Monday, January 30, 2012

IR #4 - 28mm Austrian Napoleonics

I Battalion, IR#4 - models from Victrix
Another batch of recruits have joined my Austrian collection.  This the first battalion, IR #4.  The models are plastics from Victrix.  These models faced several serious painting challenges, and also a little delay for bases, so I'm pretty chuffed to have them finished.   As with my other infantry units, it is beefy - 38 infantry and a single mounted model.


Waiting for the basing goop to dry

Colour party shows the variety of officers that come with the box
I scoffed and scoffed and scoffed at Victrix and their seemingly-endless delays between announcing these models and finally having them for sale.  But Victrix is laughing in the end. 

The box provides a good variety of poses, with minimal assembly
These plastics are incredible.  The assembly is minimal (and I understand from other gamers who have the Victrix French and British figures that assembly was a real challenge there).  The range of poses is still significant - everything from marching to loading to firing.   You get ample stuff for command, including a full selection of different heads for different officers, and two mounted officers.  The price is reasonable. Order from Maelstrom, and you won't even pay shipping. So hats off to Victrix for taking the cynicism of hacks like me and spiking it back hard and with authority!

A nice change from the "monopose" feel you get with Foundry stuff

The mounted officer is really into it - probably some schnapps hidden under the saddle....
The level of detail on these figures is very, very impressive for plastics.  Sure, there are a couple of detail lines that are a bit weak, and if you have sh*t primer I like I did, that can get really tricky, but these are top notch figures.  They even managed to get a cipher on the cartridge boxes.  Little details like that put these models at the top of the game.

You can see the Imperial ciphers on the cartridge boxes...a neat detail
I love how the foot-sloggers have a bit of a down-cast to their poses.  They look stoic, but with a sense of "Oh Christ, here we go again..." as they move to face off against the French, probably able to hear the French "pas-de-charge" beating through the smoke. They are ready to fight hard, but have little confidence their officers have put them in the right place or left them any real support to face the hard hitting French troops.  Nonetheless, their own (declining) Empire is on the line, and they are ready to give it their best...

Huge Austrian units are a wargaming tradition of sorts
My Austrian roster now stands at six full line battalions (one Grenz battalion, four German battalions and one Hungarian battalion), four guns, two cavalry regiments, and a unit of skirmishers, but the recruiting can't stop.  I would love to do more Victrix units, but I still have a pile of Foundry lead left, so I'm racking those up for another unit - trying for a "firing line" this time.  It will also be a little smaller - 32 model "spots" instead of 40 - a "normal" size.  While the oversize Austrian line unit is kind of an old standby for Napoleonic gamers, I think the extent to which those huge units were actually in the field can be exaggerated a bit, so it's time to get some smaller ones into the line.
The ADC encourages the men forward - that ranker on the right of him isn't so sure...
So it's quite a time to be an Austrian Napoleonic gamer - Victrix has a wide range of plastics out for the Austrians, and now the Perrys are getting their Austrian figures out there gradually.  The Sash & Sabre lines are excellent. Competition is a good thing! I hope to do some Perry Austrians later this year, but another battalion of Victrix would be great too.  It's nice to have a choice.  But sometimes the best figures are the ones you already have - for me that means a pile of Foundry stuff before getting back to some of these other manufacturers.

12 comments:

FrederickC said...

The good old "Hoch und Deutschmeister" Regiment. Well done, Greg.

FrederickC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dallas said...

Ausgezeichnet!!

john de terre neuve said...

Very nice, I used Front Rank for my Austrians, but these look very nice and great painting job.

John

BigRedBat said...

Am loving those... could you let me know how you did the whites, please?

Greg B said...

@John - thanks! I should have mentioned Front Rank in the post too - they make top-notch stuff.

@BigRedBat - here is how I do the white.
- Base coat of black for the whole model
- For white cloth, a base of GW Fortress Grey goes over the black. A first highlight of GW Kommando Khaki is applied, then a second highlight of GW Bleached Bone. The final highlight is an Americana Titanium White (this is a craft paint I can buy cheap at the large big-box-style stores like Michael's). The pigment of the Americana paint is not strong, so I apply it liberally, and the other variances from the prior layers still manage to shine through (I think).

- For white straps, they start black, and receive GW Fortress Grey as a first coat. But then I go straight to the Americana Titanium White. I feel like this gives the white leather straps a different look/texture from the white cloth.

I have another rack of Austrians on the go tonight - I will try and remember some "step by step" pictures.

BigRedBat said...

Cor! I was hoping that you achieved the fantastic results by some sort of shortcut. ;-)

Simon

DHC Wargames said...

Great stuff! You should only replace the flags with some aftermarket flags... your paintjob is too good for these!

Battlescale said...

I wish I had the patience to paint figures to your standard! . Great job.

VolleyFireWargames said...

Excellent paint job what rules do you use. I tend to use a parchment for my white excellent ideas though on differentiating the leather from the uniform

Greg B said...

@ David - we use a set of rules that are a modification of "Black Powder". Curt C is the one who has developed these (and indeed "modification" may no longer be the correct term).

Curt follows us here, and also has his own excellent blog: "Analogue Hobbies". Try that blog and I'm sure you can connect with Curt through there to check out the rules.

VolleyFireWargames said...

Greg thanks for the heads up as I was up early this morning I hunted my way through your groups blog and found Curts email address which I found I already was following his blog but had missed the Napoleonic specific postings the When things go Boom scenario looks interesting also found some modifications on a Tyne UK wargane club site so it will be interesting to compare your alls set with theirs. I am hopeful to hear from Curt soon - thanks for getting back with me. Cheers David