June 28, 2020
The workbench week opened with the completion of the last 6 figures of my sixth French line infantry regiment/the grenadier figures. With those done I painted five unmanned French cannons which will be used in my star forts. At that point I thought my “figure” painting for this project was done, but I realized that I had two British sappers I had forgotten to paint so I got them out and completed them… that was Monday, June 22. With those done, my attention returned to terrain.
Next on the workbench was the basing of 25 small spruce trees by Grand Central Gems. My approach to basing individual trees is to cover a metal washer (for weight and stability) with Milliput and then set the tree in the Milliput. I then cover the Milliput with Scenic Effects Burnt Grass.
With the trees based I turned my attention to resin stone walls and barricades. The stone walls presented a problem in that they lacked support on either side of the wall and so were likely to fall over when put on my carpeted table. To address this, I added small Milliput shrubs to each side of each wall to make them sturdier. With that done, I sprayed them flat black and dry brushed them. I also based and painted some resin barrels.
The week ended with the painting of the first of my Flames of War vineyards. I’ve had them for years waiting to do this project. They come pre-painted, but their original paint didn’t fit with the look of the rest of the collection (too flashy) so a new paint job was needed. I’ve shown a couple versions of the original just for comparison. By the end of the week I completed four boxes of the Flames of War vineyards… four to go before I’m done.
June 21, 2020
I began by painting the last of my on-foot dragoon regiment. The fighting element of that regiment was done, but three mounted figures (the officer, trumpeter, and standard bearer) plus the last of the horseholders remained to be finished. There are now complete. With those done, I decided that I had enough room to store another French line regiment for my Peninsular War collection, and I had the figures to do it so that became my focus for the week. In addition to that I painted a few casualties… mostly modifications of resin copies of Old Glory 15s I had purchased at a hobby flea market decades ago. The castings aren’t very good, but with some new heads and paint they look okay. Also, if I didn’t use them now, they weren’t ever going to be used since this is the last work I will be doing on pre-20th century 15s… all the 15/18mm projects I have left to do are more modern. By the end the week the casualties and all but six of the French line regiment figures were done
June 14, 2020
The workbench week was extremely productive. I completed the last of the figures for my fifth French line regiment and moved on to my dismounted French dragoons. As I said last week, the AB dismounted dragoons are on the large side of 18mm even compared with their infantry, but with the bases removed that shortened them by about 1/16” and that helped a lot. The head and hands of AB are not bigger than Blue Moon; in fact, they are often smaller. Anyway, I got all of the dragoons in fighting positions completed, and three of the four dragoon horseholders and the horses they are holding done as well. That leaves me with one dragoon horseholder and three mounted dragoons (officer, standard bearer and trumpeter) for next week. From where I sit right now, that is the last of the figures for my Napoleonic Peninsular War collection. When they are done I will return to doing terrain for that collection: a river, a bridge, vineyards, some barrels, tree basing and lots of stone walls. Should be done in early July.
June 7, 2020
I still have a few more weeks of work to put in before my 15/18mm Napoleonic Peninsular War collection will be done… I really just came to the realization of how close the end was this week.
I began my workbench week painting a French mobile forge and crew. I followed that with the painting of four French ambulances… three of the two-wheel versions and one of the four-wheel versions. I also painted a French medical/surgical unit. The two-wheel ambulances are by Essex and the four-wheeler is by Blue Moon as is the forge and the medical/surgical unit. With those done I turned my attention to a pack of Blue Moon Cantinieres.
My big workbench disappointment this week was the recognition that my AB dismounted French dragoons were on the very large end of 18mm and not compatible with the other figures on the table. They are beautiful figures, but just too oversized to work with this project. This is one of those instances that illustrate something that I have known for years… stated scale is only a ballpark estimate of size. I used AB figures throughout this collection, often basing them side-by-side with Blue Moon and Old Glory 15s and had no significant compatibility issues. But in this case the figures were just bigger than others I have been using. With that I decided to do a fifth French line regiment which will probably bring me to the end of my figure paint for this project since I will be using figures from my previous French collection for French generals and staff officers.
With only about half of the fifth French line infantry regiment remaining to complete, my plan for next week’s workbench will be more focused on terrain than figures though I may try making the foot dragoons more compatible by cutting off their bases to reduce the height… we’ll see how that goes.
