Sunday 22 November 2015

A Whiff of Grapeshot

Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809
The small commission I'm working on is not quite ready to put on show, but all is not lost as the French artillery detachment I've been working on alongside it is almost complete. I decided to have a go at these as something was clearly required to deal with all those pesky Prussian cavalry

Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809Three of the figures are Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809. The fourth man holding the rammer, however, is rather more unique, being a conversion of the Hinton Hunt figure FN 254: French Line Infantry Voltigeur 1807-1812, charging. Roy very kindly supplied this man as part of a swap for the Young Guard Voltiguers I painted for him earlier this year


The gun they are serving is a French 8 pounder which the chaps over at Warrior confirm was manufactured by them. I'm undecided about whether or not to repaint it, but may leave it as it is as the paint job is not too bad. I'm also not at all sure about what I would use for French Artillery Green as Humbrol doesn't seem to make this colour any more!

WM


Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809
Der Kriegspielers DK 22: French Line Artillery, 1809


12 comments :

  1. An excellent gun and crew , they have a style all of their own ! , Tony

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    1. Cheers Tony. I quite agree. 1809-style gunners were never made by Hinton Hunt, as far as I can tell, so it was a delight to find these chaps. Hard to paint though, what with them being festooned like Christmas trees and everything.

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  2. A lovely looking set of figures - I bet the rest of the crew are getting a bit annoyed with the rammer playing air-guitar instead of pitching in. Did you make the conversion or was this already done? I use Foundry 28B Phlegm Green for my French guns but of course that one is acrylic.

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    1. Nope, that's Roy's own air-guitarist! Way beyond my skill.

      I'm doing my darndest to keep away from the acrylics - they don't feel vintage enough, somehow - but my resolve is crumbling.....

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  3. Very nice figures. The equivalent of the Humbrol French Artillery Authenticolour is supposed to be Hu179 which also discontinued.

    http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_humbrolauthentic.htm

    Humbrol 150 may work.
    http://www.theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=200235

    Vallejo 924 Russian Uniform also seems to be recommended.Another source gives Gunze Hobby 46 (which is Humbrol 2 Emerald). I'll stop now.

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  4. Cheers, Man. I'll give them go. There's always the option of trying to mix my own as well, of course. The original recipe was yellow ochre mixed with a little bit of black!

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  5. Somebody on TMP has recommended 159.

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  6. The original of the gunner was the French 1809 Voltigeur with his gun cut away. A chap called Peter Rogerson did the actual cutting and creating. Ideally I would had a standing figure with open arms that could be converted into chaps with ramners and ammo, but none of tge 1809 French Line is that easy to work with.

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    1. Thanks for the info Roy. The DK method seems to have been base their men on HH French Old Guard foot gunners, but with new heads.

      I remember having a 20mm plastic Segom French gunner once with multiple arms like a Hindu deity. By chopping various bits off you could end up with one of three or four different poses. Quite ingenious really.

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