Da Vinci brushes

Regular readers will know that my current preferred brand of paint brush is the Winsor and Newton Series 7 (both the normal and Miniature varieties – the latter has shorter bristles). And they’ve certainly served me well. The problem I’ve started to notice recently is a lack of consistency so I’ve got a hankering to try out something different.

After a bit of research and asking around, I’ve narrowed down my selection to a German manufacturer called Da Vinci. In particular, the Maestro Series 10 range. As with the W&N brushes, these are Kolinsky sable and really intended as watercolour brushes but the fact that I dilute my acrylic paints means that they’re suitable for me.

The only difficulty is that these Da Vinci brushes seem to be even harder to locate at a high street art shop than the W&N Series 7s. And the online art supplier I usually use, Ken Bromley, doesn’t stock them. So that’s called for even more research. I tried e-mailing the address that the Da Vinci website provides for its agent in the UK but haven’t yet had a reply. So if anybody knows of “real world” art shops that stock them, please let me know.

In the meantime, I’ve looked for online suppliers and found three in the UK (but I expect there are others): GreatArt, Jackson’s and Ziggy Art. All three suppliers seem much of a muchness and while there are marginal differences in the prices for the actual brushes, I’ve discovered it’s stock availability and the cost of postage that swing the deal. Ziggy Art won out but I can easily see that one of the others might offer a better overall deal another time. When you’re buying this quality of brush, you tend only to order small quantities so the postage cost becomes a more significant factor and that’s why I’d like to locate a shop where I can buy the brushes over the counter. Not to mention the fact that you get to inspect the goods before buying them.

Experience has taught me that brush sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer: one man’s Size 0 is another man’s Size 1! So I’ve opted order a sample of one 0 one 3/0 and one 5/0 to get an idea of what might suit me best.

So now it’s a case of waiting for the postie.

I made it!

I might always miss the painting deadlines I set myself but today I hit the deadline for delivering my Wargames Illustrated article about building a late Napoleonic Prussian wargames army. Dan will be pleased (I hope).

It’s been a bit of an up-and-down experience. Some parts just flowed really easily while others were smelly socks that I kept putting off until the end. I’m glad I made a solid outline plan at the start though otherwise the thing had potential to take on a life of its own. The thing I found hardest was to remember that it’s supposed to be an introductory article which brought two challenges. Firstly, I couldn’t assume the reader has familiarity with terms and facts that I take for granted. Secondly, and almost an opposite consideration, I had to resist the temptation of going off into too much detail in any specific area.

So I hope I’ve struck a balance – I’m sure Dan will tell me if he wants any changes plus I’ve asked Peter F. to cast an eye over it so I know I’ll get some useful expert feedback from that direction. All being well, the article is still scheduled to appear in the September 2009 issue.

If that works out, I’m going to try to tempt Dan with an analogous article about the Saxon army.

Down to work

Saxon officer work-in-progress.

The trials and tribulations of my various palette experiments are complete so there are no remaining excuses for not starting on the job to paint up my first Calpe Saxon battalion. I’m beginning with the 1st battalion of the Prinz Friedrich August regiment – that means green facings and yellow metal buttons.

I’m going to ease into things by working on just a couple of figures at a time to begin with and then scale up to doing a company at a time (i.e. eight figures). I’ve aleady posted a photo of the white trousers on one musketeer, so I thought I’d show you something a little more colourful this time. The second figure I’m working on is an officer. There are several interesting uniform features of note with this chap.

Firstly, the colour of the metal buttons (white or yellow) was used as a distinction between the Prinz Friedrich August regiment and the other regiment with green facings (the Prinz Clemens regiment). But buttons weren’t the only metal parts of the uniform that followed this convention. The officers’ epaulettes and the tulip-shaped plume holder on the shako were also in the regimental button colour. Note that the chinscales on the shako were always brass, regardless of regiment. Yellow metalwork on the figure pictured is painted with Vallejo Flat Earth, Brass and Gold.

Secondly, the shako cover. The Saxons had their own distinctive shako covers (more about these another time) but when supplies were short (as they often were on 1813) the Saxons used French ones. These were the linen-coloured ones with the earflaps that could be tied up. The officer I’m painting at the moment has this latter style and though the upward fold of the earflaps is hidden behind the chinscales, Peter F. has sculpted the ties behind the plume holder. I’ve painted the shako cover using a palette of Vallejos: Flat Earth, Ochre Brown, Yellow Ochre, Buff and Ivory.

Thirdly, the coat. Officers had the choice between wearing the distinctively Saxon blue-grey surtout of the normal white uniform jacket with lapels, cuff and collar in the regimental facing colour. The surtout was more practical but also made officers easier for the enemy to spot. The officer I’m painting is in the white jacket. For the green facings I’ve used Vallejo Black Green, Deep Green (I love this colour) and Intermediate Green.

Lastly, the trousers. There are plenty of options here. Sometimes officers wore white breeches but they also worn overalls in grey or the same grey-blue as the surtout. These overalls often had a stripe down the outside in the regimental facing colour. The figure I’m painting has the stripe sculpted on which makes it nice and easy to paint. I opted for colourful blue-grey overalls using Vallejo Prussian Blue and Blue Grey with a final highlight of Sky Blue. The picture here makes the effect look a much brighter blue than it is in real life.

There’s not too much left to do to complete this figure: hands, sword and some work on the turnbacks (with their fiddly buttons and piping).

Saxon painting notes now available

Just a brief note to say that I’ve now updated the Calpe website to include details of the painting notes for Saxon musketeers and grenadiers. Peter F. has also got in new stock of the Peter Bunde Brigade plates I mentioned last time. The four plates effectively cover all eight line infantry regiments and the four converged grenadier battalions.

So nobody’s got any excuses not to paint their new Saxon accurately now, have they