Has it really been 5 months?

Hello, everyone!

It's hard to believe that it has been over five months since I've posted anything here. Real life hit me really hard last November, and I've been trying very hard to catch up in the meantime. Here's the summary:

• The university that I attended decided that I wasn't the type of person they needed, so they gave me the boot only a few months before I was due to graduate.
• Because I was technically employed by the university, I lost my source of income.
• I had to move from New York back to my home state of Kentucky.
• Now the University is deciding whether or not the circumstances of my separation is grounds for me to recoup the costs of my education.

But, hope springs eternal. I was thankful to get a new job, enroll in the university in my hometown, and get back on my feet again. Even so though, I've been so busy that I haven't painted a single figure since the Russian figs you see below!

I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things, slowly but surely. Expect some more from me in the near future, and thanks for looking at my work, even through my absence.

All the best,

Chuck

P.S. I'd like to welcome NapoleonicSpain and Vojtěch to my Blog! I hope that you have enjoyed looking at my past work and will continue to enjoy the fruits of my hobby!

For the Motherland!

Hello folks! I'm back!

After a hiatus including lots of "real life" that's been getting in the way of painting, I've finally found the time and inspiration to do some more painting. Well, with the long weekend and all, that time has come.

I thought that I'd change things up a bit and do something different. Hence, I give you...

Russians!

(Click the pictures for bigger versions)

These fine fellows are from the 7th Battery Company, under the 7th Artillery Brigade of the 7th Division that fought at Borodino. They are serving a 20 pounder "unicorn," a field piece that combined the attributes of a cannon, howitzer and mortar. These pieces were very effective, and continued to serve the Russians up until the Crimean War in the 1850s.

The gun and crew are Hat plastics (see my earlier review). They were very quick to paint up, if very lacking in detail. I think I did a pretty good job of them anyways.

Well, that's all I have for now. Hopefully I can get some more done soon, but of which nationality I have no idea. Whatever urge strikes me I suppose...

All the best!

--Chuck

1/72 Napoleonic Miniatures Review

Hello everyone!

Now that school is underway, I have now had time to examine and review the 1/72 miniatures that I bought over the summer. Here are my thoughts...

Initial Impressions:

First off, not all 1/72 scale figures are equal. From the mix that I have, Italeri are the largest, followed by Revell and finally Hat, which is the shortest of the bunch and about a head higher than the metal AB figures. Does this make them unusable? No, but they will definately stick out on the table top without some devious base modification.

 Italeri French Imperial General Staff

Scaleability:

• Revell: These are the best proportioned of the three manufacturers. The torsos and limbs are allthe right thickness. Revell is also the shortest of the three manufacturers, and would be the easiest to hide amongst the regular 15mm figures.
• Italeri:  These figures are well proportioned as well, but they are the largest of the three. They are nearly a head higher than the Revell miniatures and are twice as beefy as a regular 15mm figure. Though very nice figures, they dwarf all of the others.
• Hat: These guys, height wise, are in between Revell and Italeri. However, they are very skinny, about as skinny as an AB figure, which gives them an anorexic air. These guys should fit in ok if put in units made up of other Hat figures.

Revell British Rifles

Quality:

• Revell: Lot's of mould lines, but not unmanageable. The plastic is very soft and bendy, which will probably mean that the paint will chip off of them. Hopefully spray varnish will keep the paintjobs intact.
• Italeri: Casting quality much better on these. They are cast in a stiffer plastic that is less prone to bending. These are by far the best minis right out of the box, but as mentioned earlier they are massive compared to most 15mm minis, and even other 1/72 manufacturers.
• Hat: Hat really is the middle ground. Cast quality is ok, with a few mould lines. The plastic is somewhere between Italeri's and Revell's, slightly bendy yet firm. I will say that these chaps are the poorest sculpted of the three manufacturers, but it may just be this set. These Russian gunners are all legs!

Italeri French Line/Guard Artillery

Price:

Here's the raw data:

For the 82 Italeri and Revell figures, not including guns, limbers and horses, that I purchased off of eBay, I paid less than $0.18 a figure.

For the 24 Hat Russian figures, 4 horses and 4 guns I bought from the miniature store in Gettysburg, PA, I paid $7.50 total, or approximately $0.23 per piece.

Hat Napoleonic Russian Artillery

Overall Impression:

All in all, not too bad for the price. Plastic figures are pretty economical, but the size differences between them and regular 15mm figures are pretty big. This means that more work is nescessary to make them compatible with 15mm figures within an existing army. While I will enjoy painting these guys up and using them on the tabletop, I don't believe I will be purchasing more 1/72 miniatures for my armies. All in all, this was a fun, but ultimately unsuccessful, experiment.

That's all I have for tonight. Look forward to a couple more reviews of some of my newest figures in the near future (when I get more time!).

All the best,

--Chuck

Salamanca Summer Painting Challenge Part 1

Hello everyone!

Well, today my order from Rob at Eureka USA came in with all of the minis that I need for my entries in the BRICOLE painting challenge! Yay! So, as per the competition rules, I took pictures of the figures "in the nude" so to speak:


This will be General Pakenham as part of the British Army command stand for my Battle of New Orleans project.

From left to right: MG Pakenham, dead redcoat, MAJ MacDougall (Pakenham's Senior ADC), dead redcoat, drummer, soldier, mortally wounded redcoat, and line officer.

And these chaps will make up a Russian Brigade command stand for the 1st Brigade of the 7th Division, led by Colonel Lyapunov. I've decided that the good colonel would be a man of musical inclination:

From left to right: COL Lyapunov, officer, fife player and drummer.

Hopefully I'll get some time this weekend to start work on them. Right now I'm back at school and this is a very busy week getting ready for classes to start and whatnot. I should also have a review done of the plastic miniatures that I recived this week when I got back.

One last thing, I'd like to welcome Der Feldmarscahll to the blog. May you enjoy your stay and that I make this humble blog entertaining enough to be worth staying for! :)

As always,

--Chuck

A Shout-Out to New Friends!

Hello everyone!

Not a long post (or directly related to Napoleonic wargaming, either), but I would like to welcome Rosbif and Willie Anderson to the blog! My only hope is that you enjoy what you see and that I can continue to make my humble efforts worth following!

I said I'd be brief, so that's all that I have for tonight! :)

Best wishes,

--Chuck

Salamanca Summer Painting Challenge 2012

Hello everyone!

So, I recently joined the La BRICOLE wargaming forum, a site dedicated to Napoleonic wargaming. The members there were very welcoming and I'm looking forward to sharing with them! :)

Anyways, the site is hosting a painting competition, and I've decided to enter. It will be the first painting competition that I've ever entered, so I'm pretty excited!

The theme for this competition is "vignettes," which also includes command stands. (A link to the rules HERE) While I normally don't like to do command stands until after I get units completed, I figure that doing a couple will be a nice change of pace from the rank and file.

I will have two entries: one will be a Russian battalion command stand (Colonel Dmitry Petrovich Lyapunov, 1st Brigade, 7th Division from the Borodino OOB), and the other will be an Army command stand for the British Forces at New Orleans (MG Sir Edward Pakenham). I will need to order some minis from Eureka here within the next week or two, then I will post up the required pictures in a thread over at La BRICOLE (and here, of course ;) ) This will also be a good chance to do some experimenting with bases for commanders to make them recognizeable on the table.

Well that's about it. On the buying front, I was able to get the RHA Rocket Battery, but was sniped on the Portugese. Oh well.

Have a great week!

--Chuck

New Figures and Thoughts on Artillery

Hello again!

NEW FIGURES:

After another week I have now become the proud owner of three boxes of 1/72 plastic Napoleonic miniatures for my 1/72 scale experiment. Here's what came in the lot:

British Rifles, French Guard Artillery and French Imperial Staff, all of which I can use (the Rifles to represent the 3rd Battalion of the 95th at New Orleans, the Guard Artillery for Borodino, and the Staff for command stands).  Hopefully my experiment will be successful and they won't tower over the other figures too much.

Also, I figured it was high time that more Americans were represented, so I purchased a battalion's worth of American infantry from Blue Moon Miniatures. I must say, they look really good, and I'm looking forward to painting them up as the 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment.

Other than that, it's just a few other eBay bids that I have running at the moment: a troop of RHA Congreve rocket artillery and some Portugese infantry. I hope I can score these without too much fuss (I got bid-sniped on the 1/72 plastic lot and had to snipe them back at the last minute).

THOUGHTS ON ARTILLERY:

 I have determined that instead of using one gun to represent a battery (as per the Black Powder rules that I like), for these I will use half of the number of guns actually used in a battery at the time. This means a British battery (which generally consisted of 4 cannon and two howitzers during the Napoleonic wars) will be represented by three guns on the table, an eight gun French battery will be represented by four models, and so on. I think this will look better visually. During movement, however, the entire battery will be represented by one caisson or limber, and each battery will have a battery commander mounted on a separate base. I think this arrangement will work well both visually and practically. Besides, when there is supposed to be a battery, I expect there to be more than one cannon on the table; I'm a sucker for massed guns. :)

Well, that's all I have for the night. Thanks for looking!

-Chuck