Scruby French Line Infantry

These figures are the first of a batch of Scruby French infantry that I have been painting for a few weeks. Production was halted for a while as I needed to find some paints to replace the faulty Humbrol gloss that I was have such problems with. I am using a mix of Testors, Revell and Tamiya, which seem to do the trick.

These figures from Historifigs are superb, with very clean castings and sharp detail. My only concern is that the uniforms appear wrong for the Crimean War. I am no expert on French uniforms, but these figures appear to be dressed in the 1860 pattern uniform, and of course the Crimean War ended in 1856. That said they look nice when completed and were fun to paint and will join the ranks of the growing French forces.

Scruby - British Staff Officer

I used the Scruby General officer figure to represent General Scarlett earlier this year. Over the last couple of days I have been painting a second figure to represent a British staff officer. He will act as an aide on the battlefield.

Although a very nicely moulded figure the Scruby offering is incorrect for the Crimean war. The problem lies with the plume on the high cocked hat and the shoulder accoutrements. General officers wore feathers on their head dress, although it seems that actually in the field all of the decorative items were removed. The Scruby figure correctly has the officer wearing the long double breasted frock coat, but this would not be worn with all of the gold shoulder decoration, this being normal for the full dress uniform. However, with a little bit of chopping and filing these odd issues can be easily resolved.  Here is the original figure as supplied:

Then the same figure is shown with a few adjustments:

Production Delays

My painting project has slowed down a little due to problems with the paint. I normally use Humbrol gloss enamel paints, which for the last 50 years or so have proved most consistent and reliable, but lately there have been some issues. This is particulalry the case with gloss enamel red (19) and black (21). With these two, no matter how much stirring I do I find that the paint remains tacky for days, sometimes a week. Some other gloss colours appear very thin, and the ratio of oil (if thats the right term) to pigment is too great so the effect is a very watery, runny paint that requires several coats to achieve good coverage. Being so thin it is difficult to paint accurately too without the paint running into all the little crevices.

I initially thought this might be a one off problem, so I ditched the paints I had and bought some more from other outlets, but same issue has occured. I am now looking for other sources of these colours as I have given up on Humbrol.

Anyone else experienced this - or is it me?

Scruby Ottoman Turkish Infantry

At long last I have finished the first batch of Scruby infantry, which I recently received from Historifigs in the USA. I have to say that they were a delight to paint with crisp detail and smooth finish. The Turkish uniform for the infantry was very simple, with plain blue jacket and trousers, with just facing colours and the red fez to brighten it up.  here is the first of two battalions:

Scruby Russian Dragoon

I have been working my way through a batch of Scruby Ottoman Turks that I recently received from Historifigs, but I thought I would also paint one of the Scruby Russian Dragoons, just to see what they look like. One of the big weaknesses with this figure is the lack of reins on the horse. To me it looks odd (figure on the left):

The next thing that I do not like is the sword arm raised in the air. This would maybe OK for a single officer figure, but I think a whole unit would look odd. So, I added some reins using the wire core of freezer bag ties, having removed the outer plastic cover, and the sword arm is bent down and forward akin to the charging arm position. This is the result:

I am quite pleased with the result and will paint the whole unit, once the Turks  are finished.

Brigadier General The Hon. James Yorke Scarlett

Finding a suitable figure to represent Brigadier Scarlett, the commander of the British Heavy Brigade was more challenging than I first thought. According to the sources at my disposal, Scarlett wore an unconventional uniform at the Battle of Balaclava. It seems that he wore a dark blue frock coat that was devoid of rank or insignia, and underneath he wore cavalry breeches and probably a Heavy Dragoon tunic. Some sources suggest that he wore an unofficial helmet, with a raised peak - probably to accommodate his spectacles, as he was very short sighted. Other depictions of Scarlett show him in the same dress, but with a heavy dragoon helmet, but with a black feathered plume. Whatever helmet he wore during the battle it took a hefty blow from a Russian sword and was pretty much ruined.

As a sources for the figure I found a general figure in the Scruby Crimean war range who is wearing a frock coat, but with large epaulettes and fringes. In the Strelets plastic Heavy Brigade there is a mounted dragoon senior officer, but he has the wrong tunic for Scarlett. So it would have to be a conversion job. Here is the Scruby general figure:

As can be seen the figure matches the Douglas horse on the left quite well, but the head and shoulder detail had to go. Here is the same figure with the strelets head added, but with shoulder detail still to be removed:

And, here is the final version of general Scarlett:

British Royal Horse Artillery

There are no British horse artillery figures in the Douglas Miniatures Crimean War range and so the options are to source figures from elsewhere or convert those that are available. I am keen to have as many Douglas figures in my collection as I can, so I opted for the conversion route. Using parts entirely from the Douglas range I think I have produced something that is acceptable. For the figures, I used the Douglas British foot artillery crews, with their coatee tailbacks and some other uniform items carved away. I also did a head swap from the Napoleonic British hussar figure. The heads were fixed by drilling small holes and using thin metal pins, along with super glue. For the limber I used the one in the range without modification, but had three outriders with six horses in the team.

Here is the result. I Troop RHA enters the battlefield: