Coke Can Kürassier 2

Sharply dressed!

My Garde du Corps standard bearer is finished.

Fortunately, there is just enough paint and varnish to blunt the edges of the flag and reduce the risk of major blood loss to anyone attempting to pick him up. He'd still be quite effective as a letter opener, however.

I'm quite tempted to have a go at a full-scale infantry flag using this technique. I reckon it'd work quite well with anything that didn't have to be too symmetrical.

The next post will feature the officer and the trumpeter. The latter really did lead to blood loss!

WM

....but not too sharp!

Coke Can Kürassier

Having decided on a push for Prussians, I've brought the second squadron of the Garde du Corps to the front of the painting queue.

Pictured is the trooper I've selected to carry the standard of the regiment. I thought I'd give coke-can metal a go for the flag to see how it behaved in comparison to paper. It was surprising simple to do, and I'm particularly pleased with the sharpness of the waves and folds that it was possible to put into it. It also looks as if it will be a lot more durable than any of my paper flags. The drawback is that I don't think it will be possible to paint designs on flags of this type before they go on to their poles.

The baldrick around his shoulders was made by simply hammering a length of solder flat and then cutting it into a strip. The whole assembly was then liberally stuck down with super glue.

I spent a very pleasant couple of hours putting this all together. It's going to take a little longer to paint!

WM

Vorwärts and all

Marshal Blücher signals a turn to the right

To celebrate the completion of the 2nd Leib Hussars. which is my first full, 12-figure cavalry regiment, I thought it would only be right and proper to have them inspected by that ultimate old hussar, Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

The figure is PN 60: Marshal Blucher, on horse PNH 1, and is another one of John Cunningham's very fine Hinton Hunt recasts.

The Marshal is wearing the blue and red cap that I think is correct for a Prussian cavalry general, but as was the case when I painted General Bülow, I'm not completely sure....

The Leib Hussars veer to the right as directed and thunder by

There aren't too many ways to paint his grey greatcoat and overalls. The flash of red lining under his cape, however, is based on nothing much more than the absolutely inspired version of this figure painted by Ian S. You can see him here on Ian's extraordinary Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures Blog. I just couldn't paint my Blücher any other way after seeing Ian's version.

A trio of Prussian generals admire the spectacle.

Blücher's completion leaves me with only one more Prussian general staff figure yet to do, which is the aide de camp figure. Anything after that and I'll have to start doing some conversions. Fortunately it looks like it should be possible to achieve quite a lot in this respect with a just a little head swapping!

Preußische Piraten 2

Readers of this blog may have noticed a tendency to flit from cavalry regiment to cavalry regiment without completing anything. I think this was partly because it allowed me to put off an an important decision, which was whether or not to have a go at doing any command figure conversions!

Pictured are my first two attempts, being an officer and a trumpeter of the 2nd Leib Hussars.

The officer was very simple, requiring no more than the removal of his carbine and a slightly different colour scheme.

The trumpeter, on the other hand, was a little trickier as the trumpet is constructed entirely out of solder using a technique known as "stringing". It was the noted Hinton Hunt collector and converter, Steve C, who told me how to do this. Steve's own words tell it best, so here they are:

"I use a 30 watt ANTEX iron with a taper tip. It took me years to get it right but I find the best way is to melt a non-fluxed plumbers solder wire onto the tip and let it build onto the tip until it's almost dripping off . This I think is the critical part.

Clean the figure to be repaired by filing and leaving a bright alloy surface, then gently touch the drop of solder onto the piece to be rebuilt, then 'tease' the iron gently away as the solder stretches. As soon as you have the required length of solder, press the joint into a wet sponge to quench it and it will harden the lead alloy straight away ready for filing to shape .

If you try to be too fast the solder just pulls away, if you try to be too slow you burn the figure away".

Steve's advice also woke me up to the fact that soldering iron wattage is actually quite important. Higher powered soldering irons are probably much too hot for work of this kind!

WM