How I learnt to love painting redcoats.
My Grandfather, a veteran of WW2, didn't really talk about his experiences during the war, something I really don't blame him for. The one story I do remember him telling me was of when a bomber returned from a sorty with it's hatch not fully closed, the offending obstruction being an unexploded bomb. A very long piece of rope tied to the release mechanism and lots of fingers crossed and the crew and the plane survived to tell the tale.
Why I am telling you this? Well, although he really didn't want to remember his wartime experiences, my Grandfather did introduce me to historical wargaming. I learnt to play chess against my Grandfather, an excellent teacher, he got the exact balance of being a challenging opponent, but not putting me off the game. I still have the copies of Stratego and Campaign that we played and I was entrusted to take home with me. (I wonder now if he already had them or bought them with the intention of gifting them to me after our game.)
We built an airfix Hurricane kit together (I later discovered he had been a mechanic of the real thing.) and then one Sunday afternoon out came a box of humbrol paints and the Battle of Waterloo in 1/72 scale. My Grandfather had painted some of them already, and he showed me how to very carefully paint more. (Including leaving them on the sprue for ease of handling, a habit I still to this day know is the right thing to do, but yet still get over excited and unclip and glue before painting on many an occasion.)
So, I was dispatched home that night with the box of paints and soldiers with the promise that I would finish them under parental supervision.
Fast forward 20 odd years and I'm perusing the wares at a wargame show. My wargaming colleague is buying some French 28mm Napoleonics from Front Rank miniatures. This reminded me of the promise I made to my Grandfather and so my first purchase of this period is made. I may not have finished the 1/72 models, but I would paint a Napoleonic army of some sort. This very slowly done task has taken me at least ten years. (I am a very slow painter and get distracted by new shinies all the time.) My final task was painting Highlanders in their finest Black Watch tartan. It has become a bit of a running joke in my wargamers group and my long suffering wife rolls her eyes at the mention of them, but finally I have finished them.
My Dad has since found the original airfix set for me, although even I admit I might struggle to get them done (as my father in law admits, an increase in age correlates with an acceptance to give up on trying to paint smaller and smaller scales.) but I would like to think that if my Grandfather were still with us, he would appreciate the achievement and accept that I had at least performed the promise in spirit. I won't pretend to be anywhere near expert level at painting, but I like to think en masse they look impressive enough.
The models are a mix of Front Rank, Perry and Vitrix miniatures. The Front Rank models being metal have that great feel of weight and durability. I could not however have afforded this entire army without buying some of it in plastic. My wargaming gang have yet to decide on a rule system, I would say this is the era I have the most rulebooks for and yet we still may end up writing our own.
(Now, no-one tell my wife about the unpainted Prussian army in my to do pile.)
I must admit my Airfix Highlanders had plain green kilts (on the basis that - at the scale distance you couldn't see the stripes anyway). The fact that I was a rubbish painter had nothing to do with it.
ReplyDeleteLovely to hear you talk about Grandad like that. I remember him discovering cooking so much later in life and his cheesecake is the delicious standard I am still trying to attain. Just goes to show we both remember him for something that he did that made a connection with us as individuals. love and hugs xxx
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