Entry #12 to AHPC VIII: 1870s era Prussians in Demi Ronde

This week I decided to tap into my inner child and try my hand with some classic toy soldiers.

These 40mm beauties were sculpted, cast and cleaned (!) by my good friend John Bertolini. I always tease John, telling him that he's a Renaissance Man. Mr. Bertolini is a master timber-frame carpenter, enjoys the simplicity of manual labour, but also shares a  passion for food (his wife is a culinary writer), travel and history. He also has a great love of classic toy soldiers, especially those from late 19th and early 20th century Germany and Austria.  John participated in a past Challenge and you can see some of his wonderful work here.

As Greg has been entranced with all things Franco-Prussian lately so I decided to ask John if he could provide me with some suitable figures so I could riff on Greg's excellent work.

In toy soldier speak these figures are sculpted in the demi ronde style, meaning that they share elements of both classic two-dimensional figures and modern 'fully round', or three dimensional designs. I really find the style charming and always find myself smiling when I was working on them. When I was building-up the units I discovered that I needed some standard bearers and drummers. John, being his usual accommodating self, simply got out the greenstuff and balsa and made me a few on the fly - wonderful!  

A French drummer.

French standard bearer.

As to painting, I tried to go with the classic toy soldier style. So while there were areas where I couldn't resist to applying a modest highlight, I endeavoured to honour the figures and kept things fairly clean and minimalist. 

Same with the bases. No groundwork here, just a mottled effect with green paint to keep it nice, simple and toy soldier-like. The banner is from Warflag, with a bit of paint touchup.

The wonderful thing about working on these figures is how nicely they come together once they're all ranked up. I also love the sheer physical heft of them - with all this lead the bases have a substantial weight that just feels so wonderful in your hand. I don't know what it is, but the 'solidness' of the based elements really taps into my lizard brain - something that you can't find an equivalent with plastic figures.

As previously mentioned, John also provided me with a French battalion which I might take a whack at later. To be honest, what I'd really like to do is 1759 Plains of Abraham in this style as I think that it could be quite spectacular. John? Can you whip something up for me? C'mon, pretty please!

_______________________________

Thanks for dropping in folks. Have a great week!

From JohnB: 40mm 18th & 19th Century Old School Toy Soldiers (599 points)

From John:

Here is my last submission, other than the samurai, to the Painting Challenge. It is a bit of a dog's breakfast. Included are 36 1850 Russian foot and a mounted officer for my Great European War of 1850 project. 

Also from this project are a smattering of recent castings and trial paint jobs. There are some Prussians, Saxons, Bavarians and French...a total of 9 foot and 2 mounted. 

I also threw in 4 ACW figures for our host and most respectable and omnipotent judge. 

Lastly there are 34 semi-round figures from a master I sculpted for Steve Cady over at Castles of Tin (A fantastic blog...what a painter!). 

These are sort of a generic WSS in full skirted coats to provide opponents for the Holger Eriksson figures of Prince August. There not up to Eriksson standards, but they look OK painted up I guess. 

They are painted as the La Sarre Regiment (Later Royal Suedois) in French service. All these figures are in 42 mm scale and are painted in a toy soldier style with bright colors and gloss finishes. The bases are unflocked in keeping with the toy soldier esthetic. The figures are mounted on MDF bases painted green. 

Flags are homemade of paper and painted in a simplistic style. Not for everyone I know, but pleasantly, a good way to pass some time in the subartic. (It is St. Patty's day and this morning saw -26 C. The snow piles in front of my house are pushing 6 feet. AND 4 inches of snow are expected today...it is enough to make one read Dostoyevsky and drink oneself into a stupor. Welcome to Novo Sibirsk.)

This Challenge has been great fun to follow...to see the interests and talents of folks from all over the place. Many thanks to Curt for his enormous and always good-humored work. (He is such a witty devil...for a Scotsman...)

Oh, don't feel too much sympathy for John, while other Saskatchewan schmucks like myself have been buried under mountains of snow for months on end, he and his lovely wife have just returned from a vacation in the Caymans... Lucky git.

Beautiful work John! While I love all of these figures, I have to say that I'm quite partial to the La Sarre Regiment  with their smart long coats and yellow facings (and they fought the good fight on the Plains of Abraham). 

This wonderfully wide assortment of 40mm figures will give John a staggering but well-earned 599 points. This will also allow him to meet his Challenge target for this year - Bravo John!

From JohnB: 30mm Old School Napoleonics, 2nd Battalion Vistula Legion (150 points)

John sends in his follow-up to his first entry, the 2nd Battalion of the Vistula Legion. Except for the officer, which is from Scruby, these are 30mm figures sculpted and cast by John.

As you can see John is not much of a documentarian and so I only have this one solitary photo to show you. Perhaps he can send along a few more shots to help decorate this post - hint, hint. In their absence I give you a few photos of John and his figures from a game we had in the backyard a few springs back. (These are 40mm mid-19th century models he had sculpted, cast and painted as well.) You can plainly see John's Italian roots with his hand gestures... 'Mama mia, how did you roll all of those sixes...?'

Like his last battalion, these eighteen willowy lads will give John 150 points to add to his score. Very nice work, John!

From JohnB: 30mm Old School Napoleonics Polish Battalion from the Vistula Legion (150 points)

My friend John sculpts and casts his own figures in the classic 'Toy Soldier' style. (TimB is a good friend of John as well and his sculpting shares the same spirit, I think.) These are very cool and characterful miniatures, that look fabulous ranked up in their battalions. John's collection is vast as its is varied, and it is always a treat when he brings them out for a game.

These are 30mm sculpts but John also works in 40mm and larger. John has a soft spot for the smaller Napoleonic nations/contingents as their uniforms were quite interesting (sometimes bordering on the bizarre).

From John:

'I thought I'd make a showing in the Analogue Hobbies' painting contest. Here are 18 of my homemade Napoleonics in Old School 30mm. It is the first of six battalions I am going to do of the Vistula Legion, 1st and 2nd Regiments circa 1812. I know there are some uniform inaccuracies, but my figures are sort of generic as you know. I am certain that these brave Poles will be Alexander's most implacable foes. Inform Sylvain... The second battalion is already in the works.

Vive La Pologne Libree!

Jan Sobieski Bertolini'

Brilliant stuff! These eighteen lads will give John a base of 108 points but I'm going to bring it up to 150 as they are his own sculpts. After the Vistula Legion, I believe John is wanting to do a Napoleonic Swiss brigade which will be great to see. Welcome aboard John!

Battle of Raszyn, 6mm Fast Play Grande Armee (FPGA) and 40mm 1860s Wars of German Unification

'The beer hall is through the Austrians and over that hill...'

Happy Christmas All! I just put up some more postings in the 'Past Games' section. One is not so much a battle report than a little feature on my friend John's 40mm castings for the Wars of German Unification. We had a great game on our deck this past summer with his Prussians and Austrians. The other posting is of a 6mm Napoleonics game, the 1809 Battle of Raszyn, using Sam Mustafa's excellent 'Fast Play Grande Armee' rules.