Very strange week for my WSS project. I've been playing about with ideas for a couple of French dragoon units, complete with stocking caps. The big problem in my scale is the command element - especially mounted drummers!
My most recent thinking has been along the lines of using Irregular dragoons - they manufacture 20mm dragoons in stocking caps - at a pinch I could have the officers in tricorns - I understand that both kinds of headgear were issued. The drummer is a scary idea. I've been experimenting with conversion possibilities, none of which were pleasing. After a lot of fiddling about, I sat down to have a really close look at odd figures I have here.
My WSS armies are primarily Les Higgins/PMD 20mm from the 1970s - small figures - 20mm to the eye. Only Irregular will work with these; plastics are too big, as are the very nice 1/72 metal offerings from Minairons and Hagen. I reckon the Higgins boys are about 1/76, in old money, and in this scale a millimetre on the hat brim size is very obvious. Fine visual tolerances. I have been talking myself up, therefore, to use Irregular, and there is a value-added pinch to this, since I could use some of my spare Irregular horses, which are appreciably smaller than the Higgins horses I use throughout this project. Robert Hall says that French dragoon horses were normally about 12 hands, as opposed to 17 hands for cavalry horses, so this is looking like a sensible possibility.
OK. I put that idea on hold while I just checked if anything better presented itself.
I have in my bits drawer a box of the Strelets "Early War" WSS Fusiliers. Very nice models. A little chunky in the head and hands for a perfect match with Higgins, but very interesting. They are described on the PlasticSoldierReview as "24mm high" (I never know what that means) - OK, still interesting - they are about 20mm to the eye, according to the plastic ruler I nicked from my son's former school on their open day. If Strelets's stocking-cap dragoons are to the same scale, I reasoned, then - since the hats will be different from the standard tricorns and thus not directly comparable - I could do plastics for the French dragoons, and these sets come replete with all sorts of mounted drummers and fancy officers. PSR describes the dragoons as "24.5mm high", and certainly I've seen specimens painted by Will and by Lee which look very attractive. The Big Issue, then, is that of scale match.
After a long ponder, which went as far as measuring on-screen images with my trusty 6-inch ruler, I decided this was the way to go, so I ordered 2 sets of the Mounted Dragoons in Attack (box 253) and 1 of Dismounted Dragoons Skirmishing (box 254). These are very hard to find - I tracked down the mounted chaps at Model Hobbies, and the dismounted ones from an Italian eBay shop, which was a bit painful in the shipping cost department, but times are tricky.
Today I received an eBay message from Italy, apologising for selling me an item which they did not actually have in stock. Apparently this was not their fault (that's what they all say). They offered me a refund or they could get me another box by the end of May. So the dismounted dragoons are not going to arrive any time soon. Also, this morning Model Hobbies did very well to get my mounted dragoon boxes to me. So I rushed upstairs with them, to get my first in-the-plastic look at some actual Strelets horsemen, and compare them directly with my usual metal figures, which did not even require me to unseal the plastic bags inside the boxes.
Bummer. The Strelets figures are very obviously taller and heftier than my Higgins standard. This business is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but to me these will not fit in at all with my armies, very nice though they are. I was also a little disappointed in the amount of flash, the odd "leaning" horses which I'd read about in PSR, and - especially - with the fact that the mounted dragoons, with a scabbard sticking out on the left and a slung musket on the right, are each about 25mm wide, which will not work even a little bit with my standard system of 3 mounted figures side by side on a 50mm wide base.
So, very quickly, my Strelets period came and went. I messaged the Italians and said that I would take the refund, thank you very much, and emailed Model Hobbies to apologise for messing them around, and to see if there is any scope for returning the figures - if not, I'm sure I can move them on through eBay - these things are in very short supply, and, since they come from Ukraine, the situation is likely to worsen.
Back to my Plan B-and-a-half, then, which is to use Irregular men on their (small) Irregular horses, and just not have any musicians in the units. If someone subsequently comes up with a nice little mounted drummer in a small 20mm scale I'll pop a couple in. In passing, it occurs to me that if Newline made figures for this period they would be about right. They don't, of course...
Ultimately this was a bit of a damp squib of an idea, but I'm now satisfied that I couldn't have gone ahead with it. One thing for certain is that I'm not going to derail the whole project for the sake of two dragoon drummers. They'll be fine. Now that I've decided, I'll start getting the metal castings prepared for painting, which will feel more like progress.
Steve Cooney, who has supplied me with figures in the past and occasionally sends me some splendid pictures of his collection, has very kindly mailed me some photos of his ECW troops, which are Hinton Hunt and Les Higgins 20mm castings, many of them cleverly converted.
Been busy last couple of weeks - keeping my head down to avoid seeing the news. Five new battalions ready for duty. I'm pleased with them. As ever, figures are mostly Les Higgins (small) 20mm from long ago - flags are by David at the excellent Not By Appointment blog, laser-printed to scale by Malcolm at Lothian Printers.
At the front are two battalions of Régiment de Poitou (thank you very much, Lee), in the 2nd row are two battalions of Régiment du Dauphin, and at the rear the single battalion of Régiment de Saintonge.
Another unit of 20mm French infantry ready for duty. This time very nicely (and generously) painted by Count Goya - thank you, sir - the army salutes you!
As usual, figures are Les Higgins/PMD apart from the mounted officers, who are by Irregular on Higgins horses. The laser-printed flags are used by permission of David at Not by Appointment, for which thanks. I'm still working on a successful way of colouring the paper edges - my traditional use of felt-tips and whiteboard markers has been abandoned, because with modern pens and laser-print paper the ink will wick from the cut edges into the images and mess them up (as I have learned). The labs are on it as I write.
Next up for my WSS project is another refurb job - probably the Régiment du Dauphin; however, I think I'll put the painting desk to rights for a week or two and catch up on that Real Life stuff, though at present it doesn't look too attractive.
These are (mostly) very old figures from Eric Knowles' collection, so this has been a return to my Refurb Factory desk. Eric used larger units than I do, so there are some extra command figures added to make up the numbers. I am pleased to say that I am happy with my new technique for painting musicians in the Kings Livery, which has removed an amount of stress from my current push to progress my French contingent.
As always, these are Les Higgins figures - smallish 20mm - though the mounted officers are by Irregular, on Higgins horses.
There will be some more French units arriving over the next few weeks, so the barracks are getting swept out, ready.
I'm very pleased to welcome two new units for my French army, once again painted - and very nicely indeed - by Lee. Here (without and with flash - take your choice) are the Regiments of Tarnault (grey coats, in front) and Le Roi (in blue, at the back). Appropriately flagged and based, and ready for the duty boxes - thanks very much, Lee!
There is a quick safety check - the Mag Sheet will stick on the central heating radiators, while the Ferro Sheet doesn't. Fortunately, I always have a central heating radiator with me. Planning, or what?
Separate Topic - the Calm Before the Storm
Yes, there's another storm coming today - expected to arrive after 5pm. There was one on Friday, which was noisy but not too bad here, though it was pretty severe elsewhere. This one is expected to be rather worse in this area - unlike Storm Arwen, this one is coming from the South West, so it should at least be rather warmer if/when the power goes off. It is expected to be of short duration - probably finished by midnight. It puts an interesting background to the things which are supposed to be happening today:
(1) we are scheduled to do some testing of our broadband service around 7pm - this with the computer connected by Ethernet, so we don't include any delays caused by wi-fi issues. I've to take screenshots of the speedtest.com results and forward them to my service provider. I would say there is very little chance of our having both electricity and broadband by 7pm...
(2) Amazon tell me that their fine courier will deliver a package to me this evening, before 10pm. I don't think so. I think their local courier will be safely in his bed this evening, and quite right too.
The sky seemed a bit on the red side this morning - not sure if it's enough to alarm shepherds, but I thought a photo might be a useful souvenir, just in case the garden has gone by tomorrow. [Think positive]
Whatever else happens, we'd better stow the garden chairs in the woodshed this morning. Either that, or else mark them with our name and address.
I'm very pleased to welcome a refurbished battalion of French infantry - this is the Regt de Nettancourt, beautifully painted by Aly Morrison.
I have attached laser printed flags - a new experiment for me. The flags are from the excellent Not By Appointment blog - with the author's approval, and certainly laser printing shows off the quality of the artwork, but I need to do some more research on this - I have some issues with this first trial batch. The paper, at 120g/sm, is a little too heavy, and the satin paper produces flags which are probably too glossy - I'll work on this. I think this is promising, but I need to discuss the matter with Malcolm the Printer to see what works best. Since I am gluing the flags with PVA, I can remove and replace them very easily.
Today I received 2 further units of Horse, beautifully painted by Lee. I've based them and presented them with flags, and this completes my Phase I OOB for my British army. I also have (potentially) another unit of dragoons which I may refurb for this phase, or I might leave them until later.
The next big push will be the French - I have a lot of ex-Eric figures for them, which should scrub up satisfactorily - to balance the sides up a bit and avoid my Brits having to spend the rest of their days fighting the Bavarians.
I still have to work on the command for the Brits, so this group photo is a little premature, but it seemed a suitable project milestone to commemorate!
The final British battalion for this first phase of my WSS project has now been refurbished and is ready for the Duty Boxes. This has been a rather more challenging refurb job - the figures were from various sources - some were excellently painted, but in a style different from my own, and rather a long time ago; some were fairly roughly painted, and some were unpainted castings drafted in to fill gaps in command and provide grenadiers. Quite a bit of thought went into how to aim for a compromise style which would not clash with the rest of the armies!
Job done, anyway. These gentlemen are Webb's Regt of Foot, also known (for historic reasons) as the Queen's Regt.
A couple of units of Horse are being worked on as I write, and I have to do something about General Officers, and then that's it for now for the Brits. A group photo will be forthcoming, but not for a few weeks, I think.
I have been collecting, painting and fighting with the little products of Les Higgins Miniatures for about 50 years. I am still a devout fan, although they do bring some frustrations to the serious collector and they are regarded as something of a niche, off-mainstream manufacturer now.
There is, as always, a nice little biography at Vintage20Mil, and I had some useful discussions with Clive Smithers about LHM and the successor firm, Phoenix Model Developments. I was aware that Les was primarily a sculptor, and part of his background was in the design and casting of pewter figures for use on sporting trophies and so on, though my knowledge is very sketchy and I had never seen examples.
A while ago, a friend sent me a link which I have now (at long last) got around to checking out. It seems that Les was also a keen archer, a member of the Northampton club. In 1957, around the time when he was producing his first "subscription series" drop-cast ECW 20mm figures, he was commissioned by the Countess Manvers* to make a 2-foot tall statue of Robin Hood, as an archery prize to be known as the Thoresby Trophy, competed for each year in the grounds of Thoresby Hall, Nottinghamshire, as an attraction to raise the profile of the estate at Thoresby Park.
My primary source here is a memoir about a gentleman named Peter Bond, which you may find here, in the annals of Northampton Archery Club. Apart from the pictures, the narrative mentions that Les and his wife, Pat, had a son, Gary, who also became a noted sculptor.
I publish this post with familiar caveats - I have no permission to use the club's material, so if any objection is raised I may pull this at short notice(!). Also, of course, my understanding of this may be complete bunkum, based around the coincidence of there being two sculptors from Northampton with the same name in the 1950s - I doubt it, but it's possible!
* The Countess Manvers (Marie-Louise Roosevelt Pierrepont, née Butterworth, 1889-1984) is quite an interesting character - she studied art extensively and had something of a reputation as an amateur watercolourist. She moved to Thoresby in 1939.
Another new unit ready for the Duty Boxes. This one very nicely painted for me by Count Goya, the famous international polymath and part-time owner of warships. This regiment contains a number of pre-owned figures which needed an amount of refurbishment, while the command and the grenadiers are all unused castings which required painting from scratch.
Normally I regard refurb work as the dirty end of my wargame projects, so I do it myself, but Goya is a top-class refurbisher in his own right, and he has done a lovely job here.
So why (I hear you asking, as I did myself) does a Royal regiment not wear dark blue facings, in proper Royal style? It seems that Royal regiments only had blue facings at this time if they were part of the English establishment, and in 1703 these fellows were definitely Scottish, so blue facings were not a consideration until after the Act of Union in 1707.
That's quite enough about that.
The weather was better today, though we did go through a brief charade here during which the sun went behind a cloud each time I emerged from my front door. That's not a problem - I simply sighed patiently, and waited for it to come out again. You have to demonstrate that you are not distressed, and the weather gets bored quickly.
Figures, as ever, are Les Higgins 20mm, and the mounted officer (though not his horse) is from Irregular.
Four new units based and flagged yesterday.
First of all, some lovely paintwork by Lee; I am very pleased to welcome these two units:
At a much more mundane standard, there are two refurbished units of my own:
It is a gloomy sort of day today. Too damp to go outside, and the light in the attic isn't really adequate for indoor shots. I tried a few flash photos, but the gloss varnish makes it hard to get any sense out of these. I am reminded that a light box is one of the numerous projects with which I have made no progress this year!
As always, the figures are mostly Les Higgins/PMD. The mounted command figures are Irregular, but the remainder, and all the horses, are Higgins. More British troops in the pipeline, so I'll make an attempt at a decent group photo when they arrive. The lighting people have been warned.
After a few months off, to leave space for some heavy Real Life stuff and also to avoid some oppressive heat up there, I've got back to some soldier painting in the Attic Room.
I'm working pretty slowly, restricting myself to sessions of about two and a half hours, but it's pleasing to be back at it. I'm sort of getting myself comfortable with what I hope will be a useful Winter of hobby work. I'm attempting to establish some kind of default routine, so that it feels as though I know what I'm doing!
Some suitable radio programme on in the background (if there's no football on it's usually BBC Radio 3 these days, not least because they have minimal news coverage, and I may now have retired from listening to the news...), a flask of black tea and some Abernethy or Digestive biscuits and I'm very peaceful up there!
I have some excellent painting work going on elsewhere, contracted out to guys who paint much better than I do, which will appear here before long, but I've resumed some of my ongoing WSS refurb work. As ever, this refurb stuff is an industry with traditions all of its own. The original figures are never as good as I thought they were, I spend a lot of time fiddling around improving things that I had planned to leave alone, I keep being reminded that these are never going to look as good or as crisp as work on fresh castings would, but they will be fine when they are finished!
I'm currently working on a batch of pre-owned figures I bought from the Rye Soldier Shop before it was closed by Covid; the figures on the bottletops at present will, by the weekend, be The Buffs (Holland Regiment, Charles Churchill's Foot, whatever) and the [Royal] Irish Regt (Fred Hamilton's Foot). After that I have some more refurb work to do on some rather better figures, these acquired from the legendary Albannach last year - I am still pondering who they'll be after a wash and brush-up.
British army is shaping up - still some more Horse required, and I'm short of a couple of guns and most of the Staff, but definitely getting there. Next after that will be a belated assault on the French - there are hordes of them waiting to be painted! After that there should be some Dutch, the odd German principality and what not. However, at the moment, my immediate objective is to get settled into my Winter studio, and get used once again to painting regularly and in sensible amounts. Looking forward to it, actually.
Another welcome addition to my British forces, this unit very nicely painted for me by Goya, for which my grateful thanks. Here are the boys of Hay's Dragoons, aka Scots Greys.
Plus one for being British? That has a familiar ring about it.
And let us not speak of soft penalty kick awards.
This unit has taken a while to finish - the hot weather has been a problem for painting, and also the football has been a very enjoyable distraction. Anyway - here they are. They still have to have their flag fitted, and I'll see to that in the morning when the varnish is properly cured.
Problems with the heat? Well, mostly these are to do with my own tendency to snooze in hot weather, but I did have some issues with paint going off too quickly, and also some concerns about my varnish. Normally, I apply gloss varnish with a fairly large brush - it floods on well, and the fact that it goes on a little frothy is OK, because the bubbles disappear before the varnish dries. However, this can be tricky if the ambient temperature is high - it's possible for the varnish to start to set with the bubbles still present. I was prepared for this, so I've been careful to use the varnish in a cooler room, and everything is fine.
If the flag goes on nicely in the morning I hope to add another photo, and I may line up the growing British contingent for a group photo.
***** Late Edit *****
Righto - good morning - the flag is now in place, and here are the extra pictures:
I am prepared to bet that you probably know who the Queen Dowager was, but I certainly didn't (being an ignopotamus), so I did a bit of reading, and I now have at least some basic facts:
She was the widow of Charles II - Caterina de Bragança. She seems to have had a fairly poor time of it when Charlie Boy was still alive (having to accept Charles's mistress into the Royal Household, among other outrages), and she famously had no children, as a consequence of which there were quite a few British monarchs in a short time. Partly because she was trying to secure her inheritance, she hung around in Britain for some years after she was widowed, and her regiment of horse was still in evidence in 1703 (though known as Wyndham's Horse by this date). She returned to Portugal before she died in 1705.
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Slight change of plan - the aforementioned cavalry unit is finished, but their identity has changed at the last minute! I have a (short) list of Blenheim period units to paint up, and as progress with this one has continued I've become increasingly uncomfortable with the facing colour for this unit of horse. When I eventually managed to print out the intended flag for them, the problem was clear, so I've gone back to my original intention, and they are now (once again) the Earl of Plymouth's Regiment (that's Cornelius Wood's Horse in the Blenheim Campaign).
The previously-billed Queen Dowager's Regiment will follow as soon as I have some "sea green" paint for more authentic facings! At least this change of heart will have confused the life out of the enemy...
Never let it be said that I can't make decisions - I make a lot of decisions, more than most people!
The troopers are Les Higgins figures, though the command chaps are from the Irregular "Marlborough" range - the horses are all by Les Higgins, to iron out any scale issues.
Having convinced myself that a single unit is a comfortable sort of project, I'll be looking to paint some more British cavalry next.
Or some more artillery...
Or some French horse would be nice...
I've been working away at a mixed batch of WSS painting - British artillery and horse, all new figures. I picked this because it made a nice-sized piece of work, and made a welcome change from my last job, which was a big Napoleonic refurb batch. On that job, at one stage, I had two days of white paint, followed by a day of black, so I promised myself a mixed batch next. Seemed a good idea.
And so it was - except that the sequence of paint colours is different for the artillery and the horse, which makes the work a bit fiddly, and - more seriously! - I ran out of space on my wet palette because of the number of colours. Accordingly, yesterday, when I was very nearly finished the whole lot, I put the cavalry in a box of their own, and set about finishing off the artillery bases.
They still need their magnetic sheet for the bases, but here they are.
Really on a hot streak now. Having been pleased with the three British battalions I finished off last week, here comes a unit painted by Count F Goya, which puts everything back into perspective. These chaps are Archibald Rowe's Regt, or the [Royal] Scottish Fusiliers by any other name.
Thanks again, Goya, the boys are raring to go.
After a day's delay, occasioned by my deciding I really had to produce my own version of the flag for North & Grey's Regiment, the three new units are now ready for war. This is all Blenheim period...
Since it seemed a pity to miss out on the opportunity, I fetched Ferguson's Regt out of the Really Useful Boxes, and lined up a group photo of what could be my first British brigade - if they only had a general...
It's OK - all in the pipeline. I'm waiting for cavalry figures and guns to arrive in the mail, and I have the next couple of battalions ready to go on the bottletops. Coming along nicely.
***** Late Edit *****
I've been using flags from Warflag and the War Office for my WSS armies, though I had to put in some original effort for my Imperial troops. For the French, my intention is to use Warflag, and I'll maybe dust off my blog note on texturing using Photoshop. There are also some lovely flags on the Not By Appointment blog, of course, (though they tend to be more towards the SYW) and I always keep an eye on Ray's smashing work on Don't Throw a 1 (though his are usually a bit earlier than the WSS).
Since I couldn't find flags for North & Grey's regiment with high enough resolution in a decent size, I had a go myself. If you're not offended by the stock clip-art "Sun in His Splendour", I thought they might be useful for anyone else who, like me, couldn't get hold of the appropriate Robert Hall sheet(!).
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