I've been working away at some more WSS general staff figures for a few days. I have a couple more examples of the new casting ready for duty:
I'm also working on a British C-in-C group, but for this I have to finish off Marlborough's trumpeter - straight from the pages of the Osprey book! I'm not happy with the current selections of gold paint I have available - this guy will be covered in fancy lace - so I need to experiment a little with mixing some more subtle shades. Sounds like a job for a Sunday.
The challenge of trying to take some half-decent photos of my gloss-varnished soldiers reminds me - yet again - that I am still intending to get myself an unpretentious lightbox of some sort. Must get on with that.
Oh yes - horses...
I'm keen to avoid producing impossible colourings for horses. I used to have a little book which gave very useful guidelines for correct combinations - the book was intended for horse fans rather than toy soldier painters, and of course it reflected modern horses rather than historical ones. Whatever, the point is that it got chucked out with a load of magazines and junk a couple of years ago (I think), and I miss it. My next door neighbour, 400 yards away, is a riding school and livery stable, and the owner, Carol, is delighted to keep me right on horse facts.
I try to keep my miniature horses, painted in my plodding toy soldier style, to varieties I can manage. This time I attempted a palomino-style horse, just for a change [not least because I have a pot of Foundry paint called Palomino], as you will see. I rather like him, but my expert source tells me that palominos would be very rare in Europe in the early 1700s - their use was largely restricted to the personal stable of the Spanish royal family.
I don't care. This French general obviously is well-connected! I shall, of course, refer to his horse as Trigger.
I can't pretend that I'm any good at painting horses, but over the years I've more or less standardised a scheme - brown body, black mane and tail, black on all four legs, white blaze, white leggings on 1-3 legs. Keeping to that - apart from some generals and particular units known for a particular horse colour - works well for me - and I think standardised schemes like that should work well for you if you are basically trying to achieve a 'toy soldier' style.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rob - your standard colour scheme sounds very like mine, though I do try to mix the horse poses and the shades of brown where possible! I believe I am, as you say, basically trying to achieve a toy soldier style. One does one's best.
DeleteI always find with horse colours is that whatever I call them is wrong - ie white - no grey etc.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed - I am a bumpkin on the horse front myself. Back in another century, a friend of my first wife, while getting the compulsory review of my Napoleonic troops before dinner, laughed out loud and said, "oh no - you could never get that colour of tail and mane on a strawberry roan!". She was a horse person, you see. Eventually, she and her husband moved to the country, presumably bought a Discovery and a labrador and green wellies, and may even be neighbours of mine now - it wouldn't surprise me. I didn't know I had any strawberry roans in my armies, such was the extent of my ignorance, but I couldn't have been more wounded if she had spotted that my Nassau infantry had the wrong coloured buttons. So, in my unassuming way, I try to keep it together on the horse front now. I have been known to drop in at the stables for a quick squint at some actual horses from time to time, I even took a few photos on one occasion, but hanging around taking photos is not encouraged when the mothers bring their little daughters for Saturday morning riding lessons!
DeleteBecause I'm sure you wanted to know, my neighbouring stable specialises in Welsh Cobs - they breed them. If, like me, you thought that a Welsh Cob was some kind of breakfast roll then just nod quietly and move on.
Lovely work on the generals, both look very nice indeed, nice figures they have a certain air of authority about them!
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie - this pair would hang or flog anyone (or both!) without the slightest provocation. It comes with the breeding. In those days, of course, the French officer class was an even bigger bunch of snotters than the British, which is saying something. Frederico did a nice job on the old carving.
DeleteFigures are lovely but I’m particularly struck by the fancy building and the hay rick thingy in the two background shots. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteThank you VdB - the token scenic aspect is provided by an Austrian church (HO model railway kit, foreign) and the base of a medieval windmill (resin, Hovels). Your positive feedback is appreciated, but for some obscure reason I am reminded of an incident, years ago, when a friend of mine bought his little daughter the most wondrous miniature toyshop for Xmas, all hand-carved in Czechoslovakia (or some such imagi-nation), and she played for weeks with the wooden box it came in - never looked at the toy. I jest, of course.
DeleteThe scenic elements here are to help mask curtains, dining chairs, heating radiators.
They look great, of course. In his 'Compendium', Henry Hyde has a page illustrating common horse colours, and details of manes, stockings etc and how they tend to be configured. Really useful! tbh most of my horses are just brown, officers may be granted black, generals perhaps white..
ReplyDeleteThanks for this David - I actually have Henry's Compendium on Kindle (which is not a great idea) - I'll charge the machine up and see what it says.
DeleteYour WSS generals (these and your earlier forays) are just fabulous Foy!
ReplyDeleteThanks WM - with luck, Marlborough and his entourage should appear later tonight (it's currently coming up 11pm here).
DeleteBeautiful looking senior officers, thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteWillz.
Thank you Willz. These chaps are my friends, as you know.
DeleteA very handsome pair of General officers, Tony!
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter - I like doing odd figures - I can stretch out and spend (squander!) plenty of time on them.
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