Slow and Steady Does It

 I have a number of refurb jobs on the go at the moment - quite a lot of them, in fact - and I find it satisfying when I complete one, but increasingly I find that the unfinished ones nag at me. It's not that I was better organised when I was younger, it's just that I seem to worry about it more now. Perhaps I have less confidence in there being plenty of time? - Let's not go there.

I'm spending a few weeks - during the start of the Spring temperate painting season - clearing off some of the Napoleonic backlog, to clear the mind and free up some boxes for re-use. One of these has been on the go for about 4 years - a pile of old, rather bashed figures I got very cheaply from the worthy Steve Cooney, which I lined up for one of my "cannonfodder" projects. This is not intended as any kind of a poke at Steve, I hasten to add - I knew exactly what I was getting into when I took them on! This batch consisted of old Der Kriegsspieler castings, and - Steve being Steve - he had taken his soldering iron to bayonets, gaiters, bases...

 

Five additional battalions; the rank and file are mostly tweaked Der Kriegsspielers, from many years ago. There are SHQ, Hinton Hunt and Schilling among the command figures. I was short of grenadiers, so recruited some Alberken Old Guard to make up the numbers - I had some misgivings about these, since the castings are relatively crude, but they came out all right, I think!

These chaps are never going to win any prizes for beauty, and have actually been quite a lot of work to paint up, but in the end they are pretty much what I was aiming for - hoping for the old Featherstone objective of "looking good in the mass".

During the intervening 4 years, I have had an occasional peep at their current state, noted that the Refurb Fairies had once again failed to come to help out, and I had rather quailed at the prospect of resuming work on them, but this has all been cowardice. Since I set my mind to finishing them, I've rather enjoyed the painting sessions, though I've listened to an awful lot of BBC Radio 3 and drunk a lot of black tea in the process.

So I have added 2 battalions of the 65e Ligne and 3 battalions of the 22e to Brennier's (Sixth) Divn of the Armée de Portugal, circa 1812. I already have one battalion of the 17e Léger and a solitary battalion of the Regiment de Prusse, so I only need the missing light battalion, a couple of groups of combined voltigeurs and some staff, and I need to allocate one of the spare foot artillery batteries to them, and the Division is done.

In the unlikely circumstance of anyone being interested, I must explain [to myself, really], that it has taken me about 3 months to break my new house rule of no 3rd battalions. The 22e really do need a 3rd battalion, or their brigade will be a runt. I have, however, stuck to my existing rule that 3rd battalions don't get flags [that'll teach them].

Finishing little projects is good - even sub-projects. Must nurture my enthusiasm... 

Thanks to Steve for supplying the figures back in 2017 - worked out fine, and his boys will fight on.

 

French Refurb - 70eme Ligne

With an enforced break in the WSS factory, I have had a chance to make a return to my ongoing rescue of some bought-in French Napoleonics - the boys of "Carlo's Army". Here are another two battalions, 1st and 2nd of 70eme Ligne, to join the 3rd Division of the Armée de Portugal, circa Spring 1812 - a period which has always been my natural home. The figures are mostly Les Higgins, vintage 1971 or so, with a few command bods brought in from Art Miniaturen, SHQ and Schilling. My approach to refurb work these days is such that there is probably none of the original paintwork of these figures still visible!

1st Battalion

2nd Battalion

I also took the opportunity to spruce up a couple of colonels which I have based to act up as brigade commanders - I was never happy with them; so here's this morning's picture of the newly-augmented 2nd brigade of the 3rd Divn, led by Colonel Dein of the 47eme, who is relishing his new, cleaner paint job.

Bde Col Dein - 70eme in front, 47eme behind - the brigade awaits the official 9-figure converged voltigeur "battalion", which will be along sometime soon. I've never been able to work out who the official GdB was. The brigade came to the Armée de Portugal from II Corps when Marmont re-organised his new command in Oct 1811, and the brigadier, GdB Roche Godart, returned to France around that time, subsequently serving in Russia. At Salamanca there is no official GdB in place, so maybe the colonels covered the gap throughout this period. GdB Menne had the other brigade. Sorry - this stuff interests me!

French Refurb: Slow but Steady

Another battalion is now finished - bases, sabot, flag, varnish tweaks, labelling. Photos have been taken for The Catalogue and they are into The Cupboard.

I've actually got some metrics for this job - most of the figures come from a collection I bought last year which has the working title of Carlo's Army. There was a blog post of sorts when I painted some of them, in June last year, and since then I've been accumulating figures to fill the gaps. They are finished now - the 2nd battalion of the 47eme Ligne. Figures are mostly vintage Les Higgins, with a mounted Chef de Bataillon and a drummer from Art Miniaturen, and an eagle-bearer from Schilling.

And, as a check, here they are in June 2018. Not exactly lightning-fast progress, but I get there in the end (with help!) and a lot has been going on at the same time. Next up, also from Carlo's legacy, will be two battalions of 70eme Ligne. Don't hold your breath, but they are under way.

French Refurb - 1/47e arrives

Another finished battalion for the French Refurb project - this time very kindly painted by Lee, for which my sincere thanks and appreciation.

Castings are appropriate Old School Les Higgins, for the most part, with some more modern support. I was more than a little disappointed to find, when they emerged from the stripper, that some of the fusiliers were in fact re-cast copies, but Lee coped with all that. The grenadiers and the drummer are Schilling miniatures, and the colonel, predictably, is by Art Miniaturen. The eagle bearer is an old NapoleoN casting. All a bit of a mish-mash, really, but very welcome. The first battalion of the 47eme Ligne, these chaps will form part of Ferey's Division of the Armee de Portugal, early 1812.

Thanks, Lee.

Second Topic

This morning I re-acquainted myself with a very nostalgic aroma. I sharpened half a dozen old "Beryl" pencils. Wow - the smell of freshly sharpened pencils - instantly transported back to ancient classrooms, old workplace scenarios, even my old sketchbook when I was a kid. Reminds me - do they still have the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick? Haven't been there in years, but it used to be a fun place to visit.

Third Topic

Purely my worthless opinion, of course, but since Mr Trump's forthcoming visit to the UK is in any case not a widely popular event, why does he feel it is appropriate to express his views on our current political situation? Notwithstanding the compulsion to put in a plug for a couple of his pals, would it not be classier and more polite if he just kept his fat lip buttoned?

French Refurb Project - Yet Another Sanity Check on Scales

I have had some problems getting hold of command figures - especially drummers - to plug the gaps in my refurbished French infantry units. Once again, I find myself trawling around ancient blog posts and forum threads, reading old debates about whether figures from Maker A are compatible with those from Maker B. My perception is complicated somewhat by the fact that individual models from the same manufacturer can vary a bit in scale, by the fact that I frequently disagree with the views expressed in the discussions and by the fact that I tend to forget whatever it was I decided last time.

Round and round we go. I had a couple of email exchanges recently which suggested that, despite my previous investigations, Newline might be OK with Hinton Hunt/Der Kriegsspieler-sized troops after all - especially since I could claim that the drummers were mere lads. I have found old discussions in which some worthy swore blind that Newline were a good match with HaT plastics, and they used them all the time, and so on.

My armies are (unofficially) 20mm or "true" 25mm (an old-fashioned term which is no more helpful than more recent ones). I look for figures which are 21 to 23mm soles to eye, which have hats and equipment which look about  the same - thus 1/72 should fit nicely, though some 1/72 figures don't seem right to me in this context. The important thing is that I should think they look correct - it is my game, after all.

Anyway, I thought I would go around this loop again, and I ordered in some Newline samples (last time was maybe 6 years ago, I think), to see if I have changed my mind, or if recent developments with the Higgs boson particle have somehow changed the size of the millimetre.

Once again, I have produced one of my occasional strange green photos, just to give myself some evidence next time I become confused about this, and to confirm the Groundhog Day nature of these continuing investigations.

You will observe that Newline are quite a bit smaller than all the other figures illustrated. Apart from Newline, these figures all group nicely around the 22-23mm soles-to-eyes mark (the little squares on the cutting mat are 5mm) - the Newlines are a lot smaller. I might just about persuade myself that a very small Newline drummer boy might fit with my Der Kriegsspieler repaints (which, though not included, are the same as Hinton Hunt), but I might have to be pretty desperate to believe it.

So - in case I forget again - here you have it. Newline figures are too small for my armies, though of course they would be perfectly lovely in someone else's Newline army. Oh - and the Hat soldier has a small head. Just saying.

Carlo's Army

Refurbing again. This is a constant theme on this blog, and I am always moaning gently here about how some current job of restoring a batch of pre-owned figures is turning out to be more work than I had expected. Yes - that is a little odd, I agree. Every time, it seems this comes as a surprise to me - just a slow learner, I guess.

As supplied - a bit jaded, and those turnbacks and shako decorations will have to go,
but otherwise not bad at all for vintage 1973. Thank you, Carlo.

I think this running thread may give a bit of a false impression - not least to myself. Maybe it's deliberate, if unconscious. There is an implication that somehow or other these refurbing exercises are an interruption in the serious work of building my armies. Not so. I haven't carried out a proper analysis of my army catalogue, but the refurbed acquisitions are really a very substantial portion of the available forces. The truth, then, is that they are not merely an occasional inconvenience, but may actually be the backbone of the collection. Hmmm.

Having said which, it is probably worth giving the subject a little more respect, and discussing it as a process and a skill in its own right.

Since I use a rather old-fashioned scale of metal figures, and am very partial to certain old makers - notably Les Higgins/PMD - I am always interested in other people's old soldiers. I've bought loads on eBay, of course, so all sorts of anonymous contributions from unknown collectors are present in my armies. With much of this stuff I just stripped them and started again, but I've also managed to preserve quite a bit of the painting efforts of others.

I've been the recipient of some very kind donations from some very good friends over the years - Ian, Charles, Iain, Clive, Martin, Matthew, Andy and many others - you know who you are, and you know how much it is appreciated. I've also (not often, but it is an important element of my armies) bought collections or parts of collections which were no longer wanted. The most notable of these have been from Pete Welsh, Harry Pearson, Danny (and Dominic) Heggie, Steve C, the infamous "Mike and Whiskers" ECW collection which came from some poor chap's estate, courtesy of a Belfast charity shop, and so on.

I'm currently nagging an old friend to de-clutter his cupboard by selling me his remaining Napoleonics, since, by his own admission, he doesn't know why he is hanging on to them. I hope that is not as menacing as it looks, now I re-read it...

Most recently, I bought a pile of old Napoleonic Higginses from Carlo.

Carlo's figures were in unusually good shape, and nicely painted, and I have to admit that this was an important part of the appeal when I decided to buy them. The idea is that it should really not take much effort to fit them in. When they arrive, of course, such figures are always rather more worn and faded than I might have wished - not that there's anything wrong with them, but if I'm proposing to freshen faded paint and repair chips and - of course - rebase to the house standard, then it seems sensible to keep the brushes out and make the new arrivals blend in with the veterans. This means: stylistically; paint shades; organisation; basing; the lot. I like my figures to be "mine", and an important part of this is that new arrivals should not look silly compared with the existing armies and - even more critical - should not make the existing collection look silly either(!).

Carlo and his brother painted up a French Napoleonic army of Les Higgins and PMD figures a long time ago. They must just have been teenagers. Since a number of the figure poses in their collection are ones which were discontinued when the Higgins range was rationalised after Les died, I guess the painting was done about 45 years ago. They did a nice job - it's possible to find some faults with the way they went about it (since I am now sitting in forensic mode, with bright lights and the magnifying jeweller's loop - which is not how one appraises the initial photos), and there were a few clangers in the uniform department, but they did a nice job, no mistake.

I've already restored some of their cavalry, which really only needed a good clean-up, some retouching and varnish. They are already in The Cupboard, as an inspiration to get on with the remainder.

Now I'm working on the Line Infantry. By the time I've added figures to make up my standard unit organisation, I should get 4 or 5 battalions out of this lot. Because Carlo's units were not made up like mine, I'll have to add mounted colonels (Art Miniaturen figures are here, ready to paint) and - since there is a shortage of flankers and command - I shall add drummers, eagle-bearers and voltigeurs recruited from Schilling Miniaturen - I am delighted to discover that they are a very good match for Higgins, by size and style. The first job is to get Carlo's boys cleaned up and based, ready for the extras to be added. Apart from anything else, the figures when based will take up a lot less space and will store a lot more safely than the heap I have at present.

Line Infantry - work in progress (there are a couple of trial Schillings in the foreground)

More of the same - some Swiss chaps in this box

Righto. Gave them a soak in a mild detergent bath for a couple of days. Got rid of the cardboard bases and washed them carefully with a soft brush. Stuck them on the green bottletops. First thing I don't like is that the line infantry all have red turnbacks. Easily fixed, except that it will take two coats to cover the red with white, there are a lot of them and - as soon as I try one - I realise that the overall trousers are very yellow next to the fresh white. OK - I'll paint the trousers as well.

So the painting job list becomes:

* White turnbacks and trousers - two coats.

* Blue touch-up on worn bits, and clean up lines for turnbacks. Also add blue to (red) shoulder straps so they look like blue-piped-red.

* The faces have faded to a slightly pink off-white shade, so paint faces and hands for everyone - at present I use Vallejo's "Parasite Brown" for a base shade, with Foundry's "Mediterranean Flesh" as a highlight.

* Black - the shakos are not great - repaint, and also paint moustaches and cover up Carlo's powdered white hair - touch up worn cartridge pouches, sort the boots out and rescue the bayonet scabbards from the white trouser paint.

* Red - retouch worn cuffs and grenadier distinctions - not much. The red hasn't faded as much as I thought it might, so these soldiers must have been kept in a box somewhere.

* Gold - shako plates, re-do chinstraps; officer's shako trim and fancy work. Buttons will do as they are.

* Silver - bayonets.

* The packs and the rest of the kit are fine as-is.

* Cockades; company pom-poms.

* Varnish; tabletop green on figure bases; mount on MDF bases, leaving gaps for the extra command and voltigeurs.

That's one battalion's worth done - I'll do a bigger batch for the next one, now I know what I'm doing. One fairly relaxed evening listening to music - no sweat at all.

First lot based - just waiting for the missing figures - easy job, really

Not a red turnback in sight, and those hats are nearer to the regulations. More
importantly, they look like my French army now. 

Apart from the extra figures for the Line (which I've bought in and are here, ready to go), there is also a hefty contingent of the Old Guard in this purchase. They are also nicely painted, the red turnbacks are not a problem for the Guard, so I guess that will be an easier job - lose the white hair and the delicate faces, general touch-up, varnish, base. Fine. Anyway, they are behind the Line in the queue (as it should be). One slight issue with the Guard is that some broken bayonets will need attention - maybe the Guard castings have weaker bayonets, but some work with the pin-vice and some staples will sort that lot out.

Somewhere down the queue - Imperial Guard - Grenadiers and Red Lancers

Beyond the Guard Infantry I am rather surprised to find that I have also set myself up to restore the Red Lancers - not quite sure when that will get done.

So - there is a pause in the Bavarian Project for a little while, as I get some more figures sorted out for painting. I can fill in odd evening sessions with the French refurb work. Let me be clear in my own mind, though - it's not an interruption - I do want to get it done!