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:

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!