Perry's Austrians finished (well, just about)

First post of the new year - only taken a month and nearly longer after the storm that came through yesterday evening and damaged my house. A few nervous moments atop a ladder desperately trying to clear hail out of my roof gutters as water started to come through my ceiling!  Crisis averted, I've remembered to photo the new Perry's Napoleonic Austrians I've just finished.



The grenadiers complete my Reserve Div brigade (4 x 16 figure battalions, two German, two Hungarian).  They can of course double up for larger Black Powder units. But the two others I admit I've been pestering the Perry's to make for years - Jaegers and Uhlans (Polish lancers in Austrian service). Finally they did so late last year so I bit the bullet and ordered them in time for Christmas.  Well worth the wait - beautiful figures (as you'd expect) - particularly the Uhlans.



Initially disappointed the range only included skirmishing figures, the Jaegers are also beautifully done and my 16-figure unit of them came up a treat as well.  I've grown to like the Jaeger's action poses as at the end of the day, they're only doing what Jaegers are supposed to do, right?



The Grenadiers suit the marching poses and the only complaint I have about them is that the heads & packs conversion pieces came out a week or two after I ordered them!  Could have saved $$$ with a conversion set but there ya go...



The foot figures all finish off brigades - the second Jaeger battalion for my second infantry brigade.  trouble is the Austrian formations were so huge (and unwieldy in the field) that to reporoduce them at scale for Black Powder games takes several body-weights in metal (and plastic) as well as a second mortgage.  But they are so nice... so I had to get a full regiment of Uhlans (18 figures) of which I've just finished painting the first six.





Just another 12 to go [sigh]... then another two battalions of infantry to beef up the line brigades. It never really ends, does it?





Skirmishing Jaeger - whats not to like?

And the view from the back.



Mustn't forget the Grenadiers.





And a last one of the Uhlans as they bid a farewell...



That's it for a bit until I finish the regiment (1st Uhlans recruited from the Hapsburg's Galacian holdings) A fourth regiment was raised by the end of the Napoleonic Wars with Austria's recovery of its Polish provinces, temporarily lost to the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw. They remained in Austrian hands for over a century until the fall of the Hapsburg Empire in 1918.  Here endeth the history lesson. Happy Australia Day to all my fellow Aussie gamers and bloggers.

Doc's Bavarian Bad Boys!

In amongst the Bolt Action WWII AFVs and Italians I've had my Napoleonic Bavarian Brigade project puttering along.  It was unfinished, a mishmash of figures and needed sorting out for years, all the more so when I succumbed to temptation yet again with the new Perry's line of Bavarians.  I bought enough for three battalions worth - two line & one light - plus artillery limber and caisson. The Bavarian Brigade consisted of six x 12 figure battalions, one of them painted as LI, two of them Front Rank and the rest old Foundry.  Added to this is one three gun battery (scratch built to match captured Austrian pieces) with Foundry crews and two Chevau Leger regiments one Front Rank and the other Foundry. Like I said, a bit of a mishmash.  

Doc's Bav Badboys - (from L to R) old Foundry, Front Rank and new Perrys figures on all Doc's patented magnetic movement trays!

Doc's Bav Badboys including Bav cav with (L to R) Foundry and Front Rank and in between a new Perrys mounted commander on rearing horse.  My scratch-built Foot arty guns to the right.  The closest one with the long trail is a Seven Years War vintage light howitzer, the other two standard 6 pdrs.

The plan is to have a Brigade consisting of one regiment of two 24 figure battalions of Foundry, one regiment of two 28 figure battalions of Perrys and one 12-16 figure battalion of Light Infantry (Perrys).  I'd also have my 24 figure battalion of Front Rank for good measure which would make for a six battalion brigade - historically matching what they marched into Russia with.  Apart from the Foundry command stands and the repainting/rebasing of them and the existing 12 figure Foundry LI I have over 70 new Perry figures including three mounted commanders to paint and base.  Together with diversions for the WWII stuff including my Italians and AVs its taken me the better part of nearly four months - but the end is now in sight! I have five battalions of infantry and mounted commanders for both infantry and cavalry finished and very happy with the result!

The Perrys prancing horse Bav CO - I've made him a cavalryman by giving him a fancy feather in 'is 'at!

Bav Cav and their prancing Perrys CO

Interesting the size discrepancy between the old Foundry (also possibly sculpted by the Perry brothers when they worked for them many years ago?) the Front Rank and new Perrys figures.  The 28mm FRs tower over everyone and are positively Teletubby-ish in their proportions compared to the 28mm Perrys - I think the old Foundry Bavarians are probably 'true' 25mm. You tend to notice the difference in the foot figures rather than the cavalry which I thought blended in quite well.

The guns - love the old Foundry crew poses - amongst the more animated in their day and beautifully proportioned even if smallish 25mm.  The guns are the same scale which next to the 28mm figures makes them look more like 3 pdr light guns.  The Bavarians made use of plenty of these captured in the 1809 campaign but of course lost the lot in Russia.

I found myself slightly short of command foot when I went to make up the Perrys regiment so I used one of the mounted commanders as the regiment's Oberst (Colonel), putting him with the infantry command figures on a slightly deeper base (60x40 rather than the 60x20). I have a mounted CO for my old Foundry figures which I converted from a Revolutionary French commander which in turn fits in with a mounted Oberst for each two-battalion regiment. Basing the mounted CO up with the foot worked so well with the Perrys I might try and do the same for the Foundry figures if I get the time.

Regimental command stand with mounted Oberst. The standard bearer with the CO carries the Liebfahne  or regimental colour rather than the Ordinarfahne carried by the other battalion(s).

Bavarian tete d'colon - I have no idea what colour the battalion marker flag carried by the pioneer was so I gave him a nice red one (warning flag: fierce beardy man with axe and attitude!)

Herr Oberst mounted on a beautiful Perrys horse - they do very nice ones in perfect (correct) proportion. I've noticed the newer sculpts don't appear to suffer from the sometimes fatal spindly fetlock syndrome - they are far better attached to their metal base. 

The Perrys are some of the finest figures around and being priced accordingly I have in the past whinged about the occasional lack of quality control - the ultra-thin horse legs that have an alarming tendency to snap off bases for instance.  While Perrys seem to have addressed that issue I should warn that one reason they took me so damn long to paint was that I discovered after I had finished painting that there were unsightly lumpy bits, particularly on hands, cartridge boxes and bayonets that only became apparent when painted. Every figure has some flash from the casting process and the Perrys are no exception.  They have less than most but they still have some - ALL the Bavarians had tiny tendrils of metal on many of the raised and termination points of the cast figure.  Including bases I found these most prominently on the hands, ends of bayonets (and sabres), musket stocks and cartridge boxes. Mostly pressed and folded back onto the figure they were very hard to detect when prepping the figures for paint and once the base-coat was on, impossible to see. So the first two batches I did resulted in a lot of scalpel work, paint touch-ups and f$%*ing bad language after I thought I'd finished them! Very stressful as I don't bloody swear much.  I learned the hard way that it pays to go over every figure very, very carefully before paint!

Some of my favourite figures that I've now added to each battalion - a stand of them suffering from a 'whiff of grapeshot'.

My old Foundry Bavarians with their mounted Colonel. Love the expression on the face of the officer - really barking out orders 'Vorwarts meine Kinder!'

Contrast the scale: (L) Foundry and (R) Perrys Bavarians

Perrys Bavarian Light Infantry Schutzen - rifle-armed Bav Badboys!

My Bavarian Brigade Commander - probably should have a big cocked hat rather than the casket helmet but I couldn't bring myself to butcher such a nice figure!

Most of the Perrys figures I've added to my Bavarian Bde

I have one more battalion of infantry and the artillery limber and caisson to go before I've finally finished my little Bavarian army. Might have to get a high command for them at some stage but for now I'm more than happy to finally finish one of my longer standing projects. 

Achtung! Doc's Bavarians on parade!

 The matt on which all these figures are standing is one of my new wargaming tablecloths that I've made from rubber-backed canvas paint drop sheets, a liter of paint via my large spray gun and copious amounts of flocking. A messy process that had to be done outdoors but now I've got a mat that will cover a 12' x 4.5' table. Now that winter's over and I'm less likely to perish from exposure working outdoors I'm planning to do one for desert/Mediterranean theater games as well. 

Achtung! I must to be going to der Little Wars convention @ Lanyon for zum wunderbar gaming action!

Well that's about it - Auf Weidersehen from Doc and Herr Oberst.  Almost forget to mention a plug for the forthcoming 'Little Wars' convention to be held in Canberra on 8 November at Lanyon Vikings club showcasing the hobby (click on the link to find out more). There will be traders there and games covering a wide range histroical and fantasy.  We're putting on our famous French and Indian Wars game 'Tomahawks Along The Ohio' which I have posted on previously on this blog.  Its a gold coin donation entry to go towards our returned servicemen and women - a most worthy cause so hope to see a few of my blog-followers and fellow gamers there.

Indian Mutiny figures and village

Our project for the 'Little wars' con later this year is to put on a Black Powder Indian Mutiny game.  I was a bit concerned that I had no figures or scenery but have managed to find some Mutiny Sepoys and got a few stands of tribals. Together with some of my Egyptian Janissaries and Mamelukes - who quite easily pass for northern Indian Punjabi tribesmen - I'll be able to contribute a few regiments.  

The other thing was scenery as I had nothing for a desert or native village but thanks to my War and Peace Games gift voucher (thanks to my daughter!) I got me one of the Rendera native mudbrick villages.  Its basically three of the same hard plastic models and a kit with a dome (for a village mosque) a bit more wall and shade for a stall, some pots etc, to make for a bit of variation.

I took the photos on the gravel path in my back yard which seemed to match in best with a semi-desert type setting. I would have taken a bit longer setting it up but its winter here and my fingers were freezing besides which, I was 'loosing the light' - being winter and all!

Pretty happy with the way they turned out, looking forward to our first 'test' game  - which, given all involved, is taking some organising (my sympathies for my mate Andrew - the scenario designer). It should be something different.  Which is just as well as the recent reorg of my study has revealed enough projects (read 'figures to paint'!) to keep me occupied for years.

Well that's it for this post.  I have no idea what will be next - I still have Mamelukes and a horde of Ottomans to paint BUT I think I've done enough posting on Mamelukes so hopefully with luck the next will be a game of some sort as its been a while since the last one!

Urrah! More Russians done!

I have recovered (almost) from my little tumble and have been somewhat busy in the yard to make amends for my enforced put-yer-buggered-foot-up (you old fool) shenanigans. I've commissioned an ex (or perhaps not so ex) bikey cum tree surgeon to cull my Amazon-in-the-backyard and turn it into a savannah like setting in time for summer.  Old mate's done a pretty good job and I've also slaved away too hauling truckloads of vegetation outta the place. All of which hasn't left as much time as I'd like to finish up my Russian army.  Nonetheless since last posting I've managed to paint up no less than 64 Russian infantry to an acceptable standard, with another 24 half done and 24 more 'prepped and ready to go. Reasonable effort in the circumstances. That gives me (finished) 3 x regiments (or battalions of 24 figures) of line, two of grenadiers and one 16-figure battalion of Jaeger. The one half-done will give me a full brigade of line when they're finished. Most satisfying! Nearly half my Austro-Russian army now completed. A regiment of dragoons, one of jaeger and two of line? grenadiers? will finish it up.  I have a few nice mounted Perry's officers to go with them too.  As command figures I plan to lavish a bit more attention on them.

The figures are a mixture of Front Rank (the Jaeger) Warlord and Perry. The FR Jaegers are a bit Tellytubby-ish in comparison but are still a very nice figure - and all are 28mm so within a mil or two of each other size-wise.  The Jaeger are resurrected figures with a new, proper paint-job and basing. The Jaeger's green uniform was so dark it was almost black at a distance according to authoritative sources. I've given them the matching green trousers as well rather than the summer whites as it more befits their skulking, scurrying and shooting role as the Russian army's outnumbered skirmishers!

The Warlord box was the one with the metal command stand that contains those very useful cords and tassels for the standards.  The plastics are OK - reasonable detail and poses (well, they are all marching aren't they?) but the command are less... er, OK?  They are all in marching poses (drummer and bearers) save for the officer who seems to be having some kind of a fit with sword in hand. Doesn't really go with the rest but could have if he wasn't looking at the ground while he's waving his sword about!  Dunno what the sculptor was thinking there.  Nonetheless done up together with the bits of annoying flash cleaned off (not the greatest metal casts) they look quite reasonable as a command stand.

As you can see I've done them up as the Ekaterinoslav Grenadiers who were brigaded with the Pavlovs (my other Front Rank unit). I like the flag cords which you can bend into whatever shape. They fit very neatly onto some copper rod flag poles.  If only that officer didn't have his head at such an odd angle it'd all work! Still, a decent 'regiment' in a box for under $40 so shan't complain.

The last lot are the Perry's plastic Russians. Very nice figures as you'd expect and very clean casting - virtually no annoying flash to clean up. Gotta hand it to Rendera - their molds are some of the best there is in the biz. Have a look at the Perry's Facebook page to see the step-by-step process of doing the latest knights in HD plastic shown in short videos. Real craftsmen at work. Amazing stuff.

I've made them up as the Narva Regiment in Bagration's 2nd Army.  They were part of Raevsky's 7th Corp defending the Redoubt at Borodino I think. Stout lads all!  Apologies for the photography - its a bit overcast and about to bucket down outside.  The clouds make it very glary without enough light to show the details on the figures - too much contrast. At least its a good rendition of the colours which (I hope) are pretty close to what they would have been historically.

That's it for now.  As I alluded to in a previous post, I could not resist getting some of the Perry's new Bavarians. Once the last Russians are done I'll have to get stuck into them but I doubt I'll get much done before Christmas is upon us once more.  I also have a squad of WWII German Fallschirmjaeger motorcycle combos to do, and some Panzers, which I am trying to resist but, as we all know, resistance is useless!

Who knows, I may even get a game in too.

Cheers,
            Doc