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


Friday 23 September 2022

WSS: Something New; Test Paint

 My WSS armies very largely use Les Higgins 20mm figures from the 1970s. That range provides a good choice of poses, but the one obvious shortfall as far as I am concerned is in the choice of general officers. In fact there is only one, so there is no choice at all; Higgins provided a very good officer, in tricorne and cuirass, carrying a baton. I've used a good many of these, painted up in all sorts of colours, to provide for my Austrian and Bavarian armies, but for the French and the British, whose generals rarely wore cuirasses over their coats, this pose doesn't really cut it.

Anyway, work has been proceeding on this, and I now have some new castings, which I've been itching to get some paint on. The challenge has been to provide a cuirass-free general who will sit nicely on a Les Higgins horse, and here is my first test paint effort.





This fellow is a rather conservatively-garbed French officer, as you will see, and I'm very pleased with him. My compliments to Frederico for his splendid sculpt. I'll prepare a few more of these in various uniforms, and this will provide a real step forward on the recruitment front. All sorts of parade photos will present themselves.

 Next up should be a British general...

26 comments:

  1. Nice! Is this figure a custom sculpt that you had commissioned?

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    1. Hi Jon - yes, the rider is a bespoke sculpt, and the horse is a production Higgins casting. Like all my WSS soldiers, he is not necessarily nation specific, and only the painting decides which side he is on.

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  2. A very nice figure, very well painted as well! Lovely sculpt.

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    1. Thank you Ray. The problem with the Higgins range is the size and the elegant poses - there's hardly anything else which will fit with them. Irregular Minis have some very useful figures in their Grand Alliance and Malburian sets, of which I've used a lot, but Minairons and the more obvious plastic ranges are rather too big (which I hadn't realised when I started out!), and Lancer's SYW figures don't match stylistically.

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  4. Hello there old chap,

    He is a quite splendid looking fellow and a very useful addition to the collection by virtue of the old paint conversion technique - very useful in this period for an awful lot of troops!

    All the best,

    DC

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    1. Thank you David - paint conversion is the religion. I don't want any of my soldiers to get too patriotic until they've been painted! (a philosophy which is not too far from historical fact, of course...)

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  5. And there he is in all his shiny glory, what a fine little model soldier and very well painted Tony.

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    1. Hi Lee - I really thought he'd got lost on his travels, but he turned up in good shape!

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  6. A very smart and nicely painted figure, keep them coming.

    Willz.

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    1. Thank you Willz - I hope you are in good form.

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    2. Cheers I am fine, off to Keith Flint's Cotswold gaming day This Sunday at putting on Molwitz in 30mm using my Spencer Smiths.

      Willz.

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    3. Excellent fellow - give 'em hell, Willz!

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  7. Well done! Sometimes serious problems require serious solutions!

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    1. You know Ros, I believe you are right. I've spent many years wondering if i could glue the head of this soldier onto the neck of that soldier, and add milliput epaulettes, and file off his gaiters, and give him an extra crossbelt, and all that. Only in moments of drunken hysteria have I ever thought of someone sculpting a complete new figure. I'm pleased with the result, but is this a dangerous precedent? Does the age-old proverb about fools and money look as though it may enter a new dimension?

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  8. I wait for the next one, painted as a Bavarian general:-)

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    1. Maybe, maybe. British and French are first in the queue. I have Bavarian generals already - not particularly good ones, but I have them!

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  9. Glad to see that they finally turned up and what a nice little figure it is. Is there just the one pose?

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    1. Thus far, yes - have to see how Frederico is fixed!

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  10. That's a fabulous sculpt - I do love figures that don't go for overblown poses yet look full of character. Look forward to seeing how Corporal John looks.

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    1. Hi Rob - I'll be having a bash at a British general tomorrow - if I like how it turns out, he may be Handsome Jack Churchill, if not, the position is up for grabs!

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  11. He certainly looks like he will work very well along Les Higgins sculpts!

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    1. Hi Keith - I'm really very pleased that he fits in so well with the Higgins style, both in height and stature. It's a clever piece of work, I think.

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  12. A sufficient variety of command figures is a definite problem in many eras, save perhaps the Napoleonic Wars. I think your money was well invested, and the first such General looks very fine indeed, Tony!

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    1. Thank you Peter - he also has a very calm pose - there are few things more daft than a number of identical generals in some extreme charging or sword-waving posture. It becomes obvious that there are a lot of identical siblings. With the more static poses, the paint distracts the eye! Some of my Napoleonic guncrews are also patently performing synchronised aerobics.

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