A Post-Christmas Frippery

What do you do with your spare odds and ends and figures? Do they go into the 'Bits Box of Doom' never to see daylight again despite all your best intentions? Well, here in GHQ after I had sorted out Aly's kind gift (see an earlier blog post) I found I had several British standard bearers I had no immediate use for. I'd also grown tired of seeing the painted Black Bottle Bill, a freebie from North Star, sitting forlornly on a base each time I sat at my desk to paint. Then suddenly I had an idea when I recalled a comment earlier this month by the Duke of Baylen/Stephen and this is the result, in period monochrome just for fun ~

A British celebration of captured Roosian standards, toasted in Porter by old Black Bottle Bill himself and accompanied by the skirl o' the pipes from a Cameronian piper! Result? Bill is no longer lonely and pointless, I've used up three spare British Fusilier Ensign figures, and I've had a dry run at painting a figure for my second Highland Infantry regiment, the 79th, the Cameron Highlanders ~

The sharp eyed amongst you will have noticed the bronze of a Roosian artillery barrel lying carelessly abandoned on the ground near the group. As you will know our highest award for gallantry, the Victoria Cross, is traditionally cast from just such a piece brought back from the Crimea so I thought it an appropriate touch. That's one piece I've salvaged from my own 'Bits Box of Doom' then!