Flossian Union Foot Battalions

The lesson of this post is that the most important thing about painting miniatures is not to stress oneself out over the matter. It is a leisure activity after all, and the great majority of us don't paint for a living. 

I found out that I still had more than five hundred(!) 1/72 eighteenth century figures from various produce, and since I sort of hit a painter's block with my TYW/ECW collection, these came in handy for a change. Some were painted and needed touching up only, some were primed and some just bare plastic. 

I did not really have a plan for them, until I made the mental connection with my Schultze-Böhnstadt Imagi-Nations setting, so here they are, three dozen figures in three battalions of the Flossian Union: a regular fusilier, a mercenary Glambrian and a local militia unit.

The Royal Insolencian Flagship

This is the Royal Insolencian Navy's flagship, the Nuestra Senora Santa Maria de Concepcion Immaculata e Bendecida por San Felipe e San Antonio de Habana. It is a large and cumbersome three-decker, made in the waning colonies of the West Indies, mostly from red mahogany wood. She is currently stationed in the Mediterranean, overseeing the activities of the international anti-piracy squadron around the Pirate Bay of the northern Barfrican Coast.

Metamorphosis, Part 2

This is the now hardly recognizable Revell Spanish Galleon as an early 18th century warship. The complete facelift includes: scratch-building the entire bow section, the sails and the masts; replacing the oar deck with gunports; and raising the stern gallery while adding larger windows for the officers' cabins. This is how she became Konung Harald XVI Jordgubbvän, a proud Varangian ship of the line, as the various flags are showing.

Revell 1/1200 USS Missouri Restoration

As I've mentioned earlier, I have a stash of 1/1200 scale WW2 era ships that I should be refurbishing. These include a diecast Yamato, and a Revell Missouri, Bismarck and Enterprise. I started with this one for no particular reason.

First I cleaned all the dust off the upper part, then sanded the bottom because it was glued to a paper painting stand and thus the flat bottom was not level with the base all the way. Then I took off the secondary turrets, cut their barrels and replaced them with broom bristles. They were also turned outwards, which is a hazard when handling the ship as they are quite brittle, so I turned the turrets facing the direction of travel. I did not bother doing the same with the main armament, it looks cool as it is. 

The base will entirely be made of wood this time, no fussing about with toilet paper. You can see the beginnings on the image. 

The next step is to shape the base and start painting the ship properly. I'll need to do something about the broken seaplane catapult though.

Revell 1/1200 HMS King George V

What a surprise, another naval-related post, this time a 1/1200 scale Revell kit.

Not many good things to say about it, on the box it says it was re-tooled, but some parts don't fit very well, and there is a lot of filing and scraping involved. The friction fit on the turrets is especially bad, it doesn't take into account any layers of paint that might get in there. 

TYW Stuff

I've finished a few figures for the Thirty Years War, here they are in good order. First, some Zvezda and ACtA infantrymen, in groups of twelve for skirmish games like The Pikeman's Lament.

Next up Revell and Waterloo1815 cavalrymen. The Revell fig has only been washed and highlighted and is from a previous batch.

Some more Zvezda pieces, here you can see conversion work with the arms and bodies a bit more. It's entirely viable to give matchlocks to armored pikeman bodies and pikes to the musketeers, the rest is done with a bit of filler.

SYW/GNW figs

Here's a makeshift post with a makeshift photographing setup, four units of various 18th century bits, Revell and Zvezda figures. These were done a few months back but I was lazy to make a post about them.
I'm really glad Zvezda re-issued their GNW boxes, it looks like there is a demand for these and I may just pick up a few next month.
Same thing with the Revell re-issuing their old SYW figures, very useful and cost effective, if not the prettiest sets.

Vehicles of War

I'd had a painting overdose from my 10 days of holiday. I haven't been on a proper holiday since January (when it was for the finals...) and hadn't taken a single day of sick leave. So it was good to relax and paint a big bunch of figures.

Anyway, since then I have been painting on and off, mostly smaller stuff like these vehicles, some of which have long been in the pipeline actually completed, I just hadn't photographed them.

Left to rigt: Airfix 1/72 Male tank with added rust and grime; Revell Pz.II; scratchbuilt Soviet T-18; Soviet Komintern artillery towing vehicle; Trumpeter Char B1. They are from a variety of eras, but fit the WW1/RCW/interwar/diselepunk theme. They are for my upcoming trench game. I'm also building trenches from lots of plasticine.

My 1806 Prussian army - almost complete

There were no pictures submitted yet about one of my larger undertakings, namely creating a Prussian army for the 1806-1807 period. Now here's the bulk of that army, minus elites and specialists.

The Merchant Ship sets sail

Apologies for the delay, I just had no setup to make good pictures. It turns out that the flash on my old Fuji camera is actually working, I just have to pry and keep it open with my fingers.

Anyway, here it is, with removable top masts and a small crew fit to serve a merchant vessel. All the sails except one are made from cloth, the masts are bamboo kebab sticks, which is a really awesome scratchbuilding material if you find the right quality.

Colonial Power

Here's the first unit of Revell Austrians painted in SYW/GNW Russian uniform color. They look quite nice once painted. 

Also, the 30 palm trees from the venerable Asian vendor had arrived. I cut them to different heights, then placed a few of them on bases, and drybrushed then with light brown and green to look less like toys.

Native troops

Just a quick update showing the first of the Revell SYW figures painted up as somewhat dark-skinned natives in service of any colonial army. The skintone is acutally a bit brighter than is shown. I coated the bods in woodglue as the paint was suspiciously flaking off. 

In the following episodes, you shall be able to learn how I spent a ton of money on 28mm figures. Stay tuned!

Prepping for Christmas

On the Schultze-Böhnstadt blog I talked about purchasing the re-issue of the Revell SYW figures. These are now sold in combined big boxes, as "Austrian and Prussian infantry", and "Austrian dragoons and Prussian hussars". Quite the bang for the buck, even if the figures themselves leave a lot to be desired. This is almost two hundred infantry and thirty-odd cavalry for about £35. 

I did not want to wait until I'd find them under the tree, so I started cutting the figures off their sprues and trimming the flash, of which there is a lot. I do already wonder how this project will turn out in the long run.

A Quest for Ships

This is the Revell 1/75 Nina. The hull is cut at the waterline to make a decent wargaming model. It could be a small coastal vessel with 5-6 figures on board. I received the model at Christmas, a very old package in a rather sorry state: fortunately the kit itself is pretty good.

Hungarians

Evidently I'm down the Napoleonic black hole, with more purchases on the way and hundreds of figures already painted. This is the latest lot, a 24-man Austrian/Hungarian infantry unit, fusiliers and grenadiers mixed.

5/60th Rifles

The previous batch of Revell figures from the same set were based as single figures and will probably be used as skirmish markers in pitched battles. Instead of painting up more of them as the 95th, I went with the other obvious choice and painted up these dozen as the 5/60th.

They are placed on 30x40mm bases instead of the 40x40 of regular foot, and their ranks are also less packed. 

The rest of the redcoats are also coming: I chose to "update" the two boxes' worth of Highlanders I have. Instead of stripping them, I'm just repairing the battle damage where the paint chipped off, add some variety to their cuffs, and then black wash and highlight them over the previous coat of enamel paint. This way I can produce five units, almost eighty figures, in a short period.

Jazygian Armour

These "4D Model" Chinese T-72 kits have just arrived today. They are made from cheap plastic and very simple to assemble. Their quality reflects the price. On their box is an imprint of the "World of Tanks" online game logo with the W turned upside down, probably to mean Models, or alternatively, Morld of Tanks. A true representation of Chinese ingenuity. But the models are just good for what I wanted: with a wash and some weathering they could become more presentable. The most disappointing part is the tracks. They are too short and don't look like anything on the real ones.

The infantry is 8 Revell Vietcongs recriuted through the Balkans mercenary black market, posing as a Jazygian infantry section. I'm afraid the paint is flaking off because I forgot to clean the figures before priming. No amount of paint or varnish will prevent it. Probably a stripping and repainting is due. 

Events in Jazygia

The 2/1. Székely Border Guards regiment musters its first platoon of two squads, an NCO and support weapons. 

Meanwhile, the Kalmykian raiders have acquired a truck and tinkered with it a little, resulting in this beast.

Revell British Rifles as the 95th

These were painted up earlier as Imagi-Nation troops, but this way their use has been doubled. They can still be part of a fictional army, or fulfill their intended purpose as British riflemen. I've painted them in the all-green of the 95th regiment. These nine troops could form a side for SDS, or be placed on the field as skirmisher markers for Lasalle, and so on.

Renaissance stuff

I do not rush things this summer, looking for a job, staying home. Weather reaching some hellish degrees. Anyway, a little batch of figures I completed - first, five Turks from the Zvezda set - these were painted long ago, I just added a wash and highlights to better fit my newer works.