Casualties commission #1

Commission work on Westphalian Landwehr casualties.

Sorry for the dead air but work has kept me on my toes for several weeks recently. I may have mentioned previously that I’ve taken on a couple of small commissions and I’ve been feeling guilty about not being able to make much headway on them (even though both my clients are kind enough to fully understand that slow delivery is part of the “deal” with me). So, to assuage that feeling, I’ve knuckled down and got well and truly stuck into both pieces of work. The first one is for three Calpe Miniatures Westphalian Landwehr infantry casualties (one for each battalion, so different coloured shoulder straps on each figure). I’ve completed the basic paint job on the first two and e-mailed a photograph to my client (see the picture above). These ones are ready for varnishing but before I do that, they both come with seperate caps and muskets that require painting and the third figure is still on the painting desk. Nevertheless, I’m pleased with the progress.

For those of you interested in historical uniform details, the distinctive colour for the Westphalian region was green which I’ve painted here using a basecoat of Vallejo Black Green (980), a first highlight of Vallejo Flat Green (968) and second highlight of Vallejo SS Cam. Bright Green (833). I didn’t want a green that was too garish yet I wanted one that was still bright enough to stand out a little – I think it’s turned out well and I want to credit Toby Thornton for this particular recipe. Landwehr infantry regiments usually used different coloured shoulder straps to identify each battalion. So, for these figures, red represents the second battalion and yellow represents the third battalion. I’ve got to paint the other figure with white shoulder straps to represent the first battalion. Some landwehr infantry had fourth battalions that would normally have sported light blue shoulder straps, which I think would have been a rather fetching combination with a green collar.

The other commission I’ve got in progress is for a set of Calpe Miniatures Pommeranian line infantry command figures – so plenty of Prussian blue, grey and white there. I’ll add some photos of those as they progress too.