Home from Colours 2009

Uniforms of Waterloo (Blandford Press, London, 1974)

As I suspected, despite the title above, I was too tired to complete this post on Sunday evening. My feet are still aching from going up and down all the stairs in the venue! Something that isn’t aided by the fact that we did a four-hour family dog walk and blackberry picking outing on Saturday.

My overall impression of Colours this year is that attendance was slightly down but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – either for visitors or traders. The games and trade stands were easier to get at and more comfortable to stay at making for a more pleasant experience and, according to some traders I spoke to, encouraging more actual purchasing.

As usual, my companion around the show was Peter F. and the latest news from Calpe Towers is that the first moulds for Saxon artillery pieces have been made and I’ve now got a couple of these highly distinctive items in my possession. I’m too stretched to photograph them for you now but that delight will follow in due course. Peter’s also working on the Saxon grenadiers to complement the already released musketeers and then artillery crew will follow. The other photo-worthy item is Peter’s entry in the painting competition that came a creditable second in its class – I’ll have a nice picture of that for you soon too.

The demo games were of variable standard and there wasn’t much new or exciting to report from the trade stands yet, despite this lack of excitement, I still really enjoyed the day and picked up a couple of bits and pieces that I’d been after for a while or that had been recommended. I got some 100mm wire pikes for cutting down as landwehr cavalry lances; on Peter Royle’s recommendation via Peter F., I got yet another type of white paint to try (more of that on another occasion); and I acquired some very neat castings of wooden barrels and buckets from Antenociti’s Workshop – these are destined to grace some artillery and command bases.

I also learnt a lesson about striking while the iron is hot (or rather, failing to do so). I saw a second-hand copy of the Blandford Press book Uniforms of the Retreat from Moscow on one of the booksellers’ stands but rather than snaffle it there and then I opted to see what else I might find elsewhere and return later. Of course, the inevitable happened and another eagle-eyed shopper had purchased the book by the time I returned. Never mind, I was forced to console myself with a copy of Uniforms of Waterloo from the same publisher instead. While it’s true that these old Blandfords contain quite a few errors and modern research has superdeded them they are still useful and many of the colour plates are lovely little works of art.

So that brings to a close this year’s visits to wargaming shows for me and, as Autumn begins, I can turn attention to painting again on the cooler evenings. Plus I’ve got a weekend of sculpting and mould making lessons to look forward to at Calpe Towers in a few weeks time.

Painting Miniatures by Danilo Cartacci

Painting Miniatures by Danilo Cartacci

I don’t paint larger scale miniatures but I do appreciate the artistry of those who work at 54mm and above. I also think that although the tools and techniques for 28mm miniatures are different, there’s often much to learn and admire from those people who create such display case masterpieces.

One of the most celebrated such artists (and I choose that word deliberately) is the Italian painter Danilo Cartacci who, among other things, is the virtual house painter for Pegaso Models. His creations have won shelf-fuls of awards at international shows for many years and I’m delighted to say that he often chooses Napoloenic subjects. In 2007, Auriga Publishing published Danilo’s book Painting Miniatures in English, Italian and (I think) German editions. The print run was limited but that only enhanced the sought-after status of the book and it’s currently out of print. However, I was recently able to acquire a mint condition copy of the English language edition and it now has pride of place as my favourite bedside reading / eye candy.

The book is an A4 softback of over 120 pages and Danilo takes a logical route through how he tackles many of the most demanding aspects of figure painting – flesh, clothing, metallics, uniform markings, chivalry, flags, natural materials like leather and fur and horses. Each section is generously illustrated with step by step colour photographs and precise details of the paints, brushes and other materials or tools used. No secrets are held back. Choices of paints, brushes, tools, putties. lighting are all discussed in detail and the last 20-odd pages are given over to a breathtaking gallery of completed works.

Throughout, the production values, design and photography in the book put other hobby titles to shame. If I have one criticism, it’s that some of the translation from Italian to English gets me scratching my head. But it doesn’t take too long to work out that “veils” should have ben translated as “washes” and so on.

Hopefully a reprint will be on the cards so that more people can enjoy and learn from this Italian master.

Summerfield free sample extracts

Following on from my last post, you’ll probably know that Dr. Stephen Summerfield is an occasional commenter here at BfK. After I mentioned the publication of his two new Prussian books, we had some e-mail correspondence which has resulted in what I hope will prove to be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Stephen sent me final drafts of both books and offered to let me choose a short extract from each to make available for people to see here at BfK with his and the publisher’s consent. I’m not going to disguise that this is something of a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back” thing but I’m also hoping that this will also perform a public service for those of you who are considering adding either or both of these two volumes to your bookshelves and would like a sneak preview of them before deciding to part with hard earned cash. I know there’s a fair degree of curiosity already because questions about both books have already started to appear over at TMP.

If things go as intended, you’ll get an advance view of what the books are like, Stephen and his publisher will pick up some publicity / sales and I’ll get a boost to BfK’s traffic and reputation.

So the only remaining difficulty was to choose which extracts to ask Stephen to let me have. I’ve spent the last couple of evenings mulling this over rather like the proverbial kid in a sweet shop and it’s been a tough choice so forgive me if I haven’t picked extracts of direct interest to you. I confess that in the end I allowed my own selfish motiviations to drive my choice. As regular readers will know, I’m gradually trying to paint up the units of Borstell’s 5th brigade so I’ve chosen extracts relevant to that:

• From Volume 1: the 1st Pommeranian Regiment (IR2)
• From Volume 2: the 2nd Reserve Infantry Regiment

These extracts are PDF files and also include the Tables of Contents for each volume.

Both books are published by and available from Partizan Press which is a part of Caliver Books. So all that remains to say is “thank you” to Stephen and to Dave Ryan at the publishers for giving permission for these extracts to be made available here.

New Prussian books

New book by Stephen Summerfield

Just a quick heads up to let you know that Dr. Stephen Summerfield’s two new books on the Prussian army have been published by Partizan Press. Firstly there’s Prussian Regular & Guard Infantry 1808-1840 Vol 1: Line & Guard 1808-1814, which is a 210-page hardback with over 140 colour illustrations of flags and uniforms. Secondly, there’s Prussian Regular & Guard Infantry 1808-1840 Vol 2: Jäger, Reserve, Freikorps & New Regiments 1813-1840, also weighing it at 210-pages in hardback.

Both books are priced at £29.50 from Caliver Books. I know that Stephen has been working on this pair for many years on and off and has had assistance along the way from several experts in the field including Peter F., Peter Hofschroer and Oliver Schmidt. So, while I haven’t yet seen them myself, I feel pretty confident that these have every chance of proving to be the definitive English-language works on the subject.