Another Distraction

Well two distractions actually. After I had determined to make a start on my own interests i.e AWI, medieval and the Great War after finishing my ACW miniatures I’ve been sidetracked. The first was that I’d promised to make and paint a number of fantasy figures for a friend’s son. Releasing that I’d delayed this for too long I’m now making steady progress (pictures here). It makes a nice change not having to worry that you may have painted the soldiers socks the wrong colour.

Distraction number two was that, out of the blue, my brother turned up with a box of miniatures. I think this may have been triggered after reading a fascinating book about the Dudley castle including an interesting section of the two sieges of the castle and the nearby Battle of Tipton Green (more of a large scale skirmish). My brother hasn’t yet decided which colours he wants them painted, but may be either purple for Colonel Richard Bagot (Royalist) or red and black for Colonel John Birch (Parliament). These will be my completed next project. I’ve realised that this blog may be getting slightly cluttered so I’ll keep this site for modelling and wargaming etc. and this other one for interesting places I’ve visited.

Gabion - Ironclad Miniatures

Gabion – from the Italian word “gabbione” meaning "big cage”.

I bought these little beauties from Ironclad Miniatures, codes: Gabion-2 & Gabion-3, at the Birmingham Wargamer last December. Painting them made a pleasant change from producing detailed figure work. Painted with a combination of Tamiya and GW acrylic I might alternate between figures and terrain/scenery in the future which may help temper my staggeringly short attention span. Hidden away in my lead pile somewhere I also have several individual gabions from Front Rank. Anyway, during any 18^th & 19^th century siege gabions would have been a common site. Made from wickerwork and filled with earth and loose rubble they were used in great numbers to all types of siege works, temporary fortifications, magazines, and shelters. A typical gabion was a cylindrical basket between 33 and 36 inches high and an exterior diameter of about two feet consisting of two basic elements: pickets and rods.

The modern day equivalent to the gabion is the Hesco bastion. Developed by a British company the welded mesh units are lined with non-woven polypropylene.

“A typical wall of HESCO Concertainer®, equivalent to a wall of approximately 1500 sandbags, can be erected and filled by two men and a single common loader in less than twenty minutes. An equivalent wall constructed of sandbags would take 10 men 7 hours to build.”

It is now used for flood control and by major military organizations around the world and can typically be seen Iraq and Afghanistan.

Confederate Cavalry - Work in progress

Send in the cavalry.

It would seem that I can't complete any plastic miniatures without chopping and changing them first. These are my latest. First up the Confederate trumpeter. Only a small change involved hollowing out the trumpet. Not big difference but it does make a nice visual impact.












The next figure shows a trooper in the natural pose of resting the carbine on his thigh. Simply modification of removing the existing weapon and placing the carbine in the open hand.














Probably get these finished in a couple of months time.