I got distracted yesterday – the last day of “paint what you got”. Instead of knuckling down with some final painting I legged it to Newark for Hammerhead. That’s Newark, Lincolnshire, old England.
Anyway I did finish a few more pieces although there is no “painting portrait” show as such.
Lots of figures!
Only joking – that’s a hammerhead participation game.
The reality
So “Paint what you got” has been very productive with a lot of miniatures stuck in the paint queue making it over the line.
I finally finished B & B miniatures Prussian limber. 20mm Franco Prussian war figures. Sadly the business shut its doors last year I think?
Then there are 3 wagons from Irregular Miniatures 20mm ranges – I think these were all ACW. I have a couple Hat miniatures ww1 French artillery men on them.
In the background two types of cavalry but from the same company. Strelets are a Ukrainian company who make plastic injection figures.
I quite pleased with the cavalry as they look a bit brutal in the raw plastic
In this case the figures are from their Crimean War series – British Dragoons and Russian Lancers.
I had only minor tweaks to the models before a paint job transformed them to 1848 Prussian Dragoons and Lancers
The lancers are 5th Westfalia
The dragoons are 3rd Neumark
I have a very good funcken uniform book for 19th century European armies. It covers the transition from coatees and shakoes to frock coats and casque type helmets.
*the phrase last knockings as well as knocking off at the end of the day relate to the end of something – a task, process or activity and completion.
I have had a productive “paint what you got”. This winter I opted to use the challenge to tackle a big paint queue of part painted figures as opposed to the mountains of untouched miniatures.
It means I have progressed some 1st Schleswig Holstein War figures while some oddballs have made the journey to “wargames ready”.
These cowboys are clearly the latter.
So this lot are again “many years ago” Triples Sheffield purchases long before what a cowboy/dead man’s hand appeared. The leader is a “blue moon” character as sold by Old Glory in the UK while the gang are Dixon miniatures from that great Yorkshire firm – Dixon Miniatures.
The “blue moon” leader (again) is in fact Jesse James while the bauxite gang model was in fact Frank James, his brother, that I wrongly attributed in the previous PWYG painting post.
This is Frank James erstwhile leader of the bauxite gangHe is part of blue moons “slice of Americana” range
On with the Van Stevin gang led by none other than Pieter Van Stevin himself.
Pieter Van Stevin – a no nonsense Dutchman living in Dawson Colorado the boom town coal mine near Cimmaron New Mexico in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.Blue moon markings on Jesse James
The rest of the gang are
Mexican hat – from Mexican Hat, UtahLaddyMr Brown BeardyTashI decided to give Pieter a faded Union jacket being a devout Protestant originally from Grand Rapids West Michigan by the Great LakesThe Van Stevin gang who are down south on the Santa Fe trail southern route running through Kiowa Indian lands rich with Spanish Pueblo adobe mud buildings. What’s that……..Huh the bauxite gang……
A bit about Cimarron. Cimarron sits beneath the Sangre de Cristo mountains in northern New Mexico. Its fame nowadays relates to the St James hotel whose regular visitors included Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill Cody and Jesse James amongst others.
At its height it was on the Southern leg of the Santa Fe trail to which it gave its name. Taking the Cimarron route was risky as it crossed New Mexican desert with no water holes. Still the mountain route to the north through Raton and Taos required dismantling of wagons to physically lift them up rock faces at certain points on the route. Tough choices or what!
St James Hotel The old jailPick your room – yes you can sleep in the same room used by Jesse JamesWyatt Earp gambled here – the original cast iron ceiling feature still has bullet holes in it from the odd argumentNo you can’t handle the dice – you cheetin’ @£@(*
The southern Rockies are worth a road trip. I did mine in 2024.
So AHPC16 is upon us – well the 21st December is storming towards me far too fast.
In previous years – well the last two to be exact – first year I started preparing on the 21st way too late and then last year did prepare one primed unit beforehand but held off having a plan before knowing about the themes which then derailed me with a sci fi bug.
I found I was doing stuff (deciding about theme models or simply digging out figures to clean and prime) but not actually painting colour – much before the January deadline loomed into view!
So this year I started my plan in November!
And I have primed some of the planned pieces.
And I decided to ignore the theme and just see what came along.
And lucky me this years three themed pieces have fallen nicely into place within my plan.
Declining Empire should see some planned 1848 Hungarians appear
Childhood toy memory fortunately gets the wild geese treatment from the 1700’s
And rebels hopefully will see some Covenanters appear before the various deadlines
Alas last years failed star of my show might fail to appear yet again. As its anniversary related this is a constant theme – I started my 28mm stoke field armies in 2015……still not much progress ten years on!
And now I have scenery options nudging their way into my plan.
I was hoping to get some more Fauxterre 1930 kit done.
Then there were the 1848 Hanoverians, 1848 Neapolitans, 1700 French Dragoons, 1848 Roman infantry all crying out to be on the plan – the list goes on and on.
Way too much of course for this painting snail, which having done a plan shows so well. It means the exercise has proved its worth already.
However real life is very very busy right now so I might fail on all fronts!
Fauxterre 1930 remains a work in progress, no gaming for eons and painting units seems endless. This could be because I get distracted!
In this case distraction of the aviation sort occurred at a couple of wargame shows.
The Other Partizan in 2024 fielded a luscious blue biplane. A suitably inter war affair still includes cavalry and tech like biplanes although I think this demo game was Russian Civil War era.
I was gifted an old second hand biplane and eventually it ate my brain and had to be made. And thus triggered me digging out a bricks and mortar store purchase – another biplane.
Of course these models offer little to an empty wargaming battlefield!
This has been my Fauxterre experience – lots of distractions.
Anyway first up lots of make photos
Planes creep into the production lineBiplanes are fiddly but we got thereThe Czech transfers were ancient compared to the Henschel onesAirfix Henschel was easy to build with good connections The Kovozavody model instructions looked almost as old as the aircraft!Instructions were ok fit was reasonable if a bit off in placesThe Two Plane build
And then came the painting which took a lot longer than I expected. Then the Matt varnish would not Matt. At least both transfers went on a treat.
Plane from 83 squadron of 5th Air Regiment in Brno Another letov S-16 this time from no. 63 Squadron 2nd Air Regiment in Olomouc – a crack squadron of very experienced pilots.
Did I tell you I had two S16’s……
Airfix Henschel 123Just the one plane in Spanish civil war markings for the German legion
So my Fauxterre forces have some bombers and fighters to go with a floatplane spotter. Progress of sorts!
Simply to find such a rare beast in a bricks and mortar setting made me buy it. I mean I had no interest in anything beyond my recently set limit of 1870 (up from 1735 due to discovering the wargame delights of 1848).
I bought it, I read it, I was energised! Suddenly I had this idea to start a small side project with limited objectives.
Buy from real shops – bricks and mortar
Use the book idea
Limit the forces to those in the book
Use Fauxterre
Fauxterre has become my catch all imaginations world for gaming ahistorical forces and situations. Although it is really fantasy that term implies dragons and otherworldly ideas. So Fauxterre 1930 was born – one of several realms……
In this case instead of Red v Black I would have Ochre (Vossakia v Azorians) Brown. Ok so the Vossakians look a lot like Russians and the Azorians have more the a passing resemblance to early war US troops.
Charles Grant used readily available models and figures in 1/72 and 1/87 and also used hannomags for both sides.
The theme with ahistorical imaginations gaming is you can mix it up.
Despite deciding to follow the book process I did not want the book period of late WW2. Instead I wanted prewar – biplanes, poor tank development and hardly any blitzkreig etc. ok so monoplanes and tank modernisation would figure alongside motorised units. In other words a bit of everything.
And then I created two projects after rushing to buy the figures in my local shop which I liked. Yes the plastic soldier company Russians were suitable for 1930’s use and so were the US soldiers (1942 m1 helmets though) but for some reason I had a split personality moment and opted for them to be later prewar!! While some other shop bought figures became early prewar: This was solely due to wanting some Adrian helmets in the period. Of course in TORCH 1942 you get Adrian helmets up against M1’s but that’s yet another story.
Confused? Yep the problem with making it up is being consistent with your invention……….no chance!
Back to Fauxterre 1930. I quickly got plain infantry for both sides painted then read about the PSC US support troops scale problems – this typical dip in the project track simply derailed the whole thing!
It’s just one of those things. Since then the project has acquired a lot more equipment (all in the paint queue) and other figures (all in the paint queue) and even some aircraft – yet more distraction.
Finally though, I have managed to heave some figures over the line.
Back to the Russians again, I do like the sculpts (except the flat guy who seems to be reaching between two walls…..)
Anyway first up we get some machine gunners
Then we have some mortars light and medium?
Then we get a couple of anti tank rifles
And finally a couple of 37mm anti tank guns.
In the foreground gun said squeezed sculpt is almost facing camera – ok he looks alright after all……..just real shoulder ache.
Not sure when the next completion might appear though. Either way these chaps will join the infantry who have already had some escapades
I have just discovered that Ron Kay of Irregular Miniatures has died at the age of 98. He was full time on the team until 93, casting figures for all us hobbyists. He carried on as a part time member of the team still handling the big and complex castings. “Hats off” as they say.
I did not know Ron personally but seem to remember him at the Irregular stand at wargames shows.
I can do best by sharing some of my Irregular Miniatures collection and sending my condolences to Ian Kay and the Irregular family.
Irregular have provided me with some great 20mm figures that helped me build my 1848 forces.
1848 Danish Infantry repurposed from Irregulars colonial range1848 Duchy of Parma artillery Duchy of Modena Dragoons which were Neapolitan Dragoons 1848 Rumanian infantry which were ww1 Austrians 1848 Roman Legion which were ww1 Austrians Colonial British posing as 1848 Danes1848 Garibaldeans in red and blue shirtsNeapolitans posing as 1848 French1864 Dane’s which were ww1 Austrians 1850 Dane’s which were ww1 Austrians Grand Duchy of Tuscany Infantry repurposed from the colonial range
“News from the front sir, the April breakthrough failed………………for gods sake why?…………. ……………………………………..Apparently a lot of kit just wasn’t ready sir……………………..}#%^*^<~|~\{}{]}#$$ ………..ranted General MukerZpreeeder.
Kits are not conducive to wargames painting targets………. And then I got to the bit where you source your own windows aaaaaargh. Repeat – always read all the instructions first, Repeat – always……..
Oh well, it was worth a try.
Sadly the very fine weather meant all manner of outdoor activities took hold this month.
Maybe there will be an afv August – don’t hold your breath though.
Still there is always John and Zauberwurfs mighty works to appreciate.
I just missed the end of AHPC15 with some 1848 era artillery.
Rather than park them like last year I decided to get these Properly finished.
Three types of artillery on showI have added to my Danish artillery Irregular miniatures bell shako British do good service as Dane’s of the 1840’sGuns were different to the Russian 1850’s version.Full complement with earlier model to fore.These are 1848 Duchy of ParmaSame manufacturer as the Dane’s Same guns as the Dane’s B and B Miniatures provided these chaps posing as 1848 Schleswig Holstein rebels. They are actually 1870 Prussians One 4 pounder horse gun and one 6 pounder field gun both rifled breechloaders But it’s hard work getting pickelhaubes for the 1840’s and the figures come with the guns – waste not want not. At three feet I can live with the difference.
Jumping on the back of John at just needs varnish and Zauberwurfs duel over some mechanised models I determined to follow up my AHPC15 logistics Lorries.
Well it seems experimentation is the order of the day. Instead of just painting some vehicles in plain military colours I seem to have drifted into a look at contrast colours, and it’s a right mess. I had no plan – just paint a lighter base colour and let the contrasts do the rest.
A case of too dark base coat for the contrast- this model had a dark green undercoat first.
Not the best outcome since I undercoated in grey or white then the Vallejo olive green seems to be quite translucent. End result is the shading is just highlighting my poor main colour work.
This contrast looks promising even if my lazy base coat work is a disasterThe nuln oil looks well oily while skeleton horde would be ok on the right base colour! Black undercoat was fine though…..
An AHPC15 entry again and this time it was in pursuit of one of my pet projects. Fauxterre 1930 is a catch all for my 20th century escapades. I started with ww2 but have inexorably been drawn to an earlier time period. Basically I want the look of armies from the 1930’s. So thats most of the kit available in 1939 but also kit that went out of service after 1930 as countries mobilised for impending conflicts.
My recent lorry posting covered the origins of this project.
In this “later” between the wars period 2pdr guns were fine as were 37mm Anti tank guns – the bofors version being the subject of this entry.
You get 2 guns in the first to fight box As you see these are actually bofors as corrected by John @ just needs varnish! Thanks John!
First to Fight make a lot of kit I can find a use for and these anti tank guns caught my eye. They are slender and making them is not as easy as the few parts you get suggests. Complete with figures – I particularly liked the prone gun aimer?
Fauxterre 1930 remains a slow burn project not least because it started out as a “bricks and mortar” project – buy things from real shops by walking into them.
In this case these AT guns came from Monkbar Models in York, North Yorkshire.
The Wargaming Erratic 