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Saturday 4 July 2020

TLC for Old Lead Dudes 2

 This has been a long time coming. Half of these Lancers have been on my painting table for over a month. But while other fellows have been enjoying themselves painting away during the lockdown I have been sending out  lots of soldiers so they can paint them. This has left surprisingly little time to actually paint any of my own.
 Nevertheless I have managed a bit here and there. A few sepoys for the Sikh Wars project and these fellows.
 Well half of them anyway.
Polish Lancers of The French Imperial Guard.30mm


 Most are Stadden 30mm with a single Willie (stop giggling at the back there !) while the Trumpeter is an old Minifig 30mm on a refurbished Willie horse. The poor creature needed a new tail  which was provided by a broken Old Glory horse from my spares box.
As regular readers will have gathered these are going into the "Shinyloo" "retro" collection and when possible will be used along with "Charge!" rules for smallish Napoleonic games.
From the Front.

The whole idea of this project has always been a sort of pastiche  of and homage to wargaming in the 1960s and 70s. Back in the 1970s when I started, I may have ogled and lusted after Stadden and Willie 30mm but simply could not afford the price tag. Even 25mm metal in any quantity being beyond my pocket  until the late 1970s. Back then 30mm were usually  3 times the price of  the then 25mm (28mm being an invention of the mid 1990s of course) so it was not until   comparatively recently that I managed to amass a decent collection of these models- most bought secondhand and some in shocking condition , picked up at shows initially  and more recently on ebay.


Two more views of the same unit. 

So these Lancers and the Minifigs General (who although painted as French may not be so but since he arrived French albeit battered  I thought it better for him to stay French ) will join the forces of Napoleon Shinyparte to hopefully once again try conclusions with the Duke of Wellyboot across the tabe in my groups local pub...... Not today though.  The whole look is deliberately retro even to using retro style scenery where I can- old Britians and Merit Trees for example with some even older- but refurbished Britians farm haystacks and Johillco metal hedges 


The venerable Minifigs 30mm General. 

An older shot- when the collection was much smaller - but showing the Britain's trees. 


7 comments:

  1. Nothing like brightly painted toy soldiers! It's always a treat to peruse new figures/units for your Shinyloo project.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  2. Great brushwork on those lancers. The have lots of movement to them and look very elegant.

    Jim

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  3. Nicely animated and colourful set of horsemen!

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  4. I rate the Polish lancers alongside French cuirassiers as my favourite Napoleonic uniforms. Tucked in a close second are the late Carabiniers. No coincidence the first two were produced as 1/32 models by Airfix and the latter by Britains!

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  5. Your project sounds like my "homage" to what became labelled as "Imagi-Nations" although I started my project long before everyone jumped on the OSW bandwagon several years ago. Inspired by Charles Grant and to a lesser extent Peter Young (I came to Charge much later than the Wargame) and using Spencer Smiths, Merit and Britain's trees, Schreiber card buildings but with Volley & Bayonet rules and a background from GDW's Soldier King it plods slowly to conclusion (or at least a starting point!)
    When I started, I had wanted to use Willie command figures but the ordering process was lengthy and laborious (Sweden) for what was sight unseen figures (just a paper catalogue). I therefore opted to make my own out of Fimo inspired by Peter Dennis.
    It's odd how these type of projects develop their own rules and parameters depending on what you yourself set. I found myself hunting for Bellona bridges (I'm sure I have some somewhere) before accepting that Amera produce a perfectly acceptable substitute.

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    1. Featherstone called them mythical countries. I have a bundle of Stadden 30mm AWI and some SYW too but as a general rule don't really do the fictional countries thing- my personal line in the sand is fictional uniforms- though I don't mind a bit of fictional geography . You are absolutely right about such projects taking on a life of their own though. Shinyloo now has over 300 individual models and counting and refurbishing old castings has become part of the project. Mind you like all other projects I can buy 'em faster than I can paint 'em

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  6. Thanks you gentlemen all.

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