Happy New Year!

Hoi,

A short post to tell you guys I am finally gearing up for war in earnest here. I have managed to sort out the British and Allied troops I already own and this resulted in a major scare because I am seriously lacking in marching British (and thus Portuguese)  troops. But for now I will start with the  3 units of Wallace's brigade standing in firing-line. As you can see from the photo below, I have converted some Revell Brits with HäT spare heads in order to create some diversity in the line.

One of the biggest pro's with doing this is that you can alter the pose by turning the heads and that creates a more natural looking situation.
Normally I would use Pattex powergel to stick the figures on, but instead I used Valejo plastic filler. This has the positive effect of filling the gaps left between head and collar and that's good for a better fit but also a better look.

It will take me quite some time to get these chaps painted there being an odd 80 or so, therefore I will let you know when there's something to show!

Cheers Sander

9 months have gone and passed...

Hoi,

As is the destiny of this blog it has taken me about 9 months before I have been able to get the project to the next level. The last two weeks I have  been off from work and thus I took out the diorama and gave the plates their final layers of paint. The paint used are two colours of Valejo textured paint. I started out with Brown Earth and dry-brushed it with Desert Sand.
Now I just have a few spots to touch up and than I will have to decide whether I want to put on a layer of gloss varnish to help protect the surface.

 Well without further ado, here are the pictures.

An overview of the entire table:

A look from the Allied left flank upon the French position:

A look from the French position (upon the hill) down to the Allied position:

The upper half of this picture shows the position of the British Artillery, upon the heights and in the lower left corner there will be a clash of French and Portuguese cavalry.

Cheers Sander 

Next phase: Priming!

The project is entering the next phase in it's development: priming of the plates! Some days ago the weather was finally good and dry enough for me to basecoat all the dio plates with Rat Fur primer from Armypainter. Sadly I had used up all my primer (3 spraycans!) with 1,5 plates still to go...
Oh well, I guess I need to go to the shop for a new one then ;-)

I took a lot of pictures but most are overexposed, so I only have 2 more or less decent ones to show you guys:

Cheers Sander

Landscaping: a good start of 2014!

Hoi,

Let's start with wishing you all the best for 2014! If 2013 has been rather slow, progress in 2014 is off with a bang. I have managed to put some muck on the diorama modules. This is a mix of wall-plaster, white wood glue and modelling grit. 

This left the plates looking pretty much like this:

Not bad at all, but they had some unnatural straight lines made by my painter's knife during the application of the muck. Which I sanded off before finishing the plates with a layer of thick gloss varnish.

When all plates were supplied with some varnish, which I applied to make sure that the plaster-mixture is less sponge-like, one of the plates had dried enough for a test-layer of spraypaint. I am using Army painter Rat Fur for this and due to lighting problems it looks a lot more reddish in the pictures then it does in real life.

The whole lot drying in their cases:

For highlighting the plates I have obtained a pot of Valejo desert colour structure paint, which I am anxious to apply and see the result of but time is the enemy here!
  
That's it again for today's update!

Cheers Sander

An update: finally!

Hoi,

As usual progress on the "Big Project" has been tiresomely slow! But I did find time to finish some of the 60th Rifles awaiting on my desk. Since my last post I have realised I do not need quite that much figures as I'd intended at first so I decided these to be the last Rifles I'd paint for the dio, excepting the officer which I still have to do. The remaining 10 or so Rifles I've prepared will be painted as Cazadores.

Here are the pictures of the lads. The other batch had grey trousers these rankers wear brown ones.

Here they're still mounted on sticks for ease of painting. I'll cut them off soon, but leave a little wire attached to the feet in order to secure them to the modules firmly.

Cheers Sander

diorama base here we come!

Hello!

Since updates on this blog don't pop up too often I'd like to bring you a bombshell each time they do! So here are some pictures of the modular plates the diorama will consist of.

First up a birds' view of the lot:

Next a side shot with some 1:72 figures for scale reference

Then a picture with the plates and the travelling casettes to the right:

And last a picture of the modules in their casettes.

All the work has been done by Hans of waterama fame http://www.historyinminiature.nl/ who has done them exactly after my "instructions" the final details I'll have to do myself and then the great "placing of figures will start!"

Hans you're the best!

Cheers Sander

3rd Hussars

As I predicted progress on the Big Project is tiresomely slow. Other smaller projects crop up continuously and keep me from proceeding.

I did manage these testers of the French 3rd Hussars which came into action with some regiments of Chasseurs a Cheval against the Portuguese and German cavalry accompanying Pakenham's attack.The figures used are of course Italeri's French Hussars and Revells Chasseurs de Garde.

I´d say keep an eye on this spot in the future, but I cannot garantee an update soon so...

Cheers Sander

Some chaps finished!

Hoi There,

Finally I have managed to finish the first section of the 60th Rifles for the diorama. These chaps all have blue-grey trousers, the next batch will have brown ones. I tried to paint some patches on them to give them a campaign-dress look.

To the left are all the finished chaps.

Right you can see a close-up including the sarge.










I hope to post some more news soon!

Cheers Sander

First WIP pictures!

As predicted progress on this project is rather slow. I wish it would be otherwise... Experience gained over the recent years has taught me that you'd best start new projects after finishing the ones on the workbench. Still some small odds and ends will clutter your desk and so it is with mine. Currently I am finishing a wargames unit of Napoleonic Highlanders from Art-Miniaturen  http://www.wargaming.de/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.wargaming.de/index.html but I have also prepared the first figures to be painted for my Salamanca Project. These are some 50 troopers of the 60th Rifles. About 4 to 5 companies of this regiment were seconded to the 3rd Division to enhance it's skirmish line. The chaps will be paired up and put in front of the firing line together with some cacadores (when or rather if I get mini's for those) and the light companies of Wallace's brigade.
The first picture shows how I prepped the larger part of the 50 men: on thin wire without their bases as I will be pinning them to the modular landscape tiles eventually.

An attempt to a close up ;-)

The figures are of course Revells excellent set of 95th Rifles http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=318 I really dislike the last set of the same regiment done by Italeri http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1061 due to the fact they are far too large but also because some of the poses which are downright silly and the dis-proportion of some of the rifles compared to the soldiers handling them. Gladly I have an adequate supply of Revell's chaps :-)

Cheers Sander

Custom Gaming table!

Hoi All!

Today's update brings you some pictures of my custom-made gaming table. It features shelves to store rulebooks and drawers for dice and other accessories and two cupboards for my terrain. I got the idea from this blog:                 http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com/ 


An uncle of mine is a pensioned furniture-maker (antiquary) and made this entirely by hand according to my wishes. The tabletop measures 151 x 151 cm on the inside in order to receive my 150 x 150 Salamanca diorama when finished. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Cheers Sander