Saturday 24 March 2018

PENINSULAR WAR, Alban & Perry Miniatures


My two new and combined projects are 28mm Sicily and Italy WW2 and Napoleonic Peninsular. I say combined as the terrain will be more or less the same for both but the little men that fight on it will be totally different obviously.

I will start off with some 95th Rifles for the Peninsular War, these figures are from both Perry and Alban miniatures. Alban Miniatures are no longer trading and reverted back to a private collection in January 2016 which is a shame as they are very nice figures, perfectly proportioned (1/56th scale) and the quality of the casting really shows with no flash or any filing needed.

My collection is going to be mostly Perry Miniatures but I was lucky enough to be given a handful of the 95th Rifles and a couple of dozen French Voltigeur figures (more of these in a future post). Alban Miniatures being 1/56th are more or less the same height as Perry Miniatures but being proportionally scaled are slimmer in build. This for me is fine with skirmishing figures and individual officers/characters but I would keep formed units separate due to the slight size difference. Here is a couple of pictures of Perry and Alban Miniatures for you to make up your own mind.        



Alban Miniatures also do some great character figures from the Bernard Cornwell Sharpe series and they even brought out a Sharpe and Harper special edition figure with the launch of the first Sharp Practice rule book from Too Fat Lardies back in 2008.

To give you an idea of their range of figures you can check out their website albanminiatures.com although as mentioned above, they are no longer trading.

I was chatting with Paul Hammond and he informed me that if he had enough interest from people wanting to buy figures from Alban Miniatures then he would consider sending a batch off to be cast.
If you think you would be interested then contact Paul Hammond at hamrock@btinternet.com

  
      Back to the 95th, which are all Alban apart from two plastic Perry Miniatures.

These are two different sets of Sharp and Harper. The figures on the right are slightly smaller and I think might have been made by a different sculptor as they came free with the original release of Sharp Practice from TFL.  

The 95th command set.


Perry plastic.

Harper on the left with his seven barrelled rifle.












 I have been doing quite a bit of conversion work on the Perry plastics, results from that in a later post.
 


 
I have been playing around with some teddy bear fur, not sure with the results so far though.


A couple of little tasters from the WW2 Sicily and Italy project that I have been very busy on. More of that in a future post.



 As with all my posts, I will be finishing off with a link for anyone interested in going on the waiting list for my book SETTING THE SCENE to contact www.kerstinsmith1234@gmail.com
and once I have enough interest I will do a third print run.

32 comments:

  1. Splendid details and scenery, you bring them to life!

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  2. Good grief. Is there any period you can´t master?

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    1. You know what they say Paul, Jack of all trades and master of none but I thank you anyway.
      Pat.

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  3. Just superb as always Pat! Some of our gaming will be taking place in Spain and Italy in the future so I'm curious to see what ideas you will give us.:-)

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks Christopher and ditto, I will be pinching a few ideas from you.

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  4. Stunning work there Pat! I haven't paint any Napoleonic figures for years now but you have re-sparked my interest. The teddy bear fur looks really good too.

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  5. I am not a huge fan of the teddy bear fur. It seems to give better results when it is trimmed down to a shorter length fur.

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  6. Pat,
    Delighted that you're doing Peninsular stuff.
    Cheers
    Matt

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  7. very nice work Pat figures and terrain. good to see you experimenting with teddy bear fur, looking forward to you Italian terrain.
    cheers John

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  8. Any chance that you will put out more books? The Winter book is fantastic! I'd love a bunch more!

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  9. I am already loving this project Pat and if anyone can tame the teddy bear fur then it will be you. ;)

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  10. Thanks chaps.
    Mark, the second book if it happens, will be Sicily, Italy and Spain WW2 and Napoleonic but this will depend on if I can come up with enough material that justifies doing a book.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

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  11. Very nice Pat and I am sure I have a handful of Alban rifles lying around sonewhere waiting for paint! Love the teddy bear fur and those Sicily teasers are stunning.

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  12. Great post Pat, I have started painting up some Albans as there my favourite miniatures for skirmishing but I am unsure to proceed because of lack of figures. I will will go ahead and email Paul.

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  13. Beautiful as always Pat! Working on some rifleman myself and currently painting up a 3D print for the Peninsula and cross over for WW2 Italy/Spain.

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    1. Thanks chaps.
      LHP, I look forward to seeing the 3D print and those riflemen.

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  14. Beautiful miniatures and great brushwork!!
    Love the grassy field!! just so...real!!

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  15. Pat, you might finding combing the paint through the teddy fur stops it from clumping. I found less is more, so use the paint sparingly initially, but I swear by the comb method, it does the trick. You can blob on different shades of colour and the comb also does a good job of blending it too.

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    1. Thanks for the tips with this, much appreciated. My first attempt with the teddy bear fur and I did use the comb but as you say less is more. The fur that I used was white in colour and I think I probably need to start with a darker fur and hopefully I will not be tempted then to use so much paint. Its all about trial and lots of error.

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    2. You definitely want to start with a mid-color brown. Lighter colors can be used for arid areas. It is something you want to plan out. This was the article I wrote up about it. http://articles.warlordgames.com/covering-normandy-in-teddy-bear-fur/

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    3. Thanks David for the tip and the excellent link.

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  16. looking fabulous and seriously contemplating teddy bear fur myself- will watch with interest

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  17. lovely riflemen Pat, look forward to seeing both new projects grow

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  18. A really nicely painted selection of miniatures on awesome terrain.

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  19. Excellent stuff as always. I will follow your Sicily project in particular with great interest as I've had my eyes on that scene myself. Great choice for gaming I think and I really look forward to see you do your magic. /Mattias

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  20. Lovely riflemen I'm going to start my Italian wars terrain soon so it would be great to see your Italian/Spainish terrain!
    Best Iain

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