Empress Dragoon Trumpeter

Ok, this is the repainted figure, after being rescued from an overdose of black ink wash, the base still needs doing but otherwise I'm reasonably happy with it, considering it's the first painting I've done in at least 25 years and the paints were just some old acrylics and then there's my eyesight, anyway enough excuses, I'll try and do better next time.

In the meantime I've been sorting through the collection of figures and have decided to put some on eBay, mostly one's which were either my father's rather than mine or that aren't my main area of interest, which is to say primarily the Napoleonic Wars. The idea being to raise enough money to get some more modern acrylic paints such as Vallejo and possibly even to get some new figures, it would be nice to start one from scratch again.

Washout

Having repaired the dragoon trumpeter, I attempted to repaint it in the correct colours, it having originally been painted in the colours of a long since forgotten regiment, possibly of the kingdom of Naples or some other Italian state. Having achieved a result with which I was reasonably happy I just couldn't resist the temptation of trying some black ink wash on the white painted horsehair crest, which worked well but spilled on to the jacket, so I thought I'll try it all over the figure. Disaster! by the time I'd covered the whole model, the initial application of ink had largely dried, creating blotches all over the jacket, plus the ink was much too strong for the white lapels in particular. Anyway, after a further repaint of large parts of the figure I have nearly reached a satisfactory conclusion (again!) and learnt a salutory lesson in the use of ink wash on large figures.

Tradition

In my youth, many moons ago one of my hobbies was painting model soldiers and on a recent visit to my mothers house I decided the time had come to repatriate my collection of figures. However when I eventually found them rattling around loose in an old cardboard box I was somewhat disappointed to say the least at the state they were in, as a number of them were damaged or missing pieces. In the case of the Charles Stadden French Napoleonic Dragoon Trumpeter in the photograph, the trumpet was missing.

Surprisingly this 30 year old model is still in production, so I contacted the good people at 'Tradition of London' who still produce the Charles Stadden range of figures and asked if I could buy just the trumpet. I was delighted when Magnus Lindstrom replied and offered to send me one for no charge, which duly arrived a couple of days later, for which very many thanks Magnus.

There was one problem however, in the intervening years the design had been changed slightly and now the trumpet came complete with the trumpeters hand attached to it. The only thing for it was to amputate the the figures hand with the aid of fine saw, a dremel and a craft knife, once done I epoxied the hand with trumpet in place and achieved I think a very acceptable result. I have now set about repainting it in the correct colour scheme for an Empress' Dragoon Trumpeter, when it's finished I'll post a picture of the finished article here.

Work experience

Last week I was in the unusual position for me at least of having an assistant for the day, my son doing a 'go to work with dad day'. I have to say it was about time I had one, some 33 years after having been one myself with Norman Gold and before that at Vic Kettle Studios. It had also been a while since I had been the subject of a shoot, being photographed by my son for the report on his day out. As a matter of interest it was a very interesting shoot with a traditional boot manufacturer of some 200 years standing, watch out for the feature in the NFU's 'Countryside' magazine.

Gibraltar

As we were so close to Gibraltar while we were on holiday in Andalusia (sounds posher than the 'Costa Del Sol') we took the opportunity to pay it a visit. Needless to say we took in the main tourist sites and saw the barbary apes, being careful not to feed them or indeed do anything to encourage them to misbehave. Despite our caution though, no sooner had we stepped out of the minibus than my son was bitten on the hand by a monkey clearly disappointed not to find any food in it! At least he wasn't bitten on the same hand that suffered a jellyfish sting a day or two before!

Costa Del Sol

We recently returned from a family holiday at my aunts apartment on the 'Costa Del Sol' (thanks Lynda). Magnificent weather and fabulous views combined with a very nice pool mean't that this actually felt like a proper holiday with some actual rest and relaxation taking place and that hasn't happened in a while.

Losing my mind!

Having forgotten my tripod whilst in Nottingham on a shoot for Model Rail last week, today I went back via Melton Mowbray to retrieve it. As my mother lives in Melton I called in to see her and while I was there I went into the  garden shed briefly. Anyway having got home I went to unlock the garage and pulled out my keys only to find that they weren't my keys, they were my mothers keys for her shed, garage and gate. So now I have to go back to Melton shortly to return her keys. This could go on and on!

Natasha Baker

I did a shoot for 'Your Horse' yesterday with Natasha Baker the Para-Dressage rider and I have to say what a lovely person she is, I've seldom worked with someone for whom nothing was too much trouble, I'd love to put a picture or two up on the blog but as they won't be out in 'Your Horse' for a few weeks yet I'd probably better not! So for now here is a link to Natasha's website, from where there is a link to her blog which, it has to be said is even more out of date than mine, probably gets a lot more views though! Anyway, best of luck Natasha getting into the Paralympic team for the games this summer.

www.natasha-baker.com

Ducks crossing

While I was out on classic car shoot the other day we had to stop proceedings to guide a duck and her chicks off the road as she kept going backwards and forwards, seemingly transfixed by the traffic and was in serious danger of being run over. With a little guidance however the family were directed back through the hedge and we were able to resume our shoot (Triumph TR5, Classic Car Buyer, issue 123, page 22).

Mischief and Comet

We went over to Wisbech over easter to see a pony to consider getting for Sophie. I know we must be mad (everybody tells us so) but some friends of ours have offered Sophie the use of a stable and paddock at their farm about half a mile away from us, so she's never going to have a better and hopefully more cost effective opportunity than this. Mischief the pony with her foal, Comet is pictured right, Comet was born on Christmas day and when he has been fully weaned off his mother we should be able to take Mischief on trial, at about the end of May, so watch this space.

Spitfire shoot

On Monday I was fortunate enough to do a shoot at the Imperial War Museum Duxford with a pair of spitfires. A Triumph Spitfire sportscar and a Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane (well alright it was a trainer version which had been in service with the Irish Air Force until 1965 apparently). This was for feature's in three of the client's classic motoring magazines to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the car, being named as it was after the plane.

The client had paid a lot of money to have the use of the aircraft for a relatively short time and so my main concern was to get everything we needed shot by 1pm at which time the plane was to be put away. Having barely finished the shoot by then you can imagine my delight at being given the opportunity to have a sit in the plane before it was towed back into the hanger. Actually looking at the photograph of me you don't really have to imagine as it's written all over my face.

Worth the effort

After a tricky drive on the icy fen roads and trudging through the snow to the hide I was rewarded by a good turn out of birds, the highlight of which was this Great Spotted Woodpecker.

The snow duly arrived.

As the light was so good I decided to go to my local nature reserve to shoot the wildlife. Probably shouldn't have gone across the fens though; snow over ice with dykes on both sides!

Snow stops play

Although I have jobs waiting to be done, the snow and sub zero temperatures have so far stopped me from arranging them. I've convinced myself that it would be a hardy owner who will hang about in this cold while I shoot his classic vehicle, even assuming he'd be prepared to take it out on the salty, gritted roads. I'm shooting pictures now for spring issues of magazines which means avoiding having snow in the shots and with more snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow it could be some time yet before those shoots get done.

Rain stops play

I should be out on a shoot today for Classic & Vintage Commercials (old lorries), but the weather isn't playing ball so postponing the shoot for a few days seems to be the sensible option. Invariably when I do this I arrive on the new date to be told that I should have come on the original date as the rain stopped and the sun came out or alternatively the new date turns out to be just as bad, if not worse than the original!