Bavarian artillery

 27 February 2024

Braving heat, humidity and cyclones (hurricanes in the northern hemisphere) my brave Bavarian artillery unit is finished. The observant amoung you (all of you) will notice that the uniform isn't quite accurate as this unit is a modified Victrix French artillery crew but on the tabletop I don't think it will stand out.

I have started (2 done actually) to assemble the Victrix infantry pack mentioned previously. I was hoping to be able to do them a frame at a time but given I want a battalion of line and a battalion of light infantry, the poses on the sprue means that I will have to assemble all the figures at once (sighs) and pick out the best poses for each battalion. So far, assembling two figures has taken me an hour with cleaning up the mold lines etc. This project looks like taking a long time, thank goodness this summer is nearly over!

Next Projects

 8 Feb 2024

I thiught i would just post on here what my next projects are, given how long painting takes me this will probably take me all year! Anyway, my plan is to use one of the French guns and change the heads of the figures so that that can emulate Bavarian artillery. The images I have of Bavarian artillery uniforms are very similar to French and I think it will be a straight head swap. I also plan to possibly use some other heads from my 'pile' but will see how they fit.

I haven't modelled with Victrix figures before so ANY helpful suggestions on their assembly would be much appreciated.

The other guns I will do as French line artillery.

As for that huge bag of Victrix Bavarian plastic, I plan on a light inifantry regiment after inspiration from other bloggers (thanks guys) and a line infantry regiment. That will give me a Bavarian army with two regiment of line infantry, one of light, a hussar squadron and a unit of artillery. More than enough to face those pesky Austro-Hungarians if they can keep out of the bierkeller long enough!

Bavarian Hussars finally finished

Well the Bavarian Hussar regement #1 is fnally done. I cannot imagine trying to paint any more hussars of any type as I am really not happy with my work here. I can blame it on the heat and humidity but in truth, my skills and eyesight are just not good enough to do the excellent Perry's figures justice. I admit that I took some liberties with some of the detail colours, I couldn't find a picture of a mounted officer or bugler for example so I improvised their uniforms, reversing the colours for the bugler etc. If anyone has accurate pictures of the officer and bugler (preferably mounted) I would love to see them.

How would you spent a hot and humid day, painting in the garage or cooling off here in my pool?

I used these prints as my guide on the figures, they were all I could find online.

I have started my next project, a battalion of French 9th line infantry. Infantry are so much easier and quicker to paint! Following them, my plans are a Bavarian artillery unit and the Victrix 58 figure Bavarian infantry bag I purchased as line and light regiments.

Some minor progress made

 23 December 2023

FINALLY we have had a break in the summer heat that has allowed me a couple of sessions to progress the Bavarian hussars. When I say 'break' I mean it has been below the mid 30'sC in my garage so with a little fortitude some painting time was possible.

This has been the hottest beginning to a summer on record in Brisbane and add the high humidity and regular thunderstorms it has been necessary to spend time in the air-con watching movies rather than painting (or fishing). The swiming pool got to 34C at one stage so it was more like a hot tub!

Anyway here are a couple of pics I have just taken. Other than the heat, the main annoyance and impediment to painting is how quickly the paint dries on the brush. Yes I use a wet pallette and regularly wet the painbrush but the tip still gets clogged with dry paint in about ten minutes. It also makes dry brushing hard because the paint dries so quickly there is none left to brush on the figure - cue much gnashing of teeth! Hence, the white on the figures (not the pelisse which was done weeks ago) takes me over twenty minutes per figure. I have nothing but admiration for those of you who can paint a battalion or a squadron in one sitting. 

Part of my workspace, the brushes have just been washed with soap.

A long way to go yet.

I am so over Google

 I have to give this rant as I have been trying to make blog comments here and on others for nearly two weeks without success. Thank you to those who have commented on my blog and I have enjoyed viewing other gamers blogs BUT for some reason known only to Google, I cannot make any comments other than as 'anonymous'. I can sign into gmail no problems but I cannot 'sign in' to my blog, It is driving me nuts!

I had this problem a while back and fixed it by changing from Firefox to Opera browsers but now the Google gremlins have struck again. As I do not wish to be spied upon by Google I will not use their browser nor that of Microsoft. My normal browser is DuckDuckGo which is fantastic for privacy.

Fortunately, I can still make posts such as this so I am still here and I do read every comment made on my blog - thank you so much for them (especially re the Bavarian Hussars).

There is unlikely to be any more photo updates on my blog until summer is over. As readers know, I paint in my garage for domestic peace and so far this Brisbane summer has been so HOT. Who can paint in 32 degrees C and 80% humidity with sweat dripping into their eyes? Even a fan just moves the heat around (yes that has been the conditions in my garage and no I cannot afford to air condition it). So my Bavarians and French are boxed up, partly painted awaiting autumn (fall for my US/Canadian friends) to be recommenced.

Thanks again for all your helpful comments.

Chris

Vive L'Empreur!

 A quick post to ponder on how many of us would love to have Napoleon's hat added to our games space? I also wonder what other memorabilia (practical - not a canon!) we migh dream of having. 

I do note the nice collection the Perry's have in this Valour and Fortitude video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDg5EuZ6FrU

https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/2023/11/20/napolean-hat-auction

Bavarian Hussar horses finally completed

 4 November 2023

It has taken me three weeks but the troopers horses for my Bavarian (actually Perry's French but I am taking some liberties with historical accuracy) Hussars are done. I will be assembling/painting the troopers next and finally, the command base. It has been a while since I have painted this number of cavalry and I was amazed at the time the horses took me and looking at the photo I can't see where all the time went. I so admire you guys out there that can paint like lightening compared to me.

I am on holiday/vacation for a while so the troopers will sit in their box on their sprues until I get back.