Improving a Resin Print Building

Hello There. After being sent home ill from work yesterday and spending time in A & E I now unexpectedly find myself laid up at home feeling like I have been repeatedly trampled over by a rugby scrum.

I have been tested for covid and am awaiting the results but while this feels like 'flu' I do not have the symptoms of covid.

I am finding it difficult to get motivated to do much more that lay on the sofa, or in bed, at the moment. I remembered that I have started this project and have taken some photographs but not posted them.

A wargaming friend of mine  has obtained many printed for me and I have started doing them up. I have treated them the same as laser cut MDF buildings

I do not have much knowledge of 3D printing but I found the first building full of potential. The construction of the walls and floors are made of many layers of material in a fine mesh. to add further strength to the building i smeared filler to the inside of the walls to fill this mesh. I also used a Dremel to remove the protruding ridges around the windows. I used a lower speed on the Dremel as the resin tended to melt. I still had to remove the final shards of resin with a sharp craft knife. The level surface on the inside of the building will allow me to glue clear acetate to the inside to make windows.

The roof is not flush with the top storey as there is a 'web' of resin between both sides of the roof. This will be trimmed back later.

The four parts all fit together and have pegs and holes in each corner to allow removal and replacement  of each part. I do not intend to place figures inside so will all eventually be glued together.

I have removed the external timber planking from the first storey and replaced that with plasticard scored with 40 grit sandpaper then a size 11 blade. I then glued them in place with superglue and filled in the plaster areas with Delux Materials 'Perfect Plastic Putty' which I sourced from a model railway shop.

As you can see on the end of the gable end I tried milliputt to represent the plaster work but was not happy with the result. The Delux filler was much easier to work with and did not need premixing.

I hope to use these building to represent German or Austrian dwellings so will avoid the British Tudor version of simply black timbers and white plaster. They can be used for the 1809 campaign I am painting figures for.

I hope to base the buildings on modular village bases, similar to the system used by Timecast models. Here they have a latex base with walls and hedges on and recesses to drop their buildings into. As these bases are the same size you can make many different permutations of village.  

Perrys 28mm Austrian Line Infantry German Colonels

Hello There! While concentrating on completing larger units I have the odd small groups in the background which I add a little paint to every now and then. To make a change to painting just infantry I also do cavalry to make a change to my work.

These two Austrian colonels of German line are from the Perry pack. These are the only one piece castings in the pack, the rest having the riders separate from their horses.

They are for the 10th Freiherr Reisky von Dubnitz regiment, (sky green facings), and 47th Freiherr von Vogelsang, (light blue facings).

Eagle Miniatures Austrian 28mm Artillery

 Hello there! One of the units I have completed recently are these two 12lbr gun batteries. They are a pack of two guns and nine crew, which includes one officer.

The rammers had to be replaced with  brass wire and the ends drilled out and glued back on.

The positioning of the crew is based on the normal drill positions but one figure appear to be leaning on the wheel and aiming the cannon by looking along the barrel. However putting this figure in its place then leaves the figure  holding the portfire looking as if he is trying to set fire to the aiming figure! I placed this figure to one side instead.

The uniform colour took a few goes to get a satisfactory shade. As usual there are many illustrated shades in a myriad of publications. Some are more accurate than others! The Rawkins publication on the Austro Hungarian Army has mentioned that there were many different shades of cloth used. 'Red brown' and 'deer brown' is but too but neither of these shades are anywhere near that as illustrated in the Osprey book on the same subject. On saying that they do also illustrate Austrian Army uniforms as being brilliant white!

I used 940 saddle brown, 341 flesh base and 876 brown sand. all from the Vallejo range.

The cannons woodwork is shown as a bright ochre or a brilliant yellow. I wanted to get away from this bright shade and allow me to show some sort of wood grain effect as well. I used 913 yellow ochre, wash with a  Army Painter dark shade, 917 beige lines and 837 pale sand.

The officer was painted in the same colours as the men but the sash, which was a mark of being an officer, was painted in 856 ochre brown, washed in a strong tone then 953 flat yellow. The black weave in the sash is added using a very fine brush and making narrow intermittent stripes on the raised portion of the sash. 

'New' Book

 Hello There. After working on some of my 1809 Austrian forces I found that the order of Battle of  Eckmuhl had a unit I was unable to find the uniform for.

They were the 'Mahr Freiwilliger Jager'. After looking through the Osprey books I have on the Austrians of the Napoleonic wars and my Rawkins publication I still drew a blank.

It appeared that they were also called something else and next I figured out that 'Mahr' was an abbreviation for Mahrisch which stood for Moravia. From there I placed a request on a few Napoleonic pages and someone posted a illustration of a group of uniformed figures. This illustration was in the same style as those in my Copies of 'Waterloo' and 'The Peninsular War' by Lachouque.

On further questioning I found that they had come from another book by the same author but this one had French text.

Here are pictures of the front cover, one of the many illustrations that I have not seen before and one of the many illustrations which fill this book.

After collecting many books on the Napoleonic period and many on the 1809 campaign I was surprised to flick through this book and see so many illustrations that I have not seen before.

I purchased my copy through Abe Books but from the book supplier here

Very well packaged and received very quickly indeed I would recommend looking at their Military book section on the internet.

Austrian 28mm Front Rank Napoleonic Chevau Leger Horse.

 Hello There! Here is another completed unit for the Austrians.I always try to have a cavalry unit in progress in the background. This helps me not to get bored with doing cavalry alone while still having other things getting completed on the production line.

I have included the red comb for the trumpeter and his grey horse. The grey dapple is done by smearing a powder from dark grey oil pastel block and is sealed using the gloss and then matt aerosol varnish.

The castings had a some fine lines on the horse blanket so the painter has a slight guide to include the black and red lines on the edges.

These are the 1st Kaiser Regiment intended for the 1809 period. Using the W J Rawkins offering on the Napoleonic Austrian Army the first squadron carried the Liebfahn while the remaining squadrons had the Ordanfahn. There were one of the regiments that retained the Green jacket.

 

French and Austrian Napoleonic 28mm Additions

 Hello there! I have had the opportunity to complete some Austrian casuality markers, another line colonel and a French officer for the Napoleonic skirmish project.

Here is the sole Frenchman. He is a Front Rank Light infantry officer who will lead the line infantry voltigeurs against the cowardly Spanish guerillas. I have been trying a few alternatived to the 'French Blue' coat colour. This is Wargames Foundry 65A French Blue shade, 65C French Blue highlight and Vallejo 841. The last two colours were mixed to make the highlight and I am pleased with the result.

Next up the latest Austrian line colonel. This chap is for the 11th  Erzherzog Ranier regiment. He is a Wargames Foundry figure from their mounted officers set. This is a two piece casting, unlike the Perrys version which is one piece which in turn takes longer to paint, is a very good fit with his horse. If I have any critisisms it is that the angle the sword is held at means that when picked up you can push the sword towards the figure and it looks odd. I feel it may only be a matter of time before it snaps off.

Here is the first casualty markers. I intend to use Shako II rules and these measure the effectiveness of each unit by having a number of 'hits'. These go down during the game and reflect how well they can fire and melee with the enemy. These are a way of recording the units status without paperwork. The counter bases are from Warbases.

These figures are again from Wargames Foundry and are very clean castings which required minimal cleaning up. I noticed while cleaning that some were Hungarian so after a quick scan of the order of battle of Eckmuhl and the facings of the required Hungarian regiments were found.

This last figure is from the Foundry German line command set. The position he is in is incompatable with the usual poses of the Austrian drill book version of march attack. This left me with some odd figures which I had no use for and as I had bought a few command sets I had a number of these. I decided to use them as casualty markers and this chap is for the 57th Joseph Colloredo regiment.

I have a further battalion 'on the paint table' and have now got in the habit of turning out the off white jacket and trousers to a satisfactory standard so speeding up their completion.

 

Austrian Line Colonel, German Infantry.

 Hello There! Here is the latest addition to the Napoleonic Austrians. He is in the 42nd regiment and the facing colours are described as just 'Orange' in my copy of Rawkins. This is a figure from the Wargames Foundry range which provides a pack with figures in different positions. 

This figure is painted as per the feature I had published in WSS magazine, here.

The accompanying battalion is almost completed and is part of 1st Armeekorps Vogelsang Division, Henneberg Brigade. This is part of the forces in the order of battle at Eckmuhl. I have used 'Armies on the Danube 1809' written by Scott Bowden and Charles Tarbox.

This division gives a wide variety of facing colours for the units in it and also includes landwehr as well. Wargames supplies now have a decent choice of these troops so making sourcing these landwehr easier to obtain.

 

Murawski Polish 1st Infantry Regiment 28mm

Hello there! After an illness and operation I have managed to continue completing a number of units which have patiently waiting to completed. Here is the latest.

These are intended for use in the Maida project that I have already completed two British battalions, some Royal Foot Artillery and three French battalions. The Poles were brigaded with the Swiss, which I have also completed, and look very splendid in this picture

The flag is from GMB, here, and I replaced the pole and halberds with brass wire because I have not yet found a whilte metal or pewter pole which has withstood wargaming. I do this as a matter of course now. The Polish Eagle is from Front Rank, here, and I managed to use the same halberd blade and flags. I drilled out these with a pin vice and a fine 0.8mm drill bit.

I like to provide pictues of closerr views of completed figures as it gives a better view for you all but sometimes I can see things I either got wrong or missed out!

These are painted in the earlier 1807-1809 system of regimental facing colours which makes them a lot more colourful.

In Shako II rules an infantry battalion consists of three bases of six figures. Here is the grenadier company which although they are in bearskins I have read that this headgear was not issued until after 1809, Oh well!.

The Line Colonel looks really nice and the splash of yellow stands out well. I have continued to use the method of using 6mm long static grass held in place by neat PVA.

Lastly I tried to show the colourful drummer which I have taken from the Morawski plate of the same figure.

Murwarski Polish 28mm 6th Line Regiment Colonel

Hello There! I have started a second Polish battalion, this time for the 6th Regiment. I started by painting the line colonel as I like to keep my hand in doing horses. This is so I do not get bored doing the same thing all the time.

This figure is in the 1807-1809 uniform which has the regiments grouped into blocks of four 'legions' or 'divisions' with different colour lapels, collars, cuffs, piping and buttons. This chap looks resplendant in crimson and is intended to fight the Austrians in my 1809 project.

 

I have recently purchased a wider range of metallic paints and the saddle cloth fringe has been painted in a combination of these newly purchased paints and Army Painter strong tone.

I cannot wait to do the rest of the battalion but have to resist the urge to be diverted from the first battalion I have already started.