A Scene of Untimely Demise

Just a very quick post this time, to showcase a rather macabre little casualty stand that has been quietly waiting in the wings.  When I was looking to produce the devastated camp for my Silver Bayonet project, I spent some time trawling the infoweb in search of suitable casualty markers.  Amongst the various possibilities I came across were a couple of stands of Napoleonic French artillery from 'Offensive Miniatures'.  They looked rather useful and, for a while, I had visions of creating some sort of devastated artillery position around them, complete with exploded barrel and splintered limber.

That idea never quite developed as I had hoped; instead, I eventually decided that the camp needed something rather more substantial and set about building the whole thing from scratch, as documented in A Scene of Utter Carnage.  The artillery casualties, however, rather appealed to me and so I decided to paint them anyway.  I kept the painting deliberately simple and fairly generic.  I am certainly no expert on Napoleonic uniforms and, given that these particular gentlemen were unlikely to be receiving any invitations to a regimental dinner, I felt that a less than fanatical observance of the correct number of buttons might perhaps be forgiven.

I was just about to start preparing the groundwork when I happened across the very same miniatures, painted by the wonderful Curtis Campbell Esq.  His excellent blog post, HERE, showcased them combined into a single vignette, with the artillery piece and casualties arranged as a small scene rather than treated as separate markers. I immediately thought, ‘Ah. That's what I should have done.’

Having already painted and varnished the figures, I positioned them together on a single piece of MDF and began to build the groundwork around them.  A few gabions from the bits box were pressed into service and given the attention of my trusty Dremel, removing sections and roughing up the weave to suggest that they had endured a certain amount of incoming fire, before a few tufts and scattered debris completed the basic scene.

There is, however, something slightly odd about the gentlemen themselves. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that their skin is a rather unhealthy shade of ghoulish green; this was not entirely accidental.

Having spent rather too much time thinking about the second solo scenario for The Silver Bayonet, I had been contemplating the possibility of some French artillerymen meeting an unfortunate end before subsequently returning to ‘plague’ their former comrades as revenants. These figures therefore became something of a test run; perhaps this is the scene of their untimely demise, before they eventually rise again to become the Harvestmen's unwilling servants?

The miniatures themselves were a pleasure to work on. The casting is excellent, with a mixture of resin and white metal, and there is plenty of character in the little group. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to treat the whole thing as a miniature vignette rather than simply another selection of casualty markers.

Photographing them alongside the previously completed wrecked wagon, using another of the wonderful backdrop books by Jon Hodgson, has rather spurred me on and I now fancy painting an ammunition caisson to accompany the scene; because, obviously, what every devastated artillery position really needs is more scenery.

And so this little casualty stand has quietly become another piece of the developing Silver Bayonet landscape. What began as a few miniatures that didn't quite fit the original plan has now acquired its own backstory, a rather unhealthy complexion and, if I ever get it finished, another companion piece.

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STOP PRESS

So this week has not gone quite to plan.  I had been tinkering with this post during the week, but when I went to upload it everything seemed to stop.  Similarly, I have struggled leaving comments on own blog and indeed others.  Now safely home all seems to be fine, so I can only assume that the various failsafes and filters at work were to blame for hampering myprogress.  Still, thank you to all those that leave a comment and I hope to be around all my favourite pages again soon.   Also this may have happened...

The Spectre of Summer

The start of any new academic year is always a busy and exciting time.  New names to learn, departmental development plans that need revising and the obligatory safeguarding refresher courses all leave remarkably little time for hobby related fluff.  That said, I was so buoyed by the enthusiasm generated through the summer's series of posts that I am keen to keep a little momentum going if I can.

The difficulty, of course, is finding the balance.  One of the great pleasures of the last couple of months has been reconnecting with friends across the blogging community, and I would very much like to maintain those connections.  However, I am also conscious that once the school year is in full swing, finding time for the hobby desk becomes rather more challenging.  There are only so many hours in the day and the Charcoal Avalanche, that heavy, dark and slightly messy physical weight of sketchbooks requiring marking, remains stubbornly indifferent to my own artistic ambitions.

September is already well underway, but I do have a couple of residual projects from the summer holidays still waiting to see the light of day.  The first of these is this rather splendid collection of spectral soldiers.  These wonderful sculpts were created as part of a rules supplement for The Silver Bayonet that I am, as yet, nowhere near starting.  There was something about them, however, that immediately appealed to me and so they found themselves promoted up the painting queue.  Having cleaned them up, I was reminded of a post I had seen on Instagram where a talented creator had used washes of colour to paint their Dead Men of Dunharrow from The Lord of the Rings; I wondered whether a similar approach might work on these rather fabulous apparitions?

Initially, they were primed with Colour Forge Ghoul Grey before I sponged on areas of white paint across the surface to create a zenithal highlight.  Electric Blue and Livery Green, both fabulously bright colours exhumed from the very back of my paint rack, were then given a new lease of life as washes, thinned with Vallejo matt medium.  Once dry, I began building up slightly darker areas across the shakos, muskets and boots of these ethereal entities.  The cross belts and facial features were picked out in white, helping to make the rather wonderful details of the sculpts pop.  There was something particularly satisfying about watching them gradually emerge from the original white metal.

For the bases, I kept things deliberately simple and darker in tone.  Brown earth, subdued tufts and the occasional dead leaf helped to suggest that the ground over which these spectral soldiers passed had withered and died; it seemed only appropriate.  The whole process proved great fun and, once I had established the colour scheme, remarkably quick to complete. There is always something satisfying about finding a technique that does precisely what you hoped it might, particularly when it involves rescuing a few long neglected paints from the back of the rack.

With October now on the horizon, I am beginning to wonder whether I might be able to contribute to Zomtober; that wonderful time of year when a little love and attention is given to the undead inhabitants of the pile of shame.  This seems particularly appropriate, given that I have a number of revenants still waiting to be completed for the second Silver Bayonet solo mission.  For now, however, with the weekend finally in sight, I am looking forward to spending a little time at the painting table.  More importantly, I am looking forward to a leisurely trawl around the many weblogs that I have come to enjoy over the years.  After all, there is still plenty of hobby out there to discover, even with the distant chime of the school bell still ringing in my mind.