Military Miniatures

The French 4th Dragoon Officer is now seated at his table with the last two figures of this 54mm military modelling diorama completed.

I decided that the serving lady would be a Cantinière. (Wives of French soldiers who followed them on campaign and who have also been known to follow them into battle with life sustaining brandy).
In Napoleonic times the brandy barrel she is carrying (known as a tonnelet) should be in the patriotic colours of red, white and blue. But maybe hers was damaged in a recent battle and this one is a local replacement awaiting painting.

Maybe that is why she is offering the French Dragoon Officer a cup of her brandy - to arrange for the painting of her new barrel.

There is an excellent description of the life of a Cantinière at the following website “Following the Drum“.

The serving boy is also complete and I have represented his sleeveless jerkin as one that could have originated from an infantryman - with the sleeves and tails cut off and buttons removed - all that remains ‘French’ is the colour. And in Napoleonic times many clothes were unobtainable on campaigns.

Ignore the shine on some of the paint on the boy - this photo was taken before the paint was dry.

Now the boy is in deep conversation with the dragoon office whilst he sits at his table in the French Cafe.

It seems that the Dragoon is in deeper discussion with the boy now. Maybe the boy, whom we can assume is the son of the Cantinière, has just asked the Dragoon if he can join up?

As the Cantinière is still holding onto the cup in her hand, and from the attitude of the boy’s shoulders, it would seem that the Dragoon is telling him he is too young for the Dragoons.
What do you think?

So, this 54mm military modelling diorama is completed and just awaits fitting to a wooden base, varnishing in matt varnish and the placing of a knife and fork onto the table as the Dragoon could not be expected to eat with his fingers.

Work on planning the next diorama has already begun………

The commercial moulds arrived yesterday. There were a total of three moulds, but I was only going to use two of them - the mould of the serving boy and the mould of the lady.

It is not as easy as it seems, and the first attempt at casting with molten lead was not a total success. I could not get the lead into all the crevices of the figure. Using a sharp knife I cut some extra vents in the face of the mould and the second attempt worked!

For the first time I had a figure that I had actually hot cast from metal - a great experience!

Here is the lead being poured into one of the moulds:

And, once cooled a little, here are the two halves of the mould being seperated to reveal the figure inside:

The suspense of opening the mould is like that when opening a birthday present.

And here is the cast figure of the lady, with sprues and core etc still attached.

These figure models came with cast on bases, which I cut off. In the case of the serving woman it was quite easy. But the barefoot boy was difficult as the feet had to be shaped and the toes ‘cut’ into the foot with a sharp blade.
There was quite a lot of flashing to trim, but the work was worth it.

If you have never ever made any castings before, then give it a go, it is a whole new experience.

So, no idea how the final setting of the figures in the cafe will turn out at this stage, but here is one possibility. The French Dragoon Officer is talking to the serving boy whilst the lady brings a cup to the his table.

….and thank you to my wife for taking the photographs.

In the café, the dragoon’s food has now arrived. The chicken is being served on a metal plate, the freshly baked loaf of bread is ready to eat. To wash it all down is an earthenware jug of red wine (not shown).

At the moment I have stopped work on making a figure of a serving woman out of modelling clay. Instead I am investigating moulding the figure from commercial moulds – watch this blog, more to follow.

So, the Dragoon’s café is on hold for the moment. But I have started my next project which will be a small diorama of a battle that might have taken place in Spain around 1808.
This new thread will be called Spanish Battle…………

The completed roof was glued in place on top of the cafe wall.

On the outside some ‘mud’ and ‘dirt’ and ‘mould’ and the remains of an old creeper on the wall were simulated by diluted paint and sawdust.

Inside the wall was too clean, so some slightly off white washes were painted onto the wall.
Cracks between the floor slabs were dry brushed with dark grey to tone them down and to provide shadow.

Strips of wood were glued to the wall to represent timbers, and the edges of these wooden strips were chopped about to prevent the new, square look that modern beams have.

(In the picture the Dragoon is holding his sword - but this is only temporary, it has not been glued in place yet, and nor have the table or chair been glued either).

Below is a top view showing the general lay out, however the Dragoon might be relocated closer to the window. That depends upon how I manage with modelling the serving girl.

My attempt to amke a serving girl is not going well, but watch this space.

Today has been rather foul from the weather point of view so I have been able to catch up with the model of the 4th French Dragoon as well as the scratch built cafe in which he is seated.

The tiles, bought in Spain recently, proved to be too difficult to use to build a ‘real’ Spanish tiled roof”.
Ideally there should have been rows of upside down tiles on top of which the ‘right way up’ tiles should have rested. But a number of dry runs ended up with a mess.

The problem was solved by making a base of modelling clay to represent the forms of inverted roof tiles and then mounting the top layer of tiles on top of that.
The result worked and the hand made tiles looked irregular and very much like the real thing.