May 31, 2020
My full attention this week in terms of the workbench was painting my 15mm Napoleonics. I initially turned my attention to the completion of my fourth French line infantry regiment. I then turned by attention to my 13thCuirassiers. I am not sure if I will be painting any other French cavalry since I have a huge number of French cavalry for this period from my France vs. Austria collection. The 13th Cuirassier are a unique issue in that I believe they are the only Cuirassier regiment to serve in Spain. They also have the distinction of wearing brown rather than dark blue coats. Their facings are wine color. Happily, I completed them. In the next week I will be focusing on French ambulances, a French mobile forge and French staff officers. Beyond that the only French forces I am certain I will add to this project is a dismounted dragoon regiment.
The last of my HO murder pieces arrived this week, the last box of Dept. 56 Autumn trees. I also was happy to see the arrival of the Oxford mobile food trailer for popcorn sales and a box of Preiser unpainted figures. As of now that is the last of the elements of that collection… but who knows.
May 24, 2020
Still moving along on my 15mm Peninsular War collection. I finished my third French line infantry regiment and got well into my fourth. I should have no trouble completing the fourth in the coming week and will decide then if I want to do a fifth French line regiment or move on to a dismounted dragoon regime. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I’ll toss it out here again in case someone might wonder. The reason I am painting many fewer French than British is that I already have a huge 15mm French army from this same period that I painted when I did my French vs. Austrian collection. The reason for painting any more French at all is to do a few pieces that have a particular Peninsular War flavor to them.
A few more pieces came in for my HO murder collection… two more mobile food trailers from Oxford/Lima, one more pack of Preiser figures, and a pack of NOCH police. As of now I have one more mobile food trailer on order (the popcorn trailer), another set of Dept. 56 Autumn Trees, and two more packs of Preiser. When those arrive that should just about be everything… probably.
May 17, 2020
This week I completed my second French line regiment and started my third. That was the entire week at the workbench… no side projects.
The HO stuff keeps arriving. This week I got more ballplayers from Woodland Scenics, cemetery fencing from Mouse Models, 1/87 mobile food trailers, a 1954 Buick Chieftain and a 1950 Chevy ambulance from Oxford, and People at the SalesTrailer from Preiser. Getting close to the finish line.
I might add as an aside that this week I joined a few miniatures groups on Facebook. One of them is Seven Years War Wargaming. As a result a very nice gentleman by the name of Ralph Mitchard contacted me and asked if he could post some pictures from my French and Indian War collection on his website. I told him I would be honored. His website is entitled Flintlock and Tomahawk. It’s a beautiful website with lots of information on the period. If anyone is interested, the site’s address is flintlockandtomahawk.blogspot.com
May 10, 2020 (Mother’s Day)
The workbench focus this week was on the first of my French line regiments for my Napoleonic Peninsular War collection. In terms of my current workbench efforts the French will be much smaller than the British. The reason for that is that prior to this project I had no British Napoleonic forces, but I have a very large French army for the same time period that I did years ago for my France vs. Austria collection. I will be doing a few French regiments because I want to give a campaign look to their uniforms whereas in the previous collection the French had been done in very proper uniform style. This week I finished the fusilier and voltigeur companies for my first French regiment and got the grenadiers done except for their base covering.
More items arrived for my HO murder collection. Two HO scale Plasticville greenhouses arrived. The reason for two is that selection on eBay was slim for the Plasticville greenhouse. I think they are out of production and have been taken over by Bachmann, but Bachmann didn’t include the original Plasticville plants for the greenhouse interior, and I don’t like what Bachmann is offering in their place. That meant that I had to go with used Plasticville pieces which are expensive and tend to be in poor condition. Oddly, the best I found in terms of price and condition was someone who was selling a package of two for less than the rest were asking for one so I bought the two. I couldn’t resist the temptation to work on them so I began work on both the day they arrived in the mail. Woodland Scenics’ Paul’s Fresh Produce and Preiser’s unpainted baskets, fruits and vegetables came in as well. I got two of the baskets, fruits and vegetables sets because the price was right and because they can be used with a lot of different 15mm projects… including my current Napoleonic project.
May 3, 2020
The workbench week began with more time devoted to British transport wagons for my Napoleonic collection. After completing my work on the British wagons, I decided that I would put together a British limber without a gun to go with the British cannon I have that is being pushed into position by its gun crew. I was fortunate to have one unused limber remaining as well as a team and riders to go with that limber… unlike the other limber crews, these riders and horses were by Essex not Blue Moon. I purchased the Essex figures years before Blue Moon 15s came on the scene. I also found and completed another Spanish building for the town and ended my week of painting by repainting a Preiser HO scale monk.
With the above done, I was looking at turning my attention to the French element of my Napoleonic collection in Spain, but my attention took a detour when the idea of making a rectangular swimming pool for my HO scale Rockwellian murder pulled me to doing a little side project before moving on with the Napoleonics. The HO community I am creating is largely composed of buildings by Hawthorne Village and they have a very upscale look to them. Consequently, in addition to having a 50’s and 60’s look to that community, I wanted to give those houses some outside detail like swimming pools. Bachmann makes a very nice HO kidney shaped pool that I was able to buy on eBay for about $10, but when I started looking for rectangular shaped pools in HO ,the price went up dramatically. I don’t know why, but we’re talking about a rectangular pool that was 5 times the cost of the Bachmann kidney shaped pool. I decided to see if I could make my own using Evergreen plastic and Milliput. It took me the better part of a day to get it done… a lot of Milliput drying time was involved, but I think it came out pretty well.
With the pool completed I remembered that I had some AB pack mules and ammo wagons that needed to be done for my Napoleonics, so I turned my attention to painting those. And with those completed, I believe that the British and Portuguese are done.
A lot came in for the HO murder project this week: two packs of Bachmann police (hard to get), the Scene Master Police Cruisers set, the Woodland Scenics Farmers’ Market set, and from Preiser the Businessmen (my detectives) and the unpainted sales trailers and Artist sets. I also got the Thomas Kinkade Village Spring Gate Manor from Hawthorne Village and Dept. 56 trees.
Because of the Covid-19 stay-home requirement, I found myself spending time rearranging storage for my miniatures. In the process of doing that rearranging I came across a piece of Civil War terrain I did about 25 years ago and haven’t seen in years. It’s an American Civil War observation balloon that I scratch-built for my 15mm Civil War collection. The balloon bag came from a souvenir someone once bought in Paris celebrating the first ever balloon flight. Like lots of souvenirs it ended up at the swap meet where I found it and bought it. I made the passenger basket/box from Evergreen plastic. The soldiers holding the guide ropes are actually modified standard bearers. The gas wagons were originally HO scale boxes that I added Evergreen plastic to for detail and then attached to wheels and wagon tongues that I had as extras. Though I have come a long way in terms of my skills in this hobby over the last quarter century, I am still very proud of this piece of work and wanted to give it a moment in the sun.
