Winter Update

 Not much new this winter, except all the snow.

We don’t get the big snowfalls like people down east with those Nor’Westers or people in Colorado with the huge snowfalls.

But we do get blizzards, which is sustained high winds and snow.

This year they’ve been a near weekly occurrence and we are getting blocked in by all the drifts.

So it’s been a great time to do favourite tv and movie rewatches, read a book and paint toy soldiers.

Here’s a scene reminiscent of Valmy. Hong Kong soldiers made into Revolutionary war period French.

Next are a few Thirty Years War types. The large base is a terico, made of figures from one box of Mars figures. The pikes are those provided in the set and a bit of an experiment on my part. I used to just use florist wire, but after I dropped a biscuit tin full of pikemen, I kinda walked away from them. These soft plastic pikes may not be painted (yet) but they stay in place. 

These next guys are actually lead 25mm Minifigs S range if I’m not mistaken. I bought a bunch of broken figures and these guys were in them. No swords, but they look ok on those Giant copy horses. Also there is  a squadron of Warrior Miniatures 25mm French Cuirassier.  

And finally here’s some of those medieval figures I bought and featured in the last blog post. They paint up nicely.

Waterloo British Heavy Cavalry

 The Life Guard and The Blues

Revell figures, very nice indeed. Lively poses. You might have noticed some missing plumes. I bought a bag of these on eBay, and the plumes were already removed. I think the original idea was to make them Austrian.

I also finished off another unit of Dragoons, these only needing some wax.

Again, these figures aren’t painted historically, but they are so nice as is. I especially like the dapple grey horses, done in enamels.

******

I found a few more pix.

French Napoleonic Hussars

 Here’s some more of my figs. This time it’s mostly Italeri’s first release of French hussars.

Two regiments, the 3rd leading the 7th. I used Funcken’s books on the Napoleonic wars as a guide. I also used Airfix British Waterloo Hussars as is for elite troopers. I mixed in a few Hat horses as well.

A few observations on the Italeri figures. Disappointingly, they mostly lack a pelisse. Now I don’t know why, but my idea of a hussar is a fancy uniform, and a coat on the shoulder flying out behind them as they charge forward. Why Italeri opted for such lack lustre figures, I’ll never know.

Also those Airfix figures are going on 50 years old. But Italeri are lucky to have been existent for half that time, yet they are brittle as wax. Horse tails, arms, legs, all snap off with the least provocation.

Anyways...

I also am putting up some shots of a fun diversion I did during the last Covid shut down. I took some of my banged up Giant artillery caissons and added some gunners, and a base of generic horse artillery riders made from cowboys.

An interesting aside, I should have rewatched Ridley Scott’s “The Duelists”, as Kieth Carradine’s character was a Third Regiment Hussar:

I shoulda used a dull grey...

C’est la Guerre.....

*******

some more pix

Some of Those Touch Ups I Mentioned Earlier

 These are Airfix Waterloo Cuirassier I bought painted from eBay over a decade ago.

Enamel paints, some chipping as expected but otherwise excellent. 

Not painted entirely to history, but impressive enough by paint job and sheer numbers.

I ended up adding a few horsemen to make units of 24 horse plus 4 extras.

I made up a few extra trumpeters from pictures in the Bucquoy series of books.

They’re On The Moon

 The Prussians.

Definitely a work in progress. The fine Airfix Hussars are an eBay purchase from 15 years ago. Great figures, all they need are a couple of paint touch ups and a seal of wax to hold that enamel paint in place.

More Prussians, artillery this time. I did the ammo wagon based on a lead mini I saw, but I have yet to paint in the spokes and shadows.

These are lead 25mm Warrior Miniatures. They actually fit in nicely next to Airfix. The horses are a bit beefier and in spite of a thicker stand, they look comparable. The riders are thin and could fit a plastic horse.

My Brunswickers. Originally just Airfix, but Hat has made some nice figures. The Command base is the Duke and company, Hinchliffe and Minifigs. The cannon are Tradition 25mm.

The lancers are some of my first home cast figures. A modified Confederate Civil War Artillery rider with a plastic spruce czapka. Mounted on Atlantic horses.

********

Prussian artillery

And finally here's an item I picked up a while back:

A musket ball found on the battlefield of Ligny.