The Butterfly of Distraction Lands in Nashville!

 I have been warned the the Butterfly of Distraction was loose, but little did I know it had made it's way to Tennessee.  Our local convention, Nashcon, is a couple of weeks away, so perhaps I can be forgiven.  As part of the festivities, I have agreed for some unknown reason to play in a L'Art de la Guerre tournament.  I have been furiously re-organizing my DBA armies to fit the new format, and found to my surprise, that I only needed to pull out enough commanders to make a couple of General's stands for a late Feudal English period army.

The Garde de Paris continues to progress, but for some reason I felt the need to paint some Hinchliffe 20mm artillery first.  The Paris Garde has been waiting patiently for the return of my attention.

I also got it in my head that I wanted to pull out my copy of Melee from The Fantasy Trip series.  One can not have a fantasy melee without some skellies, so I finally finished up the last three of those that had been moldering in a corner.

Not period correct for an army led by Edward the III, but beggars cant be choosers.

Two British 6 pounders courtesy of Aly, all nicely spruced up and ready for action.  The 6" French Howitzer was still new in the package, which was a joy to build.  It came with enough spare axel hub caps to replace the missing ones on the British 6 pdrs.

I've been working on thinning the paint for a smother painted surface and have been very pleased with the results!

Not a lot of progress since my last post, but little by little they are getting there.

Melee!

I needed some more good guys to fight the aforementioned skeletons, so what better than some Fountain Guards of Gondor!

These are 40mm pre-painted hero clix kind of figures which I rebased for Melee

40mm skeletons from a discontinued epic Greek fantasy line.

This guy must have connected with that old rusty sword!

Then Aston Villa came to Nashville to play a friendly.  Nashville acquitted themselves well in 2-2 draw.  Had to go see that!

This is actually a shot from the previous game, but is pretty standard for any game I attend.  I even sneak a mayonnaise pack into the stadium for my hotdog.  Can't believe they only provide mustard, ketchup and relish...

We always chill in the stands and let the crowd disperse.  It's a fun way for Cindy to attract the attention of the players.  :)

Oh Yeah, and we also went to Lake Tahoe for vacation!

Alright, back to the painting desk!

Le Garde de Paris - A lesson in Planning Ahead - Or Lack Thereof....

Ooops!

My rendition of the Paris Municipal Guard, which served in the Iberian Peninsula has been a rather humbling one.  I typically prime my figure and then undercoat with a thinned brown wash to accentuate detail and naturally deepen the color of recessed areas.  This is all well and good for typical French or British uniforms, and my intention was to paint these in the early war green coats with red facings, but in the end I decided to go with the later war white uniforms.  So now I am painting white over brown, which is a pain, as I like to use thinned paint.

Here they are ready for painting.  Many thanks to Nigel who provided the Hinton Hunt Fusiliers making up the rank and file! 

Old Guard Grenadiers will serve as the elite companies, as both Grenadiers and Voltigeurs wore the bearskin!

I played around with trying a one coat vs a two-coat application of the white, but in the end went with a  one coat application that will need to be augmented in raised areas.

Here is the battalion in progress with a Grenadier NCO accompanying the eagle bearer as well as a drummer and a Lieutenant from the Grenadier company leading the command section.

I've also been playing around with some Grenadiers for a combined regimental Grenadiers force of a light infantry regiment.  Here is an unusual uniform but one that is quite plausible, as many grenadier companies did use the colpack, and in this case have replaced their trousers with local Spanish cloth.

Here is a French 6 inch howitzer by Hinchliffe from their 20mm equipment line, that I was lucky enough to procure.  It is destined to serve in a horse artillery battery.

Road Trip!

Cindy and I were lucky enough to hit the road last week and go to the Ozarks for a few days.  It was a lovely break in the routine!

Up on the balcony of the Crescent hotel after enjoying a simple pizza dinner.

The pizza was meh, but the view was stunning!

Spillway creek from Leatherwood Lake.  We saw a whole family of river otters here!  You can barely make out a Great Blue Heron in the distance.

This was a wacky find.  Just beyond the damn is an old Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stone quarry.  Someone had taken the time to make a meditation spiral with the loose stones!

The path above the damn.  The damn itself was a beautiful affair made from quarried stone.

A lovely dinner on the back porch of our B&B with deer grazing below us.

Elkhorn Tavern at the Pea Ridge National Battlefield.  I knew nothing about this battle and we just stumbled upon the battlefield.  The park is huge and was the sight of a large civil war battle that by and large decided the contest west of the Mississippi for the Union.  The tavern served as a hospital for both sides.  The current building is a reproduction, as the original was burned by the confederate army.

Cindy enjoyed the impromptu tour of the battlefield, and honestly, the park had some of the most beautiful vistas we were to see during the whole trip!

OK, Enough Distractions - Back to Painting!

Hotdogging in Spain: The Frankfurt Battalion of the German Division

Oberstleutenant Fritsch takes command of the Frankfurt Battalion in 1811 while on duty in the Iberian Peninsula.  Along the way they drill to reinforce their company organization along French lines.  This is the last battalion of the German Division painted by Dick Tennant.  I will be adding the Guard de Paris Battalion which was initially brigaded with the Frankfurters, as well as a Battalion from Hesse-Darmstadt.  Once those are complete the German division will be finished!

Oberstleutenant Fritsch doesn't have his nameplate yet, but it's coming soon.  He is a modern Franznap figure, whereas the rank and file are all Hinton Hunt figures.

As usual with Dick Tennant's brushwork, just a little touchup and some shading and highlighting was all that was required to bring them into top notch shape.

Showing off their nimble formation changes given their smaller 24 figure battalion.

Squares never look quite right with the smaller battalions, but it gets the point across.

Here they have wisely decided to return to Germany...

Oberstleutenant Fritsch

All of the silver bullion sets off the deep blue and red of his uniform quite well.

Addressing the troops.

Up next: The Guard de Paris in their 1811 white uniforms faced green.

You'll have to trust me that the facing color is Green.  I stole this image from the interwebs and they look awfully blue!

Oberstleutenant Henning and Carl von Lassolaye and Co. - Baden Command

 

The two battalions of the Baden contingent, as well as the artillerists, are finally under good command.  They have been up to no end of mischief, drinking and carousing all night in the display cabinet.  Hopefully Oberstleutenant Henning and Major Lassolaye can rein them in and curtail such rowdy behavior!

These are lovely modern sculpts of Baden Commanders from Franznap Miniatures

Franznap horses are so well sculpted.

And the uniforms so finely detailed.

Two slightly different variants of the battalion commander figure that comes with three options for the sword arm.

It's fun to have a chance to paint a finely detailed miniature from scratch.  I appreciate all the love Dick Tennant put into the rank and file of the Baden battalions, but it is really nice to be able to put my stamp on a few of the figures as well.

I never could find the name of the commander of the 2nd battalion of Baden, so I have given him the fictional name of Von Seiner, after the most effective German leader in the Squad Leader game - an old favorite of mine.

Next up on the painting desk is the battalion from Frankfurt.  This is just a single battalion that will be brigaded with two entirely new battalions for the collection; the Guard de Paris and the Regiment Gross- und Erbprinz from Hesse-Darmstadt.  

And a final Parting shot:

I lucked out and saw all of these listed for an extremely reasonable, low even, "Buy it Now" price, so I did.  It is unusual to see a collection of Hinton Hunt figures like this in the states so I jumped at the chance.  I have been working with Wellington Man to determine their provenance.  I'm pretty sure the cavalry are all Hinton Hunt originals.  The infantry and artillery may be as well, but the bases have been ground flat which makes it more difficult to tell.  Certainly they are all nice useable figures.  The big question is will I strip and repaint them, or just try and tidy up the paint that is already there.  In any event the French Old Guard just got a real boost with a big battalion of Old Guard Grenadiers, a medium sized battalion of Tirailleurs (from converted Voltigeurs), a battery of 12 pounder artillery, and the Regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard, as well as a line regiment of cavalry representing the Carabiniers in their shiny brass breastplates.  All in all a very lucky find! If you have a few Hinton Hunt Young Guard Voltigeurs FN75 lying around unloved, let me know, as I need a handful more to bring the Tirailleur battalion up to strength.