Austrian dragoon regiment no 6 Reisch Napoleonic 83

 Well, my sisters moved out and put an offer on a flat, so normal service is resumed, except for all the time consuming Christmas socialising, I do want to try and clear the decks for the Analouge Painting challenge so here's another Austrian dragoon regiment, same formula as before, all Perry plastic, Austrian torso's, arms, crest less helmets, sword sheaths and carbines, overall legs from French and Austrian Hussars, except for the trumpeter, who as in all these units started out as either a French dragoon or French cuirassier trumpeter before changing sides! Horses from British light dragoons with their heads swapped for heavy cavalry bridles and greenstuff tail extentions. This is regiment no 6 Reisch with light blue facings, the flag is from the Perry set.

One more Austrian dragoon unit to come, with a rather more disparate set of  mounts but that's some way off, running total of Napoleonic figures this year is 432, I'm hoping to at least get to 450, so more Napoleonics on the way or more terrain or both?!

All the best 

Iain 

Dark age scatter terrain Terrain 31

 Here are some Dark age terrain pieces, a circle of standing stones that started off on a redundant CD but was too much of a squash and a squeeze so I migrated to one of the 150mm x 150mm squares I have knocking around,  6' x 6' in old money,  which seemed to work better, I chopped the corners off to make it less square, then pieces of old foamboard as the basis of the stones and then bits of slate I dug up in the garden of my old home in Barnet, most London gardens have building waste, broken bricks and bits of slate, I've got a load of Spanish slate from the outbuilding of my current house that was demolished for our extension that I've kept for terrain use, dispariged by my roofer as not being up to Welsh quality, but still better than French! Then some filler pva , sand and green masonary paint ,            ( except on the slate ),which I still have almost five litres of, even after 30 years, then  a wash of raw umber emulsion, further emulsion paint all round, black and stone colour on the standing stones and then a dry brush with the stone colour, bit of flock and that's your lot.

 

Next up is a plastic Celtic cross from the Rendra grave set that didn't get used in the central European cemetery, as a marker on a small hill made from the underlay I use as thatch on a CD and some more slate. 

A fun collection of terrain,  Dark Ages , ancients , medieval and beyond ,  dressing or objectives in games like Lion rampant somewhere on the Celtic fringe, be quite nice in a pulp game I guess with various cultists? Not that I have any but you never know! 

I thought the standing stones would also be good as a camp/HQ for the Celtic army  I've had in a box for over a year if I was playing To the Strongest!

 Of course if I have one of those I'll need something similar but different for my Romans,I've got something in mind but what do you think I should do?

All the best 

Iain

French mobile forge Napoleonic 82

Managed to get something finished.This is a mobile forge from Warfayre, I got this together with a supply wagon, an ammunition caisson and an ambulance for just under £13.00 plus postage which I think is really good value, especially as they're such good little models. I've added a bit of detail for this little vignette, adding the cross bar and the rope from the bellows and the other bar and controlling rope and handle at the other end, the bar is some floral bond and the rope is book binding cord. The blacksmith is the first of my ACW Perry figures, an artillery man ,to be repurposed for Napoleonics, with a headswap for a Spanish head sporting a bonnet de police. The driver,water butt and crates are all from the 3d printed supply wagon I got from TaylorsfiguresGB on etsy , the mobile anvil was carved from a bit of Tamiya sprue, wedged into a piece cut off from a 1/35 telegraph pole, the hammer started out as a 17th century warhammer but here it has been turned to a more pacific use. the tongs started out as a musket rest! 

Going from these references and the one on the Perry site, we get this.

I've got the smith having a chat with the driver while working the bellows with his tools on the tarped crates.

I had a lot of fun playing around with this vignette and it makes a nice supply, base or objective option I think? The summer of scenery seems to be going on for a long time!

More Napoleonics terrain and dark ages figures still to come, I might get bored and do something else!

All the best 

Iain 

Landwehr sample figures Napoleonic 81

 Not much from me recently, painting has been rather disrupted as my sister and brother in law have moved in , so I have to be sociable in the evenings and weekends, which means not painting! They retired to Loire in France twenty years ago and in Jacks case even got French citizenship but they've decided to be closer to family and buy a retirement flat in Hertford, so they've sold up in France and are over here finding a flat which is nice. So not much of a post , more an amuse buche ,as I think I could do with maybe four more Landwehr units, money is tight after the rather excessive spending earlier in the year so I have been looking through my bits box and having a bit of a think and I've come up with these two chaps. 

They're home cast Prince August late Roman bodies with Perry plastic heads and Victrix backpacks and arms, they don't sell this mould anymore for some reason. In the last photo they're next to a stand of Perry metal and plastic wargames Atlantic Grenzers, I think they'll do, what do you think?

They're ( loosely) based on these chaps, with thigh length jacket and black equipment,  I've got various caps ( and heads) from the American War of Independence , the war of three Kingdoms and the American Civil war that will give me a bit of variety  and stop them being too uniform as they're a militia unit. 

The price is definitely right so I'm aiming to cast up about 100 to give me my four units,  the metal is either recycled from cleaning up figures or some lead weights for fishing          ( which are of course now illegal to use) and my mains water supply pipe which I have replaced with plastic but have retained the lead to cast toy soldiers from, for some reason that seems old school? 

Anyway  two more Napoleonics for the total, so 406 this year, as I've said before,  we aim for adequate and sometimes achieve it! 

All the best 

Iain 

Austrian dragoon regiment no 1 Napoleonic 80

 Here's some converted Austrian dragoons, in the Austrian cavalry  set you have the option of chevaulegers/dragoon  torso's or cuirassier torso's and the earlier and later helmets or later helmets without crests as used on campaign which I've used here together with the leftover Austrian torso's, arms, carbines and sheathed sword sheaths ( with the handles cut off) and with overall legs from French and Austrian hussars mounted on British light dragoon horses with added  green  stuff tails and replaced heads.  ( without the light cavalry bridle) I also added the jacket tails and saddles with green stuff. I think they've come out well enough. This is dragoon regiment no 1, with black facings, which made it nice and easy as the undercoat/primer was black.

This pushes me up to 404 painted Napoleonic figures for the year so far,  just past the target which is nice! 

For Steve,  1950s Bundeswehr for his cold war gone hot scenario. 

 I've got another couple of these units in the pipeline,  at some point I'll have to do a post detailing all the leftover units combined together! 

All the best 

Iain 

Austrian and French support wagons Napoleonic 79

 Here are a pair of 3d printed wagons from warfayre.  These are from a really economical set of four wagons for just under £13.00 plus postage,  I've ended up getting another set and a pontoon wagon set. Unlike other 3d prints, they're more like scale models and the texture is more like plastic,  it helps they come in a matt khaki colour as opposed a fluorescent blue or clear, so you can understand what you are dealing with. Primed in Army painter leather brown,except the tilt, primed in Halfords khaki, painted in GW tau Sept ochre and Ieydann dark sun, both geriatric paints that I'll have to replace at some point I guess. 

 

These are Austrian wagons I've used as reference . 

I've painted mine up as Austrian even though strictly speaking they're probably French, I've got quite a bit of conversion work to change the forge set to the Austrian pattern ( to go with a French mobile forge I'm working on) but these are close enough to my eyes. The team to pull them is on order together with some limbers,  not Austrian but Polish horse artillery, they are wearing single breastfed jackets so with a head swaps they should work out pretty well. 

 There is also the French ambulance from the warfayre set, I've lightly converted it as it comes with the back doors open and I preferred them shut. Once again, army painter green spray,agrax wash,black, steel,bit of flock, good to go. Easy clean up and minimal supports, compared to Jonathan's recent 3d print.

 

The French mobile forge which is part of the set, I'm making into a little vignette which has included converting scale appropriate hammer and tongs and scratch building a mobile anvil, that's all been fun! 

My mobile pep kit in the car for Keith. 

 

While we're at it ,the chaos of the shed in mid terrain mode and current occupants of the painting tray in yhe house.

Next up? Terrain , Napoleonics, Napoleonic terrain, something like that?

All the best

 Iain