Drum and map completed

Drum and map fully painted.

After a bit of a false start, I’ve completed the first element of the work on my entry for the La Bricole Summer painting challenge. Originally, I had it in mind to paint the map green but the moment I’d finished it, I knew I’d made a awful mistake. So the whole thing needed to be redone to give the map more a sepia document style. This also made it easier to paint on a river, roads and areas of woodland in a way that would make them stand out nicely.

Thanks to those of you who made suggestions for painting the drum hoops. As you can see, I eventually went for diagonal red and white stripes. This scheme could, of course represent any one of several units from a number of nations. In my own imagination, I like to think it’s a drum from the 1st Pommeranian infantry regiment (after one of Peter Bunde’s excellent uniform plates) but it could just as easily have been abandoned by the Saxon Konig infantry regiment. Anyway, it’s on to the figures to go with this now. The first one has be prepared and primed with Vallejo grey acrylic primer (my new preferred primer of choice). So expect more progress soon!

Drum roll please

Converted Perry plastic drum.

Given that I was away on my holidays, everybody else participating in the La Bricole Summer Painting Challenge got a head start on me. Hopefully, I’ll catch up over the next couple of weeks, starting from today. When I declared my entry, I promised there there would be a couple of embellishments and here’s the first one: a moderately converted drum from the Perry plastic French infantry box. I’ve turned it into a battle-damaged and abandoned drum over which my brigade command figures have draped a map for a tactical consultation. It was pretty straightforward to realise with a bit of gluing, drilling and putty work.

So now all I have to do is decide which unfortunate unit has lost one of its drums. That choice will influence the colours I use to paint the drum hoops. Quite a lot of choices here: white and red dogtooth pattern for Prussians, white and green dogtooth for Russians, plain blue for French, plus various diagonal striped options for Austrians, Saxons and even some Prussian units. Any requests?

If at first you don’t succeed

Blimey! Almost two months since I last posted. I only spotted that tonight when I finally found the time to deal with some outstanding e-mail. How did the time pass so quickly? Well, to be honest, I know the answer to that: “real life” got in the way of hobby activities.

So thank goodness for Les Pinceaux de la Guerre over at the La Bricole forum. Robert’s announcement of the forum’s second painting challenge has come at just the right moment to re-ignite my enthusiasm coming, as it does, just when the clouds of work commitments are beginning to clear. And I’m doubly motivated because I didn’t manage to complete my entry for the first painting challenge by the deadline. This time I rate my chances of completion much more highly because the theme is diorama bases which means a much smaller number of figures to paint.

I’ve chosen to paint up a couple of brigade command bases using the Calpe French Infantry Regimental Headquarters pack (F18) as the cadre for my entry. My minimum target is to have two bases each with one foot figure and one mounted figure. If things go to schedule, I also plan a couple of extra embellishments which I’ll unveil in a week or so’s time.

If you’ve got a moment, take a look at what my fellow forum members have declared as their entries. There are some fascinating options on offer and most of the guys will be maintaining threads in the forum about their progress as well as posting on their blogs too. And that really illustrates the spirit of this challenge (notice how it doesn’t use the word “competition”) that appeals to me. We’re all in it for the honour of participating and perhaps a little collateral glory for the eventual winner but the main purpose for the entrants is to support and encourage each other and share our ideas and techniques.

So, now’s a good moment to invite you to cheer on the entrants who have so far declared their hands (my apologies in advance for not mentioning any late entries that emerge after this posting):

• French Army Morale Stand by John De Terre Neuve from Massachusettes, USA.
• In the Trenches of Cadiz by Schrumpfkopf (AKA Kawe from Berlin, Germany).
• Austrian Hussars by ArchiducCharles (AKA Iannick from Montreal, Canada).
• Uxbridge and an Onion (!) by 14th Brooklyn (AKA Burkhard from Castrop-Rauxel, Germany).
• Prussian from the Top! by Der Feldmarschall (AKA Jason from Minnesota, USA).
• Cossack Camp in 30mm Flat by Kleist (a bit of a mystery man!).
• Russian Command by figvfig (AKA Dave from Queensland, Australia).

So you can vicariously enjoy all our progress (or the lack of it) between now and the closing date at the end of September. Who knows? This may even tempt a few of you to join in.