More or less on a whim I went and bought some HE Artillery just to see what they were like.
I bought three - the Traditional Charles XII Gun, Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun which you can see here. The Charles XII Gun has the barrel cast in one piece with the carriage and although the detail is a little heavy in places is not too bad. The imaginatively named Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun are very fine. Detail on the carriages is very simple - for example whatever metal work there is i have simply painted on myself. Nonetheless all the pieces are very slim and fine. The barrel of the Heavy Gun in particular is really delightful. All three guns repay careful clean-up as there is some evidence of mould wear especially around the axles and on the muzzle of the Charles XII Gun. this is nothing you can't clean up with a jewellers' file, though.
By comparison, the SSM Field Gun recast from the original plastic weapon is a much more clumsy affair, nonetheless, quite a satisfying little model. I was very pleased how the gun tubes came up over a green base-coat. Once again, the detail on the carriage was scanty and I ended up just painting it on.
While I was feeling whimsical, I bought a load of HE sample infantry on the basis of a couple of blog posts from
Mr Preece and
Mr Schwartz. These are Swedish Infantry on the march and as you can see, they have a lovely dioramic quality. I am put in mind of vertain scenes that have been put together by talented flats painters like
Mr Christian Rogge. Warning, this site contains images of pures wargamers' porn.
What to do with them, though? I have been tempted with my new copy of Anton Hoffman plates on the Bavarian Army of "The Blue King", I must say.
I bought three - the Traditional Charles XII Gun, Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun which you can see here. The Charles XII Gun has the barrel cast in one piece with the carriage and although the detail is a little heavy in places is not too bad. The imaginatively named Light Artillery Gun and Heavy Artillery Gun are very fine. Detail on the carriages is very simple - for example whatever metal work there is i have simply painted on myself. Nonetheless all the pieces are very slim and fine. The barrel of the Heavy Gun in particular is really delightful. All three guns repay careful clean-up as there is some evidence of mould wear especially around the axles and on the muzzle of the Charles XII Gun. this is nothing you can't clean up with a jewellers' file, though.
By comparison, the SSM Field Gun recast from the original plastic weapon is a much more clumsy affair, nonetheless, quite a satisfying little model. I was very pleased how the gun tubes came up over a green base-coat. Once again, the detail on the carriage was scanty and I ended up just painting it on.
While I was feeling whimsical, I bought a load of HE sample infantry on the basis of a couple of blog posts from Mr Preece and Mr Schwartz. These are Swedish Infantry on the march and as you can see, they have a lovely dioramic quality. I am put in mind of vertain scenes that have been put together by talented flats painters like Mr Christian Rogge. Warning, this site contains images of pures wargamers' porn.
What to do with them, though? I have been tempted with my new copy of Anton Hoffman plates on the Bavarian Army of "The Blue King", I must say.
4 comments:
All very nice, Greg. Thank you for sharing, sir.
-- Jeff
Hello there Greg,
Good to see that the second round of fatherhood does not have you totally out of the game! ;-) The more I work with these HE figures and equipment, the more of them I want in my collection. I wasn't too impressed with the Charles XII gun when first I saw it in its unpainted state, but, as you note, cleaning it up and painting it improved things immeasurably. Do let us know how things progress with that pile of HE infantry. You are sorely tempting me with them!
Best Regards,
Stokes
If the now 'historically accurate' medium-dark blue alloted to (SYW) Bavarians looks too drab / gloomy for your taste (as it looks for me), build a 'Blauvarian' army with infantry in the sky blue that was for long the interpretation of Kornblume blue...
Gentlemen,
I am thinking of Bavaria and Saxony circa 1700 to 1720 done with HE figures - including pikes - in smallish units of about 30 figures.
A brighter blue for the Bavarians? And why not. Red for the Saxons at this time as well; hence the original post title..! I will have to sculpt fur onto the grenadier caps for the Bavarians to keep them happy, but that's a small price to pay.
Stokes - I'm not completely out of the game. Not yet. I am intending to keep a couple of projects on a slow simmer over the next couple of years, just to keep my hand in!
All the best,
Greg
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