I am slowly working through a couple of Perry limbers and wagons that have been in the lead-pile since the beginning of the year. This is the 6-pounder gun and limber. It's affiliation is non-specific, and I have painted it as a British set - hence the "blue-grey" colour on the woodwork. My recent visit to the Royal Artillery museum at Woolwich taught me that the exact colour of RA "blue-grey" must have varied considerably over the years. I saw guns and carriages of all kinds of shades of grey; I recall a WW1 gun that was an almost exact match for the Foundry "Quagmire" palette. As I have mentioned before, my British colour is a bit too "blue", but it's too late in my collection to change that now.
I enjoyed researching and painting the horses. Nowadays I always insist on ensuring that each horse I paint is an identifiable breed, and for non-cavalry horses I like to branch out into something a bit more advanced than "bay" or "chestnut". The front horse is a palomino and the rear one is a red bay overo. I know very little about the history of horse genes, but I understand that "overo" means "a pinto colouration pattern over a dark body". Whatever. Anyway, a few photos provided the template for this second horse, which was painted predominantly with the Foundry "Tan" palette (with a couple of extra highlights mixed). A few notes on the painting of this set can be found here. The traces are white cotton - I thought the cotton looked ok without being painted, but it is too white and I need to tone it down either with some paint or an ink wash.
The signpost came from a pack I found at Dave Thomas' stand at the Woolwich "Firepower" show. The pack contains 4 such items, a roadway milestone and a wheelbarrow. I think this pack is from the SYW range, but I have never seen it on the Foundry website. It must be a pre-release/re-release/un-released pack. God (aka Bryan Ansell) only knows whether this pack is commercially available. The signpost has been painted up with an eye on November's Long Island game - it points to Brooklyn and the hamlet of Flatbush. I discussed this game with Mr Eclaireur today and now have an idea of what I need to produce for it. Being aware that simply posting photos of what I paint is probably a bit dull, I will add to the "wargaming" remit of this blog by posting updates on what I need to get ready for the Long Island game and how the orbat shapes up.
Painted August 2008.
7 comments:
Giles,what colors do you use on the limber,or British guns? I use Vallejo,and cannot for the life of me find the righ shade of gray/blue gray.I'm doing the Queens Rangers with amusettes,and used neutral gray,drybrused with pale gray-blue,but its not quite the shade I want.
Bob
Nice work Niles. I really like the horses a lot. I think it's worth the extra effort you put into them. I need to start doing the same on my horses. I have way too many chestnuts myself.
I like to use foil from wine bottles for straps on horse equipment when I have to scratch up my own. The cord you used looks good, but I'd give it a touch of thinned paint to tie it in with your figure colors better. I paint rocks I put on my bases as scenery for the same reason. In scale, unpainted 'real' items just look out of place. Strange but true.
Still don't let that small bit of advice detract from my general opinion of this limber - it's stunning, particularly the horses.
Oh, one additional thing. I'm going to start posting photos of my French today. These might be a treat to see since they were painted by my uncle who's a much better painter than I am.
Thanks, chaps. Allan - yes, I have bene mulling over what to do with the traces, as I can't recall what I did the last time. A brown ink wash perhaps. Looking forward to the French!
Bob, my blue/grey is not "the right shade", but for what it's worth I use Games Workshop "Shadow Grey" highlighted by "Hideous Blue" and then "Space Wolves Grey". I must admit to quite liking the effect, although it is too blue and bright.
Hello Giles,
Your horses are absolute great! Good brushwork there.
Best Regards,
Stokes
I'm glad that someome else has developed a "horse fetish"!
I started working on commanders for my OSW Imaginations and decided that they needed to look better (wealthier) than the rest. I am using "The Essential Horse" as a reference.
Nice work.
Beautiful paintwork on the horses (as well as the rest of your minis)!
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