unit of Haiduks (figures by TAG) with flags of my own creation. The striped one (red-white-blue) appears to be a common Polish one for the period and the other is a combination (using Microsoft Paint) of the Virgin Mary with the white Eagle. These are great fun to paint as the colour scheme is largely up to you, although blue appears to have been designated for Polish infantry.

(Picture two). Last week has been ‘limber’ week and although I have posted pictures of the British 6pdr battery for my Pragmatic/SYW army, I’ve only just finished off their limbers.

(Picture three). Hanoverian 12pdr battery plus their limbers. Some war gamers leave out limbers from their batteries and I quite understand the view as they are
expensive, time-consuming to paint and often irrelevant to the actual battle. I like them because they take up such a large space behind their batteries which gets in the way of deploying troops. The guns and limbers are by Front Rank. The artillery crew are by Foundry from their Prussian range and are particularly superb figures.

(Picture four). In the Minden OOB a certain Major Haase (or Hase in some accounts) commands the Hanoverian artillery. This is my idea of what he looked like and I used a Foundry civilian for the purpose and just gave him a sash with green-stuff. He has that self-satisfied look of someone used to getting his own way although I daresay he might need help re-mounting his horse. I'll try to do a better picture soon.

(Bottom picture) Its quite in-vogue to show pictures of your dog so not to be outdone here is one of Louis (or Lewis sometimes) my Dalmatian in full camouflage mode on the kitchen floor.

I’ve been weighing up the pros and cons of which armies to finish off so that we can actually have a game soon. Given that I have to paint both armies and that my friends in the area need co-opting in as none are war gamers, I’ve decided to try to finish these SYW armies to a point where they are useable. On the Allied side, which I have been concentrating on, two full infantry columns or divisions are finished and I just need to increase the cavalry from one brigade to three. On the French side, I will aim to finish a line division as soon as possible and add some cavalry too – all before August or September if I can. It’s a tall order but I’m nothing if not ambitious!