Bavarian artillery train

 22 November 2024

It is getting near the end of the year and I already have next years work planned. Thanks to Lucas at Piano Wargames, I have some Bavarian dragoons and French Old Guard grenadiers from his latest kickstarter to come from Germany. I am really looking forward to these as I have not worked with any of Lucas' figures before but all the ones I have seen on his website and in the blogs look fantastic and Lucas is a great guy who provided me with excellent advice.

I have also just received a pack of Victrix Austrian Landwehr which should be a nice addition to my Austro-Hungarian army.

Already on the workbench in primer are two Victrix French foot artillery pieces, given the speed I work at, they will take me into the new year to finish.

In the meantime, here is my latest addition, a Perry's metal Bavarian artillery train. The set doesn't come with the horse chains (which I purchased seperately and were a nightmare to fit) and I had to work out how some of the model assembled from online pictures. That said, it is another great casting from the Perry's.

Holiday/Vacation photos

 Just back to an extremely hot Brisbane from a week away on Daydream Island in the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. As the northern hemisphere winter approaches, enjoy the photos and yes it was as relaxing as it looks.

While I mention holidays I sadly read the news https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-02/qld-cassius-worlds-largest-crocodile-in-captivity-dies/104553384 I first saw cassius in the 1980's on a holiday to Cairns and he was very impressive then. RIP Cassius.

The resort has a man made coral reef with a variety of fish, rays and reef sharks for enjoyment and to grow corals to restore the reefs nearby in the sea.

View from the room balcony

Local wallabies abound in the resort

Extremely persistent sulphur crested cockatoo on out balcony, it enjoyed the almonds we provided.

 

Very welcoming!

Pool bar.

Bavarian army (almost) finished.

Other than a Perry's metal gun carriage as I have previously referred to; here is my finalised Bavarian army on the table. It consists of two line infantry regiments, a squadron of Hussars, an artillery piece, a light infantry battalion and a command group.

Now to get them into a game but that may be a few weeks away. I use a 6'x4' game mat but do others find that size for Napoleonic games as small as I do? I would like to have something like a 12'x6' to really lay out the armies, not that I have the room but I can dream.

Bavarian 5th Line Infantry Regiment 'Von Preysing'

I have finally finished my second (& I think final) Bavarian Infantry regiment (thanks Victrix for making them) - the 5th 'Von Preysing'. I hope to have them in action soonish as I am going on holiday/vacation in a couple of weeks then enduring some expensive dental work.

I couldn't find out much of their regimental history during the Napoleonic Wars - I really tried, but  this link gives formation and uniform details: 

https://weltseele.miraheze.org/wiki/5._Linien-Infanterie-Regiment_(Bavaria) 

The artwork below is what I worked from when I painted them. Sadly, I couldn't find an exact match for their leibfahne (regimental flag).

Uniform information

Bavarian High Command

 While painting the Bavarian 5th Line infantry Regiment, the Perry's metal command group arrived. Three ADCs, generals Wrede and Deroy with Crown Prince Ludwig. I needed a break from the infantry so I went straight to the new arrivals. After working with so many plastic figures the metal ones seem so much more 'substantial'. The ADCs are one piece castings while the generals are seperate rider and horse. I usually use blutack to hold the figure on its bottle cap while I paint them but a horse and rider is too much weight for the blutack to cope with so it is back to hotglue.

Anyhow, here is my latest posting, I am currently painting the last seven figures of the 5th line and I will post them when the whole regiment is done. The buildiing in the background is Sarissa.

I am so pleased to see the Bavarian update to the Valour and Fortitude rules and once all the painting is done I must see how a Bavaria v Austria game plays out.

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/v3.0-Napoleonic-Bavarian-Army-Sheet.pdf

Don't you just hate it when you zoom in on the pictures and see all the faults that you missed when you finished?

Advice please Vallejo XPress color

 Another support problem.

I recently bought a bottle of Vallejo XPress Color 72.411 Mistic Blue paint with the intention of trying it out on French figures and Bavarian ADCs. I started with the ADCs (3 Perry's metal figures) undercoated with Army Painter light grey primer. I made sure I shook the XPress Color bottle well and applied it to the figures as I would Cidatel Contrast. Upon drying, the paint was very glossy and showed no signs of the shade variations that it is supposed to do. 

I am sorry I can't post a photo as I was so disgusted the figures immediately went into dettol to get the paint off.

Has anyone else come across this or do I just have a bad batch of paint? I am, sadly, loathe to try any other XPress colours as I know the Cidatel Contrast paints work just fine. As you can see from my workbench photos 90% of my regular paint is Vallejo so this isn't a 'bash Vallejo' post.

Cheers

Chris

A precautionary tale

 25 August 2024

This morning I matt varnish sprayed this recently completed command base for the latest Bavarian regiment (5th line). 

Now, I have used Krylon before and it has always worked just fine but this time, for some reason, it has 'washed out' the GMB flag as per the photos. The Krylon can says it is fine for use on paper and I believe I have used it before on flags with no problems but this has caused me to reconsider spraying flags with matt finish. Has anyone else had this issue?

It is a good job I purchased two sets of flags from GMB, I must have had a premonition...

Back to work, or is that pleasure?

 August 3 2024

Renovation of the garage (my workspace) finally completed so back to work! It is always nice to set up a modelling station from scratch. I thought I would add a couple of photos before it gets all messed up by actual work. BTW, my choice of paint manufacturer is somewhat eclectic but I generally use Vallejo.

My figures to do are:

Finish Victrix Bavarians

Perry's metal Bavarian command and ADCs:

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/bav-1-high-command-mounted-wredederoy-and-the-crown-prince-ludwig/  

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/bav-2-mounted-staff/

Perry's metal Bavarian gun and limber: 

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product/bav-25-four-horse-limber-with-howitzer/ which I thought would make a nice mini diorama.

Perry's plastic French line foot artillery

Bavarian 4th light infantry battalion finally finished

 19 May 2024

It seems like it has taken forever to do these figures and I have nothing but admiration for those of you who can do a unit like this in a weekend. I have so many different pressures on my time. I enjoy fishing but haven't been able to get out and cast a line for a couple of years, who said retirement is dull?

The weather has finally cooled down in Brisbane so my largish vegetable garden took up a lot of my time recently getting it ready for the autumn/winter crop. There is a lot of other garden work to do as well as house maintenance which I need to undertake in winter when the weather is cooler. So my next unit - a Bavarian grenadier company may take a while to do.

Finally then, here is my effort, the figures are Victrix and they are displayed in their movement/storage tray: