New Italeri North African house

This rather attractive North African house, the latest building release from Italeri, has piqued my interest.   The only problem is that none of my gaming is set in the North African desert!  But maybe this house could make a neat Spanish Peninsular War outpost (perhaps with a little work to remove the dome and add some pantiles here and there).  And it would also make a great harbour building for pirate games.

I already have their two Italian houses in my terrain collection, and nice they are too.  Even though 1/72 scale, with a small amount of work on the doors they easily translate to 28mm.

Italeri also do an impressive Italian church model.  I would eventually like to add this to my collection too, but missed out on buying it the last time it was in stock at my friendly local gaming shop.

 

Minden French command

I’ve now completed six figures in my Minden Miniatures French battalion. The first drummer I painted a couple of months ago has now been joined by two more, plus I’ve painted an officer an NCO and a standard bearer.

As always, the 28mm Minden figures are a joy to paint.  The detail is so beautifully sculpted that it makes it very easy to pick out with a paint brush.  For example, much of the drummers’ lace was merely dry-brushed on. 

One thing I have changed with my painting style is to abandon painting in the eyes.  While in the close-up photo above this ommission stands out, seen in real-life these figures look a lot better without the large staring eyes my previous work is adorned with!

The flag is by my favourite miniature flag-maker, GMB Design.  Those of you who know their French regiments of the Seven Years War will no doubt be shaking your heads and saying, “But he’s got it wrong – that’s the flag of the Regiment de Flandre, and they wore blue facings, not red!”  Well, my reasoning for this is that I am actually not following the genuine French army of the period, but instead am modelling the regiments portrayed in the famous Stanley Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon (see a previous post about this project).  And in the movie, the French regiment that the epoynomous Barry Lyndon faces in battle is clothed in uniforms with red facings.  So there!

Back home from the Middle East

I’m back home now from my work trip to the United Arab Emirates. I’m sitting shivering in wet, windy, wintery Wellington, with sizzling, sunny Dubai just the merest warm memory now.

I’m still slowly getting sorted back into my routine, so I haven’t yet had time to for the hobby.  I’m looking forward to getting into painting my Mindens again. The sole painted figure for my French battalion so far is a drummer (featured previously on my blog before I left for overseas), so he desperately needs some comrades. The rest of his battalion are all set to go, fully undercoated black and dry-brushed with grey.

Meanwhile, my painted but un-based British are lying in disarray in the display case, having fallen victim for the umpteenth time to my sleeve whilst taking out other figures (causing a domino effect). So I really have to sort out my final basing plan and get them based.

Also, I’m having my first game tonight since my return: a 28mm Napoleonic ‘Black Powder’  game at my pal Scott’s. Should be interesting to test these rules. We’re going to keep the game small, as we know we’ll be proceeding slowly whilst we leaf through the rule book to find things. And if we don’t finish tonight, we plan to carry on tomorrow. So hopefully we’ll get a game that really ends!

PS: You’ll see below right a new Facebook Like button. I’m experimenting with this to see if it is something I want to add to posts from now on to increase readership. If you like this blog or post, just click the button.