Friday 8 May 2009

Schleswig-Holstein Infantry (Off Topic #11)

I finally finished the Schleswig-Holstein infantry unit and I have to say I am pretty happy with the result. It’s been a nice change to paint some bigger figures (these ones are 28mm) and experiment with shading rather than painting block colours as I do with the Hintons. I also got around my glossy finish problem by applying Testors Dullcote over the varnish, which worked a treat – thanks for the hint Matt.


I’ve already explained that I know virtually nothing about the first Schleswig-Holstein war and my uniform reference book for this conflict is restricted to a single page in my copy of Blandford’s “Military Uniforms of The World”. Luckily Matt kindly sent me some painting notes or I would have been completely stuck. I thought it was actually quite old school to approach a new period in this way with no preconceptions, very like the way I approached wargaming in my youth. In fact I may just leave it that way and not buy any reference books at all.

I was hoping that by allowing myself this little distraction I would be able to focus with full attention on the Hintons for at least the rest of this year but my strategy seems to have backfired on me as I have enjoyed painting these so much. Matt is just about to release some Schleswig-Holstein Jagers and it seems poor tactics to leave my infantry without a skirmisher screen.

For now though I am knuckling down to work on those HH Landwehr – honest!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent job! Glad you found the Testor's worked (smells though doesnt it?!).

Regards

Matt

MSFoy said...

Hi Ian

This note is triggered by mention of matt varnish. Like everyone else, I have agonised about why my efforts with matt varnish finished up shiny. Despite my pretence that figures should really be a bit shiny, I have always known that I was bluffing.

Fuel was added to the fire lately by a couple of pro painters I use clearly having the same problem.

I have cracked it. I offer this in the same spirit of artisan comradeship that must have prompted your recent note on stripping with bleach.

1 - buy a bottle of Winsor & Newton Galeria matt varnish from your local artists' supplier. 3 quid for a nice big 75ml bottle.

2 - shake the bottle for at least 30 secs - this is important, and this is where most applications of acrylic matt varnish go wrong - if you don't shake it, no amount of swearing after the event will make it matt.

3 - pour into a plastic eggcup (or similar neolithic pot) and flop on with a big soft brush.

4 - no problem - the end.

I think that the secret is the shaking rather than the product, to be honest. The only advantage of the W&N varnish is that the bottle is big enough to use it in decent amounts. Fiddling round with these stupid little bottles from GW and suchlike is hardly a decent activity for old men!

Once again, lovely pictures - thanks for your efforts - the blog is a treasure.

Tony

Rafael Pardo said...

hey... that flag?
Regards
Rafa

Stryker said...

I just copied the flag Matt used on his blog/website as again I have no idea. I guess it is basically German?

Ian

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Ian,

Great looking figures! What's next?

Best Regards,

Stokes

Rafael Pardo said...

Yeah, that's the current german flag.. I don't know if it was in use during XIX century... But is a nice unit!

lewisgunner said...

Warflags has these for Schleswig H But also sounds a caveat.
Roy
http://www.warflag.com/flags/fp/holstein.shtml