I showed a glimpse of these chaps in the Refurb Box a week or so ago. I finished the painting a couple of nights back - they are now based and flagged, ready for duty
Costa
Wolframsdorf
I'm glad they are finished; this has been a fiddly refurb job, and on a few occasions I heartily wished I'd stripped them and started again, rather than trying to preserve their original (1970s) provenance. Happy with them now, anyway. They can go into the French OOB for my campaign, where they'll be balanced by the arrival of 2 new Hessian infantry battalions in the Allied line-up.
Ooh they’re lovely - will they be added to my O.O.B. ?
ReplyDeleteSure thing JBM - they go in the same bit as Arco's & Weichel's boys, which might be Arco's Divn, now I think of it. To balance this, my two recent arrivals for Hessen-Kassel will also be called up to the front.
DeleteAre ALL of the cool wargamers running campaigns?
DeleteInteresting question Jon - I have to say that my survey isn't complete. I've always enjoyed campaigns very much, but in recent years I've only been involved in solo campaigns, and a squint at my blog confirms that there were only two of those in 12 years!
DeleteMy growing WSS forces have obviously become a new excuse for another campaign, but I spent the lockdown years struggling with a set of rules which eventually failed the Tedium Test [Te Deum], and I kept putting it off for assorted reasons. Last Winter the armies weren't quite ready (debatable), but this Winter I was definitely going to get on with it. There were a few assorted distractions, in the Real Life Dept, but eventually I was lucky enough to get some help and encouragement from JBM, and have been happy to get under way.
Winter has been a little late this year. I suspect that an Assisted Solo Campaign is one step from an assisted shower or being taken for a walk on Sunday (weather permitting), but no complaints there.
Since you are certainly the coolest wargamer I know, I'll start my survey with you; any plans for a campaign Jon?
On campaigning, I have been toying with the notion of running a PBEM Napoleonic 1813 campaign. The campaign would be focused on maneuver and logistics punctuated by on-table, remote battles fought within the context and confines of the campaign. There will be some bookkeeping involved and that not be everyone’s cup of tea.
DeleteVery nice indeed, always nice seeing some curassiers and these ones are lovely, well worth the refurb on them.
ReplyDeleteHi Donnie - thanks. In the small 20mm scale I use, there are very few suitable figures in this period. There are the ECW cuirassiers of Higgins (circa 1970) and SHQ/Kennington (more recent, but I think they are now OOP as well), and Irregular do a lobster-tail cuirassier trooper, which is not one of my favourite Irregular castings, and only really fits Irregular's own horses, which are rather small for heavy cavalry in my scale. I don't do plastics, because they are too big and insufficiently toy-soldierlike.
DeleteSo this refurb was largely driven by the lack of alternatives, and by the belief that these are the last cuirassiers of this old-fashioned style which I will need for my armies (I now have 5 Austrian units of this type, and 4 Bavarian).
Current plan indicates that the painting queue has very little WSS cavalry to go: 1 French dragoons, 1 extra French regt of horse (because I find I have the figures available for it!), 1 extra British dragoons (same reason) and 2 Hessian horse.
Of course, the plan may change at any time...
Another couple of great units. All those different figure manufacturers blend in really well, but of course it helps enormously that they're all mounted on horses from same stable. Not sure why but I draw the line at poor horse sculpts - the reason I never went with teh otherwise very nice FreiKorps figures in my 15mil days , aggravated of course by the fact that their mounted figures are OPCs!
ReplyDeleteI confess I'm very hot (possibly too much so) on consistent scales. My ECW collection standardised on SHQ horses, which I find especially pleasing (only for this period) and have a nice touch of Noggin the Nog about them.
DeleteIt does make it a lot easier to make the units match if the horses are all the same. I even mounted Tumbling Dice ECW cavalry on SHQ horses, which worked OK as well. Tumbling Dice were acceptable height-wise, though they are obviously wearing a lot of clothing compared with other 20mm.
The Higgins ECW/Malburian horses have holsters and a basic shabraque/saddle on the casting - portmanteau-style saddlebags are cast on the riders' backsides. Thus Higgins riders don't work with horses from other makes, though the Higgins horses are OK with riders from other firms, if they are officers, who don't need portmanteaux, or trumpeters, who in my armies don't get them!
I hadn't realised you used Tumbling Dice as well. If I were starting an ECW army from scratch I'd be very tempted them. TD figures are, IMO, delightful sculpts and it's always a surprise to me poorly they're marketed on the web-site - hardly any phots, although a few more have appeared recently. Still have a hankering to get some of the Crimean range but...
DeleteIt was clearly a labour of love and I have to say well worth all the effort.
ReplyDeleteI loved them at the start and at the end, but the bit in between was a little tense...
DeleteThey look lovely - and interesting how the general look of blackened armour and 'lobster tail' had not changed all that much since the middle of the previous century.
ReplyDeleteI think ideally I'd prefer bigger cuffs for 1700, but beggars can't be choosers, so I just try to fake some neckties/cravats to make them look a bit more trendy. Maybe they'd had the coats for a very long time? - nah - that's what I thought, but it's worth a try.
DeleteI am pleased that you persevered, not half as much as you, I am sure. They look bloody beautiful!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
Thanks James - they turned out rather well. Thus encouraged, I am now working on a couple more regiments of WSS horse, though these are paint-from-bare-metal jobs. The metal in question was stripped by 2 months in the trusty Clean Spirit; in fact the original figures were very presentably painted, apart from the fact that there was quite a lot flash visible beneath the nice paintwork! Of course, no-one paints figures to please anyone apart from themselves, but this really drives me potty, so I've given them a proper clean, and shall paint them with a pure heart!
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