'I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes To The Hills' (And Put My Sunglasses On !)

We have all done it - bought paint/wallpaper for decorating and half way through the project you realise you have made a mistake !

 

 

Bit bright are they not ! ( if placed in the back garden they would probably attract helicopter landings !)

 

 

Think the problem is the cloth that I use on my table is a lot darker and this makes them stand out more .

 

 

The actual hills work very well, the contour levels can be swapped about or used as separate hills on their own. I will be investigating the chances of a darker paint job this weekend .

 

 

 

Take To The Hills

 

I have been wanting some proper Old School hills for sometime , you know the sort of thing - as used C.S.Grant and attempts using various foam tiles etc have been doomed to failure - just not strong enough and start crumbling at the edges . So I came across a piece of 1/2" MDF  at work and tried cutting that with my little jig-saw , the result was horrendous - it looked as if I had used one of the smaller but vicious meat eating dinosaurs to cut it to shape ! . Back to the drawing board . I happened to mention it to 'S' and he said he could cut it to shape using his band saw ( he runs S & A Scenics)  . One week later I am the proud owner of several large hills cut from 1/2" MDF  and so set off to paint them - of course the paint that I had stored in the shed had dried up !!!  Blast !. A trip to the local DIY  store was needed  and of course I had problems getting a suitable colour , finally settled on 'Grasshopper Green' and I purchased 6 small 'match pots' , the young lady at the till (yes I've reached an age when one refers to 'young ladies' !) said "we do them in large tubs" but I decided not to enlighten her on the ultimate purpose of the paint . The exact shade can be seen in the accompanying photo which seems to have got everywhere ! - just noticed a cat with traces of 'Grasshopper Green' on his tail !. Photos of the finished product will follow .....

Rebased !

Not got much done on the modelling and painting scene of late - real life has been interfering with things , however I  have got my 40mm SYW  French Regiment Du Roi rebased .

 

Looks a lot better ! more compact and business like .

 

 

I have had to photograph them in the bathroom as my table is set up for a FOW  desert game and it is not the easiest place to get a lot of figures into shot.

 

 

Pleased with the results ! , now I have to tackle my British Regiment .

 

 

I have managed to cast up another gun limber and team and some Hussars for the Allies and hope to start getting them painted this week .

 

 

 

 

 

Rebasing

When I  sat down to look at the photo I took a couple of weeks ago I thought something did not look right.

After some thought it struck me that the figures were to spaced out !, they are mounted on 30mm X 30mm bases which I happened to have lying about (think I use them for my 54mm FLW  figures) and when they are fielded in individual companies of 12 rank and file it is not as noticeable , however on mass they seem a bit spread out (incidentally when I  mentioned this to 'A' he had seen the photo and come to the same conclusion) . Having played a couple of games this problem became more evident as well , so I  have decided to rebase them . I have decided on 20mm X 30mm, these have been ordered from Warbases and being delivered very quickly I have started the task of rebasing . The figures are easily removed from the existing bases with a sharp knife and have been glued onto new ones and await painting and a coat of varnish , I will publish photos when this is done .

French 'Flying Artillery'.

 

Tired of having to manhandle their artillery piece about, the French have just received a method of propulsion - I've cast up a limber and horse team for them .

 

 

Swiftly the gun is brought into position and deployed !.

 

 

Ready to fire !. I am going to try playing a game using the 'Charge' rules by Brig. Peter Young so I have been reading them and have tracked down a rules summary/playsheet on the internet . Though similar to Grant's 'The Wargame' rules I think they will play quicker as they use larger movement distances and are generaly simpler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Plethora of Molds

 

There does not seem to be a collective name for a group of molds ! (the nearest Google got was 'Fungi'). I took advantage of the offer from Prince August of half price orders on molds last weekend to celebrate their new website and got the above selection , I normally try and buy second hand of EBay but the above never seem to come up for sale . So I am going to be busy this afternoon casting. http://www.princeaugust.ie/ gets you their new website.

A Potential Grenadier.

Been thinking about a suitable figure for the Grenadier company for Scheithers Frei Korps

 

 

Amongst my collection of molds I have the above figure , purchased as a job lot, it was not one I would necessarily have bought myself as it depicts a Swedish grenadier (I think). As I wanted to do something different for the Frei Korps I wondered if I could convert him , my info on Scheither's comes from Osprey's Frederick the Greats Allies and this has a illustration of the grenadier but not a very good view of his cap (a sure sign the artist is not confident in depicting it) , the text mentions that they may be captured French grenadier caps - so I'm going with this . I have filed the cap down a bit scored the front to look like fur and added a bag from 'green stuff' , I know the grenade throwing stance is anachronistic for this later period but now I've got him cast up I find it cute and different and its my SYWish army so I'm going with him !