On Being Shiny

Types of the French and Bavarian Armies.

One of the things I'm most frequently asked is: "why all the shininess?", swiftly followed by: "so how do you get them so shiny anyway?"

I could waffle on for ages about why I opted for a high-gloss finish, but all it really boils down to is that I like them that way and it's the way I've always done it. Why I like them that way is for three main reasons.

The first is nostalgia: it is what the very first soldiers I ever saw looked like.

The second is bloody mindedness: I've always had a bit of a contrarian streak and occasionally like to do things because they are unfashionable.

The last, and by far the most important, is that it looks great! A gloss finish will make even the most pedestrian painting suddenly start to look altogether more glamorous.

What is all this wizardry?

There are other reasons too, of course. A gloss finish is arguably more in keeping with vintage Napoleonics, and a couple of coats provide a tremendous amount of protection for figures destined for quite extensive handling. But it is the aesthetics that are the main thing as far as I'm concerned. I like my toys to look like toys, and I like them to look like the very old-fashioned toys that they are too.

Pictured is one of the very last figures I painted before I took up with Hinton Hunts. He was painted in about 1983, when I was seventeen, for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game that a small group of the more miserable and lonely of us used to play during the lunch hours at Cherwell Comprehensive School in Oxford. I painted him this way because I had a pot of purple Humbrol paint that I couldn't find any other use for. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament symbol was meant to be a kind of back-handed, ironic statement about how deeply and irredeemably uncool we were compared to just about everybody else in the 6th Form. What really enraged my fellow AD&D comrades (who were a rather Thatcherite bunch), however, was not the leftist symbolism but the fact that I'd made him all shiny. They thought it was dreadfully unrealistic. I still laugh about this.

Drago the Magnificent (for it is he) was varnished with a plain old Humbrol Gloss varnish which has stood up rather well, but then he has spent all but about three weeks of the last 33 years in total darkness. Nowadays I use something that looks altogether more advanced:

It is Winsor & Newton "Artisan" Water Mixable Oil Gloss Varnish. I buy it from a local art shop. It only comes in quite small bottles, unfortunately, and it's quite expensive. The bottles are also very easy to tip over, as happened to me a couple of times. I now decant the things into a sturdy jar.

I use two coats. I find that it adds tremendous depth and contrast to the colours on my DKs and Hinton Hunts. Black, for example, goes really black, and it makes reds, whites and yellows positively glow. 

I give the first coat half a day to dry before adding the second and it takes quite a while to dry out properly. Although you can handle the figures after a couple of hours, it doesn't really dry out for a week. When it does, however, it dries very hard and provides a really tough protective coating for the troops. It stiffens muskets, flags and other bendy bits pretty well too. It also provides UV protection, according to the bottle, and doesn't yellow with age. Brushes are washed out with water.

It has no adverse effects on Humbrol enamels, and the ever troublesome metallics remain absolutely solid. It does, however, tend to make water-soluble inks run. As a result I have a second, oil-based gloss varnish that I use to dab onto any areas where I've used inks (such as white waistcoats and flags). A word of warning: I've no idea how it behaves with acrylics!

Types of the Prussian Army.

Yours, as ever

WM

Pole Position 2

I am pleased to present the first squadron of the 7th Chevau-Légers Lanciers.

They were really fun to paint. I hesitate to say it out loud, but I may be beginning to get over my cavalry aversion.

I don't have enough castings to make up the second squadron, so they will probably form part of a mixed regiment of light cavalry for the time being.

However, all that will have to wait as reinforcements for the Leib Hussars have finally arrived. I really ought to get at least one 12-figure regiment of cavalry properly finished!

Have a great weekend.

WM

The Neys Have It

Mrs WM: "Is that Napoleon?"
WM: "Ney, Lass".

I've been a very lucky laddy.

I had a suspicion when I first saw this figure that I knew which painting had been the inspiration, and seeing them side by side I think there can be no doubt about it!

The figure, of course, is Hinton Hunt FN 354: Marshal Ney, on horse FNH 10.

The painting is a detail from Ernest Meissonier's 1864 painting, Campagne de France 1814.

WM

Pole Position

The weather has been glorious in Wellington this week, so I've spent much of the last three days out in the front garden, stripping, repairing and repainting the front gate. However, I've also found a little time to do some painting indoors. As French light cavalry are on my official to-do list, I thought I'd make a start on some lancers.

Pink Poles!

Now some figures require a little more faith than others, and so it was when I came across these chappies. Decked out in a delightful pink, they certainly didn't look very promising. However, vintage Polish lancers are hard to come by, so I took the plunge.

The figures are Der Kriegspielers DK 39: French Line chevau-légers lanciers (Regiments 7-9). They are identical in almost every respect to the Hinton Hunt figure FN 43: French Guard Lancer, Charging, apart from one small detail: the lance pennants have been turned upside down!

Pictured is my first test figure, a trooper of the crack 7th Regiment, formerly the 1st Vistulan Lancers, fresh from the battlefields of Spain where they had virtually destroyed Colborne's Brigade at the Battle of Albuera in 1811.

He was not the simplest of figures, but I'm really pleased with the way he's turned out.


I should really be working on the rest of my Prussian cavalry, of course. However, a French squadron seemed like more fun, which is what the project is really all about!

 Happy New Year

WM

Plans and Schemes

As the Bavarians are now on their bases, I've taken a few more shots of them going through their paces.

General Qui-est-il (also now based, but still without a name) is in attendance. The windmill is by Dapol.

So, wither the Hinton Spieler in 2016? Well, things could be said to look either daunting or encouraging, depending on one's point of view.

On the encouraging side, I've painted nine battalions, four squadrons and two batteries since September 2014, which works out as just under a unit per month.

On the daunting side, I doubt I'll be able to keep producing units at this rate during 2016. Apart from anything else, I'll be travelling overseas for part of the year, and when I'm at home there's a certain amount of deferred household maintenance to attend to!

The key thing, of course, is not to worry too much about the rate at which I can churn out new regiments, but to come up with some sort of plan. In 2016 this is to complete (in no particular order):

1. one additional squadron each for the Prussian Garde du Corps and Leib Hussars;

2. two more batteries of artillery (one French and one Prussian);

3. a French skirmisher battalion;

4. a Prussian close-order battalion;

5. four squadrons (two light and two heavy) of French cavalry; and

6. a basic wargames table and terrain.

The result will be two evenly-matched starter armies of five battalions, four squadrons and two batteries each; and the completion of Phase One of this project.


I'm not really daring to think about Phase Two yet.

WM

The Boys from Bavaria

The 4th Line on Parade

It's nearly ten o'clock on Christmas Eve. Wellington Girl has gone to bed, the Christmas deserts and gratin dauphinois are in the fridge, and the 4th Line Infantry are all but complete! A very productive day all round.

Impossible Bavarian Flag Number Two was indeed rather tricky as it took me quite a while to work out how to offset the lozenges in a sufficiently psychedelic fashion. However, it was definitely worth the effort, not least because it helps to hide some of the imperfections of flag number one!

Merry Christmas to everyone from Wellington.

WM