The 2nd Regiment of the Nassau contingent sent to Spain was lead by Oberst August Freiherr von Kruse. I do not think Marcus Hinton sculpted a suitable figure for the Nassau Officers on horseback, so I was fortunate enough to have an acceptable recast figure of General Cooke below. I needed a long tailed horse, so he is mounted on a similarly dodgy recast French horse, but I have been unable to locate the exact code. It had a greatcoat, or bedroll, in front of the saddle and a portmanteau behind, both of which needed to be removed for Von Kruse.
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| Here is an example of General Cooke from the Hinton Hunter site |
After attacking the figure with nippers and an exacto knife and adding some green stuff he is ready for priming and painting.
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| A new front of the shabraque was added to disguise where the old bedroll had been, and the portmanteau removed. |
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| Removing the command sash and cleaning up the turnbacks of the jacket was challenging. The turnbacks will have to rely primarily on paint to distinguish them. |
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| All of the aigulets and lace as well as the upper folds of the open jacket collar have been removed and then a single row of buttons up the middle added. |
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| Epaulets were added to replace the aigulets |
So this is an oddity and a bit of a non-sequitur, but I had the distinct misfortune of allowing myself to be lured into attending a wargamers garage sale and came home with about 7-8 free waterline 1/700 scale battleships. I used to love building the battleships as a kid, so for the sake of nostalgia, have started in on the Scharnhorst. I did also score a nice selection of Napoleonic uniform Osprey guides and one of Cassin-Scott and Philip Haythornthwaite's uniform guides that I did not even know existed! I also got a Memoir 44 boardgame I thought I might try. I remember seeing it at a convention and thought it looked interesting.
Hopefully next time I post it will be to share the completed Nassau 2nd regiment with command!
He looks splendid, I think you and I have very different definitions of "acceptable" and "dodgy" - those castings look as good as anything I've got. How do you do those buttons, it's something I've never managed to crack? Are his epaulettes really meant to be that big? I olny ask because I don't know what Kruse's uniform was like.
ReplyDeleteDKM Scharnhorst, has to be (IMO) the most beautiful heavy unit from any WW2 navy. You really ought to get into Fletcher-Pratt's (or Fred T Jane's?) rules for big ships like this, but you will need a hall to play it in. I'll maybe do a post or two on my 1:1200 Unternehmen Rheinübung campaign using Fletcher-Pratt (not sure I've got many photos).
Rob, the buttons were made with nothing more than a sharp Exacto knife, but I opted not to try and show the buttons themselves, but just a horizontal line for the button hole. Do you have a reference for Von Kruse's uniform specifically? I am just extrapolating based on the Ocana book's illustration. The size of the epaulets is largely a result of the sculptors skill, or lack thereof, but honestly I did intend to leave them oversize, as the only distinction between a captain's epaulets and a Colonels is the type of material used. Since I can't show that well with paint, I opted to leave the bullion epaulets of a Colonel somewhat over-sized.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty excited about just building a ship model or two and the Scharnhorst seemed like a great one to start with. Don't know if I will ever game with them, but I have three each of the German and British battleships, which could be a fun match.
No, nothing on Kruse uniform-wise, that was why I asked if you had. There are some Nassauers a long way down the painting queue and Kruse might be just the guy to lead 'em.
DeleteHauptmann Thielmann is also an option. I'm going to mount him with Oberst Kruse I think.
DeleteNice conversion work David, he will look great when painted up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. Hope to have him done soon!
DeleteVery nice work with the conversion David, looking forward to seeing him painted!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian. He is already primed and waiting on the first coat of acrylic.
DeleteSplendid David…
ReplyDeleteNice work with the Green Stuff…
And Battleships… what’s not to like…
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly. I've gotten more comfortable with Green Stuff, but when I see what others can do with it, I am deeply aware of my rudimentary skill level!
DeleteCooke is one of those figures who seems to be crying out for conversion, and you've done an absolutely cracking job here. As for buttons, I started using something called a diamond poger for this a few years ago. I did a post about it here: https://thehintonspieler.blogspot.com/2018/02/von-lutzow-at-last.html
ReplyDeleteA diamond poger, now that is dedication to the craft! Cooke really is easily convertible. I was very glad to have this one lying about crying out to be used!
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