Napoleonic & ECW wargaming, with a load of old Hooptedoodle on this & that


Tuesday 5 July 2022

WSS: Languedoc Finished

 Extra figures painted, flags (by David of Not By Appointment) added, bases magnetized, photo taken in garden.

 
Régiment de Langedoc - 20mm Les Higgins castings, though the mounted officer is an Irregular figure on a Higgins horse

This is the last of the French units I propose to build by refurbishing Eric's men. There are still some figures left in the boxes, which may get called into service later, but the rest of the French will be virgin castings.

I wish you to know that I got bitten by ants while taking the pictures. Very small ants, but nippy! It is necessary to suffer for one's art.

16 comments:

  1. Hello there old chap,

    They look quite splendid with a real dash of swagger about them - in a civilised way naturally! Remind me, what colour do you use for your bases?

    All the best,

    DC

    All the

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    1. Thank you David - hope things going well for you.

      Not sure Eric would have approved of my little 18-man units, but I think he'd have been OK with the appearance!

      Base paint - please indulge me for a short tale of yesteryear. Like everyone, I started out in wargaming with the idea that tabletops and soldiers' bases should be painted dark green, almost like a table-tennis table. I didn't like the look, and also the room went darker when you turned the overhead light on! I had a friend who was an interior designer, and also painted scenery for the theatre, and he suggested a lighter colour, which would also show up the uniforms better. He recommended a Robbialac matt emulsion shade called "Tapestry Green", which I used from about 1972 until it went out of production about 10 years later. When I started up again with wargaming after the millennium, my local Dulux Colour Match shop came up with a matt latex emulsion colour which was a perfect match - it was called Crested Moss #1. This is no longer in the current range, but the shops can still mix it up for you if you ask for it. If you are interested, email me and I'll send you the mixing code they use on the machines.

      I buy the stuff in 250ml sample tins, though these days I transfer it to cheap airtight plastic screwtop jars, to avoid problems with the tins rusting during slow usage!

      Which reminds me, I have a large tin of the stuff, which i bought so I could refresh the (plain) backside of my main war boards - I should get on with getting that done.

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  2. Nice work, Tony!

    As we say here, "no pain; no gain."

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    1. Thanks Jon. The ants were obviously cross with me for being in their garden. I suspect that there is an ant city somewhere under one of the paths!

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  3. They are very nice, crisp and tidy looking chaps....

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    1. Thanks Keith - I'm pleased with them - they were a bit of a mess before work started. Problem is, this will encourage to spend more time trying to make silk purses from sows' ears!

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  4. Replies
    1. Thank you Willz! This has been my first piece of post-Covid painting - I had problems with concentration and stamina for a while, but am delighted to find I can still do it!

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    2. My Wife and I had Covid 2 weeks ago, clear now but still every so often we both have concentration problems. I felt like a surly teenager not wanting to do anything or get out of bed.


      Willz.

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    3. That's familiar for me too - I complained to my wife that I was feeling tired and listless and kept falling asleep, and she asked how could I tell?

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  5. Another very nice unit - I can see why the ants would want to get a closer look!

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    1. Thanks Ian - the ants move like lightning - sneaky devils! I'm definitely getting better at these tricorne soldiers - the brass shoe buckles are pretty good now, and I'm more confident about the hat-brim lace, which used to terrify me! [I've also finally realised that "yellow" hat lace should really be ochre, or it looks silly].

      These chaps are (a little bit) black-lined, since that is how Eric had them.

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  6. Very nice indeed. That Irregular officer fits in well, doesn't he?

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    1. Thanks Chris - yes, Irregular have proved very useful during this project. I'm waiting for a supply of (non-Irregular - Regular?...) senior officers, made to order, but current situation is that the supplier has mislaid them. If I still had a sense of humour this would be funny.

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  7. Very handsome, and I love tjhe bold simplicity of most French flags of this era!

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    1. Thank you Peter. Languedoc's flag has quarters in violet and "isabelle", for which you may produce your own synonym! I still worry about the all-white colonel's flag - maybe white flags did not have the same meaning at that time?

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