Friday, June 29, 2018

92nd (Gordon) Highlanders


 Eventually, every Napoleonic Wargamer must confront the specter of painting... Highlanders! 
Now, I actually had painted a unit of Highlanders some 45 years ago - the famous Airfix set. That experience didn't make me any more eager to do another unit, LOL!


 Although I had finished most of my substantial British army a couple of years ago, I didn't even order any Highlanders as part of that project.


In the waning days of my Old Glory Army Card membership this winter, I finally placed the order for my Highland contingent. I had debated using Perry figures, because then I would only have enough for a single unit, whereas I could make up to 4 units from the Old Glory packs I needed. In the end, thrift and megalomania won out, and I went with Old Glory...


They are actually quite nice figures, but *80* is so darned many to paint!  :-) I decided to do the Gordons for my Talavera campaign and games, and do any other regiment(s) after Historicon. 


As usual, the over-sized but beautiful GMB flag is a bit large for the Old Glory standard bearer.


I used a red ink pen to do the dicing on the socks and the band at the base of the bonnets. Fortunately, these figures are sculpted wearing marching gaiters over most of the stockings. I use d a green ink pen for the squares at the intersections of the dicing on the bonnets. 


I have exchanged the ranks to better show the tartan patterns on the kilts. I used ta truncated version of the method outlined here by John O'Brien. I used a black ink pen to outline the green stripes. I was going to do the yellow over-stripe that differentiated the Gordon's kilts, but decided that I wouldn't be able to paint fine enough lines, and that it would thus likely spoil the reasonably satisfactory look of the kilts as seen here.  


 The second unit, the 42nd (Black Watch) is about half done now; they will wait until after Historicon for completion. (anyone want to pick up about 40 unpainted  Old Glory Highland figures cheap?!)


Scotland forever!
(Of course you do!)

30 comments:

  1. Very nice. I've only every painted Tartan once and that scarred me for life.

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    1. Thanks, Lee. It only took me 45 years to do my second unit, so my experience was similar. :-)

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  2. They look good! I am still scarred from painting 66 highlanders in 18mm last year.

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    1. Thank you, Scott. I sense a common theme here! :-)

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  3. A colorful and beautiful paint job for a famous unit, well done!

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  4. Nice job. Kilt painting is not for the faint of heart. It took me quite a while to do all three units, if memory serves.

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    1. Most of the tartan is actually done on the Black Watch. We will see if I ever paint the other 2 units, though. Anyone going to Historicon is welcome to the surplus figures!

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  5. Well executed! I find them rather daunting as well, and yours came off superb. I always wanted to add some to my War of 1812 project, but could never get models with bonnets and trews.

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    1. I am happy with how they came out. I MIGHT just try the red over-stripe with the Black Watch, at least on a test figure.

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  6. Quite a surprise that your large collection was, until now, lacking in highlanders. Well worth 'the wait' Peter!

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    1. Thank you, James. It was no accident that they were missing from the collection until now, I assure you!

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  7. Nice work Peter, Brits (and Highlanders especially) are one of the last Napoleonic things I aim to add, but I did pick up the two rude Highlanders from Black Hussar a while ago...

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    1. Well, I did the British after thousands of French, Austrians, Russians, Prussians, Confederation of the Rhine, Poles, Italians and Portuguese myself. The highlanders only after the Spanish. Those rude highlanders are classics, though!

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    2. Yes sounds like you did things in the correct order to me :)

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    3. "Great minds" and all that! :-)

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    1. Thanks, Mac! Maybe that's why the Pipers are playing "Scotland the Brave" above? :-)

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  9. Great job on these Peter, and the tartans look very effective indeed. It will be interesting to see how they perform in action now - I bet they will do brilliantly to make you regret having put them off for so long.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. They made their debut less than a day after being completed in the playtest for my Battle of Talavera game this past weekend. A glorious charge, bagpipes playing and kilts swirling... only to be bloodily repulsed by the French. Well, first game jitters and all that.

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  10. Great looking highlanders, I'm particularly impressed with the dicing on the socks,tartan is what's putting me off the Montrose army I've got,lots of highlanders!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you, Iain. The dicing was done with a red ink pen - much easier than paint! Using the scheme suiggested, the tartan wasn;'t actually *that* bad to paint.

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  11. I like ‘em, Peter! Having painted Highlanders in 15mm, 20mm, and 25mm, I feel your pain.

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    1. Thanks, Jon. Highlanders in three different scales? Now that is what I'd call Tartan Hell! :-)

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  12. What a wonderful job on these Peter. Very well done on those tartans and like yourself, I am partial to GMB flags.

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    1. Thank you, Carlo. The GMB flags are great, if large!

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