Friday, June 2, 2017

DEFIANCE: Gentlemen in Exile (Exsulem Nobilis)



The Defiant Gentlemen In Exile (click to enlarge, if you dare)

One of the gentlemen on the  Fife & Drum Miniatures Forum decided that after the Great Purge,  all of the outcasts from the Forum That Shall Not Be Named (FTSNBN) deserved to have their own banner under which that could rally in Defiance. This is all done all in good FUN.

I found the new banner, courtesy of Captain Bill,  to be very creative (see below)

All ye outcasts, raise your banner high! (click to enlarge)
I then decided that such a banner was practically begging to be raised as part of a vignette, and so it goes, I created the vignette shown at the top of this page. The figures are from the Minden and Fife & Drum figure ranges: the gentleman holding the banner is one of the Prussian officers from the musketeer command pack; the general with the orange sash is the Duke of Brunswick figure from the personality pack of the same name, Frederic is Frederick don't you know, and the drummer is the Hessian standing drummer from the Fife & Drum AWI figure range.

The banner carrier normally holds an officer's spontoon, but I decided that it could just as easily hold a flag pole. Somehow I did manage to think of that (points to head and taps his tricorn with his fingers).

Here is another view, since the finial of the flag pole got cropped out of the picture. 


We almost didn't make it to the basing part of the modelling process.

The vignette has somewhat of a troubled history already. When I was painting the Duke of Brunswick, I was holding him over the open cap of some white paint and I deftly allowed His Grace to fall out of my hands and straight into the cap of white paint. GASP! Before I could even say "Bob's your uncle" I raced to the sink and washed off as much of the paint as I could. I'm sure His Grace was grateful for the clean  up, but he was clearly unhappy with Olde Fumble Fingers. I did a little bit of touch up work and so everything was all tickety-boo again.

But wait, there's more! I was gluing the banner onto the flag pole (you all know where this is headed) and had it all pressed together and I had made some nice furls in the flag. As I looked admirering my handy work, I suddenly realized that the banner was upside down. ANOTHER GASP!

Olde Glue Fingers tried to slide the two halves of the banner apart, but it was to no avail as the glue was holding fast. Then another idea hit me - I was able to slide the flag pole out of the flag and then reinsert it in the proper direction. That was a close one.

So after some near misses on disaster I finally got the vignette based and ready to hit the table top. The flag pole is removable from the hands of the flag bearer, which allows me to insert a proper Prussian Garde flag therein if I so wish.

However, I am proud of the Gentlemen In Exile so I think that DAF shall carry the black banner around to a particular convention in the wilds of Warwick in a couple of weeks.

We shall not be denied our fun in the wargaming hobby...

Defiance.








22 comments:

  1. Very posh and for such a just cause as well!

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  2. Well after all the trials and tribulations, the finished items is superb:)

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  3. It's a very nice piece but I may be being very English but feel the back story is misguided. How does our fun of wargaming get effected by what's happened with AMG? I just think everything has been blown so much out of proportion that whatever the reasons for what happened are subsumed by too much personal hurt. I don't agree with the reasons behind the decision for,the purge and have said so but we're all grown ups and united by our love of toy soldiers. Look forward to saying hello again in a couple of weeks time.

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    1. Colin, there are no hurt feelings about the purge on my part. Quite a few people whom I consider luminaries of the hobby have been binned and I feel honored and proud to have joined their ranks.

      I think that the flag idea was brilliant and when I first saw it, I felt that it needed to be part of a vignette.

      If we can't laugh at ourselves then we are not having fun.

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    2. Jim, laughing at oneself is a very English thing so welcome to the club! Maybe I should be upset because I wasn't purged? ;-)

      It is a lovely vignette by the way. See you in a couple of weeks.

      Colin

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    3. My aplogies if I rubbed anyone the wrong way. Sometimes I act before I think.

      I'm looking forward to seeing you and everyone else in a couple of weeks. It will be a great time.

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  4. I just took it as having a bit of fun. A nice back story for an excellent vignette. Would make for a great unit in an "ImagiNation". The hapless nobles in exile. Well done.

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  5. A fine looking fellow and a noble standard. Long may it fly.

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  6. That's a lovely vignette and poor Colin seems to think we are taking it seriously. In fact it's just a jolly good excuse for a bit of Imagi-nations model soldier amusement and if anyone looks at a couple of threads on F and D Minis Forum they will see it's not just flags but various units forming a Legion, including a glamorous Hussarette to give them something to fight for! I look forward to seeing the vignette and meeting its owner at the FTSNBN weekend

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    1. I see the tongue in cheek element ;-) it was just that some of the purged ones did take it to heart and appear to have got upset.....

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    2. It would seem to be not so much the fact they were purged, but the manner in which it was done. To find out by trying to log onto the forum with no explanation as to the why.

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  7. Jim, are you trying to copy my three thumb modelling techniques?

    A splendid little vignette to remind us of the value of comrades and good cheer.

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    1. The sad thing about it is that this is about the third time that this has happened to me. I don't seem to have learned anything. 😄

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  8. Nice, nice vignette! Love the back story and your misadventures in making it.

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  9. I bear absolutely no malice about being exiled about a year and a half ago, but I just could not resist poking fun at pomposity. I'm creating a Legion des Refuses to augment my Reich Duchy of Beerstein army...captbill

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  10. It reassures me I am not the only one to have worries in the last straight ...but the result is awesome, congrats!

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  11. What a tremendous command stand.

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  12. Jim,
    A lovely vignette. Being very English and very proud of that fact, I find the banner and humour behind it excellent.However another English trait is fair play and our propensity for supporting the underdog.When I first joined the AMG, I must admit I wasnt certain, simply because Im not a joiner. As the months went by I would get the odd jokey dig from wargamers who laughed at the apparent elitism of the whole forum thing.I could live with this, but the final straw was when certain periods and then certain figure ranges were banned from the forum.So for me I became very very uncomfortable with the whole concept of the AMG. Wargaming is a hobby for all, from all walks of life and is the better for it, so fly the flag wherever you wish, and make certain you take the Michael out of pomposity wherever you see it.

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  13. It looks excellent and the background just adds more. I've glued a flag or two upside down myself.:-)

    Christopher

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    1. You would think that after doing it a few times myself, I would make a mental note to double check the positioning of the flag before gluing it to the flagstaff. Nah...

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