Make Do and Mend...

...with the returned Wargames Foundry Crimean War British infantry has been on my mind while I was 'Oop North earlier in August. Having found a home with a good friend for some Scottish infantry figures and agreed a sale for the surplus Foot Guards figures to Stuart of Colonel Bill's I was left with five infantry regiments of 16-18 figures. 

With careful attention to the figures' paint jobs I first removed them all from their vintage card and filler bases: fiddly, messy and leading to sore finger tips but not difficult and only taking about an hour. Two of the regiments have yellow facings and a further two blue facings, though one was a Fusilier regiment. The remaining regiment had red facings. With a little artistic license in allocating figures to bases I was left with only four yellow faced figures to repaint with red facings as you can see in the first picture ~

 Back in the early 1980's when these were all painted you could still buy the figures individually, which accounts for the many casualty figures and the plethora of mounted Officers. Not wanting to waste a good resource I've pressed two of the surplus mounted officers into duty as a Brigade Command stand. While I'm on I shall replace the flags on these units with the North Star ones after I send off my next order ~

I also have some Rifle Brigade figures which I may rebase onto round bases in due course but these are enough to be going on with while Phil is away in a week or so. I hope that with my rebasing, new flags and a spray of matt varnish they will fit in with my newer Great Wars Miniatures units despite the discrepancy in figure size and heft. In separate units I really think few would bother to comment adversely. Anyway, a couple of closer pictures to remind us of earlier paints and painting styles, not to mention gloss varnish. The regiments from front to rear seem to have been the 33rd, the 23rd and the 38th ~

While I'm on the subject of painting I'd like to report that I'm making good progress on the second Roosian infantry battalion. Two bases of figures need grass 'n tufting while the first four figures of the third base are well on. Look out for them hopefully near the end of next week.