Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Spring Workbench

There's always lots of stuff to paint for my projects. I'm sure I'm not alone in collecting miniatures faster than they can be prepared for battle. I thought I'd take a moment to share what's on my workbench at the moment. Now that Spring is here and my garage is warming up, I hope to spend a bit more time tinkering on the hobby and get re-energized and motivated to return to painting 60 figure mass units for Imagi-Nations and Seven Years War.

Here's a picture of the SYW side of my workbench (one of two 8 foot tables in the center of my garage).



At the bottom of this picture already primered to paint are four 60 figure infantry battalions of Sash&Saber 28mm Prussians (2 Musketeers, and 1 each of Grenadiers and Fusiliers) and several squadrons of 28mm Minden Prussian Hussars. The Mindens are priority and these Hussars will feel the sting of my paint brush ahead of all the other forces arrayed here. Their horses are not shown and have already been mounted to 1"x2" metal bases from Wargames Accessories, with some acrylic gel medium to transition the integral bases. In the middle of the picture above are two black boxes with additional Hussars from Sash&Saber. Just above are Saxons from Eureka and more Mindens.



In the picture above is a recent order of Saxon Fusiliers I picked up from Rob of Eureka USA. I've attached each figure to a nail with hot glue for primering and subsequent painting. There are so many ways to prep models for painting, but at least for me this method seems to work well for such large units. I paint these perhaps one color or piece of kit at a time, holding them by the nail as I paint and simply cycle through all the models in a unit returning them to the foam holding tray.

And below are some Saxon cavalry, also from Eureka. I've got a few 12 figure squadrons of Dragoons, one dismounted squadron, and a new squadron of Cuirassiers represented in this box.



And last, but certainly not least, more from Frank Hammond's Minden Miniatures collection.



The figures here are Austrian infantry and represent two 60 figure battalions, 2 gun crews, and 2 mounted colonels. These were prepped this past weekend by drilling out hands for the spontoon armed NCOs and standard bearers, and then mounting to nails. Once the Saxons are primered, I'll be switching foam blocks as these are not sealed. I haven't yet decided what color to use for primering these. I use black for the Prussian styled figures, and used gray for the first battalion of Saxons I've almost completed. I'm leaning towards gray again given the white uniforms I plan for the Austrian figures and the green uniforms I plan for the Saxon Fusiliers.

Of course as I sit back and contemplate the tasks before me, I must also mention that the Post Office missed me yesterday and today I fully expect to be in receipt of another two 60 figure battalions plus worth of Minden figures. In this order, more ranks to swell the Austrian army in the form of Grenz and Hungarians. I've fallen quite behind in keeping up with all the items Frank is having commissioned. I still lack French, Hanoverians, British, and some of the cavalry for the Prussians and Austrians. I'd love to have to have a 60 figure unit of everything he's had produced, but we'll see if I have enough time to paint it all!!

In terms of Imagi-Nations, what I typically do is purchase twice the needed standard bearers and also a few extra infantry for when I split up a 60 figure battalion into smaller units. The extra standard bearers are flagged with my Imagi-Nations flags. The finished Prussians become troops in the army of Fleisch-Spätzlestadt, and their Austrians and Saxon adversaries are destined to be in the Grand Duchy of Erdbeerefelder. I'm still considering what figures will represent the Duchy of Hefeweizenbach. It could be that I separate out the Sash&Saber figures from the Minden figures for that purpose, although the S&S range is incomplete and I'd have to still include figures from another range. I've got plenty of time to think about it, since I have so much else to do...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

How could I forget to post my Cuirassiers?

I've been busy with so many projects, gaming, home, and work. Somehow, I'd posted pictures of my cuirassiers elsewhere, but neglected to add them here, in the very place where they will be serving. These figures are from the beautiful Minden figure range.




Together flagged as the 8th Cuirassier Regiment, the five 12 figure squadrons debuted last July in a game of OGABAS as 5 regiments.



Next up on the workbench are some 100+ Hussars...