Figures Identified

Rich at DPC was kind enough to identify some of my mystery Ebay figures for me. The below photo shows some white-primed figures, and I'm listing their identifications:

1) S2-001 - French Officer Adv (There is a sword to put in his hand)
2) S2-101 - French Mounted General
3) S1-102 - English Mounted Aide
4) S7-006 Hanoverian Musketeer avancing

On #4, you can't see the pompom on his tricorn from this angle. If you have the same figure without the pompom, it's S1-008- English Hatman advancing.

So I have 2 French officers, 4 French generals, 2 English aides, and 11 Hanoverian musketeers. And also 2 additional Prussian officers with spontoon, which I was already familiar with of course. If someone is in desperate need of one or more of these items, let me know and we'll talk purchase or trade. Otherwise, it's on to figuring out how to properly integrate them into the army.

In Progress Photo

A couple of you had requested pictures of my latest project. If you'll click on over to the Landgraviate of Ober-Schweinsberg blog, I've posted 3 views of my first test figure with the SSM plastic grenadier.

http://ober-schweinsberg.blogspot.com/

Tiny Progress

There is now a single Spencer Smith plastic grenadier with a coat of white gesso base, and a yellow coat and vague resemblance of the bag of his cap in the same color. Also, a brown musket.

Now, I realize this is painting him totally out of keeping with general consensus of working from the skin out, but I wanted to see how the yellow would cover, as it's a different yellow than the one that failed so badly on the Lintzer cuffs and lapels. This one's Delta Ceramcoat, and it did very well on this initial test.

Given the rough nature of the Spencer Smith casts, one has to kind of guess at where some things should go, so I suspect I may continue painting out of order, touching things up until it looks right to me. Next up is probably the black facings and black of the bearskin and boots. I'm still debating trouser color.

Oh yes, it occurs to me I've not identified which unit, for which Jean-Louis will surely be agitated. Much as I hate to give such venerable figures to the enemy, I have decided to use the Spencer Smith grenadiers for the Gebuhren Eber Grenadiers of the Bad Nachtschwein League. Since my Hesse-Engelburg grenadiers are not in bearskins, they wouldn't really be useful there, so I gave them to the BNL so they can get onto the table against my H-E troops in time. Rest assured, dear reader, that the venerable Spencer Smiths are not unrepresented on the Hesse-Engelburg side, since the painted regiment of marching musketeers photographed a few months ago are going to be the Hesse-Engelburg marines. Which means, yes, that the current rumors of war may result in Spencer Smith vs Spencer Smith upon my table at some point.

Bad Nachtschwein Threatened

Rumor out of the Landgraviate of Ober-Schweinsberg suggests that the squadron of Hesse-Engelburg ships last seen off the Shetlands has appeared suddenly on the river approaches near Bad Nachtschwein, and begun landing troops to threaten the capital of the Bad Nachtschwein League and its surrounding towns. It would appear the spring campaign season is opening....

New Arrivals!

A long delayed package has arrived at my home, thanks to the generosity of a fellow wargamer who was thinning his collection. The same gentleman from whom I bought the earlier Spencer Smiths has turned up a large batch of unpainted ones. Photos to follow, of the SSMs as well as the Minot and RSM figures also included in the lot. As usual, click on a photo for a larger view.

First up, we have a batch of Spencer Smith grenadiers, complete with a pair of drummers and a mounted officer. I actually need 1-3 more of these to finish off this battalion properly.


Next, we have a "cavalry squadron" formed of a mixture of 1 Mounted Officer, 5 Dragoons, and 8 Charging Aide-de-Camp figures. There are a half dozen total mounted officers, one of whom will be joining my existing Musketeers probably, and the last few are undetermined.


Next up, we have a batch from Barry Minot's AWI range in plastic, a mixed handful of figures comprising 3 light infantry, 2 Highlanders, and 2 regulars.


Also from Barry Minot's AWI range is a group of 16 British Grenadiers, who will hopefully find some useful service to perform.


And lastly, we have yet another group of RSM95 figures. I'm guessing these are the firing versions of the Austrian Grenadier, but can anyone confirm?

A thought on origins

I've been pondering on an origination for Hesse-Engelburg, and have some ideas to run past people for suggestion.

I'm thinking perhaps it was once owned by one of the minor Hessian lines, but at some prior point that line rebelled against the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Blauerwolf family, then perhaps a Knight or at most a Baron, were granted recognition as Furst of the territory for their support in the fight to overcome the Hessian rebel.

It's a loose framework, and I may change it significantly, but some folks with a more detailed knowledge of earlier European history could perhaps suggest whether this is reasonable, and what time period might work for there to be such a conflict?

Actual Painting!

Amazingly enough, I actually did a minor bit of painting this weekend, and the universe failed to explode.

Saturday, I spent a few minutes priming one of the two buildings of the JR Miniatures 15mm #1663 Worker's Quarters set, one of Frank's Minden Miniatures Prussians (directly behind the painted building), and one Revell WW2 British Infantry all with white artist's gesso (front right).

The first RSM95s I primed, which you can see in the background, I slapped this on a bit too thick on some, making them more blobbish. So I went a little thinner on it this time, and used the brush to keep excess from pooling.

Sunday, I put a first coat of paint on the Revell figure and did a trial of a pink coat on one of the old RSMs (slightly left of center). But the main focus was painting the building, which you can see in the middle of the photo, next to the unprimed second building from the same set. I still need to do a little more on it, but I was surprised at how well it came out with simply an undercoat and three colors of paint. I need to touch up a few spots of missing paint and add a few more details, but it's quite usable even in this state, which amazed me.

(click for larger photo)


All of them were primed with Liquitex white acrylic gesso. The pink uniform is Delta Ceramcoat Painted Desert. The WW2 Tommy is wearing Delta Ceramcoat Autumn Brown. Paints used on the building were Vallejo Basalt Gray for the walls, Delta Ceramcoat Autumn Brown for the door, and Delta Ceramcoat Golden Brown for the thatched roof.

The box in which they rest was originally put together for my trials of the Plasti-Dip spray rubber as a primer. I've abandoned the Plasti-Dip for the gesso, but the box serves as a very nice portable paint booth, as it were, since I have no permanent space for them right now. It's hoped that as we finish re-arranging the basement, there will be an available work surface as well as an available gaming surface.