Praying For Bases

"We're ready to leave the depot - honest!"

Well, here's hoping the mystical power of the blogosphere can influence the karma of the postal delivery system.  I have finished another batch of 28mm Austrian line infantry - my first unit from Victrix - and all they need now are some bases.  If they can get here today (or tomorrow), these troops can join my doomed Austrian column for the game this weekend in Regina.

Running out of bases happens to me a lot.  Normal hobbyists can just cut new bases for themselves.  Incompetent ones like me, who barely manage to build a simple model, should not try this, unless the rules in question allow for the "crescent-shaped-'L'" formation instead of lines and columns.  I generally rely on Likto Aerosystems for my basing needs.  Their products are outstanding, but the delivery times have stretched to epic lengths.  I now refer to a project stalled for lack of basing materials as being at the "Litko State".

This time, for a change, I'm waiting on the good folks at Wargames Accessories.  I hope the scary variables, including the USPS, the spectacular cretins at Canada Customs, and the mindless incompetence of Canada Post, have not found some way to deep-six the delivery....it's a wonder that any packages make it anywhere at times...

Austrian Hussars - 28mm Napoleonics

Still plugging away at my Austrians - taking care of a loose end. My Hussar regiment, finished as part of the original "Black Powder" challenge, was three models short.

Getting those three additional models from Foundry took quite a while. Months in fact. While Foundry was very pleasant to deal with, it was quite a challenge. In that time, Foundry had cancelled the pose - the charging Hussars- so it was a real issue to get the models. Ultimately, they found a couple spares, and they looked ok enough to fit in.

Then, I lost them when I moved this past summer....

They finally turned up a few weeks ago, so I'm painting them to get that Hussar regiment up to 24 models and finish it for real. I hope to finish this weekend while the NFL playoffs are on.

Six-Pounder Gun Teams - Austrian 28mm Napoleonics

Austrian six-pounders from Wargames Foundry

More reinforcements for my 28mm Austrians - this time a pair of six-pound gun teams.  The models are all Foundry 28mm castings, and they were finished over the Christmas holidays.

The crew sits waiting for the Liquitex gel goop to dry - usually takes a day

I tried to "mark" the gel a bit, so when painted the ground would look like the guns have been firing..

I loathe painting horse-and-musket-era artillery - I hate the wheels on the guns, I don't know what widget is what, and what it's supposed to look like etc. - and I feel like any rules set should have a single gun and team represent the whole battery. 

Front view of one gun - I love that officer model at the back right, and wonder if he would fit at all in an infantry unit...

Front view of the second new gun. The little accents (the barrel, a pile of cannon balls) that Foundry includes in their packs are a nice touch

Having said that, the "Food For Powder" rules we are using (courtesy of Regina Conscript Curt C), and other new rule sets (like LaSalle) are taking a view that an artillery battery should have a footprint on the gaming table that is more commensurate to the large footprint a gun battery would have on the battlefield.  That means my lads will still need more guns!

Rear view of the new gun sections

I still have to work on my basing technique for artillery...I love how Curt does his guns up, but these turned out OK

I have four six-pound gun teams for the Austrians now.  I need to add two more gun teams for the approaching game with Curt at the end of January (I think we are playing Austerlitz, so I'll need every gun I can find to aim at those insane Frenchmen and their Corsican loon).  I'm trying to find some 12-pounder models, but likely not in time for the game, so the next two guns may end up including a howitzer and another six-pounder or something.

These are all of my Austrians guns so far - starts to look imposing when they are together!

I do love the look of these large units, and the four teams look imposing when set out together.  Bring forward the shot and powder, and let's fill those French columns with holes!

Dragoon(ing) along

Just a short update on my continued efforts to finish that initial roster of 25mm Napoleonics I started last July. Curt and I are doing really big units in the "grand manner" style. To help keep us motivated, Curt has launched his own spring thaw challenge. I had finished off my first three infantry units, some command, some skirmishers and (eww) artillery. Now I'm stuck into the hard part (for me) - cavalry!

Our cavalry units are 24-figures strong. I am close to half-way on my first cavalry project, a unit of Austrian Dragoons. The figures are from Foundry. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress so far.



I'm starting to get into a bit of a groove with the cavalry, but I can't quite bang these out like I can with the infantrymen. Practice helps, however, and each night I complete another one or two troopers is a good one! The picture below is a testament to my lack of project focus - you can see a bunch of 40k stuff in various stages of completion in the background.



Helpfully for me the Austrian Dragoon uniform has a lot of similarities to the uniforms of the Austrian regular infantry - white coats, coloured facings, yellow and black puff (I'm sure it's not called a "puff", but whatever*) on a black helmet, etc. I can't wait to get these guys all finished and based, and at the current rate, that will likely be end of March. Every nervous Austrian commander needs cavalry to cover their flanks of their column (or just ride with them to check out a potential new summer palace), so it will be good to get some cav together for the scions of the sausage.

*PS - fellow Conscript Curt has informed the "puff" is actually called a "comb" - I'll remember that for the future!

And back to Napoleonics...

Well, it's been a while since I last added some stuff as part of my Napoleonic Challenge, but given that Curt C has fired up a Napoleonic spring thaw painting challenge, it was time to get back at it. My goal-list for this project still stood on the blog, and I finished off a pair of 6-pounder guns with crew this week.

The figures are all from Wargames Foundry.



As Curt notes in his blog, I absolutely hate painting artillery. Consistent with many of my views on the hobby, there is no rational reason for this. I just find the effort/reward ratio really low on the guns. While the Black Powder game still hews to what I call the "get-over-yourself-re:artillery" school of thinking and lets one gun and crew represent a battery, other new "grand manner" style rules we are looking at need several guns for a battery. Forty infantry models can represent a 500 man battalion, but to abstract 10 guns I need eight guns and crews? The amount of painting an modelling needed just to get a damn gun battery on the table is totally out of whack to my impatient pea-sized brain.



There are all sorts of "rules" reasons for having the big batteries which I'm sure are quite sound (the gun batteries actually took a lot of space on the battlefield, the other rule sets like Shako are too casual in letting units maneuver near them, it makes you as a player think a lot more about where to lay the guns etc.)I still can't stand it, but if we are going to blast Napoleon's lackies, I'll have to get over it and pile in several more pieces and crews! A fresh order for more figs is already going out today...

Meanwhile, to keep up some momentum, a skirmish unit of Jaegers is up next. These are Foundry as well. Here is a picture of the first "test" figures...

Grenzing away

I'm still sawing away at the Black Powder project, and I'm pleased to report pretty good progress on my Grenzer unit. I made it to the half-way point last night and now have 20 of the troops painted. Here is a little update picture:



I found a pack of mounted infantry officers wearing shakos in my Foundry pile, so this unit will have a mounted figure in the mix as well. A mounted, shako-wearing Hungarian officer should stand in reasonably for an officer without it being too silly.

That will leave 18 infantry and the mounted officer left to paint before the unit is ready for basing. I don't think I'll be able to get it done before an approaching vacation dents my momentum, but we'll see what progress I can manage this weekend.

First Black Powder Austrian battalion completed

Well, the progress was a little slow at the outset, but I have managed to complete my first Austrian unit for Black Powder, part of Curt's Napoleonic challenge. The figures are all Sash & Sabre castings, with the exception of the mounted officer, who is from Foundry.



The unit is comprised of 38 foot models and one mounted model, all in 25mm scale. The unit is mounted on a total of nine bases. Eight of the bases are 30mm x 50mm, while the command base is mounted with eight models on a single 60mm x 50mm base. The bases are all thin steel, for extra heft. The extra depth (an inspiration of Curt's) allows for less risk of wreckage when units charge each other on the table, while also giving extra room for things like the banners, the mounted officer etc.



Still a long way to go, but getting the first unit done is definitely an inspiration. The next unit will be all Foundry figs - another "German" unit in march attack pose. Watch for more progress here on the blog.

Slowly but surely...

I love long weekends! Great time to make some painting progress while sitting outside in the gazebo with a cold beer.

Here is a progress photo for my first unit of Austrians for Curt's Napoleonic Challenge.



Each of my infantry battalions will have 38 foot models and one mounted model (which takes of up two slots on the bases) for a total of 40 models per unit. They will be impressive displays of Hapsburg might, and will look great on the table while the Austrian commanders gnaw their fingernails off wondering whether they should actually be committed...

The standard bearers and musician are under the brush right now. After that, another officer and a pioneer are the last models to be finished for this unit. They can be seen above in the very front, with their black primer and basic shadow grey drybrush, waiting for their turn on the assembly line...

Beware the Hungarian light infantry...

....or not, more than likely. Tonight we will be playing Shako, hosted by Bill, and my 15mm Austrian lads will be marching to battle once again with Napoleon's lackeys. I don't have quite the right mix of units to meet the OB for the scenario, but I figured the least I could do was get them a bit closer by finishing of a unit of skirmishers.



I love the mix of colour in the Austrian army of the horse and musket era. Certainly there is a lot of white, but I find that makes the facings jump out. The white also lets some other cavalry and infantry units really stand out. In my well-worn Osprey book on the Austrian army of the Napoleonic era, there is a reference to a unit of Hungarian light infantry, with the requisite blue pants, but grey coats and bright orange facings. Looks perfect for a wedding, and a nice splash of colour to go with the white. So I painted up a brace of 15mm troops with this scheme and based them as skirmishers.



Skirmishers are the quickest units to paint in Shako, but for some reason this is only the second skirmish unit I have done for my 15mm Austrians. No doubt the Archduke would spin it as a major increase in support...

Anyway, we all know what happens to newly painted figures. Let's see how long these guys last tonight.

First steps on a loooooong project (with crummy photos)

Devoted readers (hey - there are a few of you) will recall from February that Fawcett-Conscript-West Consigliere Curt has outlined a challenge where both he and I will build up a 25mm force to play a game of Black Powder - a new and rather grand set of rules for the horse & musket era.

I certainly love Napoleonics, and the proliferation of new rules as well as new figures in the 25mm/28mm scale (especially plastics!) has for some time now been causing me to do a few figs here and a few figs there. I have a huge hoard of metal Austrians from Foundry, and some others from companies like Front Rank and Sash & Sabre.

I had always thought one day I would paint these up and base them for Shako. And the Perry French I have painted so far are also based for Shako. Shako is not perfect, but it's pretty good, and I hoped that one day these models would see action with our group.

New rules like Lasalle and Black Powder are certainly changing the calculus. Lasalle offers real battalion-level battles, and an infinitely larger scope of scenarios. It also has drawbacks, but is pretty innovative. Black Powder is another game that does away with the pretension of representing all or even half of the very large battles which are so often a feature of Shako, and instead allows for you - even encourages you - to focus on a smaller action.

The spirit of these games is great. But they also challenge you in another way, especially if you want to do 25mm. The units are much larger - and in the case of Black Powder, really large. An average battalion in Shako is 18 foot models. An average one in Lasalle is 24, and in Black Powder, an average battalion can be as many as 36 foot models!

I have divided feelings about this. No question the large units look really, really cool. And I salute the desire to move away from "Let's do Quatre-Bras" and toward "let's do part of the advance guards from two armies clunking into each other one day in 1809". But wow - so many figures.....Black Powder (the rules are beautiful - I recommend getting them just to see the book) is really a rules set for people who have studio armies. And full credit to the authors - they don't think they are better than you, and they tell you to go nuts with any scale or basing size you want, as long the sides are consistent. Lasalle also goes out of its way to present ways to play in different scales with different base sizes. But to really capture the rules, you need to go the way they do. I'm just not sure that is practical for the long term.

Nonetheless, I have undertaken the challenge with Curt to do the units for a scenario that is small - three foot units, two cavalary units and an artillery battery. Even so, scaling for Black Powder, I will need to paint 120 foot castings just to represent the infantry! Then there will be cavalry, skirmishers and artillery....but I said I would do it, so time to start.

I already have a unit of Foundry Napoleonic Austrians based for Shako, but that won't work for our approach to Black Powder, so it's back to the hoard-o-metal, and square one.

My first unit will be 39 models - 38 foot and one mounted officer. The foot lads will be Sash & Sabre, and the mounted officer will be from Foundry. I mounted and primed 24 foot troops for painting, and polished off four of them last night. Sorry the pictures suck.



The above picture shows the 24 models - just over half of one unit.



Here is one of the "sticks".



This close-up is not too bad. The battalion will be "German" and has red facings. Unfortunately Sash & Sabre do not sell "Hungarian" troops in helmets, but I have some Front Rank guys that will do there. But one unit at a time! I like to think I can paint pretty fast, but this will take awhile. Especially because I struggle to focus.

I am going to try and post a little "counter" of some kind of the blog, to share progress and hopefully maintain some peer pressure on myself to keep at it...and hey, it's a chance for Cam to pile on.

Painting Update - 15mm Austrians

As covered previously in the blog, my 15mm Austrian Napoleonic collection has been short of reinforcements for quite some time. I tidied up a few loose ends over the weekend and last night during Monday night football to try and give them SOME new blood.



In addition to the Landwher from last week, I finished off a unit of skirmishers, for starters, so at least one Austrian brigade can get a skirmish screen. I also added some artillery pieces, including one base that can stand in as horse battery.



The other unit I finished was a unit of Cheveauxlegers - Austrian light cavalry. Oddly, I had started the unit 8 years ago, but not finished it. So I added the command base, and one more base, to round out the unit.

Hopefully they'll see some action this week!

8-Year Wait for Reinforcements...

One of the fun things about collecting and painting the Austrians for the Napoleonic era is that by neglecting your collection, you are kind of acting in the character of the parsimonious Hapsburg family and their shoddy overall treatment of their otherwise stoic soldiers.

I have not added a unit (not even a STAND) to my Austrian 15mm force for 8 years - last figures I added were in 2002! Truly a gold-standard neglect of the Austrian army. And it's not like I didn't like the collection - I display them happily in the living room, complete with the nicks and dents they have acquired over years of use. Like that school paper from Grade 10, I just never got around to doing more work on them.

While rummaging through my pile of stuff in recent weeks, I encountered my pile of Austrian stuff. Much unpainted. And I was still out of the same stuff I that halted my progress back in 2002. But one bag was un-opened - Landwehr.

I painted these over the weekend, and based them up last night. Just need the goop to dry, and they'll be ready to get run over by Napoleon's finest.

So after 8 years, my Austrians have some reinforcements. A battalion of Landwehr! Not glamorous, but at least we're moving again. I hope to add some odds and sods, like finishing a unit of Cheveauxlegers, a couple of formations based as skirmishers, a horse-artillery base, and one or two more line units.

As for the Landwehr, I will need to add quite a few more units to make them actually a viable part of a given scenario. But I may use them as part of advance guard etc. for some 1809 games. While the figure packs come with standard bearers, I'm going to leave them without a flag for now. I'm not even sure if they had them - "Vienna Retired Armed Constabulary" or something like that?