Conversion day

The last two days I had varnshied or quickshaded some figures so I didn't have too much to paint and so I seized some older plans of figures I wanted to convert. Here are my humble results:

1.) Major Baring, take 1:

I've been deeply impressed by the defense of La Haye Sainte during the battle of Waterloo ever since I soaked myself into the happenings there. Especially those heroic men of the 2nd Light Battalion KGL impressed me. So one part of my Waterloo army had to be Major Baring and his brave companions. 

What has been inspiring me most is Adolph Northens well known pictures of him:

Major Baring in detail:

Therefore my goal was to create a conversion paying him homage.

I went for Perry Miniatures set of British / KGL mounted light infanry officers and wanted to a simple head swap and some adjustments with green stuff. Eagerly I started yesterday and after I finished the conversion I realized that I chose the wrong miniature. Having taking the officer with the pelisse and the dress of the 95th / 60th rifles I was completely on the wrong track.

So I chopped off the bicorne hat again and gave him a simple bare head:

Actually I didn't want this guy but I'm rather happy with him. He looks somehow daring and so he'll command a detachment of 60th Rifles one day. Or 95th... Actually I didn't plan to paint this regiment but he resembles a well known officer from this regiment I think:

 2.) Major Baring. take 2:

Anyway for Major Baring I had to make a second try. Correct figure chosen, beheaded, details of the busby cord removed, jacket resculpted, mustache added... Here we go:

Never ever would I call me a good or talented sculptor but I like the way Baring turned out very much. To be honest it worked much better than I feared when I took green stuff and sculpting tools. As you see I chose a head with a covered bicorne because I didn't have one with a plume and I thought it might be reasonable that Baring wore a cover during the battle because of the bad weather. Anyway I think he's recognizable. As you see I didn't dare to reposition his arm, but I didn't want to press my luck too much.

3.) A sleigh, a sleight, my kingdom for a sleigh!

Tactica is coming nearer and so it didn't leave me even today. During the past weeks I've been working on many retreaters and from time to time on Westfalia's excellent sleigh. Today I prepared the load for it:

Sometime this will represent a French soldier fighting for the last supplies of his company. After priming I'll a blanket and a tarpaulin over his legs and partly the barrels so the sculpting hadn't to be too good thanfully. I'll make the blankets out of soaked tissues so I want the potential gaps black in advance.

I hope to have it finished until Tactica and maybe some of you will see the sleigh there. I would be happy to welcome you at our table.

Some 60th Rifles painted

These days I'm starting to work on a couple of 2nd Light Bataillon KGL figures for a Waterloo / La Haye Sainte project some THS fellows and me are preparing. Therefor I bought a bucket full of Alan and Michael Perry's excellent figures but I felt in need of some practice with green uniforms after so many redcoats. So I dug out the four riflemen which were part of their plastic British infantry set and used them as test subjects. But since each and every collector of British Napoleonic miniatures seems to have a set of 95th Rifles I decided to depict their sister unit the 60th Regiment of Foot. Although these men didn't fight in the Waterloo campaign the earned honour some years ago during Wellington's Peninsular Campaign and during the War of 1812. Additionally they're somehow a bit special and so I liked the idea to start a unit of them with those plastic figures.

With no more ado here is the result:

My first four riflemen on a reconnaissance mission.

This photo was kind of an experiment with my SLR and the Gimp image editing software. Next time I've got to use a tripod for the camera to get a picture with more depth of focus but actually it didn't turn out too bad.

Anyway back to the riflemen. As usual I used Vallejo Model Colours for painting them but this time I primed the figures black instead of white. The Vallejo colours are excellently pigmented and look really good to me on the dark primer. At least for this kind of uniform I'll stay with black. I'm a bit double-minded for redcoats...

Here are two close-up views of the boys which turned out a bit sharper:

Those men shall represent some guys of the 5th battalion. To be honest for no special reason except that I remembered it from Bernhard Cromwell's Sharpe novels. Some day I'll complete this unit with "Sweet William" Frederickson... However once again C. E. Franklin's uniform guide was my primary source for the uniform details.

Because I read that during the Peninsular Campaign different trousers and overalls were worn I painted two of the with the usual rifle green trousers, one with the later grey one and one with a pair of brown overalls. I wanted to have the a bit look campaign hardened and not completely equipped in mind condition.

I hope you like those figures. Actually I do so I'll proceed with some KGL men with similar colours but some other details of course.

By the way this evening I read Curd's appeal to his 4th yearly painting contest. Unfortunately all places are assigned already so again I'll be unable to join this illustrious round of painters. It's dangerous to be unobservant for a weekend... Whatever I wish all entrants good luck, good results and a lot of fun!