French Husssars of 1845 - 45mm Flats

Here's another set of antique Heinrichsen flats, # 6023 which was first issued in 1845.  They're from the 60mm range but as all the horse I've gotten in this size are undersized relative to the foot (which are true 60mm, I think that's good thing because they match other figures I already have.

The castings were clean but the detail was a bit understated, so care had to be taken not to put down the paint too thick.

Researching the uniform colors was fun.  I relied heavily on Lienhart & Humbert but as mostly the saddles are depicted as the sheepskins, it took some digging to find the shabraque. I eventually found an image for the 7th, so that's how I painted them.

With plenty of detail to paint, they took me several weeks to complete.

Wooden Flats - Part 1

Here's a unit I recently finished.  These wooden flats are from Russia, 45mm to the eyes.  They're for my imagi-nations war of ca. 1820: Celtican infantry, le 7eme de Ligne.

The figures start like this.  Wooden blanks without detail.  Thickness is 4mm at this scale.  Definitely a painting challenge as where to place the details is a matter of estimation.

And painted.

I did a bit of shading but not at the edges.  As the thickness means they're almost semi-round when viewed at an angle, edge shading does not work as it does on a conventional flat.  And I gave them toy soldier faces from the front.

Next up, cavalry and artillery.

Heinrichsen Flat Cavalry - 45mm

Here's a squadron of cavalry I just completed, 45mm flats. Heinrichsen set # 6017, Pruess. Reitende Artillerie 1830. The designs date to 1845. Nominally they are supposed to be 60mm. But with these old figures, the cavalry are smaller than the foot. Suits me fine because they fit my ca.1830 project perfectly.  Stylistically, as you would expect from their antique nature, they are somewhat toylike. But to my eyes all the better for it.

It's interesting that they're sold as horse artillery, but as there's a corresponding set with caisson & gun, perhaps they are meant to be outriders ? Practically speaking they work fine as any light cavalry, and the painting guide also shows them as Englische Dragoner. I painted them as Prussians, but they'll serve quite well for the bellicose army of der Grolshken Reich.

The command.

Sample troopers.

And a parting shot.

There's also another trumpeter which I did not paint.  I'm saving him for conversion to a standard bearer, although soldering will be required.  Something I have no experience with, but then how hard can it be ?  😉

Semi-Flat Landsknechts - 40mm

Finished painting the first group of  Italian Wars era landsknechts.  The castings are Russian, made by the Three Heroes company.  I bought three sets of 8 each from Soldatikov.net.  One "Swiss" one "Mercenary" with the third being Spaniards.  Prices were quite fair,  ~ 100 rubles a figure works out to $1.50 US, not bad at all for a hefty hunk of metal.  Shipping charges were also reasonable and proprietor Maxim Latsin, very fluent in English, was a pleasure to deal with.  There are also "extra" sets of 4 figures each for these groups, so 36 in all, but none of the latter were in stock.

So let's take a closer look.  Some of the the castings are a little on the rough side, you might even call them crude.

Nominally 40mm scale, they're a bit larger than true 40mm figures.  And you'll notice some size difference in the two figures below, but within the realm of normal human variation I'd say.

Stylistically they match up pretty well with Meisterzinn.  Unfortunately,  I have no direct comparison shots for you.  My sister-in-law was asking for some painted figures and I gave her my painted Meisterzinns. I feel rather like the guy in the insurance commercial who throws his wallet into New York harbor to emphasize a point about wasting money and then says to himself, "Wish I hadn't done that".  But the mold image below at least gives an idea.

How flat are they ?  Pretty darned flat.

"Sire, the enemy advance and we can't hit them !"

And a few more shots of the completed figures.  I painted a mixture of the Swiss and mercenary groups, as unless you take into account the rather high ratio of halbardiers, there's nothing particularly Swiss about any of these. 

Too bad there's no cavalry.  Three Heroes also produced some 30 Years War cavalry in a similar style, so perhaps something could be done there, although the visual gap of 100 years in military evolution would be a little jarring.  And I'm not entirely sure the figures are currently in production although it would be easy enough to find out.

To sum up, I'm pretty pleased with them.  I think anyone wanting to game the early 1500's in 40mm who has been relying primarily on casting and modifying Meisterzinn figures would find these a useful option to pad the ranks of infantry with more variety.

Minifigs - 18th Century 2

A couple more custom figures have been completed.  Here's the grenadier:

For my not-quite-French Celtican army.  The cap and bayonet are from Woody's Minifig Customs shop on Shapeways. I like the bayonet, it attaches directly to the musket as opposed to the extra clip needed for the Brick Arms bayonet.  I thought a smoldering fuse on the grenade would be a good  touch but didn't come up with anything yet when making the figure.  I can always retrofit something later.  In illustrations for the period one generally sees the musket slung diagonally across the back but it interfered with the grenade throwing arm so I compromised on that.

And the cavalry trooper:

He was actually a bit easier to make as no work is needed on the coat, due to the Lego design where the figure stands inserted in his saddle.  I did cut down the legs a bit as to my eyes one of the flaws of the Lego horsemen is they stand a bit tall in the saddle.  Lego actually makes a short leg piece, will have to try some.

And of course, the fact that the figures stand in the saddle as opposed to straddling it was an understandable design choice even if it looks goofy until you get accustomed to it.  But I wonder how it would have sold had Lego chosen to sell an optional saddle piece with legs on it which you just plug the torso into ?  The sword is also from Woody's, oddly cast with the flat of the blade perpendicular to the hilt. The blade is also huge, wound up cutting it nearly in half for the length shown here. The tricorne and blunderbuss are from BrickWarriors, the rest (including Green Stuff hair) was up to me.

I'm satisfied with both of these as prototypes for future units.  Lego also makes a stocking cap so dragoons are a possibility as well.  Also artillery, I have a gun but the carriage needs some modification.  

Minifigs - 18th Century

 Here's a few of the 18th Century "Lego" minifigs which I've done.  I put Lego in quotation marks because a true Lego Pirate range Imperial faction soldier for the period looks like this:

A tricorne, stock torso with lapels & crossbelts, add a musket or sword and call it a day.  My approach is different.  And a lot more time consuming, I must admit.  In fact, the prep work takes darned near as long as the paint job. The figures start with these materials:

To my eyes, a stock Lego minifig comes up lacking in 18th Century style.  The bulky coats and cuffs of the early 1700's are more the look that I wanted.  The cones are used to create the cuffs.  Drilled these out with a Dremel tool and bisected.  The Indiana Jones messenger pouch when cut down works quite nicely for the cartridge box.  Waist belt front and back is styrene.  From the waist down the coat is made of cardstock.

The stock Lego musket is toylike but scales out better than the more realistic BrickWarriors or BrickArms replicas. Also, the curve of the stock allows it be grasped by a minifig's inflexible hands.  Added a bayonet, cut the sword length down and re-attached to the hilt.  There you have it.

And several as completed, above and below.

Having run short of the messenger pouches, I used the downtime to create an officer.  Lego has a lot of women's hair accessories, this curly one makes a serviceable periwig. For the rank & file, I used ponytail parts combined with green stuff.

Coming soon, flats !

Going Medieval

Here's more Lego minifigs I've worked on of late.  The Middle Ages is one of the best periods for these with plenty of equipment, stock Lego minifigs and affordable Chinese clones, and of course castle sets for the builders.  

I'm still working on this and that, the longer term idea is two warring armies, one high Middle Ages and the other Renaissance.  Naturally firearms and artillery say advantage Renaissance but a wizard or two helping out the knights should balance things nicely.

Unless otherwise indicated, these are my own painted MOC's.  First up, some archers.  The initial impulse was to go with BrickWarrior longbows but the stock Lego bows (frowning figure in the green tunic) are about as good and a lot cheaper.  Spotting with a Sharpie pen for the chainmail look was tedious but worth it.

And some traditional knights at the top and below, sporting Brickwarriors arms and bascinets. I modded the horse with some barding.  Doing things like this probably doesn't endear me to Lego purists but where's the fun in just buying stock figures ?   Well, to each his own.  One nod to tradition here is the yellow skin although my preference is for "fleshies" which I use for everything else.  

Moving on to the Renaissance guys, here's a hand painted officer, reviewing the Imperial crossbowmen at the bottom. The crossbow figures are a good example of the stock minifigs, in this case the Chinese Enlighten brand.   The small buckler held by the formation leader is from BrickWarriors.

And a man at arms. He also sports BrickWarriors arms and armor. I was shooting for the look of the knights in the Triumph of Maximilian engravings.  I'm not sure adding the legs was worth the effort but he did turn out fairly well I think.

I've also completed some 18th Century figures, photographed and ready to post but saving for the next one.  And I'm cleaning up some unfinished business with the flats as well, more about that before long.