To my way of thinking, the best way to pass the time away during the winter months is to paint figures. I like to hunker down in the basement and work through the piles of lead that I have accumulated over the past several years. Usually I am able to make a serious dent in that lead pile; for example, one winter I painted my entire AWI collection of British and Americans from October through March, probably some 400 to 500 figures in total. Lately, however, my little l'enfant terrible, Lelia, has kept me away from the painting table. Consequently, I am relying on contract painters to get my Western Germany Theater armies ready for action. My French SYW army is progressing quite nicely, though I doubt that I'll have it ready in time for the SYWA Convention on March 31-April 1, 2000.

I have 16 battalions and 5 regiments of cavalry (French) affixed to metal bases, but I have yet to terrain the bases and glue on all the identification tags to each stand. In recent years, all of my new forces are affixed to metal bases. I then purchase a sheet of magnet strip from a local sign shop; cut to fit for a large plastic bin, and store and transport my armies in said bin. The bins stack nicely for storage or for transport in the trunk of my car when I go to conventions. The bases adhere firmly to the magnetic sheet and transport quite nicely, since they do not shift around. The bases can be purchased in a variety of sizes from Wargames Inc. in West Virginia, although there are probably other sources as well. Give this system a try.

I also cut a one-eighth inch strip of cherry, walnut or mahogany and glue the wood to the back side of the movement stand. Then I print some unit names out on my computer and paste the labels onto the wood strip. You can use a gothic or old English font for the unit names to add to the 18th Century look of your unit.

I decided that I just don't have enough time to terrain all of my new Western Theater units, so I will probably field Austrians and Prussians at this year's SYWA convention. In the past, I might have devoted a lot of time hurrying to get this project done in time for the convention, but now I see the wisdom of gaming with the toys that you already have. It's less stressful than basing a dozen units the night before packing up to go to the convention. So as I acquire more gray hairs on my head, the less likely I am to blitz my way through a project in time for a convention. Now, my attitude is that the armies will get done when they are done. No sooner. No later.

I've started painting a few of the Front Rank Hanoverians for my 25mm Allied Army and have really enjoyed working with these figures. Initially, I thought that they were too chunky and cartoonish, compared to my all-time favorite RSM figures. But after painting a few samples, I came to appreciate the unique facial features of the castings and the exquisite detail that one can find on each figure. The Hanoverians have a very "Germanic" look facially, while the French look very, well, French.

My first Hanoverian regiment was Von Sporken (straw colored vest and facings). I black primed this batch and had to paint on three or four layers of red to overcome the black undercoating. One advantage of priming in black is that you give the whole figure a coating of black acrylic paint to start with, and lo and behold you have completed the gaiters, tricorne and cartridge box. Prussian blue and French White/Grey work very well with a black undercoat, but red is a difficult color to work with since the black seems to seep through. Sporken looks rather dark and has a campaign look to it. The second Hanoverian unit, von Laffert (light green vest and facings) was primed in gray. Generally this means that I only have to use one or two coats of red paint to get the proper coloration, but it also requires a lot of extra work to paint the gaiters, tricorne and equipment. Nevertheless, I like the look of Laffert much better than that of Sporken, so I will probably continue to use gray primer for the rest of my British and Hanoverians.

Finally, you might ask how do I go about selecting Hanoverian infantry units to paint? The answer lies in the battalion flags. Hanoverian flags are probably the most complicated designs in the entire history of warfare. Most of them are God-awful to paint. So I thumb through my Pengel & Hurt or Neimeyer and Ortenberg and select the units that have the simplest designs. There are about six regiments that have "do-able" flags, in terms of the complexity level; the rest are too hard to paint free hand for most of us. There is an alternative solution, and that is to buy some of the Old Glory UK 15mm Hanoverian flag sheets and enlarge them on a color copier. Then you take out your paintbrush and touch them up a bit and you end up with a decent looking flag. Maybe one day some company will produce 25mm Hanoverian flags.

I hear Lelia crying so I guess that is my cue to get up from my chair and gout stool and attend to her needs. She is just starting to talk and has a vocabulary of about eight words (including Da-Da I am proud to say). This month I am going to see if I can get her to say some one-syllable words such as Old Fritz. That should make his Royal Nibs happy when he starts ranting and raving around the palace here at San Souci. The view from the veranda is, as always, quite pleasing. Next issue, I will report on the happenings at the annual Seven Years War Association Convention. In the meantime, I hope to see most of the readers there.

More From The Veranda of Sans Souci

Introduction
Review of Vol IX No. 1
The Next Big Thing
Winter Project

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