12mm WW1 Austro-Hungarian Cavalry

Austro-Hungarian WW1 Dragoons in early-war uniforms. 12mm metal figures from Kallistra.

The early-WW1 12 project continues to rumble along the hobby desk. In this post we stay with the armed forces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but move now to the cavalry! Here we have a group of Austro-Hungarian Dragoons, 12mm metal castings from Kallistra's fantastic early WW1 figure range. 

The opening months of the Great War saw some incredible uniforms in use - and by "incredible", I mean in the context of a hobby geek like me thinking "That would be fun to paint!". In this regard, one thinks often of the blue and red of the French infantry, and the glorious helmets and combs of the different branches of the French cavalry, as they swept into battle in the late summer of 1914. The terrible realities of warfare in that time soon put all of the glory of the uniforms to rest, but wow, for the purposes of a wargaming, hobbyist, it is all very fun to paint and put on the table.

Carbines and swords at the ready! Helmets painted grey...damn regulations...

So what of the Austro-Hungarian troops? By the outbreak of WW1, the infantry had moved to something of a more bland/modern-adjacent uniform of "pike grey". Some anachronistic flashes remained, but were subtle or, at least, beyond my brush for the most part when it comes to 12mm figures (for example, the Hungarian regiments still had fancy cuts and threading on their trousers). 

Carbines, ready for action in case of dismounted action...

Thankfully the cavalry arm of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces, weighed down by conservative tradition and slowed by the parsimony and administrative incompetence of the Empire, maintained some wonderful uniforms by the late summer of 1914! On paper, the cavalry of the Empire were supposed to switch to more practical uniforms, but in practice many (almost all?) regiments mobilized in 1914 with full dress uniforms which would not have looked out of place in the 1870s.

These Dragoons are great examples, resplendent in blue tunics and red pants. The only concessions made to the looming shadow of modern warfare is seen on the helmets, which were covered with cloth or just painted grey.

And speaking of dismounted action, here are the troopers sans-horses.

Kallistra's early WW1 collection is awesome - not only the sculpts themselves, which manage a great deal of character for the small size, but also because it is so complete. You can get mounted AND dismounted castings for the full variety of Austro-Hungarian cavalry options - but wait, there is more! You can ALSO get the horse-holder figures! While I haven't yet seen the need to paint the horse holders yet (just like I will be the last person to paint artillery limbers), the completeness of the offering is tremendous and very appealing. 

Closer shot of the dismounted troopers - can you spot the officer?

The cavalry of early WW1 may have aspired to mount their own glorious and decisive "death ride" style charges, but in fact had to dismount often to fight (or even, I suspect, just to survive so they could fight). "Dragoons", of course, were supposed to be mounted infantry anyway, going back to their origins in history. But by 1914 I think the Austro-Hungarian ones still harbored a significant strain of "let's charge to contact, we'll make it work" sort of thinking. Thanks to Kallistra's awesome collection, you can represent your cavalry troopers in either mode (and associated mental state), and that is what we have here. This is an advantage over Pendraken's 10mm collection, which is short on the dismounted troopers (although, it should be said, it still awesome). 

He doesn't stand out a WHOLE lot, but the officer here still has his classic metal helmet, with comb and gold plate.

I did paint the helmets of these figures grey, with the exception of the officer. It helps him stand out a little...but I also like the idea of this stubborn fellow ignoring the direction to paint/cover the helmets. Seems like the sort of thing an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer would do...

Dismounted dragoons, ready for the firefight.

From my preliminary reading of the Eastern Front in early WW1 there was a sizable cavalry collision between the Austrians and the Russians not long after hostilities kicked off...I need to find out more about this encounter. But even though I don't have a precise plan in my mind for the type of game I want to try and stage, the idea of a crazy early cavalry clash is appealing, so watch for some of that to come during the approach Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. 

That's it for now - thanks for reading, stay tuned for more! 

12mm WW1 Austro-Hungarian Infantry

Ausro-Hungarian infantry charge into action - what could go wrong? 12mm metal figures from Kallistra.

Continuing along with my slow-moving (but still moving!) early WW1 eastern front efforts, we have a collection of 12mm Austro-Hungarian infantry. These are figures from Kallistra's delightfully complete early WW1 collection. 

An officer can be seen among this group. The collar tabs had different colours, depending on the regiment, and I tried to pick them out, just to add a splash of anachronistic color.

I enjoy painting Austrians in SO many other historical periods, so why not WW1? It also just adds to my general fascination with the setting - beyond the general awareness that the Austro-Hungarian army did not perform very well, I didn't really know any details as to why...so as I start to dig into this setting, I'm also enjoying the readying and learning that come along with it. 

View showing some of the kit on the rear of the figures.

Now, one thing that Dallas does really well on his blog posts, and that I need to follow more of, is using the post to share (and therefore have a record!) of paints used to come up with particular colours. That way, when you take a break from a project, you can return to it again and maintain some consistency in the look of the figures. The Austro-Hungarian infantry uniforms will be the first to get this treatment!

Another view of the advancing infantry...

When it comes to the uniforms worm at the opening of hostilities in 1914 by the Austro-Hungarian infantry, I was a little stumped. I mean, they are plain looking enough - the color flourishes involved for the individual regiments are pretty small, and not easily marked out on 12mm figures. They are clad in grey. Is grey hard? Sometimes, yes! At least for me. I found the grey to actually be kinda tricky.  The uniforms are described as "Pike Grey" in different sources. It is grey for sure...but also kinda blue?

Another photo of the kit on the troops.

To try and achieve this grey-that-looks-blue-but-also-blue-that-looks-grey outcome on the figures, I experimented a fair bit, before I landed on the following approach: using GW paints, I went with the following sequence - started with "Dark Reaper" as the base coat, then "Thunderhawk Blue", with final highlights of "Russ Grey". This was followed by a coat of "Gryph Charger Grey" from GW's "Contrast" paint range.

MG crew...I didn't quite line up the belt on the gun here...these fellows will have a tough time getting this into action! Seems right for the Austro-Hungarians, based on their reputation...

Because the figures are smaller, I try to over-punch the final highlight, so there is rather more "Russ Grey" involved on these smaller figures than you might try on a larger one. If there are larger ones? I believe Peter Pig has these fellows in 15mm, but I don't know if there are any 28mm Austro Hungarians out there?? 

Another view of the MG crew...were these guns yellow during the early WW1 period? I have seen some references indicating yes...but I don't have confidence in that conclusion, and have to confess that I am just going by the seat of my pants here...

As with my other 12mm WW1 figures, these are based for use with the "1914" rules from Great Escape Games. The collection of four bases would be sufficient to represent a battalion of infantry, with each base representing a company of infantry. 

We have Schwarlose (sp?) MG crews ready to support the infantry. I have seen some references to these MGs (and the Austro-Hungarian artillery, for that matter) painted in yellow...as a Hapsburg throwback? I don't actually know what colour the weapons were painted...but I went with the yellow for now. 

It's great to have some Austro-Hungarian infantry out the door. And while these troops did not have much in the way of archaic flair, the cavalry of the Empire in 1914 did not disappoint...watch this space for more on that soon!

That's all for now - thanks for reading, and stay tuned for further development on this project through the fall and into the winter!

Let's Switch Fronts! 12mm WW1 In The East...

Russian WW1 infantry and MG teams - 12mm metal castings from Kallistra.

History has shown that trying to fight wars on two fronts is likely to have disastrous consequences...on the other hand, painting figures for wars on two fronts should be just fine, right? Let's hope so - we get started here with a group of Russian infantrymen, based in a similar fashion to my recent western front efforts. These are all 12mm figures from Kallistra's excellent and comprehensive early WW1 collection.

Closeup showing some of the riflemen, and an officer.

Yes, my interest in the opening phases of the Great War has spilled from the western front to the east, where the Central Powers confronted the might of the Russian Empire. This has been percolating for some time...I have long been fascinated by the titanic struggle in the east during the Second World War - and quite a lot of my hobby effort has been directed to that setting (in multiple scales, naturally :), but the confrontation in the east during the Great War has always been a bit of a mystery to me.

Not a ton of kit on the figures...they are ready to make a daring assault

The more I dove into the early western front confrontation, the more I wondered at the eastern front. Like, what went on there? Barbara Tuchman's outstanding "Guns of August" sets things up nicely, and weaves in the tale of the mobilization and opening moves culminating in the near-destruction of a Russian army at Tannenberg.  But Tuchman's book is about the opening moves...and treats the Austrians as an afterthought, even though their empire lay at the heart of the crisis which triggered the war. The mystery of WW1's eastern front grew for me...

The wheeled, water-cooled MG team, a classic of WW1 images and games...

"For the Tsar! I'm sure it will be a short war!"

And these sorts of musings have a way of bubbling through my head for quite a while before suddenly turning into a project - and here we are now! I thought it best to start with some Russian infantry - I will certainly be needing plenty of it, I expect. I see no reason the "1914" rules by Great Escape Games would not work perfectly well for an eastern front game, so I am copying the overall basing and approach used for my western front figures.

In addition to some painting for this setting, a new book dropped this fall, which I am looking forward to reading and which I suspect will help sustain the painting momentum into the winter...

Looking forward to cracking this open!

That's all for now - thanks for reading! 

 

Back To WW1 - Western Front in 12mm

12mm WW1 French in early war uniform - metal figures from Great Escape Games.

This is a fairly quick post - but that is the point, to get into the habit of posting! Here we have a collection of 12mm sized WW1 French, resplendent in their lovely early-war blue and red uniforms! These are metal castings from Great Escape Games, part of their range of figures for their "1914" game.

Infantry, a little closer up - the chef-de-battalion can be seen on the front base, with the red kepi and sword drawn. 

View showing the detail of the packs on the infantrymen. This sort of detail puts these figures a cut above the sculpts from Kallistra, although both are great, and I recommend both. 

These sculpts are chunky, and full of character, and are a real treat to paint. In the "1914" game, each base of four figures is meant to represent a company, so these four bases together would represent a battalion - they would also take a Hotchkiss MG along that I painted earlier this year. 

Another closer shot of some of the other infantry.

My 1914 French force for this game and setting is still not totally rounded out, but it is getting to a much better place - we now have two battalions of infantry, a regiment of dragoons and a unit of the famous 75mm guns - more than enough to confront some Germans in a recreation of a battle from the tragic "Plan XVII" and the Battle of the Frontiers. As always, watch for more to come during the approaching Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! 

To Alsace!

And, you know, nothing helps a project move along like trying it another scale...so watch this space for more on that too...

That's all for now - thanks for reading! 

More Guns of/for August - French WW1 Dragoons and MGs in 12mm

12mm French dragoons for early WW1 - figures by Kallistra.

The WW1 painting in 12mm continues! Here we have some 12mm size French Dragoons - mounted and dismounted. The figures are metal castings from the excellent folks at Kallistra. They are based for the game "1914" by Great Escape Games, and these four bases would represent a regiment of dragoons in that game. 

Bit more of a close up...

Great Escape offers a lovely line of figures in support of their "1914" rules, but I was excited to add some variety via Kallistra's admirably complete figure range. I am very keen to game the early phases of the Great War, and particularly keen to deploy cavalry units, and especially excited to paint up French cavalry for the setting. Why? Well, for me, these cavalry units really underline that unique historical moment in the late summer of 1914... 

Love the lances!

What do I mean by that? Well, the exact moment in history when cavalry was supplanted on the battlefield if open to debate. Really, in a lot of ways, the bloody and totally pointless slaughter of the French cavalry by the Prussians in 1870 should have put an end to the view of cavalry as a battle-winning thing, but the cavalry arm was such a prestigious institution of the various armed forces in Europe. Thus it fell to the opening phases of WW1 to become, in many ways, a last gasp for cavalry attempting to play "decisive", battle-winning arm on the battlefield. To be clear, I am not arguing that things were totally over for cavalry after this point. After all, cavalry formations played an important roles in several battles later in the same war. There were cavalry units in WW2. Heck, special forces types rode on horses in Afghanistan in the 21st century. 

Dismounted unit, skirmish poses all around.

So there is no question cavalry continued to play a major military role after the opening phases of WW1. But I think those opening battles in 1914 did put, at last, an end to the idea that a field battle could/would/should be won at scale by a cavalry charge in anything other than exceptional circumstances. You can just tell by how the cavalry arms of the nations in 1914 kept their formal dress for battle - in some cases, quite formal - that these institutions were simply not going to let go of the belief that, at the end of it all, even with all the rifles and the artillery and the machine-guns, they would deliver decisive victory with a charge. 

Officer on the front base.

France in 1914 is a great example of this (second, perhaps, to the Austro-Hungarian military establishment of the time). At the outset of hostilities in August 1914 the French Cuirassiers and Dragoons have their glorious uniforms, and all that this entails, and I just love painting them up. Huge helmets, with long horse-hair tails from the comb, the beautiful dark blue tunics and red trousers...just glorious! And they have whacky lances too! Of course, with the right amount of cran, this lot is sure to send the enemy reeling!

Hotchkiss MGs

Hotckiss MGs...Kallistra crew on the left, Great Escape Games sculpt on the right.

To go along with the dragoons, I painted a pair of Hotchkiss MGs for my "1914" collection. The "1914" rules call for the MG elements to be mounted on 25mm square bases, and so with these you get a sense of the slight difference between the figures from Great Escape Games and those from Kallistra. The Great Escape Games casting is chunkier, and there is only room for the single figure running the MG. The slighter Kallistra figures, on the other hand, allow for the gunner to be joined by a crew mate. 

A bit of extra character comes with the ability to squeeze an extra crewman on the base.

I rather prefer the look of the Kallistra castings, as these early MGs were heavy affairs that required quite a few crew to haul them around and get them into action. It's just two crew, but at least it implies a crew! 

The Great Escape Games castings are chunkier fellows...I do love how they have their packs on, though!

That's all for now - watch for more early WW1 painting - and, just other random painting - to appear soon, I hope! Thanks for reading.

Guns of/for August - Early WW1 French Artillery in 12mm

12mm French 75mm guns for the early WW1 period. Metal castings by Kallistra.

Back in 2021 I started an early-war WW1 project, inspired by the "1914" rules from Great Escape Games. In painted up a decent-sized German force for the game, but only barely started on some French opponents. Well, the French are now getting some reinforcements, and I thought it best to start with a "bang" - painting up a pair of French 75mm guns. 

Most of the figures I have been painting so far for this project have come from Great Escape Games, but while I love their infantry and cavalry, I find, for whatever reason, the guns they have sculpted to be rather over-sized for the scale. The German field guns from their range look huge, and so I took a pass on their equivalent French offering, and opted instead to paint some figures from Kallistra's awesome 12mm WW1 range.

Great little sculpts from Kallistra - and the gun is excellent. 

Kallistra's WW1 range is admirably complete - right down to offering horse-holding figures for your dismounted cavalry, and even artillery limbers for those gaming types who are truly deranged and would paint such things! While I do have quite a few infantry figures from Great Escape Games, I do find myself turning more and more to Kallistra to expand the collection for this project...my only criticism is that they do not have infantry carrying their packs - and I find those packs have a lot of character, so would be awesome to see from Kallistra, but that is a very, very small bone to pick and overall I really, really recommend them.

Ready for direct fire support in August of 1914!

These guns and crew are based on 50mm squares for the "1914" rules, which will have the players still seeking to deploy these deadly weapons on a direct-firing basis. The French will need them as they enact Plan XVII, seeking to liberate Alsace and Lorraine in August of 1914...

Stay tuned for more WW1 stuff through the summer, in honour of "The Guns of August" - thanks for reading, hope you are having a great day!

More 12mm German WW1 Infantry

In this squinty photo are more 12mm early-WW1 German troops - nearly all from Kallistra.

Hi everyone. I have been slacking off when it comes to blogging, but I've still been painting. The more stressful things get, the more I try to paint. I mean, I love painting and I am always trying to paint, but sometimes I just need to paint more to stay sane. Suffice to say, recent conditions continue to encourage much painting...with this is mind, here are some more 12mm Germans for my early WW1 project. 

There is a bit of a twist compared to my previous posts on this subject - where my previous figures had been from Great Escape Games, nearly all of the figures you glimpse here are from Kallistra's 12mm WW1 range (the lone exception is the MG08 gunner - an extra I had found in one of my packs from Great Escape Games - always nice to get a surprise like that :) 

View of the infantry elements - the MG08 on the right is from great Escape Games - everything else is from Kallistra.

Most of the basing is consistent with the game "1914" from Great Escape Games, but there is one square base in the group - I intend to use this as a "Regimental Command" for games of "Great War Speahead". Overall, for "1914" there is a unit of infantry, a command base, and a regiment of cavalry, both mounted and dismounted.

The Kallistra sculpts are very nice, and there is a bit more variety of poses available.

The Kallistra castings are a little thinner than the ones from Great Escape Games, but also have a bit more variety of poses. The range is a more established one, and it just has some more variety to it.

German Dragoons - mounted.

The German cavalry is a good example. They could/would represent some German Dragoons - either mounted or dismounted - to give some variety to go with the Uhlans on the table. It's an example of how the Kallistra range is just a little more rounded out than Great Escape's (although, again, both are excellent - I recommend both). 

Side view of the Dragoons.

German Dragoons - dismounted. I might paint a base of horse-holders or something at some point...

It's been quite a dash to start this project. I have made good progress - the German side is certainly all set for a game of "1914". But I feel a bit of exhaustion when it comes to this project for now. You can see with few posts I have made prior to this one,  my painting interests are moving back toward other subjects for a time - likely more Adeptus Titanicus stuff, but probably some other 30k things as well. 

Thanks for reading - stay safe, and stay sane out there.

German Jaeger for the "Guns of August" - 12mm WW1

German WW1 Jagers, 12mm figures from Great Escape Games.

My "Guns of August" project continues - here is another unit for the German side. These are Jagers, "light" infantry of the German army. These are all 12mm figures from "Great Escape Games", based for their rule set "1914". Each base would represent a company of infantry, and so this would represent a full-strength battalion in the "1914" game.

MG08 gunner is on a 25mm square base - others are mounted on 25mm x 50mm rectangles.

The uniform of the Jager is different from that of the other regular German infantry of the era - they still wear a shako, and even though this had a cover, the pom at the top of the shako still showed. They also wore green (or, at least, I think most of them did, at the outset of WW1 anyway). As is common with "light infantry", they were thought to be elite, especially if you asked them. The green does not stand out as much as the green worn in 1870, but it provides a slight amount of colour variety for the German WW1 forces.

Nice detail on the kit and packs of the troops.

 

Jager battalions were attached at Corps-level in the German army, and in particular they seemed to accompany cavalry formations - or at least they did in terms of the OOBs of the game scenarios I am considering. I think they often had some troops riding bicycles to accompany with/keep up with cavalry units. I can't think of a way to represent this yet...if any clever Challenge participant knows someone who makes 12mm size bicycles, please let me know!

You might be able to pick out the officer, near the centre of the photo - "here we go, should reach Paris in no time at all!"

As before, these were very nice and fun-to-paint castings, and this project has still has a lot of momentum on my painting desk - at least for now! Thanks for reading!

More "Guns of August" - 12mm WW1

French and German WW1 infantry in 12mm - figures from Great Escape Games.

So my hobby focus continues to be soaked up by the early weeks and months of WW1, and I continue painting 12mm figures for my "Guns of August" project. Here we see more German troops, but some Allies also make an appearance. All figures are from Great Escape Games, and are based for their "1914" rules (although this basing will work with other rules as well). 

Dismounted German Uhlans

Dismounted German Uhlans - figures from Great Escape Games.

Who wants to dismount their cavalry? That's boring! But of course the battlefield realities of WW1 were such that dismounting was often called for - when the machineguns, rifles and artillery open fire, that whole theory of "mounted infantry" suddenly, maybe, possibly, might make a little bit of sense...even though it was SO lacking in glory...

In the "1914" rules (and many other rules) the cavalry can dismount...so you functionally need double the number of bases...

The upshot of this is that your Uhlans might dismount and fight on foot, and it is nice to have figures to represent this on the table. Great Escape Games has you covered...when you purchase a cavalry unit, you get figures to represent them both as mounted (glorious!) and dismounted (sigh...). 

Excellent sculpts from Great Escape Games.

Uhlans make cool-looking cavalry, even with the muted grey-green colours of 1914. But as infantry they seem pretty awkward. It makes me think of the Uhlans themselves sort of realizing that the whole ride-around-and-charge thing was probably over, even if they, or their officers, were reluctant to accept such a truth...

(Another) German Infantry Unit

More German infantry from WW1...you need lots of these fellows for the game...

Not much to say here...it's more German infantry, ready to battle through Belgium and into France! Schlieffen worked out all the timetables, right? So what could go wrong?

Each base would represent a company of infantry for the "1914" rules.

For the "1914" rules each base would represent a company of infantry, so the four bases together on the table would represent a battalion at its full right-off-the-train-from-the-depot strength, ready to continue the advance!

French Infantry Unit

Toujour a l'outtrance!

Can't play WW1 without some Allies, right? Great Escape Games offers French, British and Belgian figures for their "1914" range. The figures all look great, and I'm keen to test my brushes on each set. I had to pick one to be "first", and I went with the French.

Obviously, the uniform has a strong hobby appeal. Of all the combatants in WW1, the French army retained the most "classic" look to their uniform, with red pants and blue coats. The covers for the kepis, and the removal of the epaulettes take the "bling level" down a touch from the time of the Second Empire, but these are still fun colours to paint. 

A French company, ready to take the offensvie!

But beyond the uniforms there is just the great and compelling spirit and tragedy of the French army in WW1. The French went to war in 1914 with "Plan XVII" as their strategy and the idea of "cran" as their guide. The offensive was more than the order of the day...it was the central spirit, a core element of cohesion to the entire French military structure in 1914, from top to bottom. 

The base at the rear has only three castings...a broken rifle on a figure has already caused some losses...

This mix of factors led to a stunning series of military collisions, the "Battle of the Frontiers", in the opening days of the war. These battles did not go well for France. The Plan XVII attacks went nowhere, and as the scale of the German right wing wheeling through Belgium became apparent, the French would be sent reeling.

I believe that is a Hotckiss MG, although I think the French army had a different MG for the outset of WW1?

The commander is ready to lead from the front...

With hindsight Plan XVII seems quite bonkers, naturally - so much of WW1 does. But there is something I cannot describe about the French army in those opening days that is a particular trigger to my curiousity - and so the French will be the first allies on to the table for this project! This one unit was a "test" - more to follow soon, I hope...

So that's all for now - thanks for reading!