Time to tidy up my brushes and paint pots, and get my desk cleared ready to fettle some more figures for proper painting. The plan is to get another package of WSS soldiers away to Lee later this week.
Since I was pleased with my work on generals over the last week or so, I did one more quickie before the tidying starts. This extra figure is one of Eric Knowles' veterans - a wash in warm water, a bit of freshening of colours and some minor chip repair, a coat of new varnish and we're done. Otherwise the figure is as it was when it arrived here 3 years ago. I have no idea what the uniform or the army is, but this period is great for randomly dressed officers. The number of minor principalities which took part, and the complicated (and sometimes fleeting) alliances, not to mention the vagaries of personal vanity and non-military garb, all mean that a General officer will never go to waste - there is plenty of scope for lending them out as need arises!
Nothing particularly special about this man and his horse; this is Les Higgins MP23, the only mounted officer in the original range, complete with baton. One noteworthy point in this case is that this really is a remarkably clean, sharp casting, so it must be a very early example. This fellow must have spent many years lying in one of Eric's cucumber boxes, in his best fighting gear, just waiting for the call.
His cuirass and general appearance suggest to me that he might be a German of some sort - maybe a cavalry commander - but which army he will appear in is up for grabs. Whatever - willkommen.
Ironically, a small parcel of new W&N Series 7 brushes
arrived from CurtisWard yesterday, so I'll look forward to getting them
into operation sometime soon, but for the moment, apart from being carefully counted
and checked over, they can have a rest until my next painting session.
Very fine specimen, Tony!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jon - I wouldn't be surprised if this chap was originally painted about 50 years ago. That's a long time, isn't it? I guess that's about right.
DeleteYou turn your back for a minute and suddenly a rash of generals appears. (Is that the collective noun for generals?) Anyway, brilliant stuff, I particularly like the British chap with his trumpeter. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris. "Rash" is good; I checked, and apparently a "glitter" of generals is a possibility, though someone may be chancing that one. Invention of fake collectives could be one of the last strongholds of the imposter, though if no-one knows it's your word, there is no gain other than the pleasure of saying it out loud. In South America, it used to be a "coup" of generals, and I'm sure they had a fantastic one in Prussia.
DeleteA splendid chap!! A very nice figure and very well painted. Nice that such an old chap is going to see some new service, he would fit any army very well.
ReplyDeleteThank you Donnie. Some of Eric's collection were battered into ruin, but many - like this little general - look as if they have hardly been touched since they were first painted. Whichever army Eric had this fellow in, they didn't get out much. I have provisionally put him in the French box - he could be a Walloon, or anything, really. He needs an impressive name.
DeleteIt's Mèrode-Westerloo surely?
DeleteGood shout Chris - I'd been thinking about him, but on his days off he may get his dark blue minidice exchanged for a white one, and get a game for the Austrians. By default I quite fancy him being Jean-Pierre M-W, as you suggest - the Wikipedia page has a good pic of him, without his hat, and obviously on his other horse (he claimed to have lost 21 horses at Blenheim - that is remarkably careless, is it not?).
DeleteThe process of giving default identities to these little men is the most excellent fun, of course; I have a a 20mm dog on order from Irregular so that Earl Cadogan can have a suitable companion when I paint him. Being a martyr to realism, I'll have to wait to see if the dog is running before I choose a horse for Cadogan.
As an aside, I've been trying to identify a (cheap) booklet of coloured illustrations from the Marlborough House murals and the various tapestries - just for uniform clues. For example, it seems that Cadogan may have worn blue at Blenheim. I found such a booklet on Abebooks - it was an ancient souvenir guidebook of some sort, and the illustrations were - you guessed it - in perfect B&W. Some expression about chocolate fireguards comes to mind. Of course, it is always possible for me to paint Cadogan blue and brass it out...
And very nice he looks too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray - he sends his best wishes to you, too!
DeleteA lovely figure, Tony, and the prior ownership only adds to the appeal!
ReplyDeleteThank you Peter - venerable? - maybe that's the right sort of vibe!
Delete