Planning a Paint Conversion....Part 2

On parade and in the garden! The Del Prado Lifeguard figures before I get to work on them. The two separate figures are officers and the three with as yet unpainted bases are the new arrivals fromBob Cordery.

There has been a little bump on the road as far as painting figures is concerned as I have been involved in some 1:1 scale artwork in the shape of our downstairs cloakroom. Why is it that he smallest rooms prove to be the most problematic? We have had masking tape disasters, bubbling paintwork and various other minor but irritatingly time consuming problems. We are on the last of it though so I can get back into some real painting tomorrow. Spending hours in a cramped position with a 1” or 2” brush does not really inspire me to pick up something smaller at the end of the day!

The fellows you see in the ‘before’ shot are the Del Prado British Lifeguards which will be the first paint conversions from the collection I will be tackling. It is fair to say that these are probably best described as ‘based upon’ rather than historically accurate. Still, there is potential to make, if not a silk purse then at least a canvas shopping bag from the sow’s ear of a figures that comprises the rank and file trooper.

The plan is quite simple and I have listed the steps I shall be taking to spruce these up - and these are in no particular order.

1. The horses will be uniform black (with white in random places)
2. The saddlecloth will be painted in the correct regimental colour and to a similar standard to that of the original figure.
3. The small blanket roll will be painted in the correct colours
4. Six figures will have a new jacket colour of dark blue
5. When completed the figures will be gloss varnished and the bases matt.
6. Where possible the correct collar colour will be applied.
7. The two officer figures will have some additional work in respect of details of trim where possible.

To be honest there are parts of the figure that are going to be nigh on impossible to address without some extensive repainting and surgery. The biggest issue in this respect are the cross belts - I am not convinced they had these but in having them the front part of the tunic is effectively masked so there is precious little room for the yellow trim. I was toying with the idea of drafting in some plumes from somewhere to finish them off but would not know where to start looking for such.

From Ugo Pericoli’s Uniforms at Waterloo. My Blues officer figure will unfortunately have similar horse furniture to his Lifeguard counterpart - no doubt he would sniffing disdainfully at the notion but sadly need must and all that!

When completed I will have two British Guard cavalry units they will look closer to the real thing than they currently do but they will still be ‘based upon’ rather than strictly accurate. This does not bother me as they are purely representational after all!

Very Suave Zouaves

Very Suave Zouaves indeed! Needless to say the base figures has given me a number of ideas, many believe to be unnatural.....

One of the units in the partially completed ACW Spencer Smith collection that I got from Old Painter Bob was these rather splendid fellows you see above - the New York Zouaves. Bob did a really lovely job on these and all I needed to do was to base them (and paint the figures base for the drummer).

Historically these were very active but they were very roughly handled by the Texas Brigade which is kind of handy for reasons that will become clearer in a few days....

Planning a Paint Conversion

A short photo shoot whilst soaking off their bases - British Lifeguards by Del Prado, the subject of my first paint conversion. The picture is of the figures as they were originally available

The fellows you see above were kindly donated to me by Bob Cordery to bring my contingent of British Lifeguards to 13. There are two officer types which are actually the same figure but with a different saddle cloth and horse colour. My plan is to not only repaint six figures into the Horseguards  (the Blues) but also to address the more obvious errors on the original figures. Once completed the plan is to have two six figure units - the Lifeguards and the Horseguards.

This is (in theory) quite a straightforward undertaking but it will be a good way to get my painting ‘eye’ back in before tackling some more involved work. This is also the reason I am currently working on something unrelated to the Del Prado collection but a useful exercise nonetheless as it will also help to get those figure painting muscles limbered up after what has been a very long time.

All will be revealed soon.

I hope....

New Coat, Old Paint

Games Workshop metallic acrylics. Purchased lord alone knows when and incredibly still usable. Whilst sorting out the selection of GW paints I have the above three were the only metallics to survive as the various gold and bronze colours were beyond salvaging.

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt be aware of the fact that as far as painting goes my relationship with can best be described as casual. It was not always so and indeed, to this day stick a spaceship, ‘mech, or anything that floats (as long as it is not sail driven - I cant be doing with all that Nelson chequer malarkey!) in front of me then I will happily tackle it. My painting technique has barely evolved from 1972 and is still predominantly enamel driven although as a sop to those new-fangled acrylics I rather like using their metal colours - mainly because they do not tend to ‘lift’ when applying the varnish. I still own some 300 or so tins of enamel including some unopened Humbrol Authenticolours purchased God knows when! I prefer a white undercoat although my WW1 warship and most Sci Fi types technique uses the black version. I went through a phase of using a smidgeon of black paint in the varnish to add some depth to the figure but have not done so for some time, mainly because I have not painted anything that needed it. Washes, shading, highlighting or other such ‘advanced’ techniques have completely passed me by.

Two things have changed my mind about painting to the extent that I want to do so again but within my own frame of reference so to speak. The Del Prado collection for one and also the venerable old Spencer Smith figures.

The painting on the Del Prados varies quite substantially but for the most part is block colours but with the detail. Very similar in fact, to my own technique of yesteryear. The Spencer Smiths are a slightly different story in so much as seem to be ideally suited to the basic painter simply because there is not a great deal you can do with them other than to tidily dress them for action and rely on the mass effect.

There is a reasonable amount of tidying up to do with the Del Prado collection including the oft mentioned paint conversions so I figures it would be a good idea to sort out the paints and see what I had and what I needed to get. At this point I decided that I would stick with enamels simply because I have so many of them and replacing them wholesale would be quite an undertaking, as well as not cheap. As luck would have it I have pretty much all I will need to tackle this and as a further piece of good fortune our local DIY shop carries the Humbrol range which is very handy. I checked my small supply of GW paints (most of which were purchased when Battlefleet Gothic was released in 1999) and many of them had to be consigned to the bin. I was really pleased to have salvaged the colours you see above though.

I have rather a lot of Spencer Smith ACW figures left over. If you remember I purchased a couple of armies for my Kurz and Allison project just before Old Painter Bob loomed over the horizon and sent me the painted ACW figures he had amassed for a project he had shelved. He then went on to add some additional bits and pieces to round off the organisation for me for which I was immeasurably  grateful. Bob had used a different Confederate infantry figure than the one I had selected and had also  produced the Rebel cavalry wearing the kepi. All the Confederate infantry I purchased were the variety wearing a pack rather than a blanket roll whilst the mounted arm is wearing a hat.

One of the key things about the Kurz and Allison style of ACW army is uniformity, even for the gentlemen of the South, which of course completely defies the historical reality. So what should I do with all those excess figures? I read somewhere that in the Western theatre the hat was not solely confined to the Rebels so there was a possible answer. I could add a couple of hat wearing infantry and cavalry units and it would not matter if they were different to the two thirds of the collection that Old Painter Bob had tackled.

One of the biggest attractions of this for me is that Old Painter Bob’s painting style for these figures in theory should be easy enough for me to copy and so to add units that will not look too much out of place. His output is prodigious and is of a high quality which I would not be able to compete with but at least what I can get done will fit in nicely.

Another potential use for some of the kepi wearing extra figures I have (not as many as for the hat wearing types) is something that is more than a little off the wall. Many of the troops that fought in the War of the Pacific wore uniforms very similar in cut to that of the Union forces of the ACW but rather more colourful. In fact some of them would not look out of place in a self respecting 1860 to 1880 imagi-nation but let’s not go there. Not just yet anyway.

So what was the point of this post then? Well, I am tentatively looking at dipping my toes (actually a brush as I sure that would work better) back into figure painting - shock, horror! - and so am readying the materials I have and thinking about a couple of ideas I can explore to ease my way back in.

The painting quality and techniques used will be ‘old school 1972 vintage’ but as I have seen many wonderful examples of figures painted in this style I certainly do not feel self conscious about it nor of not indulging in the much higher standards of brushwork that seems to be de riguer these days.

It will certainly stand me in good stead with the Del Prado collection and who knows? I might even enjoy the experience....

Big Little Ideas....Part 2

The vehicle selection I am working with for the present. The top are all Oddzial Ozmy WW1 types (as are the previously shown Rolls Royce armoured cars) whilst the three clear plastic bags contain Tumbling Dice WW2 types - T34, Sherman and Panzer 4

A fair amount of sorting out has been the order of the day today and the fruits of part of this are below. I did have a another lightbulb moment though in respect of what I will be doing first in respect of the 1:600th collection. If you remember I mentioned about my plan to use armies on a generic basis so that, for example, a khaki based army could be used for a variety of nations with just the specific equipment dropped in as required. This is where my thinking went.

A selection of terrain. The top row is from Oddzial Ozmy and consist of trench sections and palm trees whilst below there are some of the Brigade Models 1:1200th scale buildings. The three on the left are for the Middle East, the centre are the Mediterranean and the right are Russian.

Painting a force in a khaki drill would enable me to tackle the British in the last years of the 19th century or I could use them as Turks for WW1. The loose order infantry strip I have in mind for tribal or skirmish types - for example Afghans, Arabs and certain Mahdist types, possibly Boers. There is certainly more than enough variety here for any number of actions. In many ways this project can be seen as a step up from the block armies which was the idea when I first acquired these figures a few years back.

As ever, plenty to think about.

In the meantime though, I have something else on the go - something that I have surprised myself with, especially as it is the first time I have done anything like this for a while....

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day 2020

Today is ANZAC Day - the annual day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand “that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served".

The service of the armed forces of both Australia and New Zealand has been both long and distinguished and there can be little doubt that their contributions in both world wars was a significant factor in the eventual Commonwealth and Allied victory. Originally organised to honour the members of the ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) formations following the Gallipoli campaign in WW1 the day has continued to be observed by both nations in remembrance of those who served in war and peace.

There is a joint service of remembrance held between members of the Turkish and Australian armed forces at ANZAC Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula. This first took place in 1934 when Kemal Ataturk delivered the following words to the attending dignitaries.

Those heroes that shed their blood
And lost their lives.
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
Here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
Who sent their sons from far away countries
Wipe away your tears,
Your sons are now lying in our bosom
And are in peace
After having lost their lives on this land they have
Become our sons as well

Lest we forget.

ANZAC Biscuits

On a different but related tack as part of the lockdown we have been entertaining our grandson with various things including cooking (which both he and my son enjoy hugely). One of the comestibles that resulted from this ‘bake off’ was the legendary ANZAC biscuit.  The first batch were a little on the crunchy side but the batch above were delicious! I had an interesting time explaining to my grandson about ANZAC day and ANZAC biscuits and as he went on holiday to Turkey last year also about the Gallipoli campaign. I was especially proud of him as he equated the significance of the day day with our own day of Remembrance in November.

Big Little Ideas

Tumbling Dice 1:600th scale cavalry and infantry. The former is available in helmet or shako whilst the latter are in close or loose order. The MDF base is a 1” square for comparison. Interestingly the figures themselves measure 5mm from the sole of the foot to the top of the head

I will be completely honest in that my enthusiasm for matters Napoleonic is struggling to reach the peak of the past three months. It was an insane amount of work to get them game ready and I really feel like I need a change to sharpen my interest once again. I am also conscious of the fact that at present I have more spare time than I would have ordinarily and that I need to make the most of it. There is no shortage of things that I can do but it is more a case case of what I want to do.

Finishing off the ACW ships was a welcome change of pace and will give me something else to game - I am planning to do so shortly - but I am now on the hunt for something else. I have several things I can take a look at but the curve ball of the Portable Colonial Wargame has given me much food for thought - and in a very positive way!

Inspirational for sure, but in my case probably not quite in the way you would expect - or possibly you might!

I have a whole pile of the chaps you see above - I actually prefer them to blocks of troops - acquired over time for various ideas but thus far with none being translated into anything tangible. Supporting them are some of the Tumbling Dice tanks (I have T34s, Shermans and Pzkpfw 4s), some ‘modern’ artillery pieces as well as wagons, limbers and infantry support weapons. One of my ideas was to paint them up as fairly generic types that could be used as a variety of armies depending on what I wanted to fight. A good example of this would the grey painted types being used for WW1 and 2 Germans and anything in khaki being used, well, for anyone that wore khaki. Essentially they would be a step up from my block armies. I also have some pieces from Oddzial Ozmy who specialises on 3mm figures and equipment as well as some from Peter Pig from their ‘Hammerin’ Iron’ ACW naval range.

Every so often I get them out of their box, carefully examine the contents, nod sagaciously at the appropriate moment - and put them back again....

What I am about to describe is quite common for me and i am willing to bet that at least a few of the readers of this blog have suffered in the same way. I was glancing at the cover of Bob’s latest book and thinking about the figures he used and how they looked. They are 15mm Essex figures as I recall but the thing that struck me was how, at distance they looked rather blob like - confirmation if you like of the old ‘table viewing distance’ painting standard (these are very nicely painted by the way and so I am just referring to the effect of viewing them at a distance - only the main colours show up in any detail). Was it by chance that my box of 1:600th models was located next to the book and has the benefit of a clear plastic lid (it is one of those flat Ferraro Roche chocolate boxes) meaning that I could see them? Coincidence? Perhaps but I prefer synchronicity.

Colonial in 1:600th? Are you mad? Well, after having spent more time than I should thinking about it there is absolutely no reason why not, especially when you see what else I have been toying with.

Leaning up against my green 3” 12 x 8 gridded playing surface is the old cork noticeboard from the kitchen which has a playing surface measuring 24” by 18” or, as planned, 12 x 9

For me the essence of the whole Portable Wargame genre is the ability to be able to fight wargames on a small playing surface. With this in mind I plan to explore using more smaller figures to represent units for the mass effect so, for example, a single strength point could be represented by 8 infantry figures. 1:300th or 1:600th in my case are both good examples of this. Using the armies in Bob’s cover shot as an example all that would need to be painted for an Egyptian infantryman would be a white undercoat and a red fez, perhaps with a blue tunic for an officer type. British would be red, white and blue (naturally!) with khaki an option. You are looking these at a range of at least a foot so anything else in the way of detail is irrelevant. Although there are no specific Colonial types available either from Tumbling Dice or Oddzial Ozmy the latter does produce a good ancients range so a paint conversion on something like a Celtic naked fanatic would double for Zulus or Fuzzy Wuzzies. The loose order Tumbling Dice infantry could serve as Bedouin or Afghan skirmishing types and in case you are wondering I am pretty sure that camels are available.

I have built up a small selection of 1:1200th scale buildings from Brigade Models and these include Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and Russian villages. These are lovely little models and although not the same scale as the figures really do not look out of place alongside them.

It is unusual for sure and is certainly not something I would have logically thought about but the more consideration I give it the more sense it seems to make.

I even have some Rolls Royce armoured cars in 1:600th....

The classic Rolls Royce Armoured Car