On the workbench - June 2026

So May turned out to be a complete distraction from painting. First my insurer decided to write off my car so I had to hunt for a new one, and then I realised with the sudden onset of hot weather I could get the 3D printer started again. The month ended with an outing to UK Games Expo, quite an experience. Also I managed to sell off all my Winter terrain and armies. But overall not much progress on the painting so I am working on:

• Almoravid heavy cavalry (almost there, needs a final push on all the detailing)
• Four units of SYW British infantry (All primed, half with their facings blocked in - no progress in May))
• Complete the Vietnamese buildings (Primed and first coat now painted (base colours are now on I just need to finish off the final washes, etc. They were already good enough to use in a game last month))
• 3 units of WSS French cavalry (Assembled and washed ready for priming - Still)
• Paint the wild west buildings acquired at Games Expo
• Complete the latest 3D printing campaign, mainly Napoleonic Russian Infantry, plus various ypgrades/replacements for existing vehicles

Finally Phalanx is on this month and the club is putting on the battle of Nantwich 1644

French Vichy Dewotine D520

Phew, last of May and I have finished my Dewotine D520 in Vichy colours. It started out as a wish to have something Vichy to support those French in Lebanon/Syria and North Africa. Once painted the decals disintegrated as soon as placed, despite being dosed with varnish first. So much for a £2 quick fix kit!. Step in Charles, while I had other problems to supply a set of French roundels. So a slight change to the paints scheme and I have

Looks the part

WAS Bavarian Freikompanie Prielmayer

I needed some light troops for my Seven Years War Bavarians, so they could act as a stand alone force, but they didn't use them as part of the auxilary force provided to Austria. So I cast the net wider to the War of Austrian Succession, there were three at that time and I selected the Prielmayer Freikompanie. The uniform came up on a forum so I used it.

The source I used

Also I created a command stand for my Prussin artillery

All the figures are from the Revell SYW sets.

WSS Franconian Grenadier Battalion

Having bought the Strelets War of Spanish Succession Austrian Grenadiers I had to find a use for them other than as Austrians as I had already created those by conversions. I discovered the Franconian Combined Greanadiers on Kronoskaf Project WSS (link).

It was involved in the battle of Schellenberg along with Austrian Grenadiers and and Swabian Grenadiers, so I now need to find a uniform for the latter to use up the remaining figures.

Some guessses were made to fill in the missing details in the uniform description. The flag came from a SYW Franconian circle flag recouloured to match the unit's facings.

On the workbench - May 2025

Well, April has been a mixed month. When planning I had forgotten to take into account the duties of a son on his mothers 99th birthday!! and then my car was involved in a collision with an opening van door as I was parking!*? So progress has been very slow.

So I'm still working on:-

• Almoravid heavy cavalry (basic colours all done)
• Four units of SYW British infantry (All primed, half with their facings blocked in))
• Paint the Vietnamese buildings (Primed and first coat now painted (cheap rattle can matt sand from ebay))
• WSS Franconian grenadier battalion (Primed)
• 3 units of WSS French cavalry (Assembled and washed ready for priming)
• A Prussian artillery commander base (Primed)
• Bavarian Frei Kompanie Prielmayer (Primed) (I found this from the stash after finding an image of the unit)

Wild West scenery

It's been a while , these scenic items were almost finished before I went away and finished shortly after I returned, but "real life" intervened. They were all printed on my FDM 3D printer and then assembled onto bases. In future I'll assemble them onto bases digitally before printing.

Crates

Fence post cactus

"Poka-dot" cactus, I plan to print more small versions for mediterranean prickly pears.

classic "tree" cactus

My mine railway and wagons, the tracks were based before printing. I still need to build a mine entrance and workings.

SYW Prussian Pioneers

Quite an unusual unit for my Seven Years War Prussian army, the short lived Pioneer regiment. It became the 49th fusilier regiment in 1758 see Kronoskaf for more details (link)

These were converted from the Revell Austrian artillery with fusilier hat swaps from the HaT Prussian infantry marching. Don't look too closely or you'll see the problem I had welding the two different plastics together.