Tuesday 18 November 2008

Hessian artillery



These are the two Perry Hesse-Cassel 4-pounders and crews. Apparently Hesse-Cassel's entire artillery corps was sent to America, most of it recruited specifically for the war, and the corps amounted to three companies. According to Mollo, each company consisted of 5 officers, 14 NCOs, 3 drummers and 129 gunners. The artillery corps was engaged throughout the war.

I admit to finding these a bit tricky to paint. The colours of guns caused the first problems - "mid-blue" seemed to be the general consensus as to the wood colour, following the colour used by the Prussian army. I used Foundry's "Deep Blue 20B" as the base, with highlights of "Deep Blue 20C" and "Sky Blue 21A" and "21B". The colour is pretty much what I wanted, although I have no idea if it is correct; but it is certainly a darker blue than the colours I use for British artillery. I painted the breeches of the artillerymen with the standard Foundry "Buff" palette and then realised that the end result did not have that "straw" colour which is appropriate for many Hessian troops. But I found that applying a final highlight of Foundry "Yellow 2C" over the buff colours actually worked quite well - so there is an answer to Hessian "straw" that doesn't even require mixing! The red facings are sometimes described as being more "crimson" than "scarlet", but I used my standard red colours of GW "Red Gore", "Blood Red" and "Blazing Orange."

8 figures and 2 guns. Painted September 2008.



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice indeed. I may well copy your "blue" technique myself for some later German types!

Andy McMaster said...

You do realise I'll be going to the Stocton Show on the 29th and if I come back with a big bag of 28mm AWI it'll all be your fault! And after my wife's finished killing me I'll send her here! :)

Lovely woork as usual, Giles. Where do you find the time? :)

Andy

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

They're lovely!

Sire Godefroy said...

>>Where do you find the time?

Same question from here. ;)
Great output as ever. Special thanks for your painting tips, they are always useful to me, because they save a lot of time experimenting with my own paints.

Cheers

Greg Sapara said...

Wonderful, as always!

Now I have the motivation to dive into my set!

GregS

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

I think you got the breeches color just right. I'd love to see a side-view of the gun carriages.

AJ

Post Modern Bellerophon said...

I love seeing your work and the more painting tips you leave the more indebted I am to you. Please keep it up. for me it is a virtual painting class.

Frostydog said...

Excellent work as usual.

Anonymous said...

Very nice Giles! I just finished these figures as well,but I painted them up as the Ansbach-Beyreuth contingent.I didn't have to worry about the "straw" smallclothes as the A/B figures used white. I also had an issue with the carriage color.I use Vallejo,and I just painted them a "bluer" shade than my Brit Arty. I'll post pics soon.

Bob

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

Giles,

Thanks for the side view. They're very nicely done. I think the carriage color is great the way you have it.

AJ