Mostly to give myself a little break from refurbing the 70eme Ligne, I've painted some more soldiers for my French Siege Train. Here are the 1st and 3rd companies of the 2eme Bataillon de Sapeurs, all ready for Ciudad Rodrigo or the Salamanca Forts.
The guys who will do the actual work are from Hagen. The officers are clearly of a superior breed altogether - these are from the Franznap Pontonniers Command set. I've had the Franznap set for a while, but since I am unlikely to make any serious attempt at a wargaming pontoon team, here they are.
I enjoyed painting all of them - a lot of fun. I'm usually a bit nervous of Franznap - the sculpts are lovely, the castings (by Schilling, I believe) are very good too, but the figures are very slender - a bit delicate for tabletop handling, maybe - the castings regularly arrive bent from the supplier, especially the legs of horses, and I am always doubtful about any wargame figures which have to be assembled from bits - they just look as if they are going to come apart in moments of stress.
Anyway, here they are, to sit in The Cupboard and remind me I was going to get back to my siege game any time soon. The officers look a little senior for digging trenches or saps - a Chef de Bataillon and possibly a Colonel? - I guess that must be a really important piece of wood they have there.
As with all (most?) of my siege stuff, these chaps are on the earth brown bases - these are individually based, on magnets, so they can be deployed around the diggings once I have got the siege rules a bit more stable...
The colonel looks like he may not even cast a shadow on a sunny day!
ReplyDeleteHe came up from the ranks - used to be a flagpole.
DeleteSpecialist like these are a fascinating hobby sideline in and of themselves. Yours look great. And come on! You KNOW you want to paint up a pontoon train, don't you?
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes
Hi Stokes - I've now built up a fair-sized French siege train which has no immediate prospect of being used - refusing to paint a pontoon train may be my last positive evidence of sanity...
DeleteLooking great sir!
ReplyDeleteGreetings Michal - thank you sir!
DeleteLovely toys Tony....
ReplyDeleteOne of the first 54mm figures I painted was an Imperial Guard Pioneer so I’ve always had a soft spot for these uniform colours....
The officers certainly look ‘managerial ‘... “move that to the left a bit”... “ no no I think to the right”... “ and make it bigger”... “ and rounder”...
All the best. Aly
Hi Aly - yes - very much so. The little group of the two of them in the second photo should have captions. The guy on the left is saying, "I think we need another of those things...", and his colleague is thinking, "hasn't got a bloody clue, has he?".
DeleteI like the chap that's pondering. "I wonder if there are any of those escargots left for lunch, and perhaps a bottle of ... Sorry, did you say something about fascines?"
DeleteBrilliant stuff, well done! Hope they soon get to see some service.
Thanks Chris - these days I have a great appetite for officers who are not poncing around waving swords - they always come in useful. The sword wavers are useful too, of course, in the right context, but I have too many battery commanders and so on in ridiculously warlike poses.
DeleteAnd all that pointing. Seems artillery officers particularly have to be pointing. You can imagine the gunners thinking: "Yes, we can see them, now stop poncing about and give us a hand to turn the gun before they get here!"
DeleteDan S suggests that the sappers look like bad boys in hoodies. They do, don't they? - I can imagine the sense of relief on the walls of the besieged fort when they realise that in fact they are only enemy sappers preparing to destroy the place. "Oh - that's all right, then".
ReplyDelete