Sunday, November 8, 2009

Why aren't there new posts?

Where's the juice? Show me the meat!
Well, I recently lost my job—end of September—and vouched not to paint (much lest post) until I find work. As they say, finding a job is a full time job. And painting figures is a full time job and a half. I had to give up one to get the other to get the one back.

That said, I had been working on the following (before all this) and hope to post images s00n—

  • Zvezda Cossacks
  • Zvezda French Imperial Guard
  • Zvezda Russian Grenadiers (these are sweet!)
  • HaT Swedish Infantry (boring army/uniforms but if you're going to do Leipzig...)
  • HaT French Fusiliers (as Saxons—not a fan of white uniforms bleech!)
  • Waterloo 1815 Polish Line Infantry
  • Revell Prussian Infantry (Naps, not Seven Years War though I am spying that era...)
  • ESCI WW2 British Airborne (Up the Ox and Bucks!)
  • Emhar WW1 US and Germans (just a small handful)
  • Revell French Knights (Hundred Years War, these are in the pipeline, I've done a few and not quite pleased with the color yet. These may be a while.)
cheers!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Operation Iraqi Freedom


Okay, this is a shameless nod to one of my followers.

This quick diorama is somewhat a labor of love or should I say 'a labor of tribute.' I tend to be absorbed in past conflicts and fascinated with European armies often ignoring the work and sacrifices of our own military.

So this is for the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (and specifically those artillerymen in the 4th Division!)


56th Striker Brigade arrives.


I love google images and wikipedia.




With my love of European armies, I had to add one figure of our allies.
A 'Desert Rat' patrols outside Basra.

Monday, April 6, 2009

More Leipzig Images





Some bird's eye and a worm's eye view the battle. On the last pic (from the French Artillery's POV) you can see left to right, Zvezda Russian Artillery, ESCI Russians, HaT Austrian and Prussian Artillery, HaT Austrians. There is a handful of Italeri Prussians. These are mere placeholders until the new HaT Prussians are available. The French Infantry is Italeri, the artillery HaT.
More to follow.

Leipzig Light

For those of you who frequent HäT's forum you're probably tired of my incessant and innane Napoleonic questions. Mainly regarding Leipzig.

That's because I'm clueless about Naps and fascinated with this battle because: it liberated most of Europe (Germany) from Napoleon's rule, saw many of his German allies switch side, brought about Napoleon's downfall (like D-Day for Hitler) and was the largest battle in Europe till my favorite conflict, the First World War. And yet, I've never heard of this battle till a few month's ago.

So I was looking around Airfix's site and saw this image of their release of Waterloo.
If this undersized farm and sprinkling of figures could represent a battle of 300,000+ soldiers of several nations, then I could do the same for Leipzig!

Here's a WIP photo showing dispositions of troops, etc.
The board is 2" x 3" homosite from HomeDepot. I'm already wishing it were at least 4" x 4" If it were larger, I could add a scartchbuilt St. Thomas Cathedral and a diminuative version of the town hall. Also, there's just not enough space east of Leipzig for Bernadotte's army. After all HäT makes Swedish cavalry and are coming out with Swedish artillery. But more importantly, where would I put the British Rocket Troops!!?

Nap fans, please comment. But before you get to hung up, think of Paris snowglobe---you know, how an Eiffel tower, arc de'triomph and the louvre resepent the entire city. So 48 Austrians represent two army groups! More pics to follow soon.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

HaT Penisular British









Images of HaT's new Peninsular British. These are really nice figures. The body motion, poses are nice. Also for painters, the sculptinig in sharp and buttons, straps etc. are raised enough to take paint easily and not disappear under the layers (especially with the Delta Creamcoat acrylic paint I use.) I hope all of HaT's new offerings -- Prussians and new Seven Years War line—are of this quality. Lots of marching poses (not shown), firing and advancing. Wargamers should be pleased with the selection of poses. Highly recommended set.

Revell Colonial Militia








I nice set, would have preferred more uniformed Continentals. Of the three advancing Continentals, the man with the gun across his chest is a paint conversion of Revell's British Redcoats. This small diorama was to be augmented with Italeri's Continetals but the figures towered a scale foot taller. Hoping to pick up some Airfix Washington's Army someday to round this out.

The 'Pine Tree' flag, the British Red Ensign with a tree in place of the Union Jack was believed to have been flown at Bunker Hill.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Prussians and Russians





A look at the Italeri (ESCI) Russian firing line. I still have the advancing troops to paint. The green seems a touch on the olive side, I think I'll go more ivy on them using this shade as a highlight. I never painted Prussians before, compared to other Nap fashion show, they seem plain, like ACW union troops. Comments, corrections welcome.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

HäT Napoleonic Austrian Infantry and Artillery

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More work in progress pics of the ongoing Leipzig diorama. This is my first time painting Austrians so I hope I got all the straps, pompoms, pouches right. I realized I forgot the gold braiding on the pants. The blue pants means the regiment is from Hungary. Regiments from German provinces in Austria wore white pants. (Thanks Mr. Mannix!)

Please feel free to comments.

WIP: Italeri French Line Infantry & HäT Artillery


Been a little quiet, but been busy painting away. The next couple of posts are work in progress images of a small 'Battle of Leipzig' diorama. The first here a some French figures. These were a real joy to paint---only after I finished two dozen did I realize they were considerably larger than HäT's French Foot Artillery.

No wonder they were nice to paint---everything was bigger.




I like these figures a lot, again, it's a shame---as with all Italeri stuff---they're too large. I am particularly fond of the officer.