Getting paint on lead .

 

I've finally got around to painting the odd lead figures I mentioned in the last post . I've painted them as French Chasseures a Pied of the late 19th century.

I will get them varnished when I've got the other four done .

I did a bit of searching on the internet to try and find more about the figures and this so far is the only photo I have found of them and the mould they came from . It is from over fifteen years ago , they are quite distinctive as their rifles are being carried slung and not shouldered as normally in toy soldiers of this era, are the moulds made by Schnieder ? I will try and investigate further .

PS 

Found this on the internet - figures circled -

From this catalouge , more info later.

Finding an oddity .

 

We have a shop in town that sell off house clearence items which varies greatly in quality and type (ie bricker brac to junk ),  I found these figures about 75mm/3" tall made from pure lead (they bend very easily at the ankles) glued to a hefty block of varnished wood . 

The first job was to carefully remove them from the base (luckily they were not fixed to securely) and rebase them on some thin MDF . I'm going to repaint them , I think they look like French Chasseures 1870ish and they will be for display only as they are such an odd size and don't any of my other collections. I have no idea of the manufacturer but look home cast 

 

Toy Soldiers in Art No.34

 

I found this postcard advertised on eBay several weeks ago , it's obviously a young German girl wearing a picklehelm . On the table there is a large model cannon and some largish toy soldiers which are partially  hidden and I'm afraid I can't make them out . The drum also looks very Prussian so probably from the turn of the century (1900ish ?) .There is some writting and print on the bottom - could it be Gretha ? and I wonder is Amst is short for Amsterdam ? - a mystery ......

Irregular Miniatures , a homage .

I've been thinking about all the Irregular Miniatures I have bought over the years and have decided to put up some photos of the figures I have bought and painted and played with over the yeats . The above are 40mm Turkish cavalry I have used for my Immagination collection.

Naval machine gun and crew in 40mm

Greek infantry and a personality figure made up from their 40mm bits and pieces range.

French Hussars in 40mm again for my Imagination project .

Irregular 40mm in combat again from my Balkans Imagination collection.

I have used Irregular 28mm for most of my Italian wars of Unification , here are French Zouaves.

Sardinian Lancers 

Austrian Grenz regiment, they do some cracking figures don'tthey !

Papal Zouaves 

Garibaldi volunteers 'Red shirts' . This is just a tiny selection of the figures I have bought from Irregular , I am so dazzled by the quantity of figures in many scales they have produced , probably unrivaled in wargaming history .

 

 

End of an era.

 

It is with great sadness I have just read the news that Irregular Miniatures are finishing trading in March as Ian Kay is retiring . They have been running for 45 years and for most of that time I have been making orders to them and recieveing them promptly with their superb mail order service . A great loss to the hobby and I do hope somebody else steps up to continue their manufactor . I would like to wish Ian a well earned retirement and thank him for all the figures I have bought and painted from him and all the joy he has over the years brought to my hobby. I have sent a last order off to him to finish off my Franco-Prussian armies .

Wargaming Humour No. 67

 

Found on the Interweb ......

First painting of the year.

With one thing or another I haven't go around to painting anything this year so far . But this afternoon I had a bit of spare time and searching through my 'to do box' I came across these Iroquios indians for my 'Close Wars' project which have been undercoated and awaiting the brush for months . Nice figures from 'Crucible Crush' with a very muted palette which is a bit of a challenge , got the bases to do and a coat of matt varnish to finish them off.