Prussian line infantry

First unit finished, part way through another one (though slightly distracted by painting some 42mm Prussian 1897 figures).

Think helmet looks bare - should have added a white ring in the centre of them. Possibly later.

Although I have a standard bearer there wasn't a standard officer so I've used the Austrian officer with oak leaves cut off.

Flag has no significance - just a random Prussian flag, think it was actually Landwehr.

Haven't glued the command base figures down yet. No excuse/reason...

Having said that, the infantry figure on the base has a slightly different blue uniform - it was my original test figure. On balance, I prefer that blue to the one I used for the unit...

"Garrison Miniatures space ships" on TMP

Someone asking about Garrison Miniatures spaceships on TMP - walked from there years ago so can't answer the guy - so if anyone would like tp point out we stopped trading in 2014 and no, no-one else sells them - they're out of production.

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=526630

COVID At Risk register

I'm officially on it - got the letter today. Basically 12 weeks house arrest/solitary - which is a lot better than the alternatives and, in theory, gives me priority access to things like food and meds deliveries. On the other hand, if I get it and there's a shortage of respirators other 'fitter and more likely to survive' patients are liable to get priority...

Meanwhile, the crisis is certainly sorting some things out. Disgusted by some companies who I will boycott after this is over - Wetherspoons, Sport Direct, Bookings.com to name some. Bookings.com were used for the hotel for Salute - it was a no return deal. Hotel then posted that it was offering full refunds, go to Booking.com.... very hard to get through to them, emails not answered etc... so went to hotel chain head office, money refunded straight away, no quibbles... then get email from Booking.com saying basically any possible refund would involve a fee... I sent them a very sharp reply.

So, Chamberlain Hotel full marks!

Meanwhile... had ordered plenty of metal to keep me busy, arrived yesterday, ordered more bases as I've run out, looking at ordering more stuff online to keep sane over the next 12 weeks...

Officially on lock down...

Being in one of the 'high risk' categories, I won't be leaving the house for the next twelve weeks. Well, by house I include garden etc...

Starngely, at a time when most people are losing their jobs or being laid off my hours are going up! With school closures, the tuition I'm doing is continuing as distance learning - except we're consolidating. Still getting new kids to teach, so staff are being reallocated with the result I'm getting more hours because I'm not able to go out. Because some of the kids aren't either, so both of the kids I'm teaching are staying in - and I'm taking over more of their curriculum.

So my hours have gone up... well, let's face it, I'm not doing anything else.

Apart from Prussians. And some cavalry. And probably a few other things.

Russian Cuirassier squadron

Though would double up as a Prussian squadron at a push...

Cuirassiers and Dragoons, led by the original test figures.

Again, quite happy the way they turned out.

At a distance, even the (painted on) holster caps look OK.

So, to put things in context:

I've got Russian heavy cavalry, Prussian hussars, a couple of Austrian cannon with one crew... As yet neither the British or French have a decent complement of infantry and the British are still short of cavalry... and the French (or possibly the Allies) have a Bavarian artillery stand...

So I'm currently trying to paint a unit of Dragoon Guards for the British as well as painting another infantry battalion. Naturally, it's Prussian...

And the Dragoon Guards were meant to be Scots Greys - I had forgotten they wore bearskins - a later conversion job? Can't have a British army without the Scots Greys, wouldn't be right.

Salute? No thanks.

Not this year. It hasn't been cancelled yet but with gatherings over 500 expected to be banned it will go anyway...

But approaching 68 and with quite bad underlying health problems I don't think it would be a sensible option for me... so didn't book any tickets for it... and quite prepared to take the hit on cancelling hotel... which cost is written off/spent whether I go or not anyway.

Russian Dragoon squadron

First painted figures from the new mould are now finished. Meanwhile, cuirassiers only a day or two behind and Scots Greys have been undercoated. Must do some infantry ...

Not really a lot to say about them - they seem to have turned out OK- swords still a bit iffy.

Austrian artillery

Another batch of head-swapped  crew and 'Standard' French officer in bicorne....

The grass green of the base looks a lot more washed out than real life.

The area where the glue has leached under the figure bases look a lot greener!

I just used flat brown for the uniform jackets - looks good, don't know how close it is to the 'right' shade. Officer looks OK for just being a paint conversion.

Overall, looks quite effective for a basic paint scheme.

Actually painted up two guns but still only have one crew!

Prussian hussars.

Unit finally finished - simple head swap, seems to be a strong enough bond for most purposes.

Unit actually looks pretty good...

Though a bit heavy on the black around the reins and straps area...

And I appear to have forgotten that the saddlecloth should be black, not blue...

But overall the unit does it's job. Would be an easy target for putting on a mould but don't see a need for more so, unless something changes, probably not going to happen.

Mould update

Mould finished and in use. Sorry about picture quality - bright unpainted castings don't come up well. On the other hand, gives an idea.

Well, they're producing figures.

Missed these on that picture

But the moulds are fragile - this is after about the fifth casting. However, the figures are still useable - just not good!

This is the difference between 'out of the mould' and cleaned up. Just bad flash and cleans up OK. Well, until the mould starts falling to bits around the undercuts.

I've got enough out for 2 units for these - one lot with backpacks as Bavarians, the ones with the blanket as Westphalians. (Whoops, update correction - Wurtemburg! - can't remember where I spotted that pack version, should probably have just done normal backpacks.)

Plus one and a bit units from Brunswick.

Presumed Scots Grey but paintable as a French Curassier - enough figures for a unit of each.

And finally enough figures for a squadron of Russian Dragoons and Russian Cuirassiers. These are both on my painting table ready for processing.

So, final conclusions:
Lousy mould, lousy figure quality, but...
It used well out of date rubber and catalyst, so I was surprised they worked as well as they did. Further, most figures are useable if only just. Had I paid for new rubber I would have considered the break even point to be about 100 figures. So far I've got about 110 out... so mould would have paid for itself. Can't complain about that.

Making a mould

I've got a few figures converted to make moulds from and rather than just go to the expence of getting them made I thought I'd have another go with a Tiranti mould for some of them. Now, these moulds are soft and break easily but I had some old rubber lying around... enough for one mould - thought, why not see if it still works? If it doesn't, no great loss except time and I'll just reclaim/repair the conversions and revert to Plan A - limited having a couple of new moulds made. If it works, perhaps do a couple more Tiranti moulds for figures I only need a few of.

On the other hand, making moulds is very (as in 'very') messy!

This is the first half done. Needs cleaning up a lot - bits of rubber and plasicene to be trimmed and removed - but at least the rubber sems good and none of the bayonets have  sprung away from the rubber. This is an issue if you're making spears or anything - if the tip springs out it's impossible to get back in place fully and the figure is ruined. Anyway, time to clean this up and go for the second half.

As an aside, getting a few anon span comments - bit of a pain deleting them and they are appearing on previous rather than current posts. As the person putting them on doesn't realise that I'm notified of new comments and first look for them in the comments part of the admin section and just delete them from there... I keep telling blogger they're spam, it hasn't taken the hint yet.