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………

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.

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…………

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.

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.

His left hand will be resting on his sword, the right hand is holding a pipe.

Close up view of the head of the French 4th Dragoon.

I wanted the Dragoon to be sitting at the table supplied in the kit, but instead of other offered options, I wanted a serving woman bringing him food on a tray.
So, for the first time in this scale, I have started to make from scratch a figure. The core of the figure is a wire armature and onto this I have put two layers of modelling clay. This has now given the serving girl her rough outline, size and proportion. The next step will be to round off the rough parts and to start to add more detail. Probably with greenstuff or other fine modelling two part mix.

Not too bad for the first attempt?

And finally I have started to put the first colours onto the dragoon’s coat and trousers.

Now to rebuild the cafe roof (probably a complete rebuild of the whole structure) with the new tiles, carry on with the Dragoon and more work on the serving woman.

Measuring the height of a typical 54mm model soldier, adding another third or so for the height of the ceiling gave me the rough height of the card wall that was needed.

The wall had to have a thickness much greater than the thickness of the card, so I cut two sheets and spaced them apart with scraps of card. Then the ends of the wall were sealed with thin strips of card to make it look neater.
I used PVA glue throughout.

Next came the small section of roof. I decided to make it look like a spanish tiled roof as this was to be in Spain during the Peninsular War.
Again, the tiles were cut from mounting card, bent and then glued to make the roof of the cafe.

Using a sharp hobby knife I cut the window opening in the wall, cutting one side of the wall first, and then using this opening as a template to cut through the other side. Frame and window sill were again cut from mounting board and glued in place.

The floor was cast out of plaster of paris and, whilst still wet, the ‘flagstones’ were scribed with a sharp point. These ‘joints’ between the flagstones need to be cleaned up when dry, and the floor will need a lot of weathering.

Now the outside of the wall was given a dirty white wash followed by spatters of mud and dirt.
I have a lot more to do on the outside yet, and will be adding mould/wet patches and possibly a creeper.

Similarly the inside will need a wash of colour. As you can see I have started to add some cracks in the wall as well as some dirty patches that will not look so obvious once they have been partially covered with a coloured wash.

I have bought the “French Officer, 4th Dragoons 1812″ from Andrea Miniatures (S7-F10) but with the intention of doing a different scene from those I have done in the past.

This model is of a Dragoon sitting on a wooden chair having just completed his meal. He is leaning back, facing away from the table with a pipe in his hand.

Following some research I have come up with an idea for a small diorama …………… so watch this space and see how it unfolds.

To be honest, I do not know how well this Napoleonic diorama will turn out as a number of the pieces will have to be constructed from raw material. One of these pieces will be something I have never done before, so a new challenge for me.

The model kit box has been opened, and I have cleaned up the castings, filed and shaped the arms etc so that they are a good fit onto the body, and have undercoated them in white primer.

Unfortunately the chair needed much more work, and I have just spent (at a table in the sun in the garden) most of the afternoon filing, drilling and dry building the chair to get all the small parts to fit snugly together.

The holes in the back of the chair needed to be drilled out a bit deeper and a bit wider.

All the bars of ‘wood’ were test fitted into the newly drilled holes to check for fit and alignment.

Now the chair and the table are ready for undercoating in white primer.

With these two major elements built I can now measure up (roughly) for a base which will give me an idea how much room I will have for the rest of the elements of the diorama.