Tuesday, December 10, 2013

SAW Spanish Commanders

After the recent repatriation of my Spanish troops (see Cuba for the Spanish), I dug through another box to rediscover six Old Glory Spanish mounted officers.  When pulled from the box, these figures looked quite well-used with moderate damage to most.  Actually, they hadn't been well used but well chewed!

Yes, that is right.

Years ago, we had (yes, "had") a curious puppy that enjoyed chewing stuff.  One day I went down into the game room to discover these mounted commanders strewn about the floor with balsa shards and flock everywhere.  I noticed that the first figure had its balsa base broken.  Bending over to pick up the first figure, I was faced with a model that had been treated very abusively.  Paint was worn off and the soft metal officer had been disfigured.  One by one, inspection verified that each officer had encountered the same fate.  Each had been mauled by the puppy.  Some were in much worse shape than others but none escaped unscathed.  The officers' mounts made it through the ordeal without much damage; only the trauma of the encounter.

If this project is to be resurrected, these officers would need refurbishing.  Reworking some of the metal bits, paint touch ups, and staining produced the results below:




For the Spanish infantry, the process of rebasing the 130 or so figures from single figure bases to three figures per base begins.  My plan is to hit all of these with the Minwax stain too.

14 comments:

  1. Great work, and great poses too...the first and the third pictures are my favourites...

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  2. The look great; none the worse for wear from their battle scars. Best, Dean

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    1. Dean, they are little worse for the wear but at gaming distance not noticeable. They are battle scared veterans for sure!

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  3. Nick work on these a not often seen period.

    Christopher

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    1. Thanks, Chris. I may have more than my share of "not often seen periods"...

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  4. Great save! And the puppies teeth must have been tough!

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    1. Yeah, the dogs teeth were quite solid. It only took ten years for me to get up the courage to address the damage but I am glad I did.

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  5. Our first dog was a chewer and eater, but never attacked my wargaming stuff.We have a new pup now, (and 2 other dogs) and she really isn't a problem that way (she gets plenty of raw bones to chew). Of course, they aren't allowed in the basement anyway.

    The cats, on the other hand, were murder on my poor Geohex. They have both finally passed on now, and I pray we NEVER get another one! :-)

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    1. The game room definitely should have been off limits. Our current dog is not interested in my hobby at all.

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  6. Great period, would be interesting to do Phillipine Insurrection as well. Using Minwax stain? What color? Waterbased? I usually use watered down black/brown acrylic paint. Would like to experiment with your stain color. Thanks for posting!

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    1. The Minwax stain I use is Minwax Polyshades Tudor Satin. I have not tried any of the other colors. The product is oil based.

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