"Something Old, Something New...

...Something Borrowed, Something Blue", as the old saws would have you know. A good title for this post as well I think you'll find! Continuing the Billy No Mates existence has lead me to complete a wagon set for my French army in the Wars of the French Revolution project. It's the Perry Miniatures wagon set, slightly late for my chosen period of 1793-95, but hey-ho, it's a wagon, it's French and I liked it, so it'll do for me! It took me a week's worth of painting time as well; it's not heavy but it's fiddly for my arthritic hands - they chose this week of course to play up, having behaved beautifully for ages before! The body of the wagon is a soft resin, easy to trim excesses off, and the wheels, shaft, two horses and two passengers are metal, and come with the sadly expected yards of vent runs and flash to deal with! I cut the head off the driver, drilled out the neck, and replaced it with a Trent Miniatures head in bicorne. I carefully painted his trousers in revolutionary red,white and blue to locate the piece firmly in my chosen period. Anyhow, this is the 'new' the title mentioned ~

Something old is up next. I've been steadily increasing the figure count for my VBCW collection over the past few months. I've also been trawling eBay for Lledo vehicles with a Wolverhampton link.. But this one I found in the loft recently during a sort out ~

It also qualifies as 'something borrowed' since I'm pretty sure it was Matt's about 25 years ago! Sadly it seems that Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries never had a promotional or commemorative vehicle, but I'm tarting up a six wheeler for myself with a period advertising hoarding I found through Google. That brings us to 'something blue': appropriately its the 'boys in blue', Wolverhampton Borough Constabulary's finest ~

If, like me, you find the news coverage at present a tad annoying ~ full of remoaners as it is ~ you can always find solace in the local paper, which, if its anything like ours, probably espouses views to the right of Attila the Hun! The 'Express & Star' was always going to be a must have element in my VBCW games, and here they are complete with transport, the Express & Star Rifles ~

The Editor is a Copplestone 'fine fellow' I think, the rest are Musketeer/Footloose Miniatures. The next unit on the list is the Chillington Horse, which I hope to start in November. At present I'm working on British skirmish bases for my Wars of the French Revolution game. I hope to finish those 14 figures this month as it will round off that aspect of the collection. Back to the painting desk  for me then...