Gilding the lily

Customized figure with bandage close-up.

Here’s a quiet little heresy: even the new Calpe Saxon musketeers with their 50+ different individual figure poses leave me with a hankering for more variety. Alright, they do provide (more than) enough variety but everybody else can have that variety too. I’m after something unique, individual, special…

So I’ve decided to customize some of the figures – Peter F. won’t mind because that’s how he started out on the slippery slope to full-blown figure sculpting. I’ve chosen the word customizing with care because that’s what I see myself as doing rather than converting. All I intend to do is add a few touches here and there that give me distinctive figures or, more precisely, a unit of figures that’ll have a distinctive appearance. And to get the ball rolling, I’ve started with an experimental figure that I intend to use for a very special purpose (which will remain secret for the next few weeks).

If you want to play along at home, there are a few things you’ll need:

• Extreme patience and an excellent sense of humour because modelling putty has a mind of its own!
• A figure to butcher. I chose a Calpe Saxon musketeer officer from Pack SM9.
• Various implements for cutting, pushing and generally bending putty to your will. So far I’ve used a scalpel, cocktail sticks and pins plus a pencil as a rolling pin.
• A little pot of water to keep your implements wet so that they don’t stick to the putty.
• Talc which came in hand when I was trying to roll out flat sheets of putty without the pencil sticking to them.
• A flat surface. I used a cutting matt.
• A paintbrush. Any old brush will serve so don’t use your best Winsor and Newtons, Da Vincis or Raphaels for this. It’s for positioning bits of putty accurately and brushing it with water to achieve a smooth finish.
• Good lighting. As good as you use for painting.
• Last, and by no means least, putty. More of which in a moment.

Next, a disclaimer: I’m a novice sculptor so anything I say here is based on my very limited experience and numerous cock-ups. But hopefully, my schoolboy errors and how I’m learning to cope with them might prove entertaining if not instructive. Peter F. has offered to give me some guidance and encouraged me to give it a go so I thought I’d get stuck in and then have something concrete to take back to the master for critique.

The one really good piece of advice Peter F. did give me was about putty. I’ve messed about with Kneadatite Duro “green stuff” before – mostly as a sort of epoxy adhesive / filler when I’ve drilled and pinned arms and heads on to figures. I learnt from this that I find it awkward stuff to work with. It’s a bit too stiff for my tastes though other people seem to get on with with perfectly well. When I asked Peter F. about this, he let me in on the secret that a lot of sculptors mix different sorts of putty together to get something with a consistency that suits their individual style.

The clues are there when you look at Peter’s greens and compare them with those sculpted by the Perrys. Theirs are a dark green – the colour of pure green stuff; while Peter F.’s are a lighter pea green (for want of a better description). The reason is that Peter F. mixes green stuff with white Sylmasta A+B putty. Both green stuff and A+B are two-part epoxy puttys so if you have sensitive skin you ought to take the precaution of wearing latex gloves when working with them and don’t put the putty in your mouth. I’m not sure of the ratios Peter F. uses for his recipe or how he actually mixed them together but here’s what I did.

First, I rolled out four equal sized small balls of the component parts of the puttys – one of each of the materials, if you see what I mean. Then I thoroughly mixed up the two parts of the green stuff; followed by doing the same for the two parts of the A+B. Lastly I rolled the two piece of putty into sausages, twisted them together and kneaded throughly until I had an even-coloured green mixture. This 50-50 mix was much easier for me to work with and reminded me of the plasticine that I used to play with when I was a nipper.

Once I’d done that, I set about making some embellishments to the figure. I started gently by adding a rectangular repair patch to the shako cover; then I got a bit braver and added piping to the outside seams of the trousers and finally I decided to attempt to add a bandage around the figure’s left knee. I thought that this last challenge was going to be the toughest because I’d struggled to get the piping just right. However, the bandage worked out best of the three. I think that’s partly because I learnt quickly through practice and got the hang of working the material. Also, when it came to the bandage, I realized that I needed a planned approach and made it in four separate stages: the main bandage, a ball for the knot and two “ears” hanging down as the ends of the bandage.

I’m actually rather pleased with this first attempt and I’m certainly motivated to try some more. So my imagination has already turned to other sorts of customization I might attempt: bandages over one eye, rolled up trouser legs, ripped trouser bottoms, various repair patches, neckerchiefs… What sorts of things can you think of?

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).

Getting your whites right and other chores

The now-famous Andrea white paint set.

June is always a hectic month at BfK HQ but this year seems more frenzied than ever. On top of the usual family birthdays this week, I’ve been cracking on with the updates to the Calpe website, proof-reading Peter F’s painting guide for the Saxon musketeers and grenadiers, writing some more of my Wargames Illustrated article and trying to complete my paint trials in readiness for getting stuck into the job of painting up the first battalion.

The white palette trials seem as good a place to start as any. As you know, I’ve been introduced to the Andrea white paint set and I’ve now completed my experiments. It’s a dangerous temptation to have a set of six pre-mixed shades in front of you on the workbench (see photo above). After all, six colours means six layers, right? Well, I was able to resist that extreme option but I did initially go for using four out of the six colours on the trousers of a test figure. It was fun at the time but after a couple of days reflection I reached the conclusion that there wasn’t sufficient difference between each shade.

So that meant the poor test figure had to suffer the ignomy of having his trousers scrubbed clean with hot water and an old toothbrush! The second experiment was a more conventional three layer job. The base coat was the second shade colour from the set (i.e. the darkest of the six – leftmost in the photo above); the first highlight was the base colour from the set (third from the left in the photo above) and the second highlight was the third highlight colour (i.e. straight white – rightmost in the photo above). I opted for two thin layers of each colour as opposed to a single thicker layer.

Successful white trousers!

The test figure has spent most of the rest of this week being dragged round the house by me and viewed under various different light sources. And the conclusion is that I’m satisfied with the outcome. In fact, I’m more than satisfied with the whole experiment. At last I think I have three shades that work as a palette for white and all three of them come from paints that don’t go chalky. Oh yeah – look right for a photo of the results.

Reviewing Peter F’s painting guide has got me thinking about the blue palette I had previously settled on for the Saxon officers’ surtouts. Before, I’d be visualizing a sky blue as the target to aim for but Peter’s notes describe the colour as a grey-blue, the figures he is painting at the moment are definitely a grey-blue rather than a sky one and (this is the clincher) Peter Bunde’s plates for the Saxon infantry regiments also indicate a particular shade of grey-blue. A pity really, because I was pretty damned proud of the pair of officer’s trousers that I’d painted the other week. Still, all is not lost: two of the colours from my intended palette will still serve well and I’ve identified a suitable candidate for the third colour. Once I’ve re-painted the trousers of the officer in question, I’ll post details here.

A slight digression follows.

Peter F. intends to sell relevant Peter Bunde Brigade plates alongside his painting guide. If you haven’t seen these plates before, then I urge you to investigate them. Peter B. is German and therefore has easier access than many to primary research materials in German museums, archives and collections. Naturally, the fact that German is his first language also makes it easy for him to correctly interpret these sources. The result is that the Brigade plates are a stunning uniformology resource that mainly (but not exclusively) covers German states of the Napoleonic period. Each A4 plate covers one particular unit in extensive detail.

For example, the plate about the Saxon Prinz Friedrich August infantry regiment is on my desk at the moment. It illustrates the the flags carried by the two battalions; uniforms for musketeers, NCOs, sappers, musicians and officers; shako details; rank distinctions; the shabraque for mounted officers; the aforementioned grey-blue surtout; examples of campaign uniform and other details like cartridge cases and forage caps. The plate comes with a page of notes translated into English with a full list of the sources used by Peter B.

Digression over.

The last area of work this week has been the Wargames Illustrated article. I have to confess to a little procrastination on this front but I’ve got thing back on track and I’ve completed almost half of the article now. Most of what’s left is planned out and there’s only one section that I’m not particularly looking forward to because it calls for some research that feels a bit too much like exam revision for my taste. Still, I could get the thing finished next week with a solid final push. Dan’ll be pleased to hear that if he’s reading this.

PS: who spotted photos of von Peter and ADC Simon in this week’s Foundry e-mail newsletter!?

The study continues

And blanket roll

Surtout/boot tops

Front view

Left to right shots showing progress with my study. I’ve posted the leftmost one before but it’s included again as a reference point. Centre one shows trivial work on the leather tops of the boots but is mainly about the light blue surtout. This is Prussian Blue (V965) basecoat, then Medium Blue (V963), Deep Sky Blue (V844) and finally a touch of Sky Blue (V961).

The rightmost shot is simply the addition of painting the grey blanket roll. Mostly metalwork and hands left to complete this first study.