Shiny Napoleonics… Merit Alder trees.

Greetings…

On a nice sunny afternoon last week it sat in the garden and stuck together some Merit Alders that I picked up on eBay….

I wasn’t sure whether to leave these as they came or put some paint on them… in the end I decided to paint them… I think they go better with the way I am painting the miniatures-and now the buildings.

I did attempt to glue them together using No More Nails Invisible… this only partially worked… so they are just mostly glued. I think that they will be robust enough… it’s not like I am going to throw rocks at them.

I think that the trees which are an overall dark olive green are the older ones and the more multi-coloured are… relatively speaking… the newer ones. The older ones are made of a better quality plastic and have less flash… I briefly considered trimming the flash off, but decided that life is just too short for that kind of thing.

Once the trees were all assembled I gave them a good spray of Humbrol Grass Green.

The Trunks were painted with Citadel… Dryad Bark.

The Leaves were given a light dry brush of Foundry… Phlegm Green Light 28C.

Everything was given a spray of… Citadel… Munitorum Matt Varnish.

Three of the finished trees with a mounted officer for scale…

I am very pleased with how these have come out… I will probably pick up a few more as time goes by.

In the comments in my last post, my good chum David Bickley pointed out that the building (like these trees) are not actually shiny…

This did get me pondering…and I like a bit of pondering…

I am more than happy to gloss varnish toy soldiers but it has never crossed my mind to gloss varnish terrain pieces.

Looking back through some of my old books and magazines there would appear to be no one gloss varnishing their terrain… 

I think it’s just one of these aesthetic conventions that have always been accepted… I’m sure someone somewhere has done it but it’s not for me.

Mind you I’m not really trying to be ‘realistic’ with my toys soldiers… I’m trying to do something that I like and I find the juxtaposition between the matt and the gloss very pleasing…

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best.  Aly

 

Shiny Napoleonics… My first building.

Greetings.

I have just finished my first building for this project…

It has taken me quite a while to decide what buildings to use/make for this project…

I suspect that I will include some of the ex Airfix buildings that are now made by Dapol…

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/self-assembly-oo-kits?page=2

But what I actually wanted was something with a European feel…

I have looked at and bought samples of resin, mdf, plastic and even paper… they were actually all fine and good models but the size and look of most of them just did not click for me…

And then I saw these…

https://sarissa-precision.com/products/european-timber-frame-town-set-15mm

As you can see … they are for 15mm figures.

This works well will my thoughts on the footprint of wargames buildings… 

For large scale battles I like my buildings to represent a built up area rather than individual structures so for me the smaller footprint works better… and in this case it also has a decidedly old school look about it.

So I purchased a sample to see how it looked…

https://sarissa-precision.com/products/european-timber-frame-farmhouse-15mm

I spent a lot more time painting this than I initially intended as my original idea of just painting it in flat colours looked…. Flat!

So I decided to repaint it more in keeping with usual style…

The Walls are… Citadel… Balor Brown… Which has been give a wash of… Citadel… Seraphim Sepia Wash. This was then dry brushed up with Balor Brown then Balor Brown with a touch of Foundry Boneyard 9B.

The Roof is… Citadel… Tuskor Fur… Which was washed with… Citadel… Reikland Flesh Shade. This was then dry brushed with Tuskor Fur. Some of the roof tiles were painted a lighter shade to add visual interest.

The Timber Frames are… Contrast… Gore Grunta Fur with a touch of Doombull Brown added.

The Chimney Stack is… Citadel… Tuskor Fur… Which was washed with… Contrast Darkoath Flesh and then dry brushed with Tuskor Fur.

The Windows were blacked out using… Contrast Black Templar.

The Frames are… Citadel… Corax White.

The Shutters and Door are… Citadel… Dryad Bark… with a wash of… Contrast… Cygor Brown.

Everything was given a spray of… Citadel… Munitorum Matt Varnish.

(Spellchecker has a field day with these names 😁)

A bit more effort than I expected but I am very pleased with this…

Here it is with some toys…

The base was cut from a 3mm Cake Board.

I shall definitely be ordering more of these buildings…

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...

https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

All the best   Aly.

Shiny Napoleonics… French Artillery.

 Greetings…

I have finally finished basing three French artillery pieces…

The crew have been painted for a while but I decided to repaint the guns because I wasn’t that happy with the colour of the carriages.

The crew are all Minifigs S Range and Intermediate Range, the officers and guns are from the current (1980s) Range…

Line Foot Artillery…

Line Horse Artillery… I suspect these are conversions… mainly because the heads fell off when I stripped the paint off…

Guard Foot Artillery… There are also a couple of conversions here… the gunners with the portfire and the  cannon ball… both converted from the chap with the trail spike.

A couple of dashing Horse Artillery Officers

Come and get it if you dare…

I am very pleased with these, the uniforms are relatively simple-colour wise-but they look very stylish and stand out well… I am glad that I took the time to change the colour of the gun carriages…

The Tunics are… Citadel… Kantor Blue.

The Red bits are… Citadel… Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The White Gaiters… are Citadel… Pallid Wytch Flesh.

The Belts are… Citadel… Corax White.

The Officers Gold Braid is… Citadel … Retributor Armour mixed with some Foundry Ochre Light 4C.

The Gun Barrels are… Citadel… Retributor Armour.

The Gun Carriages are… Foundry… French Gun Olive Green Shade 109A.

The bases are as always...
https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/bases/round-cornered-bases/

The paints are Wargames Foundry and Citadel...
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/paint
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Painting-Modelling

As always everything was given a wash of Aly’s Brown Liquid and highlighted with the original shade…The belts were given an extra highlight of pure white and the gun barrels were also lightly dry brushed with Retributor Armour plus some Silver.

There is more shininess to follow…

All the best   Aly