Some Napoleonics of mine (1 Viewer)

[johnnybach]

I have been delving into my "stash" of figures lately, and dug out this pair of mounted figures which date to the Napoleonic era.

The first figure is of a mounted Kettle-drummer Caribinier circa 1810 - who is actually the first completed figure of a mounted band I intend to make up (eventually) - on a piece by piece basis.

The other figure is of King George III dressed in the Full Dress uniform of a British Field Marshall - at around the same date.

I do have a third piece on the go - but not finished yet. He is another mounted figure - of an Officer of the 60th Rifles - who is part of a larger group of his colleagues who are on foot. I will show him later.

All these are from castings by Dorset Soldiers, by the way - and as you will see - involve the same horse in all variations. jb

 

[theBaron]

Very nice, JB! I see that you range over a variety of subjects, too!

For the kettledrummer, how was the drum banner done? I can't quite tell from the photos if the details are sculpted/molded (a la Tradition's kettledrummers) or if they're printed.

By the way, since we've talked about other old-school scratchbuilding techniques (eg, lentils for cobblestones), here's one that I am going to use, for kettledrums--cut the bottom off a plastic cigar tube, then use paper or foil for the banners. I'm making some kettledrummers from Frederick the Great's army, and that's the method I'm using.

Prost!
Brad

 

[johnnybach]

Hi Brad - yes - usually the more colourful they are - the better I like them. I'm a real magpie collector - and if I like them - I don't really care where they are from or what they are, though I do lean towards late Victorian a fair bit - as that time was really the last fling for colourful uniforms in GB - apart from the Guards and HC of course - and maybe some of the Scots Regiments.

Now then - drum banner. This is a figure that's been made up from the same casting as a trumpet player (I have one underway at the moment). This is the figure below - on the left as a casting - on the right pinned to a base and painting begun as a trumpeter. The drummer was exactly the same - but with a pair of drum arms added - and the plain drums of course.

I found a picture of a Mounted drummer to copy on the web - showing the kettle-drummer - and just asked Dorset Soldiers to send me castings of a pair of drums with plain banners ( so they are just hollow inside). I then positioned them roughly where they looked right after attaching the arms to the figure temporarily - and drilled and pinned them to the horse after painting them the light shade of blue. I then did a couple of freehand drawings of the illustration that I found, at the same size as my drums, to get the feel of what I wanted to do - and simply painted them freehand in Ivory straight onto the drums. As they were just flat surface drums - it was relatively easy to do - three times for each drum. I also painted in the swags after the central motifes were dry. It's not QUITE right - it's just an impression - but near enough - as it isn't intended as an acurate model - and he will be the lead player in a mounted band - eventually.

I have always had the ability to just look at something - and copy it.( I think I might have been a good forger!^&grin.) It's really the same thing that I did with the Knights of Agincourt recently, whose coats of arms were copied from a book. If it's a really tricky thing - I do sometimes paint it a few times on an old margarine lid - just for practice - but this one was easy - so did it straight off. If you do make a Horlicks of it - you can always overpaint and do it again!

Lastly - this is my third figure that I mentioned before. (Note how similar all of the horses are. This is how Giles keeps his figures reasonably priced!) This figure is an Officer of the 60th Rifles - and not quite finished - base and touch-ups to do before his final coat of varnish - see two views below - johnnybach

 

[johnnybach]

The mounted 60th Rifles Officer is now completed - and the group to accompany him him has been started off. I have several more different groups of Napoleonic figures put aside - so will continue adding a few from time to time whilst progressing these. jb

 

[johnnybach]

The trumpeter bandsman figure has now been completed and added to the drummer figure. These are the first two of the mounted band of The French Caribinieres c.1812. I plan around ten figures eventually.[]I'm actually just playing around with my new lap-top - and finding out how it all works.] jb

 

[johnnybach]

A little update on my progress with Napoleonic bits and pieces. Apologies for my usually bad pics - which are made worse today by excessive heat - so my shutters are closed. Temperature reached 37C in the shade yesterday!

On the left is another Caribiniere band trumpeter figure which has just been glued/pinned to a new fabricated base. You can just see the pins protruding through - which will be snipped off and then filed flat. The figure will then be ready for painting. He is the last of these figures I have stashed at the moment - though my plan is to have around ten figures, or so, in the band eventually ( they had mostly trumpeters - but also some duck-head trombones - which needs investigating as to what other instruments might have been involved). IF ANYONE HAS ANYMORE INFO ON COMPOSITION - OR BETTER STILL A PICTURE - PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

To the right are some 60th Rifles foot figures who are nearing completion. Fun to do these - and I have wanted some of these to accompany my small 95th Rifles contingent for quite a while. I will take a better pic of these once they are finished. jb

 

[johnnybach]

A contingent of 60th Rifles advancing to contact across my desk. Just bases of the foot soldiers needs a coat of varnish - and they're ready for a tour of duty in the cabinet - where they will join a waiting party of 95th Riflemen.

The 60th came as castings from Dorset Soldiers. Johnnybach

 

[johnnybach]

Sorry - hit the wrong button - another view of 60th Rifles to show more detail.

 

[GICOP]

Sorry - hit the wrong button - another view of 60th Rifles to show more detail.

Very nice jb {bravo}} :salute:::salute:::salute::

Cheers

Martyn

 

[New England Soldiers]

You did an outstanding job on these!

 

[theBaron]

More excellent work, John! Now we need to get you some glossy red or green boxes for them.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Hazebrouck]

I like those riflemen Johnny!

Any chance you might paint some Colonial era soldiers soon?

Scott

 

[johnnybach]

Glad you all like them - though I don't own any boxes - as most of my recruits arrive as castings - or old soldiers in bits and pieces needing a bit of TLC. I have wanted some of this famous old Regiment for quite a while - and enjoyed painting them up. I have really been working through some "stashed" and favourite items for a while, whilst awaiting my next challenge.

This will be part of a WW1 Canadian Mounted Pipe Band from Yeoman - which is nearing readiness for despatch according to Brian (Yeoman) who has been "tweaking" some castings for me. Should be great fun to do - though I haven't seen them yet - I ordered them based on an old newspape photo unearthed by Trooper a while ago. Does that qualify as "Colonial"??? They were the wold's first mounted Pipe Band - so should be fun to have a go at. Watch this space for when my first part of them arrives. There will eventually be twenty members of the band - so should look quite impressive, I hope. - johnnybach

 

[Hazebrouck]

This will be part of a WW1 Canadian Mounted Pipe Band from Yeoman - which is nearing readiness for despatch according to Brian (Yeoman) who has been "tweaking" some castings for me. Should be great fun to do - though I haven't seen them yet - I ordered them based on an old newspape photo unearthed by Trooper a while ago. Does that qualify as "Colonial"??? They were the wold's first mounted Pipe Band - so should be fun to have a go at. Watch this space for when my first part of them arrives. There will eventually be twenty members of the band - so should look quite impressive, I hope. - johnnybach

Johnny,

Interesting project and yes that does qualify as Colonial.

Is that newspaper photo of the mounted Pipe Band of the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles taken at Manitoba in April 1915? If not send me a PM as there is a photo and brief description of them in one of the old Tradition magazines.

Scott

 

[johnnybach]

Hi Scott - thanks for the offer of some material regarding the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles of WW1. I have a few bits and pieces scratched together - but the more info I can collect - the better. I'm not at all certain in which newspaper the pic originally appeared - but think it is one of two that was taken in Brandon Manitoba in April 1915, prior to the unit going overseas. At the time, they were the fist mounted pipe-band in the world - which aroused my interest - as I quite like pipe bands. The only Colour pic I have is below - which may give some idea of how they will look. Tartan for the pipes is going to be the original one of Royal Stuart, by the way - they changed this some time afterwards to the clan tartan of the new leader - but I prefer the original set.

Alan caton is the sculptor of the band - for Brian Harrison of Yeoman Miniatures (Yeoman on this forum). They are just a few days or so from being ready for despatch to me apparently. I'm going to have them, in two contingents. When complete, there will be twelve pipers - and 8 drummers in total(including side drums, tenor drums - and one bass drum) - so should look very different. Definitely interesting too (at least I think so). I will send you my e-mail details - and would be very pleased to receive anything you can send me to help with the story that I am building - pics would be most helpful - but tricky to find those.

Cheers chum - and many thanks. johnnybach

 

[johnnybach]

Meanwhile - the second trumpeter of my Carabiniere Band is at this stage: (it becomes a band at this stage - prior to that you have a figure - then a pair - and from three on - It's a Band^&grin). A few touch-ups ans a bit of varnish to apply to the figures - and they will be completed. I wasn't sure how they would look - so I only bought three castings - but am definite now that I will complete them - and will have a band of ten mounted figures eventually. jb

 

[johnnybach]

In the Frontispiece of James Opie's book "Collecting Toy Soldiers" (1987) is a photograph that I have always liked. It shows a picture of some TS first produced in 1936 by Britains - in conjunction with the British Model Soldier Society - in a joint project to produce British Infantry and Highlander troops at Waterloo. These were supplied as Castings to BMSS members to paint up for the project.

This pic is shown below.

Well, I liked them so much, I decided to get hold of a few similar castings - and have a go myself at painting some up - albeit, just a little differently than those shown. I intend the poses to be the same ( or similar), but change them slightly to give my own "take" on them. The first - a Sergeant ( I'm making them as Gordons ) is underway - see below. You can compare him to the original Britains figure in the book. I have five to do - and all will be different. - jb

 

[trooper]

Figure should be clean shaven at this period, Johnny, moustaches were worn by some cavalry regiments but the only face fungus in the infantry was in the pioneers. Trooper

 

[johnnybach]

Gadzooks and double-drat! I only gave him a tash because he doesn't have a very good lip - and I thought I could hide it a bit! I really should have remembered that.

The good news is - it will take just a second with a dab of the pink stuff to shave it off! Thanks Trooper - you're a trooper! johnnybach

 

[johnnybach]

Here he is - clean shaven once again - complete with smile on his new lips! He now needs to dry completely, before a last tidy-up - base painted and varnish cover applied. I intend to do the other four Gordons (1815) figures as Drummer, Piper, and two Highlanders with musket at shoulder arms and at the slope.