The grand Was-ere

A couple of "quikies" as most of my time is taken up with WWI stringbags...
............the rigging bug has bitten me again :-D
All simple head swop conversions. heads from the Esci Muslim Warriors,

A travelling wiseman and a drummer. Wiseman´s body from Atlantic´s Greek life set, the drummer´s body from Airfix´s Tarzan Figures set.

The Grand Was-ere, Uttar Hummbug,  exhalting his followers into battle. His body was kindly donated from the HaT Gallic command set.

Hello to Kasper Fischer from Modelloursworkshop Blog. A team of bloggers working in harmony to produce some pretty dam amazing dios etc..well worth following

SPAD XIII (Academy)

It was cheap and it showed. The fit was pretty bloody awefull, the fuselage halves didn´t line up properly, the engine cowling had a gap and the wing struts are different lengths..the ones on the fuselage are too long.
Oh, and the decals are made from some sort of odd plastic. Not only do they look very shiny after application but they fold over on themselves when being removed from the decal sheet which meant two of them being ruined. Grrrrr!
Still.... lessons learnt and hopefully the Revell version will be a lot better.

There´s no flash anywhere but....there are 2 mold guidance marks on the bottom of each wing, front and tail!!!

Due to the bad fit and cheapness of the kit, I thought it would be no real loss if it messed up so I experimented with a bit of weathering. Note the dreadfull gap between the tail plane and the fusealge..it could have been filled but I sort of gave up.  

The two top roundels ended up sticking to themselves...they were binned and I had to paint them myself..not a very pleasing experience or result.

The actual detail isn´t too bad but due to the bad fit I couldn´t really get into doing a full rig.

If you want a good laugh,(I ended up having to stop after 10 sides due to stomach ache from laughing..there are 80 sides, 484 comments so far and increasing) then read THESE customer reviews about a Mens hair removal cream at Amazon..Warning..some of the reviews use some strong language :-D

Napoleonic Austrian Pioneers (Pt 4)

The officers etc.



I´ll take a break from this project for a while..there´s only so much Mouse grey that I can look at for one stretch of time.

Drummers, not very apparent from the photo but the drums are brass.

The axemen cometh!

Officers. The cummerbund I´ve painted gold, but it may not be the right colour, there´s so little info on Austrian specialist troops.

Two of the five unarmed "doing something" bods.

Napoleonic Austrian Pioneers (Pt 3)

Another 30 Croburn 1813 volunteers done and dusted.

A couple of them have no muskets, but there is a barrel with hats and muskets stacked on and around it, as well as a stack of 3 muskets. 

Hello to Rubén, thanks for following :-D

Napoleonic Austrian Pioneers (Pt 2)

I know, I said napoleonics aren´t really my thing but.....
The first batch of 30 from 120 Napoleonic Austrian Pioneers for the Cröburn 1813 Diorama. or "what it´s possible to  speed paint in one day" :-D
They will all form a group along with a set of wagons, which I´ve already painted here.

No blacklining...!!!!

Every single bod is different...even if they have the same pose, the heads are at a different angle, the equipment is diffrerent.

Hello to Don from Old soldiers never Die..they just trade away Blog  a swop or Buying blog for 20mm bods. He also has another blog, ID Network Pics, a usefull bod recognition service

HaT Natal Native Horse

Part of the NNC (Native Natal Contingent) the NNH was formed from tribes that were hostile to the Zulus and fought bravely during the Anglo - Zulu war of 1879.  At  the Battle of Isandlwana, they are credited with stopping   to give rides to both native and British soldiers.
One the whole, the NNC had a bit of a mixed battle record, for instance the contingent of NNC ran away at Rorkes drift. Their corporal, Christian Ferdinand Schiess remained.
The NNC infantry were only equiped with one rifle in ten and were usually used for menial labour, The NNH were better equipped. Tan-coloured European style uniforms, a horse with full equipment, (although I have read that they were expected to supply thier own horse,,but that seems unlikely) and each trooper was issued with a carbine in addition to their traditional African spears. Units of the NNH were led by European officers dressed in  sky-blue uniforms.
The NNC was finally disbanded during the second Anglo - Boer war due to fears of them siding with the boers.

All poses from the set.

I went for a mixed colour scruffy look to the horses. One mistake....no stirrups! They had stirrups which they usually held with their big toes.

An officer added from the Frontier light horse set.

The 3 foot poses.

The whole Colonial army so far. Now all I have to do is wait for the Wagons, the Zulu war british infantry, Natal Native Contingent (the infantry), Colonial Bengal Lancers

Heavy cavalry and camels

Light horse and scouts

Artillerie and Infantry

HaT Frontier Light Horse

They had a uniform but apparently they preffered to use civilian clobber, even on active service, the only recognisable thing showing that they belonged to the Light horse being a red band tied around thier hats. I´ve gone for a uniformed look, using the colours suggested on the HaT boxart.


3 horse poses, and 5 bod poses. The set does have a bit of flash that needs dealing with..not a lot but it´s very thin and due to the plastic being soft, it´s a paint to remove

The horses are the same as in the 17th lancer set. Most pics show the Light horse with very little equipment on the horses..even on HaT´s boxart it shows no bedroll.

Again..the bod with the revolver hasn´t got a holster...which is ok with the 17th Lancer set as the arm holding the revolver can be put on one of 3 bods..but here the arm is fixed..odd error.

Hello to MyMoon Blog...a blog about everything and allsortsHello to Jeff...blogger?

HaT British 17th Lancers

These are as near enough to painting napoleonics as I want to get...the belts etc..it near drove me mad. Enorm respect to those of you whose main interest is napoleonics...I wouldn´t have the patience.
I´ve mixed a bit of the box art with pics I found on the web...the cuffs for example. On the box art they have a white line around the white cuff, but most pics on the web show just a white cuff. The bag at the front. To try and get a cross over in colour between horse and rider I painted them brown..they should be blue but it ended up looking a bit too much.
The plastron fronted tunic, although the plastron was turned back to hide the white panel I liked the look of it.
As they are for my Khandibarian colonials, they will be rebranded the "Queens III Lancers" (Painting 17L on the bedding roll,  proved beyond me) it´s not really necessary to go the whole "historical mile".

Without any conversion the set delivers 8 bod variants...not bad at all :-D

Bugler and waiting lancer.

My second favourite pose from the set...Captn S.Piers. The head had to be  twisted slightly  to align it along his arm. One thing.....none of the bods has a revolver holster....and there is a bit of excess plastic that needs removing from the back of the revolver.

My favourite pose..lancer leaning forward to attack. One small problem..but I overlooked it so I could add a bit more colour..the pennons (lance flags) originally designed to upset enemy horses,  would have been rolled in a canvas bag during active service /  battle.

I would have liked a horse in full gallop but apart from a bit of extra plastic between the rear legs of one or two of the horses,  it´s a very nice set.

El Cid Andalusian Light Cavalry

The same horse poses as with the Andalusian Heavy cavalry but a bit smaller to imply more of a light cavalry type of horse.  More or less the same "small" problems as with the Heavy cavalry set, but this time I´ve overcome the problem of attaching the riders to the saddles. I cut off the top 1/3 of a pin. Using a pair of pliers, I stuck it about halfway in,  blunt side down into the middle of the saddle ..and pushed the rider onto the sharp bit ...

All 4 poses from the set.

Spear / javelins

Archers.

One rider from each of the Andalusian sets with a small conversion to Flag bearers. The wonderfull Moorish flags are created by Nevermore and are available for free at the Grimsby Wargames Society Blog.

The whole "swarm"  together..waiting to be based..well, when I´ve worked my way through the Almoravids and searched out possible conversions.Talking of which..HERE are some great ideas in 54mm.  

Hello to Jesse from Military History in Miniature Blog. Just started in the blogging world but has been painting bods etc for a while..his "Homage to George Orwell" dio is excellent.

El Cid Andalusian Heavy Cavalry

Not a bad set but not one of the best. For a start the horses are too thin and the riders legs are spread too wide, meaning they don´t sit properly in the saddle. A couple of the horse poses have a lot of extra plastic between the back legs meaning a bit of knifework.
The riders legs are leaning a bit to the short side.., the one with the lance, his legs look way too short.
Stil..a usefull set for building a Moorish army

I haven´t bothered with putting any Arabic writing on the shields yet.

Napoleonic French Engineers

A new set just released by Tom Winterkamp and only available from Toy´s & More and I´ve  had the pleasure of painting them. There doesn´t seem to be much info on these specialists so if I´ve got the colours wrong..the blue too dark or whatever then it´s not my fault...(Or I can blame the photos)
I found no pics / colourplates on the web but  a colour guide;
helmet,cuirass--steel
pants--sea blue
shirt sleeves--sea blue OR  gray
pouch,collar,boots-- black
collar trim--red  ( the only pic I found had the sleeves trim in red as well)
belt buckle - lantern--brass
logs--brown,
barrel, tool handles,straw--wood
sledge hammer,axe,hoe,shovel,pick axe,saw--steel
Ties,belt--leather
The set has a stockier look than the bods from  Strelets , but I reckon they could be easily mixed with each other.

Pickaxe Pierre

Benoit Beam holder

Sébastien Sandbag

Serge shovel