Getting a head

It seems a long time since making the decision to go ahead with commissioning some figures and actually seeing some results. The trouble is other people want to use your sculptor too!

I’ve been clear from the start that I’m in no rush to get the figures produced and while I’m doing it for a bit of fun, other people are trying to make a living out of it, so I genuinely don’t mind if my project takes a little longer. To be honest the project had taken a back seat in my life - my new job is fairly demanding on my time, I leave home at 6 in the morning and get back at 8 at night  - but it's a job, for which I'm incredibly grateful. It pays for my lead. And feeds my children!

Things seem to be moving on with the project now though – seeing the equipment set (last post) really gave me a buzz as the project started to come to life, however it doesn’t compare to seeing pictures of the greens for the first of the head sets which came through this week.

From left to right - Pillbox, Home Service Helmet, Glengarry and Fusilier

My brief to the sculptor was for the faces to have character - I hope you'll agree he's certainly pulled that off!

Don't be put off by the bodies - they're Napoleonic bodies being used to confirm the fit. The puppets for the proper bodies are being sculpted now - I can't wait to see the results - it's like being 9 again on Christmas Eve!

 

 

 

 

Progress!

I've just been emailed a photo showing the initial sculpt of the equipment set which will be used when constructing the "puppets" from which the final figures will be created.

It never fails to amaze me how someone can create something like this from a lump of putty!

There are a couple of alterations which need to be made to the set to get it right, but it's great to see progress and I'm looking forward to seeing the first sculpts of the separate heads.

Diehards at Osborne

The two of you who read this blog will no doubt remember that in an earlier post (Research) I mentioned that the Diehard reenactment group were visiting Osborne House over here on the Isle of Wight over the Bank Holiday.

Armed with my camera, two of my children and an understanding wife I went along to meet up with Tim Rose to take a few (ok, hundreds) of photos of the group in action,

The display itself was excellent, giving an overview of period drill (including bayonet drill) and then demonstrating deploying skirmishers and volley firing. The static display which was set up around the Diehard's camp was first class as well - having now seen a Martini-Henry round close up I have more than a little sympathy with the Zulu and Mahdist warriors who took on the British army in the 19th Century.

A bonus of this trip was Tim "volunteering" a couple of his members to pose for me in pictures which I could send to my sculptor.

I must have looked more than a little mad running around these guys taking pictures from every angle, but they put up with it with great patience and I can't thank them or Tim enough for their help. I just hope that the figures do them justice!

The latest news from the sculptor is that the equipment is underway so hopefully it won't be too long before I can post pictures of some greens.

Logo

Well, I decided the logo/picture I'd done myself in my first post was fairly crap. My photoshop skills are pretty limited so I decided to get one done properly.

I looked at all the logo creation sites I could find on google, but when I went to check them out on review sites I was struck by how many of the people reviewing them had only ever done the one review. Call me a cynic if you like, but that always looks dodgy to me. The only one I could find with what looked like decent reviews wanted £75 to create a logo, not an unreasonable amount of money, but money I'd rather spend on getting more figures sculpted.

Then I found Freelancer, it's a site where you can invite tenders for all sorts of jobs from people worldwide. I typed the brief and within two days had more than 40 quotes. In the end I went with Jasper - "ph0t0sh0pguy" who came up with the logo below, which was exactly the kind of thing I was after, for only $39. Great experience and if I decide to get business cards produced, I know where I'm going.

The logo is fairly simple, but I love it!

And so it begins

A momentous day for Le Queux Miniatures! Ok, that might be over-dramatizing slightly, but I'm excited anyway...

I've given the go ahead to the sculptor for phase one of the project; producing the masters for the rifle and equipment which will then be cast and used in the production of the figures. As soon as I get photos of these I'll post them up for both readers to see!

Also, in my excitement I've registered a Domain name - lequeuxminiatures.co.uk. I went with "Go Daddy" and got it registered for two years for £7 - didn't seem too bad to me? Don't look for a website just yet as I've not got any further than the name - I'm hoping my talented brother will put together a fantastic website for me as soon as the figures are nearing completion.

As no post is complete without a picture, I've posted a photo I took when I visited Fort Victoria near Yarmouth with my family last week. I think it's a 32pdr smooth bore cannon, but there's no information displayed, so I'm not sure! Have to say they've made a fantastic job of the replica carriage which was only finished a couple of months ago.

It's quiet...too quiet

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last week or so. Real life has intervened, but in a good way! I've been busy going to interviews and selection days and have now had a job offer.

Massive relief all round!

All this means for the project is that blog posts might be more infrequent. I'm pushing on with the figures and we hope to start the sculpting at the beginning of May.

Research

Lord, it’s hard work researching the uniforms and equipment for these figures. You’d think one picture would do, but really you need every possible angle covered if the sculptor is going to have a chance of producing an accurate figure.

You’d think, having picked the army of my own country, from less than 125 years ago that it would be easy wouldn’t you? I can assure you it’s not! My sympathy lies with anyone trying to produce figures for the 1750 Dagestani Civil War or other such obscure (or in the case of the Dagestani Civil War, made up) conflict.

During my online research I was fortunate enough to come across the website of the Diehards Reinactment group (please see my links for their website). The website is great, full of fantastic photographs and information. Hoping that I might get a little more useful information I emailed Tim Rose, one of the contacts given on the site. Tim has been fantastic, answering my questions about uniforms, tactics and unit composition with a great deal of patience.

I’m hoping to meet up with the Diehards when they visit Osbourne House on the Island in May. I’m also hoping to convince them to pose for photos which I will then base the figures on!

What's in a name?

The perceptive reader will have noticed in my first post the name I’ve chosen for this venture – Le Queux Miniatures.

I’ve thought long and hard about the name. It has to be unique. It has to reflect what I want to sell. My initial idea was “England Invaded”, but there is already a line of miniatures available from Warrior with this name (worth a look).

Le Queux, for those of you unfamiliar with late Victorian literature, was the author of 150 novels, with one, “The Invasion of 1910” selling over 1 million copies! His work is not going to win the Booker prize, but they are a fun read and full of scenarios for wargamers. Best of all you can get many of them free (my favourite word!) as Kindle downloads on Amazon or the Project Gutenberg website.

You can find out more about William Le Queux on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Le_Queux

The Bombardment of London - from "The Great War in England 1897" by William Le Queux

First Post. The adventure begins...

 

I’ve set this blog up to record my efforts to start my own range of 28mm miniatures – British Army of the 1880’s in Home Service Uniform.

This should be an adventure. I’ve never blogged before. I’ve never started a range of miniatures before.

What am I doing?

Ok, to give you some background (as it seems like the right thing to do at this point); I was made redundant at the beginning of April.

 “Restructuring”

Nice.

Only remotely good thing about this is that having been at the Company for several years I had a decent pay out; enough money to pay the bills while I found another job, but more importantly (as far as this blog is concerned anyway) that I had enough to fund this experiment.

Well, so far I’ve emailed several sculptors all of whom have been incredibly helpful. Although some were too busy to undertake the work, I’m really, genuinely excited about the sculptor I’ve got on board.

No, I’m not going to name him yet, not until the work is underway. My money doesn’t come through until the end of the month so nothing will start until then anyway.

Anyway, first hurdle passed – sculptor in place.

Next in line is organising the mouldmaker and caster. Doesn’t seem to be an issue here, everyone I have spoken to has pointed me in the direction of Griffin www.griffinmoulds.com .  Got some prices which are about what I expected. Hurdle two crossed.

So, what exactly do I want? I have some ideas, but my ideas outstrip my wallet (seems to be an occupational hazard for a wargamer).  For me the problem with the existing ranges is that they are a bit limited. I’d like to cover units such as Fusiliers and Riflemen as well as the ubiquitous Line Infantry and Guardsmen. The question is how to do this on a limited budget?

The answer I’ve come up with is separate heads.

Think 7TV figures from Crooked Dice.

My master plan is to produce the body in various poses and then produce many different head variants, allowing me to field loads of different units, but with reduced production costs.

I think it’s genius. I don’t know what other gamers will make of it though, so if anyone does actually read this (thank you for that) I really would love to hear your views.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on a little too much so, again, if anyone has actually read this – thank you!