10mm Napoleonic Bavarians, French (Dutch) and Russians

Here are some Bavarians, French (Dutch) and Russians which I've based for Le Feu Sacre (apart from the Pavlov Grenadiers who don't lend themselves to this sort of basing).

I am thinking of offering ready painted Napoleonic armies in 10mm. I have fallen in love with the Le Feu Sacre rules, which I find better than others I've tried for a club game, where you may only have a few hours.

This is my effort to check out Magister Militum (Bavarians and Dutch Lancers), who I might buy the figures from, as well as to try out LFS basings for 10mm - or at least my rendition of it.

Someone donated the other figures which I've painted when they were left over from their project. These figures are from Old Glory's "Magnificent Little Toy Soldier Company" range. They are very cheap when you buy them with an Old Glory army card (40% off). The infantry are fantastic, if you change your basing system to suit their strip size. That is what I've done with my War of the Spanish Succession armies. But they won't work for Le Feu Sacre, where there are some significant points to relative base sizes.

Dutch "Red" lancers of the Imperial Guard

Napoleonic Bavarian infantry

Pavlov Grenadiers

Russian artillery

Russian Cuirassier

Russian Hussars

Russian Uhlans

Russian Uhlans of the Polish Regiment

War of the Spanish Succession Irish Brigade in 10mm

I had my painters paint up the Irish Brigade for me for a Christmas present to myself. I am slowly building up forces for a Blenheim game. Not all of these regiments fought at Blenheim, but I decided to get the lot done at once anyway. I have one girl who can hand paint these flags very accurately. She has a very good eye.

War of the Spanish Succession Clare Irish Regiment in French Service

War of the Spanish Succession Dillon Irish Regiment in French Service

War of the Spanish Succession Dorrington Irish Regiment in French Service

War of the Spanish Succession Fitzgerald Irish Regiment in French Service

War of the Spanish Succession Galmoy Irish Regiment in French Service

War of the Spanish Succession Lee Irish Regiment in French Service

40mm Sash and Sabre Napoleonics

 A potential customer just asked me if I have any photos of my painted Sash and Sabre figures. I have these Napoleonics, which I've painted for some friends, but haven't posted yet because I'm hoping to buy some silfor tufts to put on these bases.

I leave the bayonets as they are so that customers can bend them straight. You want to leave them alone, as far as possible, to keep them strong.

Napoleonic British 79th Highlanders (figures from Sash and Sabre) painted by Reinforcements by Post in Bangladesh

Napoleonic British 42nd Highlanders (figures from Sash and Sabre) painted by Reinforcements by Post in Bangladesh

Napoleonic French Dutch Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard  (figures from Sash and Sabre) painted by RBP

Napoleonic French 4th Swiss Regiment  (figures from Sash and Sabre) painted by Reinforcements by Post

New Panther picture with diffuse lighting

Following suggestions from http://www.theminiaturespage.com I tried taking a picture of my tanks with diffuse lighting. The lighting in my light box comes from four 2' tube lights mounted in a square box that you generally see in an office ceiling. To make the light diffuse, I taped thin packing tissue under this box, so the light has to pass through this. I think the tanks look better. I may now be able to fool around with the image to accurately depict what the tank really looks like.

Photo frustration with my airbrushed tanks

I have been painting, airbrushing, washing, dry brushing, tweaking and teasing some WW2 German panther tanks for a few months. In life they look fantastic. I'm not just saying that because I put so much work into them. They really do look great. They have bags of contrast, dark spaces that look dirty, faded out cammo (actually you can hardly tell that they are cammo, they are so faded and "dirty"), yet the dry brushing picks up all the raised areas, especially the zimmermit anti magnetic mine paste, while leaving the dark areas still looking dark.

So what is the problem? Well, the photos I have been able to take look awful. There is no exposure setting that can really show the dark areas, while maintaining any light. There is no setting that shows the light areas properly at all. The best I can do is fade the whole thing to a light colour which totally wipes out the contrast. It looks like I've done a crappy job.

My next hope is to combine images with a HDR package like GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program). HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Computer programs, or the cameras themselves, combine several exposures to produce a range of exposure that would not normally be possible. Here are three images I took at different exposure settings. Firstly, the one the camera wanted, next -1 exposure value, lastly -2 exposure values.

This is the image my camera wanted to take. It has totally zapped the contrast.  Those areas that look a little darker in the photo are really dark, with that yellow colour dry brushed over showing up the zimmermit.

Second photo at -1 exposure value.

Third photo, at -2 exposure value compared to the first, and coming closer to the darkness for some of the dark areas (which are still darker in reality)

The tanks are from Old Glory USA.

10mm 7YW Pendraken Prussian infantry

I've finished 38 Prussian battalions. This is just a sneak peak. The units are musketeer, fusilier, and mixed grenadier regiments in a variety of poses. First battalions have a mounted officer.

28mm Old Glory Sudan Camel Corps

I bought a few bags of Old Glory, mainly Renaissance and Colonial,  figures to see what they are like. I've an interest in Sudan games, having seen an article about Peter Guilder's collection in Battle Games magazine.

I think these figures are really nice. They can add some variety to your colonial games i.e. break up all those Perry figures..

The Ride of the Valkyries in 15mm

I'm painting a huge Vietnam Commission for a customer. Here are some of the eighteen helicopters in the order. I didn't get all the decals, which were forgotten when the order was posted to me. So you will see that some helicopters are "bare". The Helicopters are from Battlefront.

The gun ship's sharks teeth were hand painted as Battlefront's transfers are hopeless.

Where there are markings on helicopters, they are for the the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion which famously supported elements of the 7th cavalry at LZ Xray. Battlefront probably decided to offer these decals due to the popularity of the film "We were soldiers" which depicted events of that battle.

Command Decision 15mm Panther tanks

I've actually painted, and repainted, these tanks a few times. I gave up on my harder and Steenbeck airbrushes (two!) and ordered an Iwata. After fooling around with the Iwata I got terrible results until I realised that the nozzle was clogged. Doh!

This present incarnation of my tank tactics has the vehicles base coated, then ink washed, and then "highlighted" in parts again with the base colour, which is desert yellow in this case. The over sprayed camouflage colours were sprayed quite faintly (except on tank A where the brown came out a bit heavy) as this is what I've seen from most period photography. This could have been as a result of wear and tear.

I've lettered the tanks to make commenting easier. Any thoughts?

Italeri Roman infantry (set number 6021)

There are many nice, and very cheap, plastics sets on the market. I've painted this set of Romans for someone in Australia

The building in the background was there so I could check the colour balance for the camera. I broke my Canon SLR camera, which will take months to get fixed, and have had to use my "holiday" camera. After a lot of experimentation I managed to get some decent pictures. At least the colours in the photograph are an accurate reflection of the colours on the figures.

28mm American War of Independence (AWI) militia

I've just finished these figures in a mixed group someone sent me. I am not sure, but I think these figures are from Perry miniatures. There are some other Perry miniatures in the figures I received, but none come close in terms of the quality of the casting. If all Perry figures were like this I'd never buy anything else.

I made the fence from 2.5mm thick 3 ply wood. I'd seen something similar at the Tripples show in Sheffield. It makes a nice prop for photos, and works with everything from 15mm to 40mm, depending on where you place it in the photo. With smaller figures I put it in the 'distance', so that the figures don't look out of scale.