Back in January 2010 I painted my first Napoleonic Marshal (Le Cimier’s Murat), quickly followed by Lannes. These were such excellent sculpts by Bruno Leibovitz that I quickly added Ney and Bessieres (that completed the BL element of the range). Over the next three years I managed to acquire and complete ten more of Le Cimier’s Marshals range, until the supply started to dry up towards the end of 2013.
After that I managed to get a couple of New Hope Design Marshals (Lefebvre and Marmont) and LCs St. Cyr.
Lefebvre was fun to paint, but Marmont was a bit of a construction nightmare, and St Cyr daunted me with his lack of eye detail. Both got relegated to the depths of my GA, until recently.

The figure of Marmont itself was an excellent sculpt and generally decent casting. However, the problem was that the sword belt, sword and sabretache were cast together, and the locating recess in the figure was an extremely poor fit. The whole assembly also had to be bent carefully to fit around the figure, and the sword hilt required re-building since the casting was incomplete.

I don’t like being beaten by a poor casting fit, so I eventually dragged the kit out of the GA and attacked it with file and knife. The end result would be on a base or in the bin.

It would appear that the kit-bashing gods were with me, and I’ve now managed to complete the painting (my usual oils and printers inks over enamels):-



St Cyr is also under way and will eventually join the first fifteen:-



I’ve also recently bought Metal Modeles', Soult and Bernadotte, and Figurinitaly’s Poniatowski and Davout. The MMs are by Leibovitz (brilliant!) and the latter two by Antonio Zapatero (equally superb!):-



So I guess I’ll have some pleasant evenings to look forward to.

Cheers,
Andrew

Beautiful work and very nice collection

Mobo

I have a couple of the old New Hope Design marshals on my shelf: Davout and Lannes, both decent figures. Also have a couple of their Agincourt series and the SAS figure from the Iranian embassy seige.

Nice collection

Marc

Top stuff. Often those projects which try to deafeat us end up being the most satisfying when complete.

This all makes an excellent collection.

NHD did several series of figures based on the illustrations in then newly issued Men-at-Arms books. Mine are all from them, date back to the late 70s or early 80s.

Thank you for your kind comment Mobo.

Cheers,
Andrew

Thank you Marc.

Cheers,
Andrew

Many thanks for the kind comments Kevin.
Is this the trumpeter you were thinking of? ...



Seasons greetings to You and Carole.

Cheers,
Andrew

Your comment about the defeating projects is all too true BP.
My Ribald Dragoon and Kirin Highlander immediately spring to mind.
I'm pleased you like the collection so far.

Cheers,
Andrew

NHD figures could be quite variable in their quality of sculpting, but the casting tended to be good.
PF's Mirofsoft has a couple of NHD catalogues on his site, which might be of interest.
He also has an Excel file listing of many of the figures, with the second worksheet containing lots of illustrations.
They can all be found HERE.

Cheers,
Andrew

I've just had a closer look at the photo of the fifteen Marshals.
One of the LC sculptors was a right cheeky so and so.
Look at the faces of 2nd row, Nos 3 & 5, and 3rd row, No 1.
He used the same head and simply changed the hair on all three, and stuck a hat on the third.
I never noticed the similarity until they were all up there together.
I feel a little cheated now.

Cheers,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

These rescue conversions are always very satisfying, aren't they? The NHD figures always looked very attractive to me, especially the Marshals. You've done a great job and that is a great collection!

Rgds Victor

Your perseverance paid off, mine would have ended up in the bin, well done to you.

They can be fun when they work Victor.
Thank you for your kind comment.

Cheers,
Andrew

I painted the NHD cuirassier trumpeter sitting on a bench many moons ago, if that's the one you're thinking of Kevin.
PF's Mirofsoft's selection of catalogues can take you down memory lane.

Cheers,
Andrew

I'm pleased you liked him Bob.

Cheers,
Andrew