Sunday 14 October 2018

Flag Ferapy

I regret to say that I'm unable to post any more PEF pictures for the moment due to the total breakdown of my old PC. This was an old ex-work laptop which I bought ten years ago for all of 25 quid, so I suppose it serves me right. If I can find a way to at least temporarily resurrect it then I will extract the pictures and post them.☹️

Meanwhile, the Chasseurs have also stalled. To chivvy myself along I even did a bit of prep work on the regiment that is to follow them. This ended up being rather more intensive than I anticipated and then further delay was caused by my inability to resist having a go at their flags:



They are the King's and Regimental colours of the 73rd, which will be the last close-order regiment to go into Wallmoden's Corps, or at least as far as Phase Two is concerned.

With the addition of these two I now have four painted flags waiting for regiments to carry them (the other two are for Prussian grenadier and landwehr regiments). I really need to do something about this....

Yours, somewhat chastened,

WM

18 comments :

  1. I took a bit of historical licence with my own 733d Perthshires, and made them a Highland regiment. They had been one but some time between 1800 and 1808 (I think) the Regiment lost that status, and their Highland distinctions.

    Too bad. I qanted a Highl;and Regiment and it had to be from my chosen formations... :-D

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  2. *Laughter* I think we all take a few liberties, AP, whatever the regiment we're painting. My own 73rd will be standard British line infantry. I'm painting the flags because they will not be Hinton Hunts but something altogether rarer....

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  3. Cracking flags. How are the tips (Finials?) of the flags made? They look way better than my bashing a bit of metal into a rough spear tip.

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    1. I will be putting up a how-to-do-flags-like-this page very shortly, Paul, with photos and everything (they were not, I'm very pleased to say, on my old PC). There is almost no skill involved. They're simply bits of wire hammered flat at one end and then shaped with a rotary tool. It all takes just a minute or two.

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    2. I look Forward to it. I´ve bashed Florist wire flat, then cut it into shape (haven´t bothered for the ACW lot..tut tut!)

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  4. By God that man does flags honour. We visited the Coldstream museum last week and I made a nuisance of myself asking why the battalion company guardsman was wearing wings. Apparently he was on loan from the Guards museum, so probably correct. Somebody tell me that the Coldstream all wore wings, and I can go back and apologise....
    Your flags, Matthew, are inconceivably good.

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    1. These were fiddly (those damn red and white stripes!) -but they were actually quite simple, Archduke. I haven't tried anything really hard yet. Now you know why I've been avoiding Austrians....

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  5. What could be rarer than Hinton Hunts.

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    1. Pretty much anything other than Minifigs are rarer than Hinton Hunts, Mark. It doesn't make them more expensive though, weirdly.

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    2. Kirk for example are rarer but when you see them you realise why few were bought and fewer survive. Hampshire Figures were worse (in both ways). Silver Cross would be nice. Springwood Plastics would be a bit left field.

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  6. As always, stunning brushwork on these flags. You are blessed with a sharp eye and a a steady hand.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. Thank you, Stokes, every bit of encouragement helps.

      In case you were wondering, the ultra-shiny Regimental is the result of putting gloss varnish over gloss paint. The King's will need quite a few extra coats of the former to catch up.

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  7. The 73rd were originally the 2/42nd but became the 73rd Highlanders until they lost the kilt in 1808. They still had a Pipe Major at Waterloo. The 42nd and 73rd were reunited in 1881 to become The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders). Even as late as the 1950s 2BW thought of itself as the 73rd. 2BW was a Chindit battalion in Burma under the name Column 73.

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    1. Well there you go, GP. Some people just can't be made to wear trousers, can they.

      I feel I should do a piper now!

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    2. I didn't know that the 73rd was actually originally part of the Black Watch. But I gather the loss of Highland status was due to recruitment problems, solved by throwing recruitment to all comers.

      My other 'historic licence' thing is that my British Army is Peninsular War, but using Waterloo regiments, because the best source for flags had only Waterloo units represented. I've also given my Horse guidons, even though they weren't carried in the Peninsula.

      Long ago, after trying several other media, I concuded that paper was the best medium for war games flags - for their robustness, and for the translucency of the paper when or where self coloued argent, or coloured yellow (or). I used to draw my own flags and colour them with frly-tip pens.

      Then I discovered War flags, and used them. Apart from my 73rd Foot Regimental(?) dark green colour being not far off black, I'm pretty pleased with them. The flags of my French army date mostly from when I draw and coloured them by hand.

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    3. I started painting the flags for a bit of a laugh really, AP, but then got sort of hooked. I moved to fizzy-can metal pretty swiftly, however, as the paper flags started to take a bit of a hammering almost immediately. The metal versions are tricky in that its difficult to inscribe patterns onto them very accurately, but as I rather like the slightly wobbly home-made effect that is the inevitable result this is not too much of an issue.

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  8. Beautiful standards sir....
    Your laptop woes have reminded me to back up my various blog photos... so thank you.

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Got to keep up the standards, Aly. Needless to say, I was planning to do a back up.....I feel like such a dolt.

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