Armed and Unarmed Civilians

Just finished some armed and unarmed civilians, all from Minden Miniatures, 28mm. Quite nice figures, I just have some problems with the photos, the colours don't come out very well. I guess I'll have to improve my set-up, but currently have little time and space for it.

In the Old West

The Old West (or, in this context, better Wild West, German: Wilder Westen) played and to a certain extent still plays an important role in the German imagination - and one important source for this imagination were the novels of Karl May (1842 - 1912), which until around 1970 were widely read, especially by boys (according to Google Karl May is still considered one of the most widely read German authors). His most popular figures - the noble apache Chief Winnetou and the German traveler-hero Old Shatterhand, are still well known names and during the summer you can find more than one open air theatre show about them.

Of course his heroes were also re-created as flat tin figures. The forms for the figures below were created by Heinrichsen in 1906 and for copyright reasons the figures were (and still are) sold as 'Im Wilden Westen'. Unfortunately the satin varnish reflects the light a bit too much (and my photo-setup is not the greatest anyway).

Old Shatterhand and Winnetou meet

 

Ten books to read if you are interested in the Napoleonic Wars

Ten Books to read if you are interested in the Napoleonic Wars

Going a bit off topic, here is my highly subjective list of books about the Napoleonic Wars that I suggest. Ranking is not by quality, but by suggested reading sequence.

1) Napoleon's Wars by Charles Esdaile - Currently probably the best summary; from the British point of view. As you can guess from the title not very sympathetic of Napoleon.

2) The Art of Warfare in the Age of Napoleon by Gunther E. Rothenberg - a good overview, although a rather dry read.

3) Napoleon: Eine Biographie by Johannes Willms - well written and up to date; from the German point of view. I am not sure if an English translation exists.

4) With Musket, Cannon and Sword: Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies by Brent Nosworthy. A difficult read, but provides a very good review of the tactics used during the Napoleonic Wars.

5) The Campaigns of Napoleon by David Chandler. Still the best overview of military part of the Napoleonic Wars.

6) Swords Around A Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armee by John R. Elting. Very detailed and well written description of the organization, dress, way of life... of Napoleon's troops.

7) Russia Against Napoleon: The Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814 by Dominic Lieven. Very good description of Russia's contribution to Napoleon's downfall. Also shows how troop organization and organizational adaptation made it possible for the Russian army to lead a campaign all the way to Paris.

8) The Peninsular War by Charles Esdaile - Up-to date and comprehensive description of the war in Spain and Portugal. More objective than 'Napoleon's Wars.

9) Napoleon's Last Campaign in Germany - 1813 by F. Loraine Petre. Pure nostalgia - I have this book for a long time and have always been interested in the 1813 war. Replace with any other book of Petre depending on your area of interest.

10) 1812: The Great Retreat by Paul Britten Austin. This book consists of eyewitness reports, tied together by short explanations - very well written, very readable. Not the best book about the war of 1812 (in my opinion that would be Moscow 1812 by Adam Zamoyski), but the best description of the suffering during this retreat. One day I'll read the author's first two volumes of the 1812 war.


What I am missing:
- The books on the list are between neutral and anti-Napoleon. It would be interesting to read a book of the quality of those written by Esdaile and Willms with a pro-French view.
- A book that concentrates on the role that the economic and financial conditions played during the Napoleonic Wars.
- A good and affordable Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. I do have new version of the 'West Point Atlas for The Wars of Napoleon', which is helpful, but overall underwhelming.
- A book that provides an overview about the diplomatic (including clandestine) activities.
- A book that analyzes the question under which (if any) conditions Britain would have been willing to make a long-term peace with a France that dominates the continent.

I left out uniform books and eyewitness reports (with the exception of the 'edited' ones that make up 1812: the Great Retreat) - in either of this categories there is no outstanding volume that makes my 'top ten'.

Prussian Musketeers 1806 - Review Part 2 - Finished Figures

So, I finally had the opportunities to make some pictures of the finished figures. As already mentioned (see January post) the poses are realistic and it is possible to put a nice battalion together, although unfortunately there still has been no progress regarding the other promised figures in this line.  Not shown is the back of the figures - it is nicely detailed and includes some extras (axe, canteen, or tent pegs), which is realistic.

I still have to work on my painting style, especially the painting of the belts needs to be improved - I'm more used to painting flats.

The package also contains two flag bearers with poles, but due to the way I glued the flagpoles to the figures they won't stand on their own and are therefore not included. The 'wounded grenadier' group was supposedly a crowdfunding-special, so you may not be able to get it.

Retreat from Moscow - Finished Figures

Finally managed to finish the 'Retreat from Moscow' flats (they are varnished matte):

1812 Retreat from Moscow - finished some figures

Not a good month, neither for painting (too much other stuff to do) nor for blogging - internet was down for most of the month. Hopefully the issue is resolved now (we changed internet provider). nevertheless, I got a few figures finished.

During engraving and painting obviously some artistic licenses have been taken - I doubt that on the retreat from Moscow you would see shakoes with full ornaments or clean trousers and coats. On the other hand, painting everything caked with mud and stained with soot would be boring to paint and to look at, so I decided to keep some colour and cleanliness.

Prussian Musketeers 1806 - Review Part 1

The basics: 28 mm size, produced by the Forgotten & Glorious Company of Art, 'Musketeers in Attack March' with Command Group. The poses are realistic. Some of the equipment and body parts are sculpted a bit out of scale, but the men look very realistic and have a lot of detail. Uniform accuracy is good, and they are depicted in (pretty neat) campaign dress - I guess they'd be looking a lot scruffier after a few weeks of war. Suitable for the period of 1806-07 - and with a bit of leniency for other nations of the 'early' Napoleonic wars (Spanish, earlier Prussians). I found the poses relatively challenging to paint, so they are probably not suitable for beginners.

What I like: Lifelike poses, good details, good variety (different poses for the soldiers, complete command set (sapper, drummer, NCO, officer, 2 different colour bearers)
What I don't like: Bayonets are quite fragile (all of them were bent in the package - according to the company this will be fixed in the future); relatively limited scope for now (there are only Grenadiers in March Attack and a mounted officer available in the range - the mounted officer is quite a nice sculpt as well).

Additional comment: These sets were part of a crowd funding campaign (disclaimer: I contributed), and on the list for future editions are Fusiliers, Schuetzen for Musketeers, Grenadiers, and Fusiliers, Jaeger, Hussars, and Artillery, but it seems to take them a lot of time to get these editions ready, so I don't expect the complete list to be finished before mid-2015, if that.

Alternatives: There are a few older editions of 28mm 1806 Prussians - for example Elite Miniatures has a quite complete line, but I don't know anything about their quality. AB miniatures has 18mm 1806 Prussians which look great on pictures, and HAT has a nearly complete range of 1806 Prussians in 1:72 - plastic figures. I painted some of the HAT range (you can add the Italery cuirassiers and convert some officers, then you have complete coverage) and quite liked them, but of course 28mm metal looks more impressive.

About Paints

Sometimes I think I spent more money on paints then on figures – okay, not true, but I experimented a lot. This here is a brief summary of my experience, and it refers to painting flats (I'm relatively new to painting 28 mm and 1/72 three dimensional figures).

1. Oil colours - the classic way. Oil colours dry slowly, and are therefore ideal for some blending and adjustment of paint on the figure. The tubes last a long time, and can be used even after a few years in the drawer. Opacity varies depending on the paint, which makes it difficult to paint over darker colours (let's say you want to put yellow laces on a brown jacket – your best bet is probably to paint the laces with titanium white first, and then paint them yellow). Also, painting with oil requires time and patience – if you want to add another coat to achieve a better coverage, you'll have to wait for about a day.
2. Acrylics in tubes – opacity is similar to oil colours. These paints are drying very fast, which makes blending on the figure difficult. If you use a brush with a fine point, the paint has a tendency to dry on the point.
3. Model colours (I do have some Vallejo, Andrea, and Foundry) – they cover well and dry fast. Again, blending on the figure is difficult and the paint tends to dry on fine points of the brushes (I never had much look with drying retarders). I like to use them with three-dimensional figures, where washing and highlighting is more effective than blending on the figure. The colour tends to separate if not in use for a long time, and mixing it again can be difficult. Foundry offers paints in different shades (they are sold in packs of three - basic, shade, and light), which works well for some colours, but not for others. A wet palette works well with Vallejo and Andrea paints. Foundry comes in small pots (the lids tend to break off and they are a bit difficult to open, but re-mixing the colour is relatively easy), while Vallejo and Andrea are sold in small plastic bottles.
4. Slow drying Acrylics (the brand I use is Golden Open), for me the ideal paint – like oil colours it allows shading on the figure, and it is in tubes and last long. On the other hand it dries fast enough to allow me to finish a coat, a trouser... during the 1 hour or so that I paint during the evening. For under painting or the first cover I often use Golden Fluid – dries very fast and is usually in the same shade as Golden Open, so I can add another layer of paint pretty much right away (often necessary when painting over darker colour).

My 'preferred' ranking is: oil colours (assuming I have the time, which I don't, at least not right now) – Golden Open (I mainly use this now, at least for flats) – Model colours – regular Acrylics. this list is just a personal preference, good results can be achieved with all these paints. I sometimes mix-and-match, using model colours (usually Vallejo and Foundry) and Golden Open on the same figure. However, I do not mix colours of different manufacturers, and make sure that the Golden Open paints has been drying for a day or so before painting over it with model colour. You can paint oil colours over acrylics, but don't paint acrylics over oil colour (at least that's what all the literature said – I never tried it out).

Oh, and I'm just remembering, Enamel paints – I used these long ago, and seem to last well. However, I did not do any 'serious' projects with them, so I don't know how well they are suited for shading... May be I should try them out one day.

For priming I currently use Vallejo primer, either white or light grey. It is very thin flowing and does not cover any of the details – in fact sometimes a second coat is required. I used a white Plaka (Plaka is a Kasein [milk] based craft paint very common in Germany) – water mix before, works as well, but I like the results with Vallejo primer better.

Current Project

I just started painting a few French Soldier, retreating from Moscow in 1812 (for a friendly painting competition at http://bricole.46.forumer.com/index.php). They are part of a huge series, edited between 1932 and 1936 by Werner Scholtz in Berlin (you can still get them from the Berliner Zinnfiguren). There are many multi-pose figures in this series, which means that some cleaning up is required.

The figures:

Cleaned up, primed, and ready to go:

I choose my blog's name because I consider most flats and 28 mm to be 'toys'. Flats really 'started' as toys for children, then taste shifted, and they became 'toys' for grown-ups (although of course children are still fascinated by them). Sometimes I admire flats for their charm, sometimes for the skill and knowledge that went into creating them, often for both, and I also enjoy to paint something which has been made from a form created more than a hundred years ago. In some cases there is more, though, and these pieces of skill become art (at least for me). The 'Retreat from Moscow' is one of them - not only is the series huge and depicts the brutality as well as the heroism of this long march well, due to its time of creation it also reflects upon the slaughter of the first World War and foreshadows the horror yet to come in the second World War.

New Year's Resolution

So, starting to implement one of my New Year's resolutions - not sure where it will get me, but anyway...  The plan is to document my progress (and hopefully there will be some progress - that is another one of those resolutions) painting 'toy' figures, as well as some thoughts, history, and techniques related to this hobby. I assume that my main emphasis will be painting 30 mm flats and 28 mm 'solid' (three dimensional) figures, but this may change - and there are actually some 18mm figures on my workbench.

'Flats' have a long history and are mainly produced in Germany. They are often called 'Zinnfiguren' (tin figures), although they are actually made from a tin-lead alloy, to which often small amounts of antimony have been added (each producer has its own, often 'secret' mix).

Heinrichsen Flats, from the set 'horse pasture' (this set is a slightly larger size, classified as 40mm), recent figures, but the forms are from around 1850: