French line foot artillery (6)

This the French Napoleonic caisson made by Westfalia Miniatures, with a Foundry artilleryman.  I've posted some stuff from Westfalia Miniatures before (which can be found with this new label).  They produce a variety of off-beat Napoleonic figures and equipment, including a new later-war Saxon range.  This caisson is just the thing to have behind a battery of French guns.  It comes in about 10 different metal bits and, in the absence of any diagram or instructions, is a bit fiddly to put together.  I had to rely on photos opf the completed model to work out where the bits went.  Even so, I still found two pieces left over which I cannot place at all.  That said, once you see where (almost) everything goes it doesn't take long to glue together.

I had a think about what figures, if any, to add to the caisson.  I originally thought about a couple of wounded Frenchmen, but then realised that a gunner fetching ammunition would be much more appropriate. So I used an artilleryman from a Foundry gun crew set I painted in August 2010.  I originally based this chap on his own separate base (the Foundry pack has 6 figures and I only base 4 with a gun).  I had meant to order another pack, but forgot and so decided just to plonk this figure into the base.  I like the way the pole on the caisson rather towers above him - it looks rather menacing.

I painted the caisson while on holiday in Norfolk for a week at the beginning of the month.  I had never taken painting stuff on holiday before, but I realised I wouldn't need more than 4 paints to do the caisson and a couple of other French cannon pieces.   To recap on the paints used:  for the artilleryman - Foundry palette "French Blue 65" with a final highlight of Foundry "Deep Blue 25B; for the woodwork of the caisson -  base coat of Vallejo "Yellow Green" mixed with plain black, then first highlight of  "Yellow Green" and second highlight of "Yellow Green" mixed equally with Vallejo "Dark Yellow".  I did actually paint the inside in a nice pale wood colour, but the top is glued shut so that was a total waste of time!  While we're discussing paints, in case anyone is interested, I paint my bases with an undercoat of GW "Steel Legion Drab" (formerly known as "Graveyard Earth") and then highlight first with Foundry "Base Sand 10B" and then with Foundry "Boneyard 9C".  I've always made my bases quite bright, for a couple of reasons.  First, I like my figures to "pop out" and brighter bases help that to happen.  Secondly, unless you're in a forest or mud, ground colours are always lighter than you think, especially when viewed from a distance.

Westfalia Miniatures are available in the UK from Empress Miniatures, although I placed an order with the company direct without any problem (that was when they were based in Europe - I think they've moved to Canada now, so postage may well be quite a lot more now).  This caisson costs £8.  Foundry do a very similar one for £12.  Easy decision!

A caisson and an artilleryman.  Painted August 2010 and July 2013.