20mm French WW2 infantry

I have Australians, British, Germans, Indians, (every theater), Russians and US in my 20mm collection. So far I don't have any French. That is about to change. I just painted these excellent 20mm French figures for a customer. I think they are absolutely lovely.

The figures are, according to the customer, a mix of Fantasin (Warmodelling) and Battlefield miniatures Blitz range. The better ones, he says, are from Blitz range.

Battlefield miniatures Blitz range French can be found here. There are images of their figures on the page, so you can sort out which are Blitz figures from the Fantasin.

28mm Napoleonic Sailors of the Guard

I finished basing these Napoleonic Sailors of the Guard up today. Everyone should have a unit in their collection, with their splendir blue and orange uniforms.

Britannia miniatures 20mm British Paras

I have had these lads sitting around since 2004. That is a long time to spend circling the landing zone ;-) Eventually everything bubbles up to the top of the lead mountain. These brave soldiers have finally parachuted into action. I don't know how many I have painted, but there are a lot. I probably bought a couple of brigades in Command Decision terms.

The figures are from Britannia miniatures. I love these figures and have thousands from their World War 2 range. Their web site is www.britanniainkerman.com/


I don't know what happened with this piat. For some reason part of the barrel has been painted like jacket on a Vickers HMG. Have to get to work on that!







The officer with the brolly, from the film 'A Bridge too far', is in the photo below.


I posted some pictures of British Paras in 6mm yesterday. You can find some pictures of my 54mm Paras over on my old blog here Gamer in Exile

Here are some pictures of some 15mm British Paras I finished a few weeks ago.




Thanks for looking.

Neil
http://www.reinforcementsbypost.com

6mm British Paras

These are Adler miniatures. They are mainly in helmets, apart from some officers and crew, which is a pity as the red berets look nice and break up the figures nicely.

The bases are made from formica sheets, which are used for laminating MDF furniture. They are somewhere between 0.8 and 1mm thick. That would be too diddy to handle, but my basing gunk bulks the base up just enough. At least the bases do not overwhelm the figures. I may try this stuff for my 20mm paras which are on 1" square bases (in 2s).

Perry and Elite Napoleonic Highlanders of 42nd and 79th Regiments

I have had three units of Highlanders 'on the go' for months. I have been trying various ways of painting the kilts. This is what I have finally come up with. I have not finished with basing yet as I have to order some 'tufts' of grass from Germany. The first images are of a battalion of Perry Napoleonic Highlanders.

I have one Elite miniatures Highlander casualty on this base as a point of interest.

Next up are a battalion of the 42nd Highlanders. These figures are from Elite miniatures.

I got loads of casualties with this battalion. There were four lying down, and another four-six (haven't checkd) falling. I have to wonder if Elite just give you what they have lying around!

People love Elite miniatures because they are very dynamic. The figures are marvelous considering they must have been designed fifteen or twenty years ago.

I had quite a job finding spots to fit in all the casualties.


I don't flag my Napoleonics as I don't have a permanent Wargames home. There is no gaming in Bangladesh. Here is the third battalion. The 79th Highlanders with Elite miniatures.


I now have six battalions of highlanders; two 42nd, one 74th, two 79th, and one 92nd. There are two 48s and four 40 man battalions. It may seem like a lot, but who knows when you may want to fight out a theoretical Scottish civil war at 1:10.

The stuff on the bases is crushed sea shells. The Itinerant gamer had a tutorial on basing where he mentioned 'budgie grit' as a basing ingredient. Further investigation told me that this was crushed sea shells. I went to our local beach and bought strings of shells which are sold as souvenirs. We crush them in a pestle and mortar. A courser mix is used for larger figures, a finer mix for smaller scales.

Thanks for looking.

Neil
http://www.reinforcementsbypost.com

Napoleon crossing the Alps

I must have had this mini for ten years. I think I got it at a Salute show many moons ago. I don't even know who made the figure. Napoleon is depicted as in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David.

I painted the figure some months ago and only just got around to painting the horse. I base coated the horse gray, oil painted it paynes gray, dragged off the oil paint after a time, dappled the result. I didn't like how it turned out so I dry brushed over the dappling to make the result more subtle. The images have come out a bit darker than the mini is in reality.

I am not sure what I will do with the mini now. It will have to be mounted individually. I painted this figure at my painting studio in Bangladesh "Reinforcements by Post."

Painting horses with oil paint

I have been painting some Elite and Old Glory horses using the 'oil drag' method. It is pretty simple, you base coat the horse and then block in a colour, such as yellow ochre. Then you liberally baste the beast in a darker oil paint such as burnt umber. You leave the paint on the horse for some time. Some people whip the paint off after five minutes, others leave the paint for an hour or more. When you wipe off the paint, with a cotton cloth (old t-shirt) there is a residual stain on the original paint. More paint is lifted from raised areas, creating highlights.

This time I have been painting highlights on the horses with oils. After finishing the process outlined above, I paint a light line of colour onto the high points of the horse. Then I wipe the brush clean and 'blend' the lighter colour into the surround by brushing away from the light line of paint. This gradually fades the lighter colour into the darker background. Oil paint is very forgiving. You can move it around very easily with the brush, or even wipe it off with a cloth.

I have also been using the oil paint to dapple some of my white and grey horses. I was in the UK recently and dug around in my collection. I found a beautiful Cuirassier figure where the horse for the trumpeter was dappled. I wanted to recreate this effect so I painted up a hundred or so horses in white and light grey. After preparing the horses with the oil drag method, I used black ink to give a patchy darkening to some areas of the horse. I had noticed that dapple horse have a varying colour 'under' the dappling.

The dappling I have created is quite strong. There will be a highly detailed rider in the middle of the horse. Anything around it has to be quite strong to show up. If it turns out I need to fade the dappling I can dry brush lightly over the lot in white. This may look even more interesting.

I was struck by how beautiful the horse looked in gloss. These horses are destined for my Napoleonics, so they must be matted down. But I think I will have to consider painting up another period just in gloss. I am thinking about painting the Minden range of 7YW figures.

It might be interesting to paint the whole army with oil paints. I will have to pick up some more oils when I am next in the UK.