The Beauty of the Internet.

 This last month, I have been mainly painting Seven Years War troops. I foolishly thought that I had sufficient toys for this period, and sold a lot of my metal mountain at low prices. Well that was a mistake. I have now realised that I need some more. Why one may ask? Unfortunately I cant answer that sensible question, I think basically I was drawn back to the colour of the armies and wanted to paint some of the figures from the new ranges on offer, including Crann Tara, the new Minden stuff and Black Hussar from Germany. That is the beauty of the internet, the world is at the feet of wargamers. These RSM French dragoons came from the USA, even though they had been originally created in England. Minden Miniatures is now based in America, Eureka are in Australia and Black Hussar are in Germany. Gone are the days of writing a letter to a one man war gaming company and hoping that they have cast enough of the figures that you want, now you can actually see the figures real time, you can converse in minutes, and the figures can be here within days. What I think is really great is that any wargamer who has the balls and naturally some cash, can create their own range of figures. Who wouldnt want to have that special regiment, or troops from that one campaign that no company sells. Truly wargamers are blessed [ and no I haven't o'd  on Prozac]
 

Marshal de Saxe,has always been a character that interested me. Larger than life, very brave and clearly a gifted general he lived life to the absolute limit. By the time of the Battle of Fontenoy  his body was struggling even if his mind was still very active. When Minden Miniatures produced the figure of him in his infamous portable cart, I knew I had to have one. The actual model is very delicate and is a work of art. Unfortunately I was only able to do an adequate job on the model. I also managed to get the colour scheme of his outrider wrong, he actually should be in green pants. So a bit of artistic licence was employed. Still a great model.   

Another bonus for wargamers and the internet, is all the 'how to' advice on the net. On the WSS site, there are a series of tutorial about painting. One in particular is about how to paint standards. Nothing new, one would think. Well on this tutorial, the talented lady paints a standard using Japanese calligraphic paper. The advantage of this is that when it is wet with pva glue, the paper can be moulded into any realistic shape, without tearing, and when it is dry, it stays in that shape.This is my first attempt, obviously not up to the standard of Mark Allen, but not bad for a first attempt.

 Finally, photographs of my next three units. Firstly the Regiment Bentheim, [ Black Hussar]

 My solitary standard bearer of the Irish Regiment Rooth. [Minden.]

 and last but not least, my interpretation of the regiment Deux Ponts.[ Black Hussar]