Not Much Painting Going On

It has been a while since I have posted anything simply because I have been busy with "stuff". One of the more enjoyable bits of "stuff" is finally getting to grips with my allotment...

Very excited about my potatoes!

I am doing some painting and may even have an Airfix post for next weekend.

Nearly There...

French line battalion number 6 is now complete. Another "firing line", but this time a couple of the troops are taking advantage of the prone reload capabilities of the breech-loaders.

 15mm Essex Miniatures once more.

This means I need just two command stands and phase #1 of the French army is complete. We have a bank holiday weekend coming up so hopefully I can pull that all together by then.

I need to get some buildings together as well, my few 15mm European building are all old Hovels range - I fancy looking at some of those laser-cut MDF kits which are now available. Any recommendations?

French Line Chasseurs 1870

Very smart uniforms!

 Another addition to the French army in the form of a battalion of Line Chasseurs in their lovely smart blue uniforms. Essex Miniatures once more.

This leaves one more Line battalion and a couple of command stands to complete for phase 1 of the French army. I hope to have these done by the end of March - and then I will hold a little 15mm parade!

Bavarian 4th Infantry Regiment-Shedding New Light.

The latest unit to add to the fledgling German forces is a battalion of the 4th Infantry Regiment with their lovely yellow facings. The figures themselves are Miniature Figurines once more, tweaked a little to produce the kind of look I like.

As you can see I have solved the poor lighting problem by investing in a clip on LED lamp from my local supermarket for the princely sum of £4.99! I have also taken the plunge and ordered a new desk lamp as my old broken one must be a museum piece as I cannot find anything like it anymore.

And while I was at it I re-shot the dim Minifigs French infantry from a couple of posts ago.

I am still forging ahead with the Franco Prussian War (resisting the temptation to dive back in to the Airfix Waterloo and Mons 1914 projects especially). I have cleaned up and primed the last two French infantry battalions which completes "phase one" of the French army.

French cavalry have no part in my first phase plans but these two Dragoons have been sitting primed up and ready to go for so long I couldn't ignore them any more.

Essex Miniatures on those lovely-to-paint-horses they produce.

Old School Colonial British Infantry

First of all apologies for the poor quality of the pictures but try as I may without my old fluorescent desk lamp which is sadly no more I just cannot get enough light onto the miniatures of late.

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. Stryker of "Hinton Hunt Vintage Wargame Figures" fame has another interesting blog particularly relevant to  the 19th Century subject matter of this blog, covering the 2nd Anglo-Boer War here. These fellows are the results of my contribution to beef up the British infantry forces.

The figures themselves are from the small (but interesting) Raventhorpe 20mm Colonial range. Ian has chosen an old school block colours finish to the collection which I have enjoyed replicating (the first figures I have painted without a black primer for many years I believe).

They are ready to embark transports to Scotland tomorrow to take on the wily Boer. Expect better shots of the based figures on Stryker's blog soon.

For me it's back to those 15mm Bavarians which should be completed and based within the next few days all going well.