Back to Painting

So, again, my traditional apology for not having posted more frequently. I'd like to say thank you to everyone who was kind enough to wish me well over the past few months. My hands are now back to normal (I'm still having bouts of pain in my legs and arms but I just get up and walk around until it goes away or, confusingly, if I'm walking around at the time, I sit down for awhile). Apart from the course of drugs I haven't actually done anything (neither injections nor surgery on my spine appeal to me and I think I'm going to need another bout of problems to convince me I need to do something).

I recently had a conversation with a woman who works for one our customers who told me that everyone should buy private medical insurance once they are forty because that is when your body falls apart - obviously she's onto something because I'm 48 - when I mentioned this she pretty much suggested that I'd been on borrowed time then and was lucky I hadn't had this happen before.

So, this weekend I've finished the first nine Poland Uhlans (who, possibly confusingly, are Russian), a mounted French Line Infantry officer and six 10mm Pendraken AWI British Line Infantrymen. I've also got some more Uhlan at an almost finished stage. I'll post a picture up in the next couple of days - I must confess the 10mm Pendraken figures had been sitting in my half-finished pile for some time. I wanted to put some scores on the board as I'm desperately behind schedule.

I've done a few things while I've been "away" - one is to get a super-duper new PC after my old one died (excellent value and service from an online company called PC Specialist - www.pcspecialist.co.uk -who were really good). Some time ago my step-daughter moved out to live in Reading where she now works. So the spare room was spare again and I wasted no time in moving my "stuff" back in - this involved quite a lot of reaching into the back of cupboards throughout the flat to pull out "stuff" that I "had" to buy seven or eight years ago but which then never saw the light of day again. Less embarrassingly, I pulled out a number of books from the cupboard that have been my friends for the last thirty years or so - so in no particular order:

Wargames by Donald Featherstone - I first came across this in my local library when I was about nine or ten and immediately put it to use with my Airfix plastic soldiers. I had many happy hours with this book (and it's successors - someone in my town must have been asking for these things because every book by Big Don was there or was bought as they came out). My copy is an ex-library issue that I bought at some point since.

Solo Wargaming by Donald Featherstone - this one was a Christmas or birthday present. A hardback from 1972 (price £2.40 - decimalisation was a new fangled thing at the time) I loved the article about Lionel Tarr stolidly recreating Barbarossa in his back bedroom - I think his level of megalomania has been a consistent influence upon me, or at least upon my aspirations.

Napoleonic Wargaming by Charles Grant - this was from 1974 and cost £3.00. Again I'm pretty sure this was another Christmas present and this was one of the books that really fired me up - I loved looking at the pictures of the terrain and troops from the Wargames Holiday Centre.

Operation Warboard by Gavin Lyall - from 1976 and published by Pan in paperback (£1.00). WWII wargaming - this book (along with "Battle: Practical Wargaming" by Charles Grant) formed the basis for my own set of house rules for WWII, and a happy time was spent moving US infantry (Matchbox) and German Fallschirmjager (Airfix) across a town made of houses intended for model railways - I loved urban combat rather than it's rural counterpart for some reason.

Setting Up A Wargames Campaign by Tony Bath - I have the 3rd edition (1986) but I must have bought this one when I first got back into the hobby after my "wilderness years". My school library had this book (my geography teacher was a wargamer) and I loved the idea of creating a fictional continent and populating it with characters.

Goths, Huns and Romans by Simon McDowall - I went through a period of being fascinated by ancient history (and as my local library had a copy of the WRG ancients rules I had the means to put together a properly based (if poorly painted) army. My main problem with ancients was that none of the rules I looked at seemed to give a result that matched what I imagined ancient warfare to be like - and then I realised that once battle was joined the general had little chance of influencing anything as he was in the middle of the fray so I was onto a loser - any set of rules that reflected reality would just give the chance to set up your troops in the order you want them and then roll dice for the result, without influencing how units moved or acted after first contact. I've been told Armati does just that - but it doesn't appeal much.

Some time ago I asked on TMP and GdeB if anyone could recognise some cavalry in bicornes - I managed to identify them as Austrian Chevau-Leger from the BH 15mm French Revolutionary Wars range. I'm now wondering what alternatives they could be painted up as. Someone on GdeB suggested Spanish cavalry as an option so I'm looking at that - I seem to be edging towards a small force for the Peninsula without intending to...

So six weeks without a drink......

The anti-inflammatories have largely done their stuff and the various pains have subsided into the odd twinge here and there - the pains in my legs are pretty sporadic, essentially it only hurts when I walk. I've had a full spine MRI (thank God for private medicine) and I have a number of herniated discs. Essentially I can hope that is it and the pain goes away for good (which is unlikely) or I can opt for a set of injections in my spine, or I could have a full surgical procedure (that neither my consultant or I are too keen on) to replace the discs with metal plates. I'm still thinking about the caudal epidural injections - I know epidurals are given to women having babies every day but the thought of having needles put in my spine is somewhat giving me pause for thought, and it'll take six weeks or so to tell whether it has alleviated the problem (and these injections aren't a permanent solution).

Anyway, I've largely finished the drugs I've been taking and the side effects are wearing off. Working for a wine importer and not drinking has been something of a shock to the system - I've been excused tastings (one of my favourite aspects of the job) and have avoided going to the pub after work as I cannot stand orange juice and lemonade....and don't get me started on non-alcoholic lager. So on Wednesday it was my wife's birthday and we went to Texture in Portman Street for dinner - the account manager had made the booking on my behalf and it was rather nice to find that he had set me up with a bottle of champagne on the house. I thought I'd give the champagne a try as I was almost off medication..only to find that my mouth wasn't tasting properly (normally I have quite a good palate) - the food tasted marvellous but every wine I tried (the sommelier was making a bit of an effort because of who I work for) tasted a bit off - not corked (and every other indicator apart from flavour was bang on) but not on song.

It was rather embarassing because the sommelier was obviously thinking I was a bit of a prat for not appreciating the wines he was putting in front of me properly. Apart from this it was a marvellous meal and I would highly recommend Texture.

Anyway the next day we had some Alsace wines open at work and I went through them with our MW comparing my notes to hers - everything seemed a bit dull to me. I've been repeating the experiment on a daily basis (we generally have something open every day) and I'm relieved my senses seem to be returning - although I'm mystified as to why I seemed to be able to taste my food at Texture without problems but found the top-end champagnes hard to taste properly.

So, what does this mean for my model soldiers? Well my hands are settling down and I've been doing some basing, prepping soldiers for painting and so on. I'm thinking another few days and I can pick up the brush and do some detail work again.

Okay, So I've Been Ill....

Since my last statement of good intentions a couple of things have intervened. First, my wife and I went to Malta for a week (I'd highly recommend it, good weather and lots of things for people like us to look at) which was great. I spent lots of time clambering over fortifications watched by my long suffering wife - and Valletta must be one of the most fortified cities on Earth.

Anyway, while I was there I started to experience a pins and needles sensation, mostly in my left leg. As this seemed to be mostly associated with exercise, I put it down to being essentially unfit and decided I'd get it checked out if I still had the symptoms when i got home and returned to my normal sedentary lifestyle.

Upon returning to London and work the problem continued - in fact I started to develop pains in my arms as well. I went to see my GP, who said I'd pulled a muscle - essentially he mis-diagnosed the problem entirely as when I took advantage of my company's health insurance scheme and visited a specialist I learnt I had a problem with my spine (actually I have several problems but most of them don't hurt). Now you wonder how a bad back and pains in the legs can translate into no painting or updating of this blog?

Well....the drugs he gave me to reduce the inflamation have a few side-effects (most of which are highly anti-social but have no bearing on this blog) one of which is that my hands now tremble - and this isn't because I'm not drinking alcohol. So....my legs are now mostly okay but I'm still getting severe pains in my right arm and shoulder - my spine is pressing on the nerves that control my arm and so far the drugs have only been of marginal benefit.

What this means is that, apart from being very grumpy (partially the no wine / beer thing but mostly because I can't sleep in a bed because lying down is painful) I've been finding it difficult to type, let alone paint toy soldiers. So here are some painted by DPS of Hong Kong that I picked up on Ebay some time ago.

I have enough figures for six 32 figure battalions of Russian line infantry (although they need to be based for GdeB) and have a few other other odds and ends including an artillery battery and some casualty figures. I've got to say the quality of painting is pretty damn good for the money that DPS charge for them.

So, as I haven't been getting much sleep I've been doing a lot of reading and generally grumping around the house - my wife says I don't deal very well with pain. Anyway, apologies for the lack of posts.

Apologies, Apologies

Hi,
I'm sorry I haven't been posting consistently - well my painting has been just as inconsistent (and lacking). It's been about four weeks since I began my latest project (the Poland Uhlans in 1812) and still haven't completed that unit - or any others.

When I began this blog it was an attempt to overcome the procrastination that led me to paint less than 40 figures in 2009, despite buying oodles more than that...so, if I were being positive, I'd say that having painted 52 to date was an improvement of sorts. However, I've been falling further behind on my target every week - to the point where I had become embarassed to post just how little I'd done. To my surprise, this hasn't gone unnoticed - I was talking to Trevor Jackson about his super terrain for Bussaco at Salute ( http://generaldebrigade.greatboard.com/viewtopic.php?t=4394 for pictures) when he mentioned my scorecard hadn't been updated for awhile.

So my next step after this post is to update the scorecard - and it won't be pretty.

I haven't been totally idle - but my Poland Uhlans still need some work. I mentioned in my last post, I think, that I had gone to Salute with the intention of buying some standing light horse remounts to suit the BH Uhlans - but Ian Marsh didn't have any - so I bought a blister of AB Uhlans. My plan was to use the horses for my BH Uhlans already on the painting table and then buy some remounts at a later date. So I've painted the horses and have reached the "tidy up" stage (you know - the bit where you look at the figure and realise you have only painted the coloured stripe down the leg seam on only one leg, or forgotten to do the plume or something) with about nine riders. So, I could point to 18 Olley Painting Points for the week (remember horse + rider = 2 OPPs) - or should I say for the month - except...I'm not happy with the horse rider combination.

The BH riders are lovely, and the horses are of course fine, but they don't quite match with one another. The BH riders just don't quite fit the horses. I've looked and a small chunk needs to be taken off the bottom of each rider so they don't rock (either there is a gap at the front or a gap at the back depending upon how you sit them on the horse).....I'm thinking I need a dremel but I'm finding it hard to justify spending another £60 this month on my hobby.

Anyway so mid year resolutions are to;

a) Post once a week and update the statistics (regardless of how embarassing they are).

b) Finish units once started - before starting new ones (in my case that means completing one battalion of French Line Infantry, one battalion of British Peninsula Line Infantry and the Poland Uhlans).

My Salute

So, yesterday was one of two days a year where I venture out to a wargames show. Infuriatingly, I forgot to take my camera with me (I had planned to take pictures of the games and introduce them into my blog whenever I hadn't painted anything - which seems to be rather more than I would like), which is a huge shame as there were a few very nice games at Salute.

If you recall, I began this blog with a list of things I would like to achieve - and one of those things was to paint twice as many figures as I buy. On that basis I went to Salute with a limited agenda - I wanted to get the figures necessary to produce a vignette reproducing the Vereshegin painting of Napoleon at Borodino shown above, I wanted some remounts for the Russian Uhlans I'm painting (yes I'm still working on them) and that was about it. All in all, I had no intention of buying much.

So, quite how I came to be struggling with several carrier bags at the end of the day I'm really not sure....

So, to the Vershegin painting. Vassili Vereshegin was born in 1842, trained as a Russian Navy officer, graduating first in his class, but upon graduating immediately resigned his commission to study painting. He was somewhat controversial as he believed that showing war's horror on canvas made peace more likely - some of his paintings were fairly gruesome. Towards the end of his life he settled in Moscow and painted a series of paintings based on Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign (and on Tolstoy's War and Peace). He painted the picture in 1893 (I've also seen 1897 quoted).

The painting depicts French staff officers anxiously peering through their telescopes at the battle raging before them as they seek to distinguesh what is happening through the smoke - meanwhile Napoleon sits, his feet resting on a drum with his head on his chest (perhaps suggesting that he realised that trying to go head on with a large Russian army rather than seeking to flank them was a mistake).

Fantassin (or as they insist upon calling themselves these days Warmodelling) produce a Vereshagin Napoleon (Code NP-04) sitting head upon chest, feet upon drum accompanied by an officer peering through a telescope and very nice the two figures are (see picture above from their website) - but I couldn't help feeling that the Fantassin designer had missed a trick, after all he had left the job half finished. If you are going to try and reproduce a military painting why just do two figures from the group? After all there aren't that many sources for dismounted 15mm French Napoleonic officers looking through telescopes and if you would like to reproduce the image two figures is nowhere near enough.

Fantassin also do a staff HQ set (NP-06) which has several figures that are of use - I'm thinking I can press some of the officers into service as "hangers on" and, while there is no table featured in the Vereshegin painting I'm sure there was one around nearby. However there is one glaring omission from the pack - officer with telescope.

Anyway, after asking on The Miniatures Page forum for where to find supplementary figures suitable for such a project I was pointed towards the Old Glory French Marshalls pack number 2 (NMG4) which features (as well as said marshalls) another table, a sentry, a mameluke holding a horse and (hallelujah!) an officer looking through a telescope - so that gives me two (I had hoped for rather more). I also think that OG have taken a crack at Napoleon as there is a figure in this pack with his feet resting upon a drum - but it isn't quite right so we'll be using the Fantassin Napoleon which is much closer to the original picture.

The OG Marshalls pack also features a cuirrassier officer sitting on a chair (presumably at the table - I wouldn't have thought that sitting at a chair while wearing a cuirrass would have been terribly comfortable) whom I'll make use of and a couple of figures that are nice but will not make it onto my table. One is a busty young lady wearing a hussar uniform, and one is of an officer with a pretty girl (again in uniform) sitting on his lap - I seem to recall one of the Marshalls (in Spain?) brought his mistress along on campaign and dressed her in uniform so I guess this a reference to that.

As well as these interesting figures the pack also includes several marshalls on horseback - now I'd like to think I wasn't this anal (but I know I am) so I guess at some point I'll list out which marshalls were at Borodino and separate them from the rest for painting. I can build a corps commanders base for each of them.

Coming back to the Vereshegin project this still leaves me with a shortage of telescope peering French officers. Any suggestions for more options gratefully accepted.

By the way, Vereshegin died in 1904 - he had been invited along for the ride by a Russian admiral during the Russo-Japanese War and his ship was torpedoed, drowning Vereshegin. According to Wikipedia he not only has a town named after him but also a minor planet (now how cool is that?)

Inventory II

While searching through the cupboard earlier today I came across a box that had been shoved to the back....and found more Napoleonic 15mm figures:

Russian
AB - Line Infantry Battalion in Kiwers March Attack x50 or so (enough command for two or three battalions plus enough rankers for one and a bit).
BH - Enough Pavlov Grenadiers to do a second battalion
AB - Ammunition Wagon
AB - 16 Russian Dragoons at rest (with horses) + 12 without horses (I need to check whether these are early or late)
AB - 9 Hussars In Kiwer at rest (no horses)
AB - 16 Hussars In Kiwer charging (no horses)

Austrian
BH AUBN34 3x Austrian Howitzers and 12 Crew
BH BAU3 German Infantry Shako March Attack (3 bags)
BH BAU8 Grenzers & Jagers
AB KK76 Austrian Limber Set (Walking)
AB Austrian Casualty Set

French
BH BFR5 Line Infantry Greatcoat Assaulting (3 bags)
BH BFR2 Line Infantry Marching
BH 4407-GC08 French Horse Artillery Crew (12 figures)

Additionally I have one bag helpfully marked "92 AB Cavalry Figures" (without horses) - I haven't yet identified the figures although quite a few are Russian Dragoons.

I rather suspect I am going to be putting in a hefty remount order to Ian Marsh.....

Inventory

So, yesterday I stuck the Uhlan to their nails (easier said than done as they had no wish to stay mounted) and while I wait for the primer to dry I thought I'd take stock of what was in the "big box".

So here we have it:

Russian
OG RGC2 - Russian Greatcoat Marching (1812) - an old bag so roughly 100 figures.
AB RA10 - Foot Artillery Heavy Limber Team (x2)
AB RA11 - Foot Artillery Light Limber Team (x2)
AB R26 - Kutusov, Bagration & Platov
AB R04P - 1812 Russian Grenadier Battalion (32 figures)
AB ER38 - Russian Hussar (1805-11) 12 figures
BH ST5 - Generals & Aides (maybe a dozen mounted figures)

Austrian
AB KK02 - German Fusilier Helmet Marching (48 figures)
AB KK03 - German Fusilier Helmet CHarging (24 figures)
AB KK22 - Hungarian Grenadier Marching (12 figures)
BH BAU7 - Landwher Marching (50 figures)
OG AMH2 - Hussars In Reserve - an old bag so 30 cavalry

French
AB IG26 - Guard Grenadiers a Cheval - 31 figures including two lots of command
AB IG01 - Guard Chasseur a Cheval - 9 figures including command
AB IF73 - Limber Set (walking) x1
AB IF74 - Caisson x1
AB IF75 - Limber Set (galloping) x2
BH FR115 - Line Infantry Greatcoat Assaulting
OG FLL1 - Legere Command - old bag so 100 or so figures
BH FR12-3 - Old Guard Command (dozen or so figures - command for three battalions?)
BH AB12-6 - French Horse Artillery
BH AB12-10 - French 1813-15 Artillery (Confederation of the Rhine)
BH AB12-7 - French Guard Horse Artillery
BH FRBN10 - 1809-12 Old Guard Foot Artillery
OG FAF1 - Foot Artillery Full Dress
Fant - French Foot Artillery Gun & Crew x2
Fant - Line Infantry Firing Line (3x12 figure battalion bags)
AB SET04 - Napoleon & Aides
BH ST6 - Revolutionary War Generals & Staff (14 mounted figures in bicornes)
OG Marshalls - A mix from the sets by OG - Kellerman, Victor, Lefevbre, Brune, Augereau, Marmont, Jourdan, Serurier + 15 mounted aides. Plus "Marshall Dillon" (a cowboy) which I presume was someone at OG's stab at humour.
AB F27 - Early French Hussar In Shako x12 inc command
AB F27A - Early French hussar In Colpack x12 inc command
HUGE BAG of AB/OG & Fantassin Line Infantry + Legere

British
AB Peninsula Line Infantry Battalion at Order Arms (30 figures)
AB Peninsula Line Infantry Marching (20 or so figures)

I haven't counted these up but I suspect I could be painting French artillery figures for the rest of the year alone. I also haven't really looked into the plastic box containing the odds and ends - but there is probably another hundred figures there (certainly 20 or so cuirassiers). I didn't want to open the bag of Line & Leger Infantry - I suspect I'd merely get depressed at how many I had.

Anyway looking at this I suspect I need to get rid of the French Early Hussars - really nice figures but not suitable for 1809-1812. And of the Marshals only Brune served in Russia. As for the Russian Hussars - had they changed their uniforms over by the Summer of 1812?