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.

Kitbag: it’s a start

You might notice a new Kitbag link in the tabs at the top of BfK. This is the start of a page to provide details of the paint and equipment I use. I’ve been considering sharing this sort of information for quite a while but been too lazy to get the job done. A recent thread on the General de Brigade forums about what paints to use for Prussian blue reminded me that these sorts of questions come up over and over again. So I thought it would be more efficient to tackle answers to the recurring questions in one place where it can be referenced easily.

As yet, this page is far from complete. Not least because there are several things I’d still like to add to it as well as a few photos to liven up the text. But also because I suspect BfK readers will have their own ideas for what should be included. You know who you are, usual suspects; and you know how to post your comments.