Let's Make Historex

Many years ago I discovered Historex figures. These are wonderful plastic kits of Napoleonic (mostly) figures. Each kit comes with a staggering amount of fiddly little parts with every details possible. By combining kits, you can recreate virtually any uniform worn by any combatant from that era. Of course when you are starting out with something new, why buy one when many will do? Alas my modelling and painting skills were not up for the challenge at the time and for decades they sat in my collection in their special box...someday, someday...Well I guess some day arrived and I decided to dust off the old boys. This figure represents a drummer of the 2nd Regiment (Dutch) of the Old Guard Grenadiers. I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out, though I definitely learned some lessons during the construction and painting phases - for example it is a good idea to leave the pack off next time until the paining is complete. It was a bugger the get at the straps and the queue. I will definitely be putting a few more of these kits.

Dummer of the 42nd Line

This is a 54mm figure from Metal Modeles representing a drummer from the French 42nd line regiment around 1809-1812. The figure is pretty straight forward with the head, pack, arms, sword and drum as separate pieces. A strip of lead foil is supplied for the drum strap. Metal Modeles casts its heads as one piece with the headgear and all which can make painting in the eyes a bit tricky but otherwise I enjoyed painting it. I'm continuing to practice painting yellows and I tried to get a variation to the whites. There are many wonderful pictures of Napoleonic re-enactors which show a variety of white tones, not only on an individual uniform but from one soldier to the next. I love these photos because I think it gives a real sense of what it must really have been like. I think we forget sometimes that these uniforms weren't being mass produced in factories with each one identical to the next.

Officer of the 2nd Ulans, Grand Duchy of Warsaw, 1812

This 54mm figure is by Pegaso (54-060) from their "Elite Series". It was originally an officer of the 17th regiment but I wanted to try painting yellow and decided on the colour scheme of the 2nd regiment. I just had to remove the 17 from the plates on the pouch and czapska. Yellow was a challenge but there are several great tutorials on YouTube which helped tremendously. I used a combination of Citadel and Velejo paints.

Well that only took 10 years

That's right I started this figure in 2007 (see original post here.). I did the face and the reds and was starting the blues when thanks to some butter fingers I dropped the figure into the paint! I put him aside where he stood on my shelf patiently waiting. The figure is from Durendal and is actually very nice. He's got a lot of character I think. So that makes 3 completions in January for me. At this rate I might get to buy some new minis by Christmas :)

Just Do It

This year I resolved to get things done. I am committing to finish all the projects I started and here is the first. The figure is a Drummer of the Russian Line Artillery c. 1812 by Durendal. I had this one in the grey army for awhile and last year I pulled it out and started with the face and some base colours. Then stopped. I figured out why which led me to the "resolution". I enjoy looking at the work of other painters/modellers but I found that 1. I was spending more time looking and less time doing and 2. I was getting distracted by perfection. By that I mean I was spending too much time on research, too much time thinking about potential conversions or improvements or planning elaborate bases or shopping for new figures. In the end I got away from the reason I like painting miniatures -- I like painting miniatures! Its fun and I enjoy it. So this year I said to myself "Just do it! I'm not going to win awards or be asked to do the cover art for the latest figure or anything so stop fretting and get painting!" So this year I am going to 1. finish the projects I started and put aside (at least 5 that I can think of off the top of my head) and 2. not buy anything new until I have finished what I have. That brings us to the fellow here. I could have done a better job on clean up but he is finished and I enjoyed working on him and now he has taken his rightful place on my shelf.