Too busy to post

The surviving Ordinarfahne of the von Niesemeuschel regiment

Most of October seems to have slipped by since the last time I posted anything new. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy and it certainly doesn’t mean that the rest of the world has been idle either.

Barry and Clarence, as you may have noticed from a recent comment here on BfK, are now on the very cusp of publishing the Republic to Empire rules. Apparently the proofs are back from the printers, the presses are rolling and pre-orders will be available within a week.

Also, I seem to be in a modicum of demand. Rosemary of Rosemary and Co. has been in contact with me and we’ve had a very civilized correspondence. I’ve heard from several other painters that Rosemary makes excellent brushes at VFM prices so it was a pleasure to hear from her directly. I now have several review samples of her Kolinsky sable brushes that I’m going to try out over the coming weeks and review here.

So just what have I been up to? Well, mostly, I’ve been digging into the arcane mysteries of 1813 Saxon line infantry flags. You may recall that, in my review of the GMB 1811 Saxon flags, I mentioned that the history of what happened to these flags in the 1812 campaign and how the lost ones were replaced in 1813 was very complex. Well, it certainly was! But I think that a joint effort by Grahame Black, Peter F, me and a couple of our correspondents (thanks to Andrew Brentnall and von Winterfeldt) means that we’ve almost got to the bottom of it. And I know (again from another comment here at BfK) that Grahame has almost got the 1813 sets ready for release. So expect to see those reviewed here in the near future too. At that point, I might also share the results of our research and add it to the Saxon Army Resources page. But in the meantime, as a taster, the photo at the top of this post is of one of the flags that survives to this day.

3/0 brushes side-by-side

Da Vinci and W&N 3/0 brushes.

Before I dip ‘em in paint, I thought I’d record the virgin state of my sample 3/0 (AKA 000) Da Vinci brush alongside the same size of Winsor and Newton brush. The Da Vinci brush is the top one in the picture above though you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference between them if they didn’t have the makers’ brands printed on the handles in gold lettering. Visually, they are remarkably similar – both with highly polished black handles, shiny nickel ferrules and almost indistinguishable tips. The Da Vinci is perhaps a fraction heavier with a slightly fatter and longer handle.

Pricewise, I suspect that the Da Vinci brushes are less expensive than the W&N ones but it depends on where and when you buy them. Of course, the final reckoning will come when I actually wield the Da Vinci brushes in anger.

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.

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!?