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...