These Blogs are coming along in threes, just like London Buses........

As promised I attache some pictures of the painted Winged Hussar along with some WIP photos of the second member of this mad project.

So I decided that I just had to have some Polish Winged Hussars and my addled brain began to process the potential difficulties of obtaining and converting suitable figures, the problems resolved themselves onto three main areas:

1. A mounted figure to use as a basis.

2. How to make and fix the wings

3. Weaponry - of which there is quite a lot.

Taking those in order, the obvious starting point foe the figure is a mounted Knight isn't it? Well I certainly thought so, they've got armour and are in the right sort of position. Therefore I got some cheap bits via ebay, and stated to study the Osprey book on the subject, and guess what, even if you want to produce a rough approximation of Polish armour you need to almost completely re-sculpt the armour. The two top pictures show this as well as the ones in the previous Blog, all I was left with was the top half of the cuirass, the rest is Milliput or Greenstuff. I used a lot of Milliput as the weight counters the top-heaviness of the completed model. The heads are from Maros in both cases. The clothing, what you can see of it and the animal skin are from Greenstuff, it all took a long time.

I pondered long and hard over the wings, and discarded a number of options before settling on this solution. The Osprey source shows that in the 1680's they were attached to the rear of the cuirass not by a series of straps as I had imagined also they were (obviously I guess) very light, so these are made from thin copper tube carefully bent to shape, with feathers from thin card fixed with impact adhesive. The feathers for each wing are made in one piece, I had thought to make individual feathers, but luckily a shaft of common sense hit my brain and things were made slightly easier. The wings are attached to the figure by sliding the copper tubes over pins that are fixed and then bent at right angles so they are vertical, this can be seen in the first pic above. A bonus of this method is that the wings can be removed and packed away as they are quite fragile.

Weapons, this started well and ended badly. The sabre if from HELMET spares as are the pistols attached to the front of the saddle, the pained model also uses our pistol holsters, the lance is brass and the pennon from painted paper. So far so good, then disaster...... The painted fig should have a long straight sword slung from the saddle under the left thigh, I just couldn't get one to fit as I left this part much too late, When I started the second model, this was one of the first jobs I tackled, see photos above - the blue feet by the way are there because on completing the armour I noticed that the Britains knight no longer looked right, mainly because one leg was about 8mm longer that the other, so major amputation and transplant surgery was necessary.

So main lessons were, research the basis figure well before spending money and starting converting, be clear from the outset how to construct the various components, and lastly make sure everything will fit together in the right order to avoid last minute frustrations.

Next I'll complete the WIP figure and make perhaps one or two more and then think about producing some Turks by way of opposition, then more War of 1812???

Comments and feedback welcome

Cheers

Eric

I guess I should entitle this Blog as "An Attack of Madness, tempered by a Return to Common Sense".

The Story So Far......................

So I got interested in the late 17th Century and started to convert some figures for the Monmouth Rebellion with a view to perhaps using them in other conflicts, such as against the Moors at Tangier and in Europe or Virginia etc etc. I found a terrific Blog which has fuelled my enthusiasm and extended the possibilities that this period can deliver, if you are at all interested click on the link http://warsoflouisxiv.blogspot.com/ it is an example of some of the better thing that the Internet has produced.

So there I was looking at wars in the 1680's when I sort of remembered the siege of Vienna in 1683 (?) and the charge of the Polish Winged Hussars, so I checked my books and found some info, but not in any great detail, I searched the web and found some more pictures and film clips, both movies and re-enactment footage, then I bought, secondhand, the Osprey book on Polish Winged Hussars, the red mist descended and I had to have a go, so the first two pictures show my first attempt, with the converting finished but the painting yet to be done. I will describe how I built this beast, what went well and what went wrong, next time...................

The next two photos show how I built some of the musket armed figures shown in the previous Blog, with another pic here as a reminder. In actual fact these two chaps are the first of my Monmouth Rebels, the construction principles remain the same, however. These two are from the Accurate AWI Militia set. I chose them for a number of reasons:

* They both have flintlocks - apparently Monmouth was fairly well supplied with these.

* They are wearing long coats, which although of the wrong design can be easily adapted to reflect the style of the 1680's.

* They are wearing breeches and stockings, so no work needed there.

They both needed to have different headgear, the one on the left had his hat cut off at forehead level and a new on added, the brim is Milliput, a flattened ball of the stuff pressed onto the flat surface left after cutting, the rest of the hat was built from greenstuff, all very simple. His colleague has a metal head made by Maros. The plastic head was removed and a hole drilled in the neck to take the metal stub on the Maros head, after a dry run to make sure everything fitted the new head was fixed with superglue. When this has dried I added a neck cloth from putty, this is historically accurate and adds strength to the join and covers any gaps.

The rest was comparatively simple the coat fronts, pockets and cuffs were fixed with Milliput, the weight of this material compensates for the top heavy metal head, and the buttons gradually built up with thick paint.

I trimmed the cape from one of the coats and also trimmed off the powder horn and made a more in-period powder flask, finally I added some greenery in the hats, which Monmouth's men used as a sort of fieldsign/badge.

That's it, next time it's the Hussar.

Cheers and take care.

Eric

This Blog is as regular and reliable as good news in the economy.

Apologies once again for the erratic and irregular postings, this has been mainly due to two factors, once again I have been made jobless, that is my normal full time employment has been "terminated due to the current economic situation", and secondly, I have had what my doctor still, with that knowing little piece of humour that endears the profession to the rest of us, the 100 day coughing virus, which leaves me feeling, well, pretty crud.

So I have been job hunting and trying to get well. Simultaneously I have embarked on yet another new period, focusing initially on what is generally known in the UK as the Monmouth Rebellion. Very briefly, this was an attempt in 1685 by the illegitimate son of Charles II, James Duke of Monmouth to bring about regime change and topple his uncle, King James II. Activities were centered in the West Country and ended after a brief campaign at the Battle of Sedgemoor where Monmouth and his army were defeated.

I chose this period because I find it of great interest personally and it is another "little war" that lends itself to re-creation in 54mm scale and there is a surprising amount of information available on the uniforms colours and organisation of the protagonists, finally the regulars as seen in these photos can, I hope be used in other theatres such as Tangier against the Moors and in Europe against the armies of other nations.

What we show above represents a company of Kirke's Regiment from the army of James II, they are mostly produced by converting A Call to Arms ECW figures, although there are some AWI models from Accurate and ECW from Replicants. Next time I will explain how the conversions were achieved and also mention some useful sources including a truly inspirational Blog which anyone interested in the period should follow.

In the meantime feedback welcomed and see you soon.

Cheers

Eric

Hi to everyone, and a happy New Year to you all.

We have had yet more technical issues so this edition has been delayed somewhat, however, here is a brief glimpse of the wargame we started on Boxing Day.

We don't get the chance to fight many games, and up until now the rules that we have made up and used resulted drawn battles and unrealistic carnage, especially annoying having spent hours painting the figures and see them blown away in seconds. So I wrote a new set, what we wanted was rules that were simple, but realistic and made us behave in ways that encouraged 19th century tactics, so far we are reasonably pleased with them, but it's early days.................

So we used all our War of 1812 figures, the British number 70 Regulars with a dozen Riflemen and a foot artillery gun, the Americans had 88 Regulars including 12 Rifles plus 4 cavalrymen and 10 Militia and a gun with crew, The scenario was set around the need to capture a cross roads with the redcoats defending and the Americans attacking in two columns. The first two pictures show some of the defenders lining a fence and occupying a ruined cabin. The idea behind these Brits is to also use them in Peninsular War battles, as soon as Hat release their forthcoming French light infantry.

The long haired kid is my son, Jonny, here commanding the US forces with more dash and aggression than normal. The last two photos show the two American attack columns the first is a mixed force of Regulars, Marines and Militia, the second is made up of two complete companies of the 18th Infantry following their colours and general.

The first few moves saw the US artillery consistently miss it's targets, and the boldly advancing Militia fire a volley and then retreat with alacrity! The US Regulars met with greater success, and although taking casualties as they advanced (our new rules say that no-one can move and fire in the same move - so you have to take calculated risks around gaining ground or causing casualties) forced the British Riflemen to retreat and threatened to outflank the British line.

More next time

Cheers

Eric

Hello again to all those out there in toy soldier land, here we go with another Blog. Before I describe the pictures I'd like to mention a couple of points. Firstly a huge thank you to all those who mailed in comments after the last Blog, they were a good mix of the positive and the critical, and hopefully I shall bask in the glory of the former and reflect and take action on the latter, as I said I'd like this to be as interactive as possible, so please write in.

The second item is a reflection on the current state of our hobby. As HELMET Soldiers we attended the London Toy Soldier Show yesterday, and although attendance was good our takings were very poor and all the other dealers I spoke with had a similar experience. There were plenty of orange carrier bags around so hopefully Steve Weston had a good day, however the cost of hiring two tables, and paying for petrol and car parking meant that we barely covered our costs, I guess we'll have to have a good long think about the number of shows we plan to attend in 2009, but we won't be giving up yet.

Some of the feedback I received last time asked for a more detailed description of the conversion, so I show a photo of a completed American Militia officer, War of 1812 vintage, prior to painting. The tools and equipment used were a sharp hobby knife, some brass wire, superglue, a small electric drill ( not critical but very useful) and greenstuff modelling putty. I chose a Replicant mule handler as the basis for the conversion and did the following nasty things, cut off his head and left hand and removed the whip from his right. I carefully re-carved two small sections of fringing after the whip had gone, and drilled a hole through the hand where the whip had been big enough to take a musket, and, as it's best to complete all fixing first, I also drilled a hole in the neck and the left wrist.

The new head is from a CTS Mexican round hat cavalryman, and the hand holding the pistol is off an Accurate American Revolution militiaman. These are then drilled in the neck and wrist respectively to take short lengths of brass wire. As this type of plastic is technically unbonbable as there is no solvent, joins have to be pinned and glued, so the new head and hand are fixed to the superglued wire and pressed home firmly. I the glued a HELMET French musket into the hole in the right hand. I then set the figure aside for the glue to set.

Next I mixed a small amount of putty. Greenstuff comes in yellow and blue strips and must be mixed to a consistent green colour to become a sticky putty. I wrapped two short sausages of the stuff one around the neck and the other around the left wrist, I then sculpted a new collar and cuff to the hunting shirt, this also strengthens the glued join. I put a blob of putty on the crown of the hat which I carved to the shape of a top hat with the side of my knife, and made a cockade on the left hand side with a tiny flattened ball of greenstuff, I made a sash with trailing ends and a knot from a "snake" of putty and carved in creases and fringes with my knife. Finally I added a pouch on his right hip from a short crossbelt all out of putty although the photo does not show this clearly, the picture does show all the different parts including the greenstuff, believe it's much easier to describe than to do.

OK, a quick romp through the other photos. First some English Civil War dragoons from Replicant and ACTA pieces converted pretty much as above but with new metal muskets instead of plastic.

Next some Napoleonic British marines, I have a habit of prequelling new release by laboriously converting stuff just prior to someone releasing some in ready made form and these are another example, The officer is the old Aifix figure with missing crossbelt replaced and a new Timpo head, the next two are Replicant Austrians with new heads and slight changes to uniform details, the last ids the old Replicant marine firing upwards, altered to a more normal firing position by cutting at the waist and re-fixing at a different angle ad resculpting the jacket and crossbelts in greenstuff.

Finally some French Old Guard. The first four from the left are metal figures from Irregular, in my opinion, (FWIW) I think these are great models, all I've done is add a bayonet to the fourth man from the left. They are joined by two from the slightly disappointing set by Airfix with full dress plumes and cords added to the bearskins to match the Irregular models.

That's all for now, all comments, questions and feed back encouraged!!!!

Cheers

Eric

There you thought the effort two weeks ago was just a flash in the pan, eh? Well here we are then, two in a row. We've just come in from the garden where we took the pictures, and pretty cold it is too! More War of 1812 stuff I'm afraid, I'm going to carry on with this until the end of the year and then start or return to something different for 2009. We are planning a wargame with the 1812 forces probably on Boxing Day, we'll take some pictures during the battle and if they are any good we'll publish the entire story on this Blog.

Before I get to the boring bit and describe the photos, I'd like to make a plea for feedback, apart from a few of you, Ken, Gary, Mike and Bill, hardly anyone leaves comments, questions or even abuse. This is a funny old hobby and there aren't many of us across the world that share this strange common interest, so let's get communicating then! This old world wide web thingy is an amazing vehicle for linking people together, to share ideas and news, most of the information I have been able to gather, I initially garnered from the Internet, especially on the American forces, militia in particular. Helpful people from the other side of the pond from Surrey, England were generous with information and support and I would not have embarked on this particular conflict without their help. Let's keep "talking" to each other, so please leave a comment or ask a question............................Rant over.

So a quick run through the photos.

First up some US infantry, sorry the photo is so dark, but stick with it. We tried to photo the whole lot together, 2 companies each of 20 men plus officer NCO and drummer, but the picture didn't work somehow, so you have this one with the chaps advancing into shadow. The mounted officer is something of a Frankenstein monster, his body apart from right arm is Historex, the arm in question and sword are HELMET, the hat is from a Prince August metal casting and the horse is from Italeri.

The following two pics are the finally completed British infantry company that I plan to use both in North America and in the Peninsular. So as per our rules there are the usual 20 men officer sergeant and drummer. The officer seem previously on a Blog near here is Barzo with Historex upper works, the drummer has Marx legs, a Timpo drum. all the rest are HELMET parts. Th idea of using different legs was to produce a figure slightly shorter than hos colleagues, in the event a miscalculation meant that he ended up as tall as everyone else ho hum!

Lastly two British light dragoons, officer and trumpeter. These are both unashamedly HELMET through and through. I made them to lead the new Italeri figures which are musician and leader less, it seemed a good way to impart some variety into the unit, now all I have to do is paint the unit.

So remember be good and hope that Santa is taking notice and is already thinking of leaving something special under the tree for you to open on Christmas morning. I'm hoping so too.

Let's keep in touch, thanks and take care

Eric

Well, as they say, rumours of my death have been exaggerated. I know that it has been a long time since we published a blog, but I do have excuses, of a sort anyway. Firstly having re-entered the world of full time employment has meant that running the soldier business has had to take a back seat, so even more annoyingly has actually converting and painting, but here are the latest efforts, more details below...... Secondly we were burgled, they got into the house whilst we were asleep, got wallets, keys and other small items including the takings from one of the shows we attended and also stole our cars from the front drive, so we have had a lot of replacing activities of a security and vehicular nature, bastards!

Also I'd like to thank those who commented favourably on HELMET in the Littlewars chat room group especially Mike Blake and Gary, thanks guys I'll reply to you off-blog personally, it meant a lot. OK emotional stuff to one side, for those that have stayed with me so far, here's the chat about the pics. First up, three Brits from the War of 1812, the privates are HELMET and the officer is a Barzo figure with a Historex head., I chose him because he has the long coat-tails of the pre 1812 regulations. The private taking a cartridge from his pouch was something of an experiment, I wanted to see if I could change the pose through re-positioning his legs, so when I was gluing him to the metal washer in the usual way (with superglue) I held his legs together until the glue set, you can see the difference by comparing the result with the guy next to him biting the cartridge, not bad when considering these started as the same figure.

Next photo shows some of the 4th Foot, all have HELMET heads replacing the originals, the first if the old Airfix officer who famously has the cross-belt that disappears when it reaches his back, I solved this omission with greenstuff. The next two are ACTA Belgians with trouser extensions (?) and enlarged backpacks, lastly two Replicant British Royal Marines with extra equipment added.

Pic 3 shows some US Riflemen, all have converted HELMET heads. The first from the left is an Accurate AWI Militiaman with legs from an ACTA Napoleonic British Guardsman's legs pinned and glued. The officer is that strange and useless Confederate by Accurate again, who has his left arm and sniper rifle carved away and replaced by the lower fart of the arm from the officer in the Timpo Highlander set, one of our swords and a greenstuff sash - job done! Next up is the torso and upper legs of a CTS chap in hunting shirt firing from horseback, I pinned and glued more legs from ACTA Brit Guards and added a haversack and waterbottle. The last figure is a quick conversion of a Marx remoulded pioneer, picked up from a rummage box at a recent show.

The final two pictures show the first colour party that I've done for the War of 1812. All are sergeants with slightly altered HELMET heads .The man with the buff regimental colour is a BMC Mexican, the musket carrying colour guard started his career as a Timpo Prussian and the fellow with the National colours is HELMET. items such as back packs, sashes epaulets, and on the Prussian, belts, are all from greenstuff. The flags are hand-painted and nearly drove me mad, I have a rule that no unit can field flags until they have a minimum of 40 musket carrying troops, so I don't have to paint that many! The National colour is very heavy once glued to the brass rod pole, so the bearer stand on a small stack of metal washers.

That's it for now, I promise that the next issue will not be as delayed as this one has been. In the meantime all feedback gratefully received, keep painting, enjoy the hobby and be kind to small animals

Take care,

Eric www.helmetsoldiers.co.uk
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