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And now, here they are -- The Spencer Smiths!!!


The poor Grand Duchess Sonja! Thanks to delays, bad weather, and canceled flights, it took her almost three days to make it home from Berlin! I met her yesterday evening just before midnight when her connection from Atlanta FINALLY arrived here in Bloomington-Normal. . . almost three hours late. No thanks to Delta Airlines!

In any case, Sonja is exhausted and catching up on some real sleep in an actual bed. Of course, this leaves me to my own devices for the evening. And as you know, when there is some extra time, new figures to ogle, and Norwegian radio (NRK Program 1) playing in the background online, it’s a lethal combination!


So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the promised new regiment of Spencer Smith cavalry, which will eventually become the Electorate of Zichenau’s Grenadiere zu Pferd – or horse grenadiers to you and me. Aren’t they lovely? Nicely proportioned with enough raised detail to make painting fairly easy.


Have you spotted the two Holger Eriksson figures? They are at the head of the regiment -- a bugler and a guidon bearer, figures not included as part of the Spencer Smith line. Nicely enough, there is no appreciable difference in size between the two lines other than slightly wider HE horses, chiefly in the flanks. Once everything is painted, I think, this minor difference will hardly be apparent.


Now, in what uniform will I paint these fine fellows? Well, I still have a few months to work out the details, but I am leaning toward a combination of light blue coats/breaches with bright orange facings/turnbacks/vests and yellow hat lace, or something along those lines. I’d like to have the regiment finished for the Big Battalion game I plan to attend in Rockford, Illinois this fall, but we’ll have to see. I’ve got to finish the clear protective coat on Stollen’s Leib Grenadiers and get cracking with the 80+ figure unit of Revell 1/72 Austrian grenadiers.


On that particular note, the Spencer Smith figures are not much larger than my 1/72 plastic mounted figures. Neither are they horribly out of scale with the RSMs or 25mm MiniFigs, which is what I’d hoped for. As has been discussed before in various forums, with BIG units on the table, what your eyes notice are the scale of the 30-60 figure units rather than minor size differences between individual figures.

Comments

marinergrim said…
Glad to hear that your good lady made it home safe and sound. Pamper her and look after her - after all she did bring you toys!
This doesn't seem to have been a good couple of weeks for travel. I just had a tale of woe from a friend returning to the US from France who suffered delays, switched flights, and cancellations both getting to the US and for her connecting flight inside it.

Give Duchess Sonya our condolences on her difficult ride, and wishes for a speedy recharge.
abdul666 said…
Electorate of Zichenau’s Grenadiere zu Pferd
Very promising description!
Now, what about using David's templates to try & test your designs? And if eventually you balance between 2 or 3 alternative you can submit them to a poll on your blog (the alternative -part of the wargamer's sybdrome- being of course to decide to raise & paint 1 full regiment of each!
Cheers & wishes to quick recovery to Your Lady -wish she'll not get the idea that your '1768' taste somehow made her travel at coach speed!

Electorate of Zichenau’s Grenadiere zu Pferd –Now, in what uniform will I paint these fine fellows?<>I am leaning toward a combination of light blue coats/breaches with bright orange facings/turnbacks/vests and yellow hat lace, or something along those lines
Bluebear Jeff said…
Hooray for the safe return of the Duchess Sonja!

What a delightful treat . . . and, yes, the figures are wonderful too.

I do particularly like that pose that the troupers sport with their swords forward.


-- Jeff
meadows boy said…
They look great!
A big pile of metal, looks familar!
cheers
Very lovely figures. Hard to wait those two months, I'm sure. :>

I should be posting pictures of the RSM95 Hussar in Busby quite soon as well.
Fitz-Badger said…
Sorry to hear the Duchess's return was rough, but it's good she's home safe now.

Nice figures. I'll look forward to seeing them painted (as I'm sure you will, too!).
old-tidders said…
Those there figs look good, a nice painting project.

-- Allan

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