Mabuhay!

The overwhelming bulk of my wargaming collection I have painted myself. I have resisted the temptation to get any of my lead mountain painted by professionals - I genuinely enjoy painting, so I don't see the point. I wouldn't pay someone to drink my cellar for me!

5th Bn King's German Legion

However, my painting list is mounting, with the current priority being the Borodino 1812-2012 project. This has meant that having sufficient models to celebrate Salamanca 1812-2012 in July properly may be an issue. I therefore decided to buy myself some extra painting time!

Avid followers of my blog (!) will recall that I was very impressed by my mate Barry's collecton of Italians painted by the folks at Mabuhay Miniature Painting Services, based in the Phillipine Islands. I duly checked out their website http://www.mmps.asia/ and was very impressed with their outlook and prices. I duly ordered 2 Bns of KGL, in Waterloo uniforms. The figures they use are Perry, which I love. The outfit is run by Fons. Now Fons is an ex Belgian Army Engineers SNCO, and, true to form, seems like the kind of guy who can be relied on, prefering to under-promise and over-deliver. I ordered just before Easter, and whilst Fons responded very rapidly and extremely helpfully, he was at pains to point out that Easter is taken seriously in the Phillipines and so my order would not be started for a while. This was fine with me, I would hate my toys to get in the way of anyone's family time. Also, the firm was shutting down as Fons was getting wed.


However, I recieved a series of informative updates and recieved my order just about a month after I made it, well ahead of the delay Fons had predicted. And, as I'm sure you can tell from my photos, I was seriously impressed with the quality of the artist's brushwork and assembly. I was also impressed with the care taken to package my treasures:

The box you  can see here was jammed full of styrofoam balls, and the individual soldiers were securely taped to the bottom. There were some very detailed instructions on how to twist off the models too.

I was please to see that the little vignettes that the Perrys have sculpted, such as these two blokes passing cartridges were honoured by the modeller. Now whilst I had intended these 2 regiments to form the core of my KGL Bde, I found that I had insufficient Colours for more than one Bn. I therefore rather impatiently decided to 'rebadge' one of the Bns as the 87th Foot (Royal Irish Fusiliers), since they also had royal blue facings and gold lace for the Officers. The Colours I have used for these are by GMB flags. I'm afraid the origins of the KGL flag is completely beyond me, I think I may have picked them up at a UK show aeons ago....


Anyway, I think thats quite enough blurb from me, I will simply finish by saying that if you want well painted Napoleonic or ACW miniatures from a reliable company, I recommend Mabuhay. I will certainly be saving my pennies for a further order, next time probably to get my lagging ACW project back on track for the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg next year. Oh,and Fons has started taking orders for the Perry Russians.... Hope you enjoy the rest of the eye candy....

87th Foot (Royal Irish Fusiliers)

Steely eyed Grenadiers guarding the Flank!

The new drafts join the far flung battle line...