Tuesday 16 December 2014

Retreat 1812 - Duchy of Warsaw figures

Finally this weekend I was able to send Curt the first entries for his painting challenge. Since I didn't have time to paint anything else during the first week of the challenge my first entries were my contribution to the "cold" bonus round:

A band of Duchy of Warsaw soldiers for Napoleon's retreat from Moscow
The miniatures:
The miniatures are from Murawski Miniatures. This small company run by Roger Murrow publishes a nice range of 28mm Napoleonics for Polish troops especially for 1812 - 1814. Above all he has some excellent figures in campaign and full dress but likewise two sets of ragged soldiers for the retreat 1812 theme. The seven miniatures I’m presenting here are from one of these sets.
The miniatures are sculpted by extraordinarily gifted Paul Hicks and by themselves a feast for the eye. The details are crisp and clear, the casting quality is extremely good and each and every of the figures is full of character. To cut the long story short: It was pure joy to paint those fellows.

In case that you like the figures have a look at Roger's (Murawski's) homepage. He's offering free shipping until 31st December.
The colours:
As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the boys. Because of the chaotic background of the retreat I didn’t want to paint them too uniformily and so decided to use different shades of brown and grey for the overcoats. But nevertheless the band should contain an idea of cohesion. Therefore I tried to give all of them special items in dark green. Most of them wear scarves or gloves where I seized this colour. Only exception is the grenadier which unfortunately doesn’t wear anything else than the tabard which I painted brownish.

Most of the figures didn’t have gloves because they’re operating their muskets. Anyway for some of them I painted half-fingered gloves because I found it plausible that they might have protected themselves this way.

Basing:
Actually I used nothing too special. The usual mix of sand, filler, (white) paint, static grass and PVA glue. As snow I use “Korundsand” (engl. May be: corundum sand). It’s a fine-grained and pure white abrasive which dental technician use for sandblasting. It has some sparkling grain in it and keeps its colour very good. Besides it’s extremely durable so actually perfect for the hard missions on the wargaming tables.
I hope you like my humble work.
Although Curt didn't actualise the standings yet those chaps should have earned me 35 points in addition to 50 point for fulfilling the bonus round. A good start which pushes me slightly above my expectations.
My goal for this week is to get as far with the figures for the next bonus theme as possible. This time it's "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" and I'm painting a couple of Normans / Early Crusaders for it. Deadline is 28th December but I'm pretty confident to have them finished before Christmas.

15 comments:

  1. Definitely one of the highlights of the first week, Stefan, both for the Cold Theme but in general as well. Your bases r great too... puts my "Citadel" snow flock to shame. Great stuff :-)

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  2. Great looking figures and well executed

    Ian

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  3. I loved these Stefan and great job on the folds in the material.

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  4. Well done, great looking troops!

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  5. Great painting on these Stefan, really like that you've kept the skin colors so bleak, adds to the freezing feeling. Love the work on the basing as well!

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  6. Very nice, Monty. I like the pale look of their complexion - they look tired, hungry and cold!

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  7. Wow these are lovely figures and nicely painted to bring out the best in them

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  8. Nice ones! They really have that cold feel to them.

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  9. Many thanks for your kind comments. As I said it was great fun to paint those chaps.
    Awesome work by Paul Hicks indeed !

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  10. Great painting and basing work on those awesome figures !
    good luck in the Challenge !

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  11. Stefan - these are brilliant. You can really feel the cold!

    Best wishes

    Giles

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  12. Great work on these figures Stefan! Really nice range!

    Greetings
    Peter

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