Thursday, January 29, 2009

Correction on Minden Pom Pons

I was incorrect when I stated that the Minden SYW Austrian fusiliers do not have pom pons on their tricorns. In fact, THEY DO HAVE POM PONS, so mea culpa and my apologies go out to Frank and to Richard Ansell, the sculptor.

I had assumed that Austrian tricorns had a little bow on the side of the tricorn, in the Prussian manner, but when I took a closer look at some of the pictures in the Osprey book, I realized that there was no bow on the Austrian tricorn and that the pom pon was sort of on the side rather than fully on the top of the tricorn, as per the Prussian tricorn.

Then I took a closer look at the Minden figure, and sure enough, the little chunk of lead on the side of the tricorn is indeed the pom pon. It is partially obscured by the upright position of the musket. Also, since all bits of equipment are done to correct scale, sometimes things are smaller than we are used to after working with other chunkier/distorted figure ranges.

I guess that the good news is that if you are painting a regiment without pom pons, you could be lazy and simply paint over the pom pon with black paint, which will hide this item nicely, or you could do a little bit of surgery with an exacto knife.

On the painting front, I am still working on figures 33 through 50 in my 60 figure battalion of Austrian regiment Andlau. I added the eyes, the highlight white color on the coat, and blacked in all of the buttons. Anytime I have metal on a figure, I paint the item black before dotting it with the brass or pewter color. This makes the metallic paint really stand out better.

It looks like I should have this batch of figures done by friday. I only have to paint the musket barrels, the brass bits and then add some highlights on all of the brown bits (hair, musket stocks and fur satchel pack), the red and the flesh highlights. I also primed two Minden Austrian mounted colonels this evening so that I can paint one of them tomorrow evening. My can of primer leaked badly and I suddenly found my hand covered in black paint. Yuck.

10 comments:

  1. Nice tip putting a black dot then the button color. I'll give it a try. Thanks...Bill

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  2. Yes, I like that "button" idea too.

    As for the black-paint-on-hand trick, I've done that more times than I can count. (well on my fingers at least).


    -- Jeff

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  3. DAF,

    What bases are you using? Where do you order them and where do you order your flags?

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  4. Morning Jim,

    Can't wait to see them!

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  5. Well Jim, as you might remember from my article in the SYWAJ, I place the highest importance on hat poms, but I suppose we may forgive you this time.
    By the way, I really liked your colors review for the BD of der Gross Konig. Keep up the nice artwork.

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  6. I use the metal "Wargame Accessories" brand of metal bases 1" square for SYW and the 3/4" square bases for Napoleonics.

    The pennies are courtesy of the US Mint and my sock drawer where I dump my pocket change.

    You can buy GMB Designs flags from Buddy Hoch at Triangle Miniatures in North Carolina. He stocks the range as well as figures from Elite, Calpe and Front Rank in the US.

    www.triangleminiatures.com is the url (but this is not an active link in this response).

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  7. The movement trays are made of black foam core material which you can purchase at Office Max or similar stores. The magnetic sheet can be purchased from The Last Square or Renaissance Ink in the US.

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  8. Eventually, I plan to switch to custom made wood bases from Litko for my movement trays, but that won't be for awhile.

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  9. Fritz,
    Jeff Lista of Wargame Accessories is part of our wargame group. He also produces a plastic base that is magnatised so your steel stands hold to the base until the figures become casualties. The based can be cut to any size desired. I usually use 2" by 4" stands that accommodate two 2" by 2" metal stands. The mounting system can be seen on my site. Best regards...Bill

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  10. Thanks for the info, want to starat getting my Bavarians mounted.

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