A Bit of This, A Bit of That.....

 Just a few bits and pieces from the painting desk tonight, as well as some images mentioned/requested in other blogs (Aly Morrison I think!) and a recent arrival too.

First up is the last of the SCW vehicles from Minairons, that has languished on the painting desk for far too long. This is a very simple but effective plastic kit of a PzKfw I. I painted it up in Nationalist camouflage, rather than the Condor Legion Feldgrau I used for the others. It also came with a second turret, to represent an "up gunned" version the Nationalists trialed as an answer to the superiority of the Republicans T26's

The standard MG armed PzKfw I

And the "Breda" version

Next up, the two "extra" British Hussars from the Perry pack, painted up as dispatch riders.

Trooper of the 16th Hussars in the earliest uniform - 1808 - with the 14" fur cap that proved unserviceable and was soon dispensed with.

A trooper of the 18th Hussars in the later, shorter fur cap, worn from 1812-15

Both units were picked based on the attractive colour combinations in their uniforms

And not to be outdone, the French also get a couple of single lancer troopers, also for use as couriers etc

I cant remember the regimental numbers and cant be fagged checking - basically one has light blue facings and the other red, to match two of the four regiments of line lancers I have in my collection!

Now, the new arrivals - as mentioned a couple of posts back, I decided to carry on with the Napoleonic cavalry theme, so here is a box of Chasseurs a Cheval that arrived yesterday.

As usual, the command (officer and guidon bearer/musician) are metal, although you use a plastic head and horse for the enlisted man

Then you get 6 plastic sprues as shown here, enough for twelve troopers but only eleven horses (as one has been used for the command base!) So, I guess at the end of this box, I will have another courier, this time, a Chasseur!

A variety og heads are supplied - nit as comprehensive as the Perry products but enough for some variety.

Finally, Aly Morrison recently posted an image of his painting desk. Other bloggers have done similar pics in the past but I have always been too embarrassed to share an image of my chaotic workspace. However, as I had to do a bit of a tidy up a couple of weeks ago so the desk (and book cupboard) could be moved to lay garage carpet tiles, I thought if I was ever going to do it, now was the time!

So, this, dear readers, is my "tidy" painting desk - honestly, this has about one third or less of the crap that was everywhere before the "tidy up", so you may be able to imagine what it used to look like!

Aly also said that what would be REALLY interesting was peoples book cupboards, so, as that had to be unloaded so it could be moved for two minutes to lay three tiles, I took a few images of that too.

The top shelf previously had box files containing my British FoW collection. 

Contents piled on the garage floor - only about 50% of them would return to their place after the tidy up.

You can see the space that remained to be carpeted - two hours graft to clear out the cupboard and five minutes to lay the three tiles!

The cupboard refilled and in a new configuration - I realised the lower shelves were more spaced out and had too much space for any of the books in my collection, so a waste of space - thus, the lower two shelves now contain file boxes of figures. Now, all I have to do is get rid of about fifty hardback military history books I decided I didn't need to keep!

Cheers for now - more soon, as I have been busily painting up 15mm British Infantry for use in the Heroes of Normandie game!