Friday 1 May 2009

In praise of Nicholas Colasanto



You will have to be a certain age to remember Nicholas Colasanto, or Coach, the character that he played in the comedy Cheers. But then you will have to be a certain age to have nothing better to do with your time than read this blog, so I am reasonably certain that you will remember that having taken 'one to many pitches on the old bean' Coach was a little intellectually challenged and could usually be relied on to agree with the viewpoint of the last speaker.


I felt a little like coach last week. I was completely certain the the one period I could be sure I would never paint again would be Medievals. After all I had fielded a peasant army for Barons Wars and re fought most of the Wars of the Roses battles and now I am securely based in the 18C. NO! one enjoyable game and I have a big box of old lead from the eighties out and am painting away.





Fair enough, but what made me think that a good place to begin to fit in with an 14C German campaign would be to put together a unit of Irish? You know how it is, they just came out of the box and before I knew where I was I had some paint on them. They are useful figures anyway and can be used right through to the English Civil War.



So just to put things right I painted up a group of city militia archers. Just 10 fairly elderly and ill equipped archers who probably are only in the militia for the drinking and weekends away from their families.



Not especially well painted, but then not every figure has to be a masterpiece, they will look good enough from six feet away. Hopefully that has scratched that particular itch and I can now get on with the other six or so major projects that I have on the go.

12 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Oh yes, sir . . . "not every figure has to be a masterpiece" . . . so, so true! . . . and yet we forget it far too often.

I like them . . . they are for the table top, not the display case.


-- Jeff

Fitz-Badger said...

Coach! ;-)
I agree with Jeff.

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

They look good enought to me!

B.t.w, do I detect the use of army painter dip???

PANDYS RANT said...

Hi John,
Only SIX!!!! for shame.

cheers,Andy

Peeler said...

Looking good!

johnpreece said...

Thanks for the comments:
Steve: I am afraid Army painter dip instantly turns me into Private Frazer.

"Twelve Poonds!! de ye ken, I'm made of money???

The flesh is washed with Winsor and Newton indian ink,Nut Brown; the bag and quivers in peat brown. the red on the archers is actually very nice, better than it appears here and is FW acrylic ink in red earth painted neat over white undercoat. It self shades and makes a lovely subdued red that I am very tempted to use for British Infantry. I really would recommend it as an excellent quick effect.

Pandy: of course when I say Six I only mean the main ones. Napoleonics 1809; Napoleonics big battalions; 18C Charge imagnation; 18C French and English; English Civil Wars; WW2 fall of France and Sealion.

Otherwise there is Medieval, Ancient, AWI, ACW, Colonial, WW1, SCW.....

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

I'm being dim I'm sure, but "FW"?? It looks very good - I reckon a black undercoat, dampbrush white, and with that red ink over the top would make a very quick and very nice British uniform red....

johnpreece said...

http://tinyurl.com/df5llc

Try this link for a description. Though they are widely available through most art shops etc. I like the Sepia and burnt umber for painting horses over a white undercoat.

They are not really opaque so the black over white may be a little too stark or on the other hand it may work brilliantly. Please let us know if you try it.

I have nothing against black undercoat, I am just about to do 160 French light infantry in black because it wil save me time in shakos and muskets. It is just for most of my painting I find white quicker and easier.

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Aha - I know that stuff - I've seen it in my local art shop; must try and get some..

Will do on the test with the red - it's a system I've also used and like for doing wood as it simulates wood grain quite nicely.. black, paint some thin lines of white, and then use your choice of brown stain over that...

Bloggerator said...

Hi John,

Who's the manufacturer - they look like pretty good sculpts to me - nice and characterful.

Refgards,

Greg Horne

johnpreece said...

Hello Greg,

the bald guy is definitely Essex, I tend to think the other two are as well. However I got out a box that had all sorts in it that I picked up in the early eighties. All I can say is I knew what they were when I packed the box 25 years ago.

John

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

Hey John - remember these??

http://plasticpelisse.blogspot.com/2009/06/les-higgins-marlburian-infantry-command.html

... :o))))