Der Kleine Soldat

Emhar Franco-Prussian War French Infantry

2011-11-05T22:12:00.000-07:00

For me, these are the classic French infantry—kepis, red trousers, white gaiters. They are good looking figures and paint up well. I do agree with PSR's assessment. The straps and detail are too shallow and paint hides a lot of the relief. Yet, they painted up easily and quickly.

The Zouaves are a different story. Painting one of them is enough for a lifetime. Anyone the wargames FPW or ACW and paints of battalions of Zouaves, well hats off to you guys. Two Airfix WW1 Germans are filling in as Prussians until I can get my hands on Emhar's Prussians. I'm not a fan of soldiers swinging rifles at the air.

I believe one of this blog's followers, a decent cross-state chap in Kansas City if I'm correct, is a fan of the Franco-Prussian War. Cheers if you catch this, enjoy.

ESCI / Revell British 8th Army

2011-10-18T11:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, unlike most WW2 fanatics, I've never been a fan of the North African desert battles, preferring the British/German duels around Caen. (Must be a lingering affect of my WW1 Western Front fascination.)

But after seeing a documentary on El Alamein and another on Italy's attempt to take North Africa and Germany's intervention, I decided to dust off my 8th Army figures. Now I'm eyeing Armourfast's new Crusader tank and upcoming Valentine. It never ends!

I originally bought these to paint as the Indian 14th Army in Impahl-Kohima. Oh well, I still have Matchbox and Airfix Australians to go. You may notice Revell's 'Scottish figures' from this set are missing. They will be painted as D-Day British Commandos.

HäT Napoleonic Bavarians. Finally!

2011-09-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

At long last and with apologies for the wait—a full arms treat of Bavarians.

Oh my, there's been a lot of turmoil at home interrupting this project, too many to list, but I finally based them last night.

There's figures from four HäT sets here—cavalry, artillery, infantry and their latest fusiliers.

One would expect the newest fusilier set to improve upon the previous infantry (which are actually grenadiers I believe.) But I was disappointed in the newest set. The belts, straps and cuffs were not as sharp nor well defined and a lot of the painting buttons and cuff are just guessing. That attributed for some of the delay. I did not find them a joy to paint (though I love the cornflower blue uniforms and yellow/red facings.)

On the left are two infantry painted as grenadiers (cornflower coats, red plume)

HäT Bavarian Infantry (8028) painted as jägers.

Bavarians Work in Progress

2011-04-14T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here's some pic showing the Bavarians where they are. Some are further along, some look like they've been painted with a housebrush! The jägers are finished so that is a "sneak peak!"

Zvezda French Voltigeurs

2011-03-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Oops! Okay, before you all start commenting, I noticed after I posted these that I got a smidge of red on the flugelhorn (or loop-de-loop horn or whatever its called) while repainting the plume from green to red. Yeah, that's on oops on top of an oops.

The red's bugging you now, isn't it?

Not sure if I'm a fan of the macro lens. It shows that my painting can be pretty slap-dash at times.

So this is what my 'kleine Prussische soldaten' see coming out of the woods on their right flank!

Hey, where's the Lithuanian Dragoons I painted a while back!

Painted the first figure about a year ago, finished up the rest just a up couple days ago. These are painted as Light Voltigeurs (Vaulters, heard they were intended to be ridden into battle in wagons alongside the cavalry, leaping over the sides like the famous photos of Germans hopping out of Hanomags. Napoleon was quite the visionary!

If I get around to it, I'll do up a set as Line Voltigeurs (white pants.) I think these same figures can be painted as grenadiers—white pants, red plumes and epaulets. Considering Zvezda's scale-creep, they may be better served as the taller grenadiers.

These are basically painted to the box art. A whole box of them painted up would be a stunning display. Unfortunately, the average life span isn't long to accommodate painting a box of Voltigeurs. Or at least, not at the pace I plod through them. Not only that, but it looks like I have Bavarians to get started on.

Enjoy.

ESCI U.S. Special Forces—Viet Nam

2011-03-20T21:28:00.000-07:00

The scene here is a classic firefight as a patrol moves up a road toward a firebase. The running figure and man firing the grenade launcher are probably my two favorite ESCI poses, ever. The 'Rambo' character is probably my least ESCI favorite. Ever. I'm not a fan of soldiers without headgear. Unless wounded.

A view from the other side. Here is a fig without headgear, but he's wounded.

A classic ESCI pose but this is one of the best realizations of it.

Hard to see but these figs are painted as 1st Cavalry.

A view from the chopper.

As I'm going through and painting poses in my collection that have never been painted—I'm no expert nor really interested in Viet Nam, why I even acquired these I have now idea—I realized I have a ton of ESCI! I think I bought almost everything they had except Ancients just because they were all that was new at the time. I was never a true fan like I was with Airfix but they are easy to paint and to ESCI's credit, their troops put on a good show.

The palm tree is from Pegasus and is a nice, convincing kit. The tall grass is fake fur, cut short and scrubbed with Testor Interior Green. I quit working in oils but that's the only paint that'll adhere to fake fur.

Emhar World War 1 British

2011-03-15T14:28:00.001-07:00

Poor commander's a goner poking his head up like that.

Note the HaT Australian in the tin hat. He's making his second appearance.

I made one wire holder for the barbed wire—just in front of the Australian. It was a fiddly affair attempting the pigtail curl with two pliers. One's enough!

Two shots of basically the same view. Note another HaT Australian in the center.

Some of the figures — officer with map and gunner with the Vickers were painted years ago. I hadn't upgraded them yet and hence the lack of a good view of the Vickers. I spent more time putting together the base—vowed I wouldn't spend time on the display, just the figures, but WW1 figures demand a trench and I wouldn't allow myself to do a slapdash job on the trench. Of course, I still need to make duckboards and have a few Airfix figures I want to sprinkle in for good effect.

Between this and the Falklands post, I'm spending more time on the base. I still have WW1 French and Germans to go. Looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of time making trenches!

Matchbox NATO Paratroopers

2011-02-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

Not quite the most accurate portrayal of the famous photo but considering the rarity of these figures and those remaining (the mortars are lost as are some others) I'm afraid to convert the radio man to a proper yomping pose.

The men are painted in a mix of airborne (red berets) and Royal Marines (green berets.) I believe the Union Jack in the famous photo was affixed to the antennae after news of the Argentine surrender, so it's anachronistic to have the troops still fighting, but it's makes for a good show.

These are the best figures Matchbox produced, the faces perfect, the poses very natural. British camo is hard to paint, okay, I find all camo hard to paint. It has an arcing sweep pattern that's hand to achieve over folds and webbing. There's a few ESCI NATO British troops thrown in to fill these out.

This is also my first attempt at snow. Being the cheapskate, I tried powdered laundry detergent. (Bad idea) the drywall mix (too gray) powered sugar (ate it instead) and finally, settled on baking soda. I think it would be easier to do a full on Russian front snow. I don't know. Trying to mimic the wind-swept dustings and melted snow of the Falkland was hard. You never feel like it looks right. Kind of like camo pattern. You just work it till you're tired of it. I had to scrape the base a couple times and start over.

The rocks are chuncks of pink foam insulation covered with a thin coat of drywall mud then washed in layers of diluted black paint. I'm pleased with they way they turned out, while I was making them I kept thinking "I'm hack! Pink foam and baking powder!"

Prussian Dragoons at Möckern

2011-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the Knötel print of Lithuanian dragoons charging French Marines at the near Möckern during the battle of Leipzig.

The inspiration. One day I'll kitbash a windmill. The French officer could be made from the Peninsular War British officer (if I ever obtain another.) Good luck finding figure for Yorck.

French marines are a paint conversion of HäT's Napoleonic Brunswick Lieb infantry. Too many straps, I know. Hussar style coats are a bear to paint! The Prussian Dragoons are, well, HäT's Prussian Dragoons (set #8002). Not the bicornes (set #8196.)

HäT World War 2 German Tank Riders

2011-01-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

Again, nice figures from HäT! Test shot of German tank riders. Painted early war. On a late war tank.

I expect flamers in the comments section. Cheers!

HäT World War One French Cavalry

2011-01-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

Test shots of HäT's new World War One French Cavalry. The WW1 sprues come with 5 riders and horses—officer and four mounted infantry (shown.) The horses, saddles and bedrolls are the same for all nations—British, French and Turkish. As with recent figures, these have great raised detail. Most all of the webbing, straps, ammo pouches are concise and easily identified when painting. The arms holding the lances/rifles/sword are separate, allowing a variety of positions. In this case, I chose the lances upright.

The scene is August, 1918 as French forces move forward. An Australian soldier (with helmet added) escorts German prisoners and a wounded French poilu to the rear.

One of the prisoners is the surrendering Airfix German with Stalhelm and arms at his side (taken from the tankers in Emhar's WW1 British kit. I think he looks a little weird.

Revell Thirty Years War infantry

2011-01-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

This took me about thirty months to paint.
As a diversion from Naps, I thought I'd snack on another era. This practically choked me instead. After some research on uniforms it quickly turned into a mess—mercenaries, laces, breeches, knee socks, feathers, sleeves, all depending on princes, lords, municipalities, religious affiliation. Throw in that most soldiers wore their civilian clothes and well, good grief! After painting a handful I stopped and spent more time deliberating, researching, untangling and getting discouraged. To TYW enthusiasts, I'm sure these are horrifically inaccurate.

In the end, I chucked at all and painted them according to Revell's box art. I like the end result but I doubt I'll ever dabble in the TYW again.
Unless I find the Imperial Artillery. For a decent price.

Happy new year!

HäT Tank Riders — British

2010-11-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here's the first of four tank rider sets from HäT.

First of all, these tank riders are not just for tanks. Seated figures are very useful to fill up and give life to half-tracks, jeeps, lorries, armoured cars, sitting on crates, barrels, waiting to move out and so on.

This set has two kneeling figures—an officer and section leader. The infantry has been painted as part of the 43rd wessex. You may notice a blue (square) with a yellow dab in the middle. The officer has been painted as an RAF link officer (cab control? can't recall what these guys were called) attached to armoured divisions whose job was to call in air strikes as needed. The head is a swap, the original figure wears a beret which RAF the RAF did not wear at this time.

Speaking of heads, one complaint is the sprue attaches to the crown of the helmet on some figures. If cut to short, the helmet will be sporting an odd cylinder rising from it while an over cut will lop off the top. It would have been better to have attachment at the bottom of the feet.

The riders are very nice with a lot of detail. With most British figures on the market, it seems the kit and webbing always suffers. In this case, the entrenching tool and canteen is nicely sculpted with it skeleton holder rather chunky (in a good way) to take paint easily.

I feel for the sculptor. Due to the poses, there is some excess plastic between the rifle butts and the hip, and in some cases, the canteen doesn't turn the corner and the space between the canteen and buttock fills in. These figures could probably benefit from separate packs like HäT's Napoleonic Prussians and some of the Zvezda sets.

On minor point, most of the men are sitting as if on chairs. This arrangement works better on the angular Cromwell than the slope found on Shermans. Gluing the figures on (or to each other) would be the best solution for stability but I prefer to freedom to position as will. Just don't bump the table.

Overall, nice figures, poses and detail. Another job well done!

French Foreign Legion

2010-11-04T21:12:00.000-07:00

Had these guys for years, hoping to convert to WW1 French but after butchering a neck or two gave that idea up. The white paint was chunky and swamped most of the detail. Painted them up in three uniform styles. I know little of the FFL but I believe these variations cover a period of years and theatres such as Mexico and Morocco. Not sure. Regardless, the French Foreign Legion are always dashing looking fellows. Or is that Gary Cooper I'm thinking of?

HäT Austrian Grenadiers and Militia.

2010-11-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

Militia? Looks likes jägers! And for the Napoleonic astute, (which I'm not) HäT's new figures of Austrian militia have been painted as jägers. As I can tell, I think the only difference may be the placement of the cockade on the hat.

These figures are overall pretty good. The poses are the standard formula HäT is now producing for Napoleonices. The Militia is nice (not all figures shown) because of the running figure. Nice animation which felt more like jäger tactics.

As for a sculpting detail, I wouldn't rate them as high as HäT's most recent endeavors—Prussian infantry and Peninsular British. I found that lot of the detail was soft or melting away. With all the straps and cross straps of the grenadiers, the area got real congested and at times I didn't even know what I was painting. It was like following an Escher staircase.

The cuffs and buttons on the sleeves often disappeared leaving their existence to rely on the paint brush.

The softness of detail could be that the figures are test runs and not final productions figures. The plastic is soft and tends to tear rather than bend or break.

Overall, very pleased with these figures and the militia as jägers is a better option than their previous Brunswick Avant Garde.

Traffic Jam

2010-06-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd post some pix of a quick diorama/setup. Nearing mid-June, I think of the Normandy offensives by the British Army. Inspired by Operation Epsom and the traffic jam at Cheux, here's some ArmourFast Shermans and a converted Hasagawa Half-Track (M3 to M5) of the 11th Armoured. In the background are Bren Carriers and AGRA Matadors trying to move forward. Soldier are AB Figures. Most have shoulder flashes of the 3rd Infantry Division.

HäT Napoleonic Prussians

2010-06-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

These are beautiful figures and the best I have seen from HäT. They are of the same quality as their Peninsular British Infantry, the bonus being the figures are in three sets—Command, Marching and Skirmishing.

The straps, buttons and cuffs are raised and oversized just enough (like stage makeup) to be visible and for ease of painting. Their are just a few figures where cuffs/buttons become lost but is easily remedied by paint.

There are twelve unique marching poses, shoulder and support position. This gives the line a sense of motion and humanity. The officers have separate right arms with swords allowing for multiple poses. Personally my having is advancing with sword over the shoulder.

The separate arms also allow for more realistic sculpting and detail. The drum is a good example. This allow the drum sticks to be free and away from the body (as if he is actually playing.)

The drum is in two parts. I was worried it would be a fiddly affair but the fit is tidy and seamless. I used super glue and the adhesion is tight. Note, if you to to paint, painting is required before assembly. I was impatient and thought I could get away with it on the flag bearer.

Personally, the downside is the amount of assembly (arms and backpacks) as I like my toy soldiers to be that—toys and not model kits. However, the end result is fantastic. The three kit concept, one that HäT has pioneered in plastic, is truly a game changer.

Hopefully, this arrangement will be adopted for line infantry of all major nations.

(Pardon the lousy photographs. More shots will be taken when I have access to my wife camera.)

Many thanks to HäT for these wonderful figures.

In the works

2010-05-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

In a few weeks when the rest of our household is moved up (mainly my diorama/display boards) I'll post some more pix. In the meantime, I've been painting up some great figures—

ESCI WW2 US Army

HaT Austrian Cuirassiers

HaT Brunswick Inf. (as French Marines)

HaT Prussian Dragoons

Revell 30 Year War Imperial Army

Zvezda Voltiguers

Waterloo 1815 Polish Infantry

2010-02-15T06:20:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd put these two images of Poles together in one post. Top painted as the 'Vistuala Region.' I painted the flag design over the existing engraved pattern—love the 'three-foot rule.'

The bottom figures are painted as Line Infantry in winter trousers.

I like these figures, I wish there were better distribution of figures. Rather than four identical sprues (which give your four drummers, flag bearers and officers. I'd rather have 4 more marching figures and 4 more standing firing.

More Leipzig Units.

2010-02-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

HäT French Line Fusiliers as Saxon Infantry (charged by Revell Prussians.) The Saxons turned out okay, not a big fan of all white uniforms. HäT French Young Guard in background. The Young Guard, being one of HaT's older sets, is in rather simplistic in sculpting but one of my favorites. I particularly like the figure with his rifle up, bracing for attack.

Zvezda Russian Grenadiers as Jägers.

HäT Swedish Line Infantry with British Rocket Troops. The Rocket troops look stunning. The Swedes look good but with so little visual reference (i.e. contemporary paintings or movies) I have to trust this is what they looked like. I've waned on the Swedes (or more than likely their commander Bernadotte) for their lack of gumption at Leipzig.

2010-02-13T20:36:00.000-08:00

I'm posting again which means one thing—I found employment! I'll be working for an advertising agency in St. Louis which means I'll be relocating from Atlanta back to my hometown!!

That said, here are some pix of units I've been painting for my Leipzig diorama.
These in these posts you'll you see— HäT French Young Guard and Prussian Reserves, Zvezda Russian Grenadiers, Cuirassiers, French Imperial Guard, Revell Prussians and Waterloo 1815 Polish Infantry.

This is a great group of figures—the sculpting on all is crisp and sharp, easy to paint (though I painfully plod along at a snail's pace) I was thinking of giving a 'shout out' to some manufacturers but these are all great. I love everything Zvezda does—the Russian Grenadiers and Cuirassiers particularly. Props to Revell for releasing their Prussian Line Infantry. These guys look awesome. Even the simply sculpted French Young Guard have a nice presence.
More pix to follow. Cheers!

Photoshop Alert—the haze, smoke and rifle fire on one of the Prussian shots were added.

Why aren't there new posts?

2009-11-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

Where's the juice? Show me the meat!
Well, I recently lost my job—end of September—and vouched not to paint (much lest post) until I find work. As they say, finding a job is a full time job. And painting figures is a full time job and a half. I had to give up one to get the other to get the one back.

That said, I had been working on the following (before all this) and hope to post images s00n—

Zvezda Cossacks
Zvezda French Imperial Guard
Zvezda Russian Grenadiers (these are sweet!)
HaT Swedish Infantry (boring army/uniforms but if you're going to do Leipzig...)
HaT French Fusiliers (as Saxons—not a fan of white uniforms bleech!)
Waterloo 1815 Polish Line Infantry
Revell Prussian Infantry (Naps, not Seven Years War though I am spying that era...)
ESCI WW2 British Airborne (Up the Ox and Bucks!)
Emhar WW1 US and Germans (just a small handful)
Revell French Knights (Hundred Years War, these are in the pipeline, I've done a few and not quite pleased with the color yet. These may be a while.)

cheers!

Operation Iraqi Freedom

2009-04-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is a shameless nod to one of my followers.

This quick diorama is somewhat a labor of love or should I say 'a labor of tribute.' I tend to be absorbed in past conflicts and fascinated with European armies often ignoring the work and sacrifices of our own military.

So this is for the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan (and specifically those artillerymen in the 4th Division!)

56th Striker Brigade arrives.

I love google images and wikipedia.

With my love of European armies, I had to add one figure of our allies.
A 'Desert Rat' patrols outside Basra.

More Leipzig Images

2009-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

Some bird's eye and a worm's eye view the battle. On the last pic (from the French Artillery's POV) you can see left to right, Zvezda Russian Artillery, ESCI Russians, HaT Austrian and Prussian Artillery, HaT Austrians. There is a handful of Italeri Prussians. These are mere placeholders until the new HaT Prussians are available. The French Infantry is Italeri, the artillery HaT.
More to follow.

Leipzig Light

2009-04-06T09:54:00.000-07:00

For those of you who frequent HäT's forum you're probably tired of my incessant and innane Napoleonic questions. Mainly regarding Leipzig.

That's because I'm clueless about Naps and fascinated with this battle because: it liberated most of Europe (Germany) from Napoleon's rule, saw many of his German allies switch side, brought about Napoleon's downfall (like D-Day for Hitler) and was the largest battle in Europe till my favorite conflict, the First World War. And yet, I've never heard of this battle till a few month's ago.

So I was looking around Airfix's site and saw this image of their release of Waterloo.
If this undersized farm and sprinkling of figures could represent a battle of 300,000+ soldiers of several nations, then I could do the same for Leipzig!

Here's a WIP photo showing dispositions of troops, etc.
The board is 2" x 3" homosite from HomeDepot. I'm already wishing it were at least 4" x 4" If it were larger, I could add a scartchbuilt St. Thomas Cathedral and a diminuative version of the town hall. Also, there's just not enough space east of Leipzig for Bernadotte's army. After all HäT makes Swedish cavalry and are coming out with Swedish artillery. But more importantly, where would I put the British Rocket Troops!!?

Nap fans, please comment. But before you get to hung up, think of Paris snowglobe---you know, how an Eiffel tower, arc de'triomph and the louvre resepent the entire city. So 48 Austrians represent two army groups! More pics to follow soon.

HaT Penisular British

2009-03-31T11:09:00.001-07:00

Images of HaT's new Peninsular British. These are really nice figures. The body motion, poses are nice. Also for painters, the sculptinig in sharp and buttons, straps etc. are raised enough to take paint easily and not disappear under the layers (especially with the Delta Creamcoat acrylic paint I use.) I hope all of HaT's new offerings -- Prussians and new Seven Years War line—are of this quality. Lots of marching poses (not shown), firing and advancing. Wargamers should be pleased with the selection of poses. Highly recommended set.

Revell Colonial Militia

2009-03-31T10:53:00.001-07:00

I nice set, would have preferred more uniformed Continentals. Of the three advancing Continentals, the man with the gun across his chest is a paint conversion of Revell's British Redcoats. This small diorama was to be augmented with Italeri's Continetals but the figures towered a scale foot taller. Hoping to pick up some Airfix Washington's Army someday to round this out.

The 'Pine Tree' flag, the British Red Ensign with a tree in place of the Union Jack was believed to have been flown at Bunker Hill.

Prussians and Russians

2009-02-18T03:51:00.000-08:00

A look at the Italeri (ESCI) Russian firing line. I still have the advancing troops to paint. The green seems a touch on the olive side, I think I'll go more ivy on them using this shade as a highlight. I never painted Prussians before, compared to other Nap fashion show, they seem plain, like ACW union troops. Comments, corrections welcome.

HäT Napoleonic Austrian Infantry and Artillery

2009-02-17T14:32:00.000-08:00

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More work in progress pics of the ongoing Leipzig diorama. This is my first time painting Austrians so I hope I got all the straps, pompoms, pouches right. I realized I forgot the gold braiding on the pants. The blue pants means the regiment is from Hungary. Regiments from German provinces in Austria wore white pants. (Thanks Mr. Mannix!)

Please feel free to comments.

WIP: Italeri French Line Infantry & HäT Artillery

2009-02-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

Been a little quiet, but been busy painting away. The next couple of posts are work in progress images of a small 'Battle of Leipzig' diorama. The first here a some French figures. These were a real joy to paint---only after I finished two dozen did I realize they were considerably larger than HäT's French Foot Artillery.

No wonder they were nice to paint---everything was bigger.

I like these figures a lot, again, it's a shame---as with all Italeri stuff---they're too large. I am particularly fond of the officer.

Napoleonic French Cavalry

2008-12-23T16:53:00.000-08:00

A quick, sneak peek. My ancient Cybershot's dying and I know for a fact the old Tannenbaum doesn't have one underneath. None of the other photos turned out. Maybe after the new year I will post some more pictures. As for now I just wanted to get something new up. The left side is ESCI Polish Lancers, the right French Cuirassiers. I like these figures a lot.

The good thing about the holidays is we're heading back to St. Louis (and home of CRM Hobbies!) I should have a chance to get some new figures.

12/24/08 edit: retook some pictures. I got lazy and haven't added ground cover to the bases yet. I was surprised how quick and easy these (the Cuirassiers at least) were to paint. Horses and especially the white trim on the Polish Lancers saddle blanket took more than the figures. This is more first foray into Naps since I was 12 or 13. (Airfix figures) and I originally bought these to convert to World War One (1914) cavalry. I gave up on that because my real interest is British v Germans 191 6-1918. These are really nice figures with good detail. I wish the Cuirassiers had a bugler. The man standing by his horse is excellent and I wish there were more casual poses like this. Hope you enjoy.

IMEX/Revell Civil War Skirmish

2008-12-10T06:13:00.000-08:00

I'm glad this one's done. For some reason I got bored with this and painting became a chore.

A lot of this is because I'm not a fan of the Civil War--probably the idea of fratricide. Also, I have a penchant for European armies. These IMEX figures are not my favorite. The detail is dull, the body shape diminutive. The Union faces are often squat, the Confederates better shaped, but blobs. The Union are is a Revell/IMEX mix, the Confederates just IMEX.

The Union standard is the 1st Minnesota regiment who played a critical role in holding the line during Gettysburg. (I'm no Civil War buff.) I hope to add some more figures, mainly a Confederate with the flag of the 1st Missouri who played a role in the stout defense of Vicksburg. There are two Confederates reloading to one Union, the reflects the better armament and repeater rifles found in the Federal army.

Side note: Missouri/Minnesota? My great-great grandfather fought with a Minnesota Regiment, not sure which one. And I was born in Missouri.

The British Are Coming!

2008-12-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

I picked up some IMEX Revolutionary War figures a few years ago and there they sat. I bought whatever my fancy was given to. The problem is I had these notions I was going to build giant armies, dioramas. In this case, it was to be Cowpens. After a month, I realized that was never going to happen.

A few weeks ago I was going through my soldiers to get rid of stuff. At that point I decided to paint (approx) one of each pose, get rid of the rest. The result is a small vignette. Free of creating giant battles, I have been on a painting spree. The base (5 1/2" x 12") is not intended as a diorama, but simply a display board with grass.

The stone wall is Tidy Cat kitty litter.

HaT US WW1 Artillery

2008-12-07T11:13:00.001-08:00

These are some test sprues I received from HäT. Initially I was not a fan of this sculpting style. I was very disappointed when the first images of HäT's World War One troops with this new style--German Heavy Weapons, US Infantry, Canadian Infantry. I have yet to purchase these figures. Plastic Soldier Review gave them low scoring marks as do I.

That said, I've seen some good paint jobs of these soldiers on HäT's Everything Toy Solider forum, most notably by Thomas Willers and Sander Van Straeten.

I thought I'd give these a go and I am pleasantly surprised. The main shift was that these figures are toys. Once I got my head around that (toys like the old Lineol and Elastolin) then I was okay with them.

Note: The house is the classic Airfix Command Post. The wagon is from IMEX's Civil War munitions/ambulance kit. The gun emplacement is pink insulation foam on an old CD. The sandbags are made from some Crayola craft putty I got at Wal-Mart.