Painting old and new

A mixed bag of snaps, including this months output for the Napoleonics project, but I'll kick off today with a shot of one of my 1/48th scale Sherman's. Despite having nothing in the way of a photo set up aside from a reasonably well lit room, I managed to get a good natural shot of one of the pair I have.

This model was done five or six years ago, at a time when I wasn't at the top of my figure painting game, but had learnt a lot about model vehicles. I wanted a model that looked very much like it was in service with an experienced crew, and the sandbags were a nice touch; along with a second light machine gun on the turret. American tank crews learned the value of weapons in this position, and in the photo's of the last year of the war it is a common sight to see them welded in front of the loader's hatch.

Next up was a couple of Riflemen to finish my 5/60th battalion. the original ten models were not quite enough to build two detachments in Napoleon, so a quick trip to eBay and a side project sorted that problem out.

As ever I had trouble duplicating some of my custom paint jobs, but the fact is anyone who tells you to use definitive colours when painting uniforms, is an idiot! Permanent chemical dyes didn't even exist in the early 1800's so standardised colour are virtually an impossibility, especially once worn in the field for some time.

Kudos to anyone who can correctly identify the two new models!

Lastly, my main force addition for the month was the 97th Queens Own Regiment:

Standard stuff we've seen before here really, Victrix with a sprinkling of Perry heads and generic standards I'll change if I ever get hold of the right ones. The Victrix marching arms are a little unnatural looking, but the effect of the unit overall is fine.

In terms of this years pledge, as a starter I've exceeded my goals, despite spending quite a bit less time painting. With some more units to be photographed the monthly total stands at 68 models.

For this year I'm counting foot figures as 1 model/point; mounted as 2; guns as 5 and vehicles or aircraft as 10. Anything smaller than 15mm will a: be highly unlikely, and b: count at only 1 point per base of models. so a total of 16 cavalry have made a large impact on this month's totals.

On the 'down' side I've bought 12 cavalry models this year, but as I've decided I can afford not to count that too closely, I'm really not going to worry.

I'm going to do my small part to pull the wargames industry out of recession instead!