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.

War of the Spanish Imaginations - 45mm Wooden Flats

No doubt some of you are familiar with Wooden Wars toy soldiers made by the very talented Thomas Foss. as seen on his blog Skull and Crown.  Lots of good reading about them, but suffice it to say they're larger scale and beautifully done Napoleonic flat toy soldiers used to introduce children to wargaming.  And no doubt bowling them over is fun for adults too.. 

When Thomas unveiled a WSS era figure as a part of 54mm commision project, and showed a "45mm" figure alongside it, he really got my attention.  Particulary since I have the 45mm Schmittdiel flat infantry in frontal poses, so possibilities for actually getting some use out of them in conjunction with the wood figures came to mind. I contacted him about it, resulting in what you see here.

Please bear in mind that these are still prototypes, and the figure on the left below is the only good one.  The other three are rejects from the laser tuning process which Thomas sent along as practice figures.  That's why they look rather blurry because indeed they are, and the laser scribed detail is rather deeper than on the good one.  But it does serve to give a small preview of how they'll look in formations.

 

 

The bayonet scabbard is also something I painted on, if it's not good that's on the painter and not the designer.

I'll delve into some of the challenges involved with scaling these down from the kid's toy soldier size in a subsequent post, and as Thomas and I work through continued development.  Besides pushing the laser process at the lower limits, another issue is this:  although they're "flat", they are also multi-part figures glued together in layers. So what works quite well visually at 54-60mm doesn't necessarily work as well at 45mm when the thickness remains the same and the ratio of height:width:thickness now altered.

More to follow. I also got reinforcements for the Toy Town soldiers, and am still working on those.

PA Cavalry Conversion: 40mm Semi-Rounds

I had hoped to show more painted results of the latest figure conversion but had a setback in the mold making stage of the process, more about which later.  For now, the story begins with Prince August cavalry.  While we're relatively spoiled for choice with the infantry, there are four main cavalry trooper figures which can be cast.  First we have good old PA11 and the identical pose in its newer, more fully rounded version:

This seems to be the hands down favorite, and we also see a very similar figure as the mainstay of everyone's Spencer Smith cavalry arm.  I like this one but he looks very Swedish to me in style and the hell-for-leather charge was probably not the norm for most armies' cavalry doctrine of the era. And of course we have the pistol wielding PA48 and the nice, but rather static dragoon PA41. 

Both these latter figures certainly have their uses, but sticking to sword-armed cavalry it comes down to Molds # 11 or Mold # 935 painted in his "Wild Geese" livery in the top photo. # 935 seems to be not nearly as popular, perhaps in part due to difficulty in casting the sword fully.  Further, there are things about the figure which are not quite right. The horse's head looks oversized, the hind quarters a bit skimpy and angular, the pistols oddly mounted forward and too low on the body instead of up near the saddle.  But I do very much like the pose, so let's see what can be done here:

As can be seen in the comparison shot, what I have done to the rider is bulk up the flattish tricorne, also give him a fuller coat and cuffs.  I beefed up the sword a bit to get a stronger cast, with the intention of filing it after casting.  The horse and tack get some attention as well: among other things, filed down the head a little, added more definition to the hind quarters, amputed the pistol holsters and replaced with green ones.

So far so good, I think.  Last weekend I made a new mold with eager anticipation of casting and painting this new figure.  The first half came out fine. Unfortunately, had a bit of a disaster where a small portion of the second mold have stuck to the first despite the use of mold separation cream. Evidently I missed a spot. And this damage fell right across part of the horse, ruining the castings.  Why not just re-do the second half, you ask ?  Good question !  And I would have done so but for the lack of sufficient RTV compound. Rather than taking the sensible course of ordering more and waiting, I tried patching the 2nd half, would up cutting extra channels in the original half as a work-around and to sum up, botched the whole thing.  So we're a week or two away from seeing this figure actually painted.

In the meantime, I've also started on the infantry command figures. The standard bearer is finished, the drummer just under way. I'll soon show these in subsequent postings.  

Transforming a Swede to a Frenchman - 40mm Semi-Rounds

 

I've often wished that Prince August could have done better of creating a French infantryman than the Battle of Rossbach mold PA58.  Of course, there is also the "French Regiments of 1750" and "Wild Geese" series of molds.  But they are very much a case of old wine in new bottles, Karoliners sold with painting guides as French troops. Of course, I painted a regiment of these years ago. 

And a Swiss battalion Courten made from GNW molds.  A little better, but still essentially Danes or Russians in disguise.

 

In any case, following up on the previous post, it was time to try something more ambitious.  My objective was two-fold. First, I wanted a more convincing French infantry figure for my 40mm armies.  Secondly, I wanted it in the always useful "march attack" pose.  Did I have the sculpting talent to make one ?   Who knows, and what were the chances of creating a tolerably good figure the first time out ? 

Hedging my bets, I decided to use a PA casting as the base figure upon which to add green stuff to build up a suitable master.  For this, I chose the advancing musketeer PA14,  the hat company counterpart to the previously featured grenadier figure. 

Again, this is one of the older, flatter Eriksson molds without precise detail.   The idea was to substantially rework the figure, but take advantage of the good proportions and aggressive advancing stance.  I cut off the weapons, amputated his arms and filed down the coat to a bare outline.  I then started to rebuild the figure with green stuff. And here and there, I used existing bits from other figures such as the musket and scabbards.

My main worry was getting the arms to appear natural, hoping to hit a happy medium between T.rex and orangutan. That and just getting the general "look" right.  And the new master.

It looked pretty good to me, but the proof would be in the casting. My 1st mold went wrong when the master must have slipped somehow, resulting in an ugly seam down the middle of the figure.  The 2nd mold worked better but once I got castings out of it, I saw that there were a few things which needed to be tidied up on the master. The 3rd mold works the best except the bayonet scabbard casting short.  But by no means a deal breaker. In any case, this flow pattern is effective and the bayonet at the extremity casts fully every time.

And more painted figures.  It would have been preferable to finish more but I was eager to share it.

How did it turn out ?  Once done with something like this, after the initial delight of creation wears off you tend to see all the flaws.  I'm looking forward to reading any and all constructive criticism but I have to say I'm pleased with the result.

Peipp WSS General - 45mm

Here's a Peipp figure which I finally got around to painting last week. He is from Peipp Miniaturen Dresden, part of the 45mm range, Prinz Eugen und seine Zeit - 1703.  This is figure # PE4: General Charles Churchill, although I didn't paint him as such.  Painted in acrylics as usual.

 

 

As I've commented on the Vauban & Shandy blog and elsewhere, I think these figures can be used with 54mm 18th Century projects, strange as that may sound when you consider the "45mm" tag.  Let's see how it looks posed with some HaT 7YW Prussians:

 

 

Not too badly mismatched. I hastily shimmed the base with a piece of 3/16" balsa, but 1/8" or a few millimeters should do it. The general himself is quite large, as are all the Peipp riders. It's the horses which are the problem for upscaling purposes, being noticeably small for their riders. But they're stocky, hence a little thickness added to the base gives the overall illusion of a larger figure.  To my eyes, the biggest mismatch in this photo is our hero's antiquated fashion sense.  But what's a few decades in the world of toy soldiers ?

Peipp Miniaturen Dresden - 45mm Toy Soldiers

Sorry for the lack of recent activity.  A couple things have happened. For one thing, I ran out of gas on the 30mm flat ancients project.  Got halfway done with the Lampert archers and could not muster the enthusiasm to finish the formation.  I will get back to them sooner or later, but once I hit the wall, that's it for a while.  Secondly, we had a death in the family, about which I'd rather not inflict the distressing details on the blog readership.  But suffice it to say I wasn't in a painting mood for a while, and it entailed spending a week in New York, away from the painting table.

However, I used the brief hiatus from the flats to finish up a couple of Peipp 18th Century figures which had been sitting in the painting queue for quite some time. For those unfamiliar with Peipp, they are a family business in Dresden Germany, offering rather stylized and charming toy soldiers in two scales, 45mm and 54mm. 

 http://www.peipp-miniaturen.de/

They do run large, the 45mm are about 50mm and the 54mm are 60mm.  To illustrate, I have posed a Peipp musketeer with 45mm flats and 54mm scale figures to give a better idea of their dimensions.

L to R: 45mm flats: Schmidttdiel, Rossner / Peipp / 54mm: Barzso, ATKM

L to R: 45mm flat - Schmidttdiel / Peipp / 54mm: Tradition

Peipp's prices are quite reasonable given the pleasing designs and bulk quantity of metal you get with your 5 euros for a foot figure.  And the selection of WSS figures in 45mm would allow for building some nice formations of troops.  Still, painting full armies would be quite a costly proposition. So I'll continue to accumulate a few more now and again, with these figures remaining an occasional and pleasant diversion.

Next up, back to the flats: 40mm Romans vs. Germans.  I got a great deal on a 45 piece set of Heinrichsen castings, beautiful figures which were originally offered in 1882. Needless to say the designs are somewhat fanciful when it comes to historical accuracy but very appealing in their own way. I look forward to sharing them with you.