25 January 2023

I have finally finished the figure. I do my painting in the garage and this time of year it is HOT and humid. I have an overhead fan but the sweat still runs into my eyes while I am concentrating, not good while doing fine detail. I thought I would mention this for my northern hemisphere modellers who are struggling with the cold. At least I can jump in the pool when I get overheated 🥵

How the grenadiers managed to cope with a bearskin in battle amazes me.

Three headgear options, bearskin, bicorne and field cap

 

 30 December 2022

Next Project

Is a 75mm Hinchliffe  French line grenadier 1807 (thanks to Tradition of London/Sweden for continuing to stock these figures). It will be a nice break from wargame sized figures.

 29 December 2022

Airfix figures

Nearly another year gone, doesn't time speed up as you age? I went on a trip down memory lane, mostly because I found the Airfix figures in the bottom of a box. I am sure that most people who wargame of my generation started out with Airfix figures. They were cheap, adaptable and could hold Humbrol enamels to a certain degree. In fact the soft plastic was awful but I digress. I gave myself a challenge to paint what I had found with Vallejo Acrylics and see how I went. I have to be extra careful handling the figures even with a coat of 'Dullcote' lacquer as the paint easily comes off.

British Royal horse artillery in movement

Royal Horse Artillery in position

French line infantry

12 August

Perry's plastics

Well, I am breaking with years of tradition and have been drawn to the 'dark side'. I love the Perry brothers metal figures so I have been tempted to try my hand at their hard plastic range. I have not decided on how I shall paint them but they won't be French. I guess it will be Swiss or Italian, I can't make my mind up but there is no rush.

13 September 2020

FINALLY finished the assembly and priming of the figures and what a rigmarole it is. I understand why people prefer plastics, the ability to pose the figures as you want etc but is it worth the hours of trimming, filing, finding parts (dropping them and struggling to find them again) and then using filler for the joints that don't quite fit? Not for me but I am glad I have experienced the process, now comes the hard bit, the painting!

 I must congratulate the Perry brothers for the excellent molds and options provided in the box, I now have a box of plastic 'spare parts' from the sprues. If I wasn't so used to metals and had better eyesight then maybe I would fully embrace plastics.

10 October

Finished my first two Perry's Swiss grenadiers, after doing the initial painting on the whole box, I have decided to do the figures two at a time so as to ease pressure to complete one painting job through all the figures. So I will do two at a time and accept that theses figures won't be completed this year! I settled on the Swiss for no other reason than whim.

 

 

31 October

Due to other commitments, I have not had the time to concentrate on the figures. Plus, I paint in my garage (sadly not air-conditioned) so it is so hot to pain this time of year in Brisbane. Also the paint dries so quickly even with a wet palette. I have also purchased these figures:  https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/fn4-mounted-infantry-colonels/ to add a mounted colonel to the regiment.  I will admit to getting impatient to see the finished regiment on the table. I am sure all painters have the conundrum between the sense of achievement of a finished figure that they are happy with and the desire to see them all finished.

27 December

Well it has taken ages but the Swiss 1st Regiment is completed. I have added a couple of metal figures into the mix along with a 'general' which is actually a Perry's metal French cavalry marshal figure but I try not to be too dogmatic over historical details.

Ist Regt of Swiss advancing

The regiment will advance!

Fictitious Swiss General Renee de Toblerone

Voltigeurs screen the advance

Eagle view 1

Eagle view 2

Photography

October 3 2022

 I have started this post to show my progress (or lack thereof) with setting scenes. I purchased a couple of backdrops which I have temporarily blue-tacked to an MDF board with supports. Not ideal but this is new to me. Anyway, here are my first photos with the backdrop. I know it needs a lot of improvement and any suggestions will be gratefully received!

The first is Perry's fine mini diorama of Napoleon and Staff FN1  (this includes Napoleon, Ney leaning on table, Soult, Drouot, Colonel Gourgaud ,Hussar officer acting as ADC and map table). The tents are Renedra.

 The next scene is also Perry Miniatures FN 86 Young Guard, Voltigeurs/Tirailleurs sitting on their packs, again with Renedra tents and firepit.

 

October 6

I have given some thought to the exposures, lighting etc and had another crack.

 

 

 

 

 

And I took some photos of my first attempts at mini dioramas. The figures are mainly Hinchliffe with some Minifigs painted in the 1970's in Humbrol enamels. 

Austrian 'sausage' gun carriage with engineer.

 

Austrian Grenz, flanked by FreiKorps and dragoons

Another shot showing the dragoons

Hessen Kassel troops serving with Austria. Dragoons, Hussars, Infantry and Austrian Jaegers  one with bent bayonet lol!

Austro-Hungarian strongpoint.

French Marines, Guard horse artillery and Guard Chausseur a Cheval.

 19 July 2022

Just primed my Charles Stadden 90mm Empress Dragoon bugler, I used black as the primer to enhance the models recessed areas.

31 July

Progress but I so wish I could zoom in and fix painting errors as easily as I can zoom in with a digital photo! Lots of fiddly stuff yet to do as you can see.

12 August

Nearly finished, waiting on a replacement sword from Tradition but otherwise completed. I am happy these 70+ year old eyes can still paint figures.

27 June 2022.

 I have finished the latest large figure assembly and paint of French Colonel-General of dragoons Baraguey d' Hilliers. I am unsure whether it is best to assemble the whole model first and then paint or (as I did here) leave off the sabre etc and prepaint both the figure and the sword then add the sword to the finished figure. Any advice would be welcome. I have to say that attaching it was a bit of a struggle as the sabre really didn't want to stick to the main figure. I had the same issue with the plume and had to drill small holes in the plume and helmet and then add an 'L' shaped piece of wire to get the plume to attach to the helmet.

Painting update

18 August 2022

Seems I haven't updated this page so you can see from other posts that I have progressed beyond the model below. I will have to think if this page is worth keeping.

 

 Well I am now underway with my Tradition 90mm model of French Colonel-General of dragoons Baraguey d' Hilliers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Baraguey_d%27Hilliers Painting such a figure tests my aging eyesight, all the gold filigree on the uniform is a challenge!

Link: to model https://traditionoflondonshop.com/product_info.php?products_id=4218

I am also tossing around painting some back scenes as there seems to be few available in Australia that would fit my table. Backscenes for photography helps the figures come to life. I got the idea from the Terrain Tutor, Mel Bose: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTerrainTutor/featured Mel is simply amazing at what he can do and his book is a fantastic resource for scenery https://us.warlordgames.com/products/terrain-essentials

Yet another Napoleonic's blog!

 Hi, thank you for 'popping by'. I have been motivated to try writing a blog because there seems to be a dearth of interest in Napoleonic models and wargaming in Queensland (& Australia) so I thought I would have a crack.

Please bear with me as this is all new to me 😄😄

15 June 2022

Slowly updating the pages and layout, must be my age but getting the 'right' feel is not coming together how I would like but I will keep going. Any recommendations or ideas are welcomed!

4 November 2022

I am still finding my way around this blog and with summer in the air in the sub-tropical city of Brisbane the mind goes more to BBQs by the pool than painting. 

Just in case anyone is interested,  I thought I would indulge myself with laying out how I got to this point. I was brought up in London England and like most boys played with toy soldiers, mostly drab WW2. At an early age, maybe 8 or 9 my father took me to a museum (I forget which) in London that had dioramas of famous battles possibly in 20mm scale. I was very impressed and the memory stuck but had no outlet. Time went on and Airfix (another tragic) released their figure range which I avidly collected.

After getting married in the early 1970's, we moved to Australia and my interest dropped off. I did do some WW2 modelling but not much until a friend showed me his Airfix Napoleonic and ancient figures and introduced me to wargaming. WW2 suddenly lost its appeal to the colour and pageantry of the Napoleonic period.

For personal reasons, I returned to the UK in the mid 1970s and found local stores that stocked Hinchliffe and Minifigs figures. I spent many hours stinking the house out with Hunbrol enamel paint and turps with a long suffering wife opening windows in sub zero temperatures to purge the smell. Many of the figures I painted then are in this blog. London was a great place for modelling, I loved the Tradition store and the variety that was available in both figures and literature. So for three years I horded what i could to take back to the land of sunshine which happened in the late 1970's,

Back in Oz, work and family took over and most of my figures remained packed away as they had been when I left the UK. Requirement however, finally gave me the time and opportunity to rediscover this passion. 

Sadly, I have not been able to contact any like minded people in Brisbane, it seems that Napoleonic's is a passion for the 'baby boomers' and sci-fi / fantasy is the rage now. So, as there is no one local to wargame with, I concentrate on photography and painting figures both 28mm and larger. This blog is an outlet for me and I fully accept that my standard of painting is way below many of the other blogs I follow but it is the best I can do at the time and I always strive to do better so a huge THANK YOU to all the other bloggers posting their photos to inspire me (& others).

13 November 2022

Wow, finally made it to 100 page views, not sure how many of those are my own but 100 views and no comments says something I guess. Well I did this blog mainly to see if I could do one so I guess that is sufficient.