Entry #9 to the Lead Painters' League: 'If the First Effort Fails Send in Ney'

Ney leading the French cavalry to their destruction at Waterloo.

The road to hell is paved with... well, you know rest.

Yes, I had the very best intentions to have a newly painted submission for each week of the Panters' League. With this in mind, I had my 9th entry (a unit of Anglo-Saxons arrayed in shieldwall) painted, based and ready for photos - but then I decided to give the figures a spray of clearcoat. This is were my good friend Francis will groan as he'll immediately know what happened next. Yep, the spray-can that I had picked up, shook and sprayed was NOT clearcoat, but rather BLACK PRIMER.

The Anglo-Saxon shieldwall with an extra helping of gunpowder stains...

Fuuuuck. (And this, by far, was the least of the expletives that were uttered in the minutes following 'the incident'.)

To be honest it was not a complete disaster as I managed to catch my gaff during the first pass. I know I'll be able to fix the figures by touching-up the colours' mid-tones and highlights, but I knew wouldn't have the time to repair the damage before the League deadline, which loomed in only a few hours.

So I sat down, collected my thoughts and went over my options. It was obvious I'd have to forfeit the bonus points for not submitting a new entry, but I had to send in something to serve as a suitable stand-in. So after looking in my display cabinet for a few long minutes I made my decision. As the Emperor would say, 'If the first effort fails then send in Ney.' 

I created this command stand of Marshal Ney last year and it remains as one of my favourites as I really enjoyed working on it. It's composed of four 28mm Perry sculpts - all very dynamic and wonderfully animated. As the submission has to have a minimum of five figures I decided to include a casualty stand of a cuirassier toppling from his charger to compliment Ney and his staff. Again, another excellent Perry vignette which has a great sense of speed and movement. 

So there you have it. Like the unfortunate cuirassier, pride cometh before a fall. It serves me right for being in such a rush (again). 

Next week's entry will conclude the League and it calls for a Science-Fiction theme. To be honest I'm a little out of my element on this one and so I've spent an inordinate amount of time puzzling over what to do. In the 11th hour I discovered some figures that I found quite fun so I'm going to give them a whirl. Come by next week if you're interested to see what I've managed to put together for The Final Push.

(AND my clearcoat spray now has very bright red tape on it...)