FIGZ is getting closer!

Only a few days left until FIGZ 2013!

Just a reminder: FIGZ will take place in Arnhem, the Netherlands, on the 2nd of June.
Anyone who is interested in 1/72 figures, small miniature painting and modelling should consider to visit this nice little eent - it's worth the journey.

I'm quite happy that I have managed to finish another legacy - the 1st rgt. etranger (Tour d'Auvergne), which was one of the first things I started for my pre-Bardin uniform project. It started with two painted figures and stood in my cabinet for far too long.

Shortly before the FIGZ is going to start, I'm happy with having finished almost all of my units, except from the Baden guard grenadiers. The Italian guards&velites will be abandoned - I don't feel comfortable with the old results, I think that I can do better with that subject.
And for the 33rd - still under construction. ;-)

Next thing will be the Tirailleurs du Pô - because my wife said so. Must be the nice blue uniforms. ;-)

Back on plastic!

Yee-haaa! I found it! Finally! My camera is back!
Hurray, I'm back into picture business again. Well - the light was not the best today, but after weeks and weeks I was just too eager to bring the pictures of the recent painting work online.

Since the beginning of this year, I had been working on contributions for the forthcoming competitions at FIGZ and Heiden. Unfortunately, at the moment I only think that I will manage to bring up single figures for both events. Well. Nevertheless, I can't show them here at the moment.

I could possibly have finished the group build projects also, but I was far too much fascinated by the new research results for my pre-Bardin uniform project (http://zedsnappies.blogspot.de/2011/07/project-all-varieties-of-pre-1812.html).

For that reason, it was necessary to finish as many of the old stuff as possible in order to be able to start with the new things. Again, I had to see that figures painted more then one and a half year ago, look a wee bit strange in comparizon with the newer ones...

The first are early Carabiniers of the three light infantry regiments, Kingdom of Italy in 1809:

I especially like coloured vests of these guys. Plus the green uniforms - green is in my opinion the quickest-to-paint uniform colour of this period.

Additionally, I finished my setup of soldiers for the Hanoverian French legion:

The last missing figure was the officer. I experimented a little bit with static grass again - this time, the result looks quite nice, although I have not used that silly rattle-box or other devices for creating the static electricity effect - I just grinded the grass between my fingers onto the base, then put it upside down and knocked a bit onto the backside. Done.

Back to green. The next one is the completion of something quite old. A longer time ago, I painted a fusilier for the first (provisional) Croatian regiment.

In combination with yellow, the green looks even nicer, doesn't it? These guys required a lot of carving work on the shakos because in almost all cases, I had to carve off all shako insignia.

In regard to modifications, these folks were much easier to create, because they are basically standard voltigeur figures, representing early members of the 1st and 2nd regiment of foot velites of the Kingdom of Naples:

This is an 1808 outfit - a lot less splendid and spectacular then the later guard velites uniforms with bearskin caps and loads of golden laces. Nevertheless - a pre-Bardin uniform.

But who are these chaps? Any suggestion?

Hehe. What do you think from where these folks came?

The time is around 1809 - and they're Dutch!
A grenadier and a chasseur of the lifeguard grenadier regiment. I found them when I wondered why there was no "No.1" line infantry regiment in the army of the Kingdom of Holland. The reason is simple: regiment number one were the guards.

For a long time in this project, I kept my eyes on Frances' allies, it's special troops and foreign regiments. I never took much notice on the French army itself. I just thought that at the time I'm finished with the whole project, I'll paint a single bunch of French line infantrymen and that's it. But I was wrong.
In the meantime, I have not only discovered a wide range of different uniforms within the French core army itself (especially when it's about drummers' dresses, plume and epaulette colours, etc.) - I have also discovered that with a few modifications, this set works well for light infantry as well.

This one represents the 63rd line infantry regiment. More of them are about to follow, taken into account that creating French core infantry requires the smallest amount of modifications.

We will see if I'm about to finish the 33rd in their ridiculous white and purple uniforms until FIGZ. I have finished my setup of the 1st foreign regiment (tour d'Auvergne) yesterday, but the basing still has to be done, so I have not posted them here yet. As there are around two weeks left for basing work, I'm going to bring around 30 units to the bring-and-show at FIGZ for this project only.

FIGZ is near!

Hurry up, folks! It's only a few weeks left until FIGZ 2013. On June 2nd, wargamers and miniature painters can be stared at in Arnhem. And yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.

I still have some labels left to be printed. Unfortunately, the printer doesn't work as expected. Looks as if technology is not my friend these days. Guess what I still haven't found? Right. The **** camera.
Whatever. I'm prepared. Hehe.

Almost three weeks without a single brushstrike - my hobbyplace is a building lot right now because my wife thought it's about time to renovate our complete home. Well, it's itching in my fingers to finish the 33rd French regiment, but I suspect that I will not have it ready for FIGZ - perhaps until the ISSC in Heiden. We will see.

Fact is: I have something ready for the competitions at Arnhem and *giggle* Peter - without saying too much, it will have to do with goats. ;-)

Uuh... 100 pieces...

...and still I have not found the bloody camera. Damn thing. Where the heck may it be?
Now that I have actually finished 100 figures for my pre-Bardin uniform project, I still can't show you. ***sh
This is really disgusting.

Today, I finished the last of the three 1806 Italian light infantry carabiniers and the first four real regular French infantry figures while their drummer plus 3 Croatians are shortly to be finished as well. Great feeling, especially because this means another three completed units for bringing them to FIGZ this year.
This will raise the sum of finished units up to 26, representing now more then a hundred different figures.
Well - I should finish an officer for the Hanoverians which will ad another completed unit to that list.

It just feels great. I feel really motivated at the moment. Time to check my list of goals for 2013 again:
- I still have left two Swiss regiemts (12 figures)
- officer and drummer for Baden footguards to be done
- King Josephs Spanish guard (3 figures)
- Italian light infantry (at least four fusiliers to go along with my line infantry display)


11 figures done, 21 to go. Mmh.

I found an excellent site with descriptions and pictures of French infantry: http://frederic.berjaud.free.fr/articles_en_ligne.htm
It' not only filled with pictures, but also with regimental stories, records and so on. Great work.

Well - I never payed much attention on the French army itself. Did I say I intend to paint EVERY different version of pre-Bardin uniform pattern worn? Er... This whole thing gets out of control. I just added the really differing French uniforms to my list - including the terrific but somewhat disturbing white-purple uniforms of the 33rd which I actually work on - and now the list has 326 entries.
326 figures - and Berjauds Website only scratches on top of an iceberg of more then a several hundred line and light infantry units that can be painted with the HaT line infantry set... Oh. My. God.

Considering the time it took me to paint these 100 figures, this whole mission might keep me busy for a complete decade. :-O

Happy Easter!

Can you believe it? It's Easter 2013 and we have snow outside!
I cannot remember there was any easter in my lifetime with snow, even if it's not very much snow.

In addition, my wife took away my camera and cannot remember where she has left it. Probably my baby son has stolen away the camera and put it into some secret place. As he has, for example, done with the bathroom keys some days ago. It took an hour to locate them and a strong magnet to get them out of their hiding place again - behind a commode with a 100litre aquarium on top of it.

Well. I have no photos for you today. ;-)

And that's quite a mess because I made some good progress with my pre-Bardin project recently. I finished the Naples guard velites I found on Histofig, finished Kingdom of Holland guard grenadier&jaeger, another 1809 Italian light infantry carabinier and a 1st provisional Croatian regiment grenadier. This sums up to a total of 95 finished figures for that project.

Okay - the bad news is that it leaves me with 190 figures still to be done.

I've just prepainted another three Croatians and five figures to be 'the real McCoy' - typical French line infantry. In fact, it looks like I'm quite 'in plan' when I look on the list of the things I defined as my 'painting goal' for 2013. This makes me feel quite good. I will probably also get done with those damn Russian hussars - with which I'm 'half way through' so to say. These chaps look really brilliant, but I must force myself to continue painting them every now and then because it's no real fun to paint hussars.

Hopefully, I'll make it to FIGZ in Arnhem this year. I've prepared a funny little vignette for the competitions and I also have something decorative for the multi-figure table (although it will certainly be no award-winner, but who cares?).

Prussia declares war on the French Empire!

On this very day, exactly 200 years ago, Prussia declared war on France. When you paint almost only figures from the Napoleonic period, you logically read books and articles about that time - therefore, dates like this are of more interest for you then they are for other people.

This year, 1813, marks the beginning of the so-called liberation war, the war which, after the whipeout of Napoleons grand army in Russia the winter before, would culminate in the battle of Leipzig and the road to Paris. This war, fought on the eastern side by the major allies Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against Napoleon Bonaparte and his allies, marked the end of Napoleons reign over Europe.

Well... for me, it's going a bit so-so these days. With a little luck I was able to realise a little motive which might fit for this years' competitions at FIGZ - that means: if I find the time to go there, which would certainly be nice.

The other projects are evolving slower then intended. I still have only finished half the number of hussars that I need. Maybe it's because of these ohter figures on my desk... Kingdom of Holland guards, Naples chasseurs, Croatians... there are far too many units to be painted, aren't they?

Whatever. Today, it's figure trade show at Herne. I guess I'm going over just to have a look at what's new, look for some single figures and have a chat with some good guys. So hopefully, this is going to be a great day. Enjoy!

Another one for the statistics

And not one of the worse, I'd say!
So here's another update for my pre-Bardin-uniform-project (http://zedsnappies.blogspot.de/2011/07/project-all-varieties-of-pre-1812.html). This time I chose a German subject, voluntary hunters of the grand duchy of Wurzburg, 1814.

After googling around for quite a while, I'm a bit astonished that these chaps don't seem to be painted in 1/72 very often. Which is a shame. Not only that their dark green and black uniforms with light yellow piping looks really nice, they also have black leather straps which is not seen that often for that sort of uniform.

Well - I still must create the label. Apart from that, I'm pretty glad with the result.