Airfix CSA Cavalry

Ok..a bit of a false Title and not intended as an April fool, it´s too late in the day for that anyway, but  I thought I´d have a quick go at Converting and painting up a couple as the Opponents to the US cavalry.

I couldn´t be bothered to paint up some new ones so I re-cycled the ones from the US cav Post.
The two sabre wielding troopers have had headswops from the Airfix Confederate Infantry set.

European Mounted Men-at-Arms (RedBox)

As with the Mounted Men-at-arms set, this has 12 bods and 12 nags. 6 individual poses for the bods, and again, my  only complaint, ..only 2 horse poses and they are the same poses from the Mounted Men-at-Arms set.
There´s two "spare" arms with the set, 2 with each bod sprue so 4 in total, one Holding a Lance and the other a mace. The bod they are intended for has a rather Long peg, way too Long for the hole in each of the arms. Do not cut it shorter so it fits into the hole. Use a thick needle and make a hole all the way through the arm, then push the peg through and using a hot pin weld the protruding part of the peg onto the shoulder  removing any excess as you go. Fill the join between the upper chest and shoulder with glue.
You get a better Picture of the set (the, Flash,  arms and Long peg etc) from the PSR  Scans (no Review as of time of posting this) HERE


10 in total. The bod on the far right. OOB, the flail is in front of and attached to the plume but with a bit of carefull snipping and a Twist of his wrist it Ends up looking more natural

From left to right;

1. Flail and helmet plume removed, flagpole and flag added

2. Using the hot water method, arm Holding the Lance bent, plume removed

 

From left to right;

1. Was Holding his Lance incorrectly(see below), arm and head swop

2. The hammer that came with the changeable arm was too thick so got replaced with a mace from the Accurate Hundred Years War Knights Of France set

3. To make up the numbers, one of the bods from the RedBox Mounted Men at Arms set , Hammer from Valdemar                           

Bods from Both sets added together..a total of 20......I converted another two to add to the original 8 from the Mounted Men - at - Arms set.
I´ll find a Bod to represent Richard III before basing them ...which presents Problems..what did he (and his nag) look like??
With a surcoat and gilded armour (Nag with full caparison and Chanfron/Criniere)
With a shield, plain steel armour and crown ? (nag with Chanfron/Criniere/Peytral and no Caparison)
A mix of plain steel and gilded armour? ( Nag with half caparison and Chanfron/Criniere/Peytral)
Or something more like this....Plain steel, some gilding, shield (nag with Chanfron/Criniere/Croupiere/Peytral/)..basically, the bod  and nag Combo from the redbox men-at-arms set but with a crown

Unlike the first Redbox Mounted men-at_arms set, Flash abounds with this lot. A lot of the  bods and the nags are surrounded in the stuff. It took over two hours of toe curling work using a razorblade to remove it all.

The bod on the right holds his Lance a bit loosely, basically, the fingers don´t surround the shaft so I removed the arm and the Lance entirely and replaced it with one of the spare arms that Comes with the set.
I also replaced the head. Reason being that the torse, the  twisted roll of fabric around the helmet,  is only scuplted at the back.

Example of a Torse

Basically,  compared with the Mounted Men-at-Arms set, there´s a lot more work involved  to get  a decent number of useable bods, re-aranging /re-placing weapons and arms, head swops and removal of Flash but after all that´s over, I like em.

Airfix US Cavalry

This lot,  32nd set with all the poses painted,  brings me a bit closer in my quest to paint all of the   poses from each of the 60* Airfix sets listed at PSR

My idea of sticking to the boxart as a  colour reference failed, mainly due to the bods and nags looking nothing like the ones portrayed on the boxart. After a lot of digging about on the web for a suitable colour scheme, I more or less gave up and painted them using a couple of Basic reference Points.  I mean, which period are These lot supposed to portray? The "war" against the Native americans??, ACW??
PSR gives them a 3 out of 10 for historical accuracy...IMHO, a bit over generous.

Added to the lack of a fixed period, loads of bits are missing or just plain odd and no matter how hard You try, you just can´t paint up a bandolier to look like White braces or make non existant revolvers, saddlebags, neckerchiefs etc hold paint.

All 12 poses

Command. The B/W saddle rolls are after an example found on the web 

Why the cartridge belt Brown at the front and White at the back and not black all over? Two reasons. Firstly I´d tried that and the belt "blended in" almost becoming invisible and two, I liked the look of the Brown and White version. They are basically more or less toys anyway.

What will happen to this lot? Even though the nags are missing a lot of their tack, they still aren´t as bad as some examples so they will get used in a future Project. The bods? Back into the box of obscurity.

*Using the listing at PSR and Discounting the farm animal set, the  two zoo sets and the 5 (?)"type 1" sets.

Monastery Upgrades

A couple of additions to the Airfix Fort Sahara -  Monastery conversion.
A small storehouse and...

.....Garderobe (toilet) added.

A couple of People have commented that the Monastery has no church so a bit of explantion is needed;

Monastery is one of those  Terms that is commonly misinterpreted to mean a building containing several Monks.

Monasteries vary greatly in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.

Not every Monastery had a church, either inside, attached or seperate to the building..a lot only had (and still have) a chapel,  a room set aside for prayer/Meditation and could be used as an oratory, ie; it could be used in the way a classic church would be with a Speaker talking to the congregation.

A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, and may also serve as an oratory.

Generally as in, not always  ;-)

Logically, Some monasterys having only a singular Monk,  would make having a Chapel, let alone a church,  a bit much to ask of  the poor lonely celibate. This all of course depends on the Interpretation of what constitutes a "church"

In the case of my "monastery" it could theoretically be that the place of contemplation/prayer is inside the main building  in a crypt for example  or entirely seperate from the main building and not in view..and that´s if I was to use it as a Monastery.

Hussite Camp 4 - Wagons

Final part of the Hussites, the wagons.

And Close ups

Basic planking for the  construction and ..

.....the other has Woven sides

The horses dinner

The Hitches and traces I´ve left off as they might get damaged during Transport

Both wagons have removable canvas covers and the one constructed from Planks has a side door that would act as a ramp when opened, which I´ve closed up.
The wagons and canvas tops are made using resin, the wheels, axle and hitches/traces are metal.

American Militia in Winter Dress 1812

American Militia in Winter Dress 1812..that´s what it says on the box and that´s basically what´s in the box but I wanted them for use as Bodstonian Miltia..so they got few head and hat swops.(from the Zvezda Russian Artillery of Peter the Great set)
The range of weapons is interesting, as mentioned on the PSR site (here) mainly muskets but the chaps at PSR missed one..a double barrelled weapon, a shotgun?

Hopefully Strelets will bring out a set of American Militia in summer Dress 1812


 

 

Hardly any of them carry a powder horn or a secondary weapon like a knife or a hatchet but 4 of them have rucksacks etc

The one in the middle Looks like he could Feature in a western cowboy type Setting

The two on the left could be used as highwaymen. The "Cowboy" again from behind. It´s not 100 obvious from the pic but the weapon he´s Holding definately has two Barrels and a lock on the left and right. While there were such things as double barrelled flintlock muskets, they were expensive and prone to misfiring/exploding, so seeing as he´s a militiaman,  it´s more likely it´s a  double barrelled shotgun, not a musket.

Head or hat swops

As usual, one sprue is put into storage for any future conversion use, the other two are added to the  Bods for sale/swop list

Hussite Camp 3 - Medieval horse Care

From the excellent Hussite Camp range created by Frank Gemershaus.
This lot (and a few more besides) are destined to end up as part of the Teutonic Order 1329 dio
So far, 6 nags and 5 bods
Again, for each part I´ve added a  photo  with it´s original german titel and english Translation.

Knecht führt Zugpferdepaar (Servant leading a pair of draft horses)

Knecht schleppt Grünfutter (Servant bringing Forage)

Knecht striegelt Pferd (Servant grooming horse)

Knecht tränkt Pferd aus Eimer (servant giving a horse a drink from a  bucket)

Knecht füllt Futtertrog nach (Servant refilling feeding trough)

And one lot not in the top pic (they were mixed in with the footfolk and the wagons so got overlooked).
Knecht, gerüstet, führt Zugpferdepaar (Servant, equiped/armed,  leading a pair of draft horses)

Notice.
Due to a couple of People feckin me around with buying / swopping (I shan´t Name names but I feel like it) If any one wants anything..it´s pay first then I send it..registered post...finito.

 

Hussite Camp 2 - Footfolk/ workers (Pt 2)

Part two of The footfolk /workers part of the Hussite camp Scene set from Frank Gemershaus
As with the first lot, These are divided up into individual pieces, each with it´s individual titel in german, so again, I´ll add a photo of each part of the range with it´s original german titel and english Translation.

Lagerzubehör - Fässer mit Säcken en bloc - Camp Accessories - Barrels with sacks as a block)

3 Mann Lasten tragend (Ballen, Säcke)  - 3 men carrying loads (Bales, sacks)

Man Faß rollend -Man rolling a Barrel

Man beim Holzhacken, Frau Holzscheite einsammelnd - Man cutting Wood, Woman collecting logs

Frau mit Kiepe, alternative Reisigbündel - Woman with pannier, alternative with bündle of twigs

Hussite Camp 1 - Footfolk/workers (Pt 1)

Footfolk /workers part of the Hussite camp Scene range from Frank Gemershaus.
This lot (and a few more besides) are destined to end up as part of the Teutonic Order 1329 dio
Metal and 1/72nd scale, they match up well with all other 1/72nd medieval bods.

The Hussite Camp Range is divided up into individual pieces (mini sets) which can be bought individually, each with it´s individual titel in german, so  I´ll add a photo of each part of the range with it´s original german titel and english Translation.

Mann trägt Holzbundle (Man carrying Wood bündle)

Man sack aufhebend (man Lifting a sack)

Frau Essen Austeilend. Soldat mit Schale (Woman giving out Food. Soldier with a bowl)

Woman im Kochtopf rührend (Woman stirring cookingpot)

Soldat zerhackt Reißig (soldier chopping up Brushwood)

A couple of interesting bits.

Some new sets of wolves. I´ve been waiting for Ages for a decent set of wolves ..and then two come along at once, and another two sets are planned...HERE

 

An amazing dio..1:200,  The Plastic Panorama of Old Lwów

 

 

 

 

 

Tecumseh - Strelets

Not a bad set,  12 bods with some interesting poses
As  noted on the PSR write up, no bare chested warriors (apparently they liked to fight bare chested)  and the bod who is meant to represent Tecumseh is repeated 4 times so, along with the crawling bod,  a bit of a waste.
At the Moment I can´t see any decent conversion possibilities but maybe at some Point I will so one sprue is Held in reserve, the  Two  extra sprues have been put on the "Bods - Sale/swop" page.

 The strelets bods are 22.5mm, the Italeri ones 25mm, the 1.5mm height difference seems a lot when each make is compared alongside each other...…

....but mixed together, the height difference becomes less apparent and  they make a decent looking warband. 

…. The man himself, Tecumseh (middle)

The man himself, Tecumseh (middle)


Would be nice if Strelets made a Woodland civilian set or two. The Imex Eastern Friendly Indians set is very nice, but at 26mm tall,  they are giants, especially in comparison with the Strelets bods,   ...and the set is hard to find.