Oh eBay, thou temptress

 

Oh, the shame

I regret nothing. Nothing!

Some cutting in, a few details, maybe some back-lining, and they'll slot right in with the Littler Britons.

Prussian Pottering

 

Not much time spent at the painting Desk on the Prussians because I got distracted by another project. 

Still, I have made a little progress as you can see.

I'm aiming to finish them off over the weekend.

Wish me luck!

Back on the Tools

Or back on the Prussians at least. After a remarkably long wait, a small parcel of figures arrived in the mailbox last week, all the way from Sweden. Hurrah, I thought, my Stadden Prussians have arrived! I have myself a couple of days to psych myself up, then turned with due heroism to the task of removing flash. Done and now primed, I started painting.

The proud Fahnenjunker bears before him the Leibfahne of IR#5

For my next trick... the Regimentsfahne.

There is nothing quite like...

 

...Stadden Prussians

A small follow-up as to what's been coming off the painting desk since my "What's Next" post of a few days back.

IR #5 has had a few minor additions with a few more yet to come. Then I'll be out of stock locally and will have to make a decision on whether I should order more in if I am to continue.

My question to myself is do I want to commit to painting another 50? At my rate of painting, they would take me about two months of my hobby time.

To ask the question is to have the answer.

Arquebusiers Unchained or, What's Next?

 Well, it has been a long job, but I have finished the Arquebusiers de Grassin.

Lurking in a wood near you.

They were not a tough job, but there was a fair bit of flash on them. In retrospect, I would question using the remastered minis that are on the Tradition website. They do not seem to offer much extra value; the officer is identical to Suren's original and has all the flaws that it came with. There is a Grenadier which was nice, but it was so miserably sculpted that it was painful to paint. It would also have been nice if it could have been provided separately so you could adjust the proportion of them in your unit. There is a drummer which I have not yet had the heart to paint, but looks like a bit of a trial to assemble drum to drummer. The fusiliers have all been modified, but when that's happened, the cartridge boxes have somehow been rather 'flattened' and pushed into the miniature.

So, while I am glad I did them, I am glad I won't have to do them again!

So, now the question arises... what' next.

I have a few options. I spent some time last week painting a few sample Highlanders I have had knocking about here for months. I have a method now for tartan that works well for me; it's a bit impressionistic, but looks 'right' and I can knock out an infantryman in the course of a 45 minute painting session. I'd build the unit to the "Drums of War" organisation (4 x sub units of musketeers @ 19 figs each plus additional Grenadier and Light companies, two of each) - but it's a double-sized unit so it would be a long project. The first batch of figures are on order.

42nd Highlanders

44th Foot

Next option would be to finish off the 44th Foot. This was a hard-working regiment in the French and Indian war, being present at numerous engagements, not the least of which were the Monongahela and the siege of Fort Niagara. I started work on this unit when I finished my third French unit for the French and Indian war. I only need to paint about a dozen figures and flag the unit to put this one to bed.

Another project that tempts me is to crack on with the 46th Foot. I have some of the command in Staddens. I also found a few Grenadiers unexpectedly this morning which has dangled temptation in front of me. They are very handsome figures.

IR 5

So, who does not like a Stadden Prussian Grenadier? This chap got painted this morning. Took about an hour because they are quite demanding figures to paint as they require your very best in terms of precision. 

Lastly, I also watched on Henry Hydes' YouTube channel his restoration of the Spencer Smith "Oldenberg" Regiment and some of Charles Grants' rather super old buildings which have come to him. and now I have an itch to pull out some of my unpainted Spencer Smiths and have a go at them. 

Mr Stadden at Waterloo

 Inspired by yesterdays' Minot-fondling I rose early (Was it only 05.30? Surely not!) I combed through my small collection of vintage 30mm Napoleonic miniatures. I was seeking inspiration. I found it in the form, of a Stadden British company officer - still available from Tradition. he was in a bit of a state. Originally painted in enamels, his white trousers were patchy and scarred and his jacket was much chipped. His sword was bent and one corner of his base was turned over upon itself.

Tsk! This would ever do! I cannot think of a single officer of the British Army who would permit himself to meet the enemy in such a state! So, out with the red (albeit with a dab of brown to dull it down), the grey for new trousers, a dab of bright gold here and there and a lovely bright silver for his carefully straightened sword blade.

Ready for anything the French can throw his way.

He is now able to meet the French upon terms that would not be an embarrassment.

A Prussian Mania or Odd Doings in the Night

It had been rather a wargaming bender, with The Brigadier staying over in the guest room when the game had gone on rather too long. Many tense moments were had over Father's painstakingly created Willie tertios as we re-fought the battle of Edge Hill. 

Ye Gods, how it went. Rupert Charging! back and forth with Boye at his heels, faulconets flaming and dour roundheads taking to their heels as gay cavaliers shewed 'em what is what, what! And how the Brigadier held forth! For it was true he had written the book on the Royalists, on the army and on the jolly battle.

Sadly, though all was not well for the King and Father and I were pressing the Royalists sorely at the end of play for the day. We had a mighty fine plan for how we'd settle them on the morn.

Mother had retired early to get cracking on her knitting as I needed a new pullover for Fourth Form. However, this was not before she laid out a rather smashing spread of lamb-chops and well-boiled sprouts de Bruxelles! With bread and butter, too!

Father had retired to the kitchen to use Mother's gas ring and an old saucepan to melt some roofing lead in order to cast some figures in his plaster moulds. Every now and then there would be a terrific crack as one of them blew into shards!

Homework done, I fell into an uneasy slumber. 

I was awakened at 2 in the morning by a heavy foot on the stair. "Wha..?" I muttered groggily, a Blue Peter badge adhering to my forehead. I wasn't quite used to the Brigadiers diet of cigars and VAT 69 Whiskey yet and so could be forgiven a touch of fogginess.

"Who?" A portly figure passed my door. It paused for a moment as though the not-very stealthy somnambulist were pausing to asses my wakefulness. Then the footfalls moved on in the direction of the war-gaming room. I slumbered on in a haze of Whiskey fumes.

 The next morning saw myself and Father green-gilled over bacon and eggs. The Brigadier ate heartily, accepting seconds from Mother before we all trooped off to the Wargaming Room.

The situation on the green baize of the table top had been revised from my recollection and, although Father and I battled valiantly, there was little that could be done to retrieve the situation. Oh how we eyed the inscrutable Brigadier. Oh, how bland was his returned gaze.

The Brigadier slipped me a sixpence and I handed over the first company of the Erbprinz regiment plus a few samples. "Well done my boy! Do that all yourself? Bully for you!" He tossed back a port for the road, leapt nimbly into his MGB and erupted down the lane toward Dover town with a terrific roar of laughter and a showered spatter of gravel.

Discoveries in the Lead Mountain

 

We had gotten to the part of the afternoon where the cigars and VAT 69 Whiskey had come out. 

The Brigadier and I were rummaging through the lead pile here in a remote department of the Duchy when - "Aha!" quoth he. "I remember these little fellows!"

He triumphantly waved aloft a small packet. We peeled off the browned and unadhesive tape, and carefully brushed aside the decayed remnants of some foam peanuts to reveal the undercoated figures.

Fortunately I was familiar with the Stadden back catalogue and I knew them for the Frenchmen they were. 

"Ha! These will paint up a treat, dear boy!" He pressed them into my hands. "Santoigne Regiment, American Revolution. There's a jolly good picture in young Mollo's Blandflord."

"What ho!" he cried. "Have those done by Christmas and I'll have a shiny sixpence for you my boy!". With a hearty slap to my shoulder he poured himself a port for the road and vaulted into his MG. As the gravel spurted from under his tires, I reflected that I had not - yet - completed the first Company of the Erbprinz Regiment.

That article

My first Tommy. Still a work in progress as he needs a few highlights here and there, some violently dark green on his base and a good coat of gloss varnish. Still, I am jolly pleased with him. One of Stadden's fnest. 

Charles Stadden

Whilst waiting on certain figures to arrive, I often find myself doodling, as it were, with the paintbrush. Like most other hobbyists, I have a large pile of unpainted lead, sometimes certain items within are - er - years old.

So it was with these Stadden  French Napoleonic figures. Some were from an eBay purchase of a mixed lot, others were from a hare-brained scheme to do the first regiment of Grenadiers of the Guard as a Charge! style unit.

This is starting to look like a series of posts on the classics of wargame figure design of the past sixty years or so.