Evolution

Over the last year or so my old mate John's painting style has moved slowly away from the conventional layered acrylics to something more.....subtle and stylish (and dare i say shiny). Clearly some malevolent force is at work.....

Exhibit one: (we've seen these chaps before) Connoisseur conversions. The horse flesh has had an oil wash but everything else is layered acrylics - though without that refuge of the dilettante, cad and bounder: the black undercoat. Win a free night with John's collection of Doug Mason Napoleonics if you can spot what's changed since we last met these chaps.


Exhibit Two: Mounted Bicorne general with two Connoisseur conversions. The horse flesh and uniform coats are oil washes over acrylic base coats, the rest of the figures are layered acrylics as previously.

Exhibit Three: Minden SYW Prussian Jager (paint) converted to AWI Hessians. Almost exclusively oil washed apart from the flesh, scarlet and fiddly details. Splendid!

Got a Time Machine?

From Mil Mod March 1981.

More Saxons

More Connoisseur Saxons painted by Doug Mason for the WHC. Lovely units, but perhaps a tad pedestrian by Mason's very high standards (you couldn't say that about his Saxon Cuirassier and Guard though - see Chris Cornwell's blog for some great pictures of those fine chaps).

Saxons by Doug Mason

Last year Mike Ingham sent me a number of shots of Napoleonic units from the WHC collection, of which the above Doug Mason painted Elite Miniatures Saxon Guard unit is one of the most striking. Mason is of course capable of very intricate and detailed work, but he's also capable of producing figures that look superb in units. My units tend to look like groups of individuals so it's an ability that i'm certainly envious of. I suspect it comes down to having a clear vision of the end result before you begin - planning where each figure will be placed within the unit, knowing which details to paint and which to leave out, etc.

At it's peak the WHC collection boasted literally thousands of Mason painted (and sculpted - of which more anon) figures - most of which were commissioned in the post-Gilder by Gerry Elliott. The numbers will be reduced now as Mike Ingham sold a fair number last year (some of which will feature here soon...ish), indeed as Mike was willing to part with the Saxons i don't know whether you'll find the above unit at the new WHC.

Mike Ingham

I've just heard via TMP that Mike Ingham passed away last Friday. I only met Mike once last year when i found him to be a real pleasure - still full of enthusiasm for the hobby (particularly the 'proper figures and painting' that the WHC collection epitomised) and patient enough to let me poke around the shelves at the WHC and answer my many tedious questions despite his ill health. In passing Mike mentioned that in over 20 years of hosting games he had only ever asked someone to leave on one occassion - which tells us a lot about the good humour of both the Grand Manner community and Mike.

No doubt others, more qualified than i, will pay appropriate tribute to Mike in the coming days.

Having bought out his business partner Mike disposed of a good chunk of the WHC collection last year, but the majority was kept together and the WHC, now in new hands, should have a bright future ahead. You'll find the new website here.