War of the Spanish Succession - 30mm Flats

I've hit a bit of a lull in terms of new things to post. Still painting, but nothing quite ready yet. Here's some filler, flats that I painted some 20 + years ago.  I have to say, my style then was a bit blander when it comes to colors and less proficient in shading.  Still, better eyesight and steadier hands made for more precise work so there has been a gradual tradeoff over the years.

The photo on top and the one below are figures from the WSS staff officers set from Golberg. They closed the shop several years back, not sure what has become of the molds.

Here's a set of Austrian dragoons, the editor is Siegbert Wagner.  He had a lot of WSS sets, as I recall you could get the horse in standing, walking/trotting and galloping poses. I don't recall why I opted for this static group.

I liked dealing with Wagner. Although he spoke no English, thus in that pre-internet era everything was done by means of sending letters, obtaining catalog sheets then sending international money orders.  I don't know what has become of Herr Wagner as I believe he was already a mature gentleman at that time.  I also have his set of 300 WSS uniform plates, black and white line drawings with German text.  Again, these pre-date the ease of buying the Hall CD's although they had a charm of their own.  If anyone is interested, I could post a few examples.

Here's a set Austrian infantry advancing, Kieler figures.

Not every man was in accord with the plan to assault the enemy guns.

I hope you enjoyed the old figures, although perhaps my photos didn't do justice to the castings.

Checking In

 

 

After an exceptionally long hiatus, I'm pleased to report that I'm painting again.  If there are actually any followers left, I salute your patience. 

A few examples to start out.  First, the other side of the 30 Years War reiter.  This is actually the companion figure to the other of Gustavus Adolphus getting shot out of the saddle at the Battle of Lutzen.  He is part of the Heinricshen set Der 30-jährige Krieg, produced in 1883.  These are nominally 40mm, but more precisely they are 35mm.

And a few of the Heinrichsn 45mm Ottoman infantry of 1877.  The originals were issued at about this time. 

And now just a couple years short of retirement, I've had to put some thought into what I collect and what must be trimmed.  As my wife and I will most likely be downsizing our living accomodations considerably, I think it's practical to assume that just about everything will have to go except for the flats.  So I'm painting those for now, the figures shown here with no particular project in mind but just to get the juices flowing again.  And I promise not to wait 6 months for the next post.

Schmittdiel Infantry - 45mm Flats

Here's some examples of the Schmittdiel infantry. First, grenadiers in the Bavarian style.

Austrians.

Lastly, despite the long-waisted look, I think Rossner did it better. Same scale, 45mm. 

30 Years War- Part 3: Heinrichsen 40mm Flats

Finshed a few more figures.  In the background is a long lost and somewhat crude backdrop I painted for displaying WSS flats many years ago. My wife just unearthed it last week. Not terrible but pretty arid looking for Flanders, could pass for Spain I guess. In any case, it does blend pretty well with the brown felt in the foreground.

This figure represents the Swedish general Johan Baner, the name strangely reminiscent of a certain well-tanned politician from Ohio.

The infantry look a little better in this setting.

 

Next up, working on a few Schmittdiel flats I've had in the painting queue for some time now, 45mm figures for the 1700-1750 period.

 

30 Years War - Part 2: Heinrichsen 40mm Flats

Finished a few more figures. As indicated in the preceding post, these are antique designs, first issued by Ernst Heinrichsen in 1883.  As usual, painted in acrylics.

One challenging aspect of designing/engraving flats is making the figure to appear completely convincing from both sides. Nice as these figures are, they missed the mark a bit with this pikeman, from the back side his smallish helmet riding high on his head like a steel derby.  The pike is short as well but probably done to facilitate the casting process.  I do like the classic "ready to receive cavalry" pose.

Lancers were on the way out by the early 17th Century but not just yet.

Heinrichsen Thirty Years War - Old 40mm Flats

Here's an interesting set of classic Heinrichsen 40mm flats. # 4063 - Der 30-jährige Krieg.  They're somewhat on the smallish side as 40mm go, but usefully bigger than 30mm for painting purposes.  These 33 figures were originally issued in 1883, re-issued in 1989.  There's a complimentary set Wallensteins Lager which preceded it in 1882, executed in the same style.  

The Wallenstein's Camp has some poses of armed soldiers on guard duty and so on, but the set focuses more on scenes of camp life, cooking, eating and of course drinking & carousing. The 30 Years War set contains more fighting poses, about evenly divided between horse & foot. Sadly, the great artillery piece was no longer available as the mold broke, but I have the rest of the castings, plus some badly battered originals which I got cheaply on German eBay.  Of the mounted figures, this set doesn't lack for generals, indeed there are more chiefs than Indians: Gustavus Adolphus, Bernhard von Weimar, Baner, Wallenstein, Tilly, Maximilian of Bavaria, Piccolomini, Pappenheim and the Croat leader Isolani.  All figures are numbered with an identification key.

Without further preamble, let's take a look at a couple sample castings. These represent Bernhard von Weimar and Tilly.

The death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lützen. These are original factory paint jobs.

And the Imperialist field marshal Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim.  I painted in acrylics as usual.

Lastly, a Merry Christmas to all ! 

More Flats

Glorious Empires - 54mm

Something of a mixed bag in this post, finishing up odds and ends in the painting queue. First, Fechner 30mm Renaissance cavalry.  Most of them have shown up in one post or another, but now combined.  Good engravings but not great ones.  To my eyes the lancer is the weakest of the bunch with the strange helmet and the horse's smallish hindquarters.  Nicely animated though.

The TYW musketeer is from Glorious Empires. I liked the look of these and bought of few samples from The Little Tin Soldier. These are 54mm, designs originally 30mm and scaled up.  I have no real aspirations of switching to flats in this larger scale but was curious to see if I could pull off a passable paint job, as the shading comes in for closer scrutiny than what you can get away with in 30mm.  He came out well enough I think and I somewhat regret choosing the faceless guy here for the test paint as the personality is definitely lacking.

Upcoming posts, I've finished a Peipp 45mm general which has been primer coated and ready to go for many months. Just waiting to apply the varnish.  The real exciting thing for me is a set of classic old Heinrichsen Thirty Years War set in 40mm.  These designs date to 1883 !  They arrived from Nürnberg a few days ago and I've started painting some. I really look forward to sharing these with you, masterful designs for the most part with a number of mounted generals and leaders of the TYW.

Meisterzinn - 40mm Home Casts

Readers of this blog will well recognize these familiar Nurnberger Meisterzinn figures.  I have most of the molds for the Renaissance range, although my collection is lacking a few: the sword-wielding knight,  the foot cavalier (sword or pistol), the wagon set and the nice artillery pieces. But this is most of them.  Yes, they're a pain to cast but the figures do have an appealing toy soldier look.  I also have the color pamphlet Zinnfiguren aus Meisterzinn which shows painted examples of all the castings.

Armored men. I rather wish the tournament knight had come with a detachable shield, making him more useful as an early 16th century man-at-arms, but still it's a good figure.

Classic landsknechte although the standard-bearer is more of a hybrid figure to my eyes.  According to Ross MacFarlane the trumpeter can be converted to a pikeman and I can see where that would be an excellent way to get more mileage out of this mold. 

The halbardier is more of a "tweener" who can bridge the gap between the early 16th Century and later, but the musketeer and mounted figure look like 30 Years War, hence the Matthaus Merian backdrop.  The musketeer comes with mold cavities for two heads but he's somewhat oversized relative to the others.  The rider cuts a dashing figure.  Although so far as I know of the 30 Years War, figures bearing lances are usually depicted in 3/4 armor, he appears to have some conversion possibilites. He could be easily become a standard-bearer,  or replace the lance with a musket and you could have a nice dragoon.

Lastly, although it has nothing to do with Meisterzinn, here's a quick shot of what's in the painting queue.