Monday 22 July 2013

Airfix Pseudo Spanish and Almost Continentals.

Not the best of  paint jobs,  but a fine basis for refurbishment!
The school I work at recently got a laser cutter, so offered to have it cut some V&B mdf bases as way of testing it was working properly! Naturally since I now had a pile of bases I had to get some troops on them. I wasn't wanting to do any major effort, just wanting to get figures on bases in order to swell the V&B ranks quickly. Fortunately I was able to acquire from Glenn a number of preloved and prepainted Airfix figures from the Washington's Army set (click here for the PSR review) that I was able to refurbish, wash, and base.

More painted figures - more stands of troops!
 Now I have already gone through this process with my AWI French (click here for that post), and my AWI Americans (click here for details), but with those figures had been very nicely painted by the original owner. I wanted to see if I could get useable stands using figures that weren't as well painted.


Spacing out the figures - these look like they might be painted as Hessians of some type? Or are they Americans?
A well painted example found amongst the less well painted.
 Now using prepainted figures does mean that I am guessing as to the intent of the original owner as to what they were meaning to represent. Given that for the longest time this set was the only source of 18th century line infantry, the possibilities are rather large - more so if I add in the strong likelihood that they may have been painted to represent an imaginary or generic regiment, or merely painted using information that was incorrect.

Pseudo Spanish! I can't find a Spanish unit that has that exact colour scheme. 
 First off are the white coated fellows that I am choosing to believe are some type of Spanish troops. The red breeches and black boots are similar to a Spanish soldier depicted here, and another here. A table giving the uniform colours used by Spanish units in the Seven Years War can be found here, but it doesn't give the colour of breeches, leggings or boots worn. So given that they don't fit a known colour scheme I will use them as Spanish until I learn that they aren't.

But still they look nice and can be used as generic Pseudo Spanish
 And incidentally, should you know what these fellows could be, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.

The colour scheme is rather nice though.

I am quite pleased with how well these three stands turned out given the state of the source material.
 The other two stands that I have finished also lack a colour scheme that I can definitively say is one thing or another. They could be meant to represent american forces, either state or even Continental troops, but equally they may be meant to represent German troops of some type - assuming that they are meant to represent troops from the AWI!

Two stands of blue coated rebels - again the colour scheme doesn't seem to match anything I can find.
 Still the end result is quite pleasing, and I know that I will be able to find use for them, either as Americans or Germans!
Again I am rather pleased with them, although I am tempted to put a small amount of Fall leaves on the bases.

The wash brings out the detail in the figure extremely well. Airfix did a good job designing these figures!
So far I have finished five stands, with six more ready to go. I am finding the process of recycling these figures quite fun, and a good way to ease me into painting up the legions of bare plastic AWI figures that I have waiting for me.

Friday 19 July 2013

5 BIM finished...almost....

5 BIM sans attached artillery.

So after getting new batteries in my camera, and finally making the time to make a proper post, here is my take on 5 BIM for use at Mt Tumbledown. the only thing left to do is paint up a couple of jeeps for them to use - a project that I am planning on tackling after finishing off the army and air force troops for use at Goose Green, and scratchbuilding the AAA needed. I am going to paint up the rest of the British forces I need after I have finished the Argentine forces.

 The following ToE is based on several sources and is from a discussion on Paul's blog Plastic Warriors (click here for the discussion in the comments section) Naturally any errors are mine alone.

5 BIM command stand. figure is converted from an Italian officer in the Esci NATO set.

5th Marine Battalion, Experienced ML 7
Battalion Headquarters company,with::
  1 Command Stand
  1 Jeep

3 Rifle Companies, each with:
  1 Command Stand
  1 Weapons Stand
  2 Infantry Stands

The first Rifle Company - figures are a mix of Revell, Esci, Matchbox, HK knockoff and Airfix.

The second Rifle Company - again a mix of figures, but the bulk are converted Airfix British Paraa.

The third Rifle Company. as in the other companies the weapons stand is denoted by having a M20 Bazooka on it. 


1 Support Company, with:
  1 Command Stand
  1 HMG stand
  1 107mm Mortar
  1 107mm RCL
  2 Gun Crew stands (ds)
  1 Patrol stand
  1 Recon Jeep


The support company. Figures are a mix of Esci, matchbox, Revell, Imex, Fujimi and Airfix. The mortar is from an Esci kit, while the RCL is by Mars.

attached:
Battalion de Artilleria de Campana de Marina 1
Batteria B
, with:
  1 Command Stand
  1 FO Stand
  1 105mm Howitzer
  1 gun crew stand (ds)


Guncrew  is from the Esci White Scout car, the command stand is a figure from a Hasegawa set, and the FO is from the Imex Korean war set. 
The gun is a Corgi diecast that I have discussed previously (click here for more details)

Tuesday 9 July 2013

Harriers and other loot...

Three box scale Corgi GR3 Harriers and a Matchbox Skyhawk. In the rear  is an unassembled 1/144 scale Academy FRS 1 Harrier kit.

Recently I have started a new job, and have been having fun sorting out the joys a new role can bring. On the plus side I have more money for toys, on the negative side I will have less time to spend playing with them! Still, that just means I have to use the hobby time wisely...

And a ruler for scale - it works at at around 1:120ish.

I am still slowly converting and painting up my Falklands forces, and I am still even more slowly working on other projects. I am very fortunate that when Katherine returned from her trip over to her parents in PA, she brought me back a small pile of loot (in addition to the Corgi harriers)....

Books and yet more 1/144 scale kits... 

20mm Soviet Cossacks - a little extra for the modern hordes!
Plus she lugged back a large fleet of 1/1800 scale War AT Sea miniatures (but more on those in a future post). I am very lucky to have a wife who is actively supportive of my hobby!