WSS: French Field Artillery

 This weekend I've finished the French artillery for my WSS Project.

Once again, the flash on my camera gives the pictures a bluish tinge, but you get the idea. These are Irregular gunners, and the guns themselves are by Lancer Miniatures.

More troops in the pipeline - infantry waiting to be varnished and based. Watch this space!

WSS: Quick, Snappy Parade

You want it good, or you want it Thursday?

[Nelson Riddle]

 

I was sorting out some flags and putting the finished boys in a better order in the boxes. Since I am now about a year into this project, I thought some commemorative photos would be appropriate. Time is a bit short this morning, since I have to go to get my car fixed, so there will some grumbling in the ranks about order of precedence and all that, but here are my Austrian and Bavarian armies for circa 1703, in their current state.

The Austrians - they are due to get a proper command stand for the C-in-C, and there are two battalions in mid-refurb, otherwise we are just about there.

The Bavarians - nothing in the to-do list for these chaps, so I guess they are done for Phase 1

Next up? - well I'm keen to get some siege and fortress artillery done, so they can join in with Vauban's Wars, and (to be strictly honest) the Austrians and Bavarians could each use an extra regiment of horse, and after that I have a lot of French and British troops to sort out. Team photos are reassuring - it reminds me that a lot has been done! Many thanks to Goya for help with infantry painting.

No social distancing in 1703.

Guest Appearance - Steve Cooney

Prompted by my brief return to matters ECW, Steve very kindly sent me some more photos of figures from his own collection - I'm always keen on a little reflected glory so here they are.

Steve says, "Whilst you’re in ECW mode, some photos attached which you might like. They are of Sir William Waller’s Parliamentarian Regiment of Foot, Regiment of Horse and Artillery, all Hinton Hunt figures with a few Les Higgins conversions (this is regiment number 24!!). The mortar is a Lancer Miniatures."

Thanks very much, Steve - I do like them - very much, in fact.

WSS Project - Bavarian Artillery Done

This afternoon I finished off these chaps. As before, the figures are Les Higgins 20mm, from about 1971, and the guns are much more recent, by Lancer Miniatures.

WSS Project - Figure Suppliers

Tonight I hope to finish off the current period of painting and re-basing, and then I'll spend a week or so trying to catch up on the small matter of flags. By tonight I should have completed a third and a fourth unit of cuirassiers for my 1702 Austrians. There's plenty more refurb work to be getting on with, but I'll take a bit of a break.

I cannot promise I have a completely firm idea of how these WSS armies may progress from this point, but there are a couple of basic principles I'd like to stick with if it's at all possible.

(1) The whole reason for buying these figures was that they provided an attractive shortcut into a period of which I have no experience. I intend to keep them "as-is" as far as possible - with just a modicum of touching-up where necessary. This is partly sheer laziness on my part (consciously so, since left to my own instincts I would have everything stripped back to start again, and I don't have the time or the energy for this) and partly a matter of respect - a wish to keep Eric's old soldiers in some recognisable form. It seems only right.

(2) I am determined (and if I succeed it will be the first time ever) to keep some idea of constant scale - I always tend to drift off into some kind of scale creep as I build armies, having convinced myself that 20mm = 25mm, or some such nonsense, and I always regret it later.

In pursuit of End (2), I have been checking out the availability of suitable extra figures. My units will be rather smaller than the original organisation, so - proportionately - I'll need extra command figures. The armies consist entirely of 1970s 20mm Les Higgins figures - and these are pretty small 20mm, too. I can get extra figures from Old John, including conversions and extensions to the original Higgins/PMD catalogue which he has produced, but in the interests of variety I have been looking to see what else will fit with them. After going through everything I could think of, the only makers I am left with are Irregular Miniatures (which are just a tad small, to be honest, but are OK if I mount them on Higgins horses), and Lancer Miniatures (which are OK for height, and have a bit of character about  them, but they are FAT, man - this is the Front Rank of the 20mm world).

On the Lancer front, I think they will probably be OK for isolated figures like staff groups (let us assume that the nobility were obese, then), and possibly odd cavalry command chaps, but generally they are less of a good match than I had hoped - also their horses are crude. I have to say that the cannons and carts look very nice - I'll probably make use of some of them.

A third unit of Austrian cuirassiers - these chaps are the regiment Jung-Darmstadt - the flag is in the pipeline; the odd man out is the trumpeter in the tricorne, who is an Irregular man on a Les Higgins horse. Yes, all right - he's a small man, but he's OK

This is the command base for the fourth regiment - Alt-Hannover. Once again, the flag is coming soon. The trumpeter is one of John's conversions of Les Higgins, the other two are Fat Lancers - not sure about them at all. They are quite nice, if you are into Noggin the Nog

Separate topic: I am disappointed to note I am having problems with metallic paints again. This is a recurrent theme for me - I have a long tradition of getting annoyed with metallic paints which won't cover, or don't shine, or lift when subjected to varnish, etc etc. I have the Foundry metallic paints, and have found them to be a bit feeble - I've tried all sorts of Vallejo and Tamiya and Revell and Testor paints. I used Citadel for a while - they were OK, though the pots went "off" rather quickly. For the last few years I've been using Humbrol acrylics - shades 11 (silver) and 16 (gold) - with no problems, apart from the hand-removing properties of the stupid little screw-top plastic pots. I have now replaced them with new Humbrol pots - different design, in the style of Foundry. The pots themselves are a lot better, but I fear that the paint recipe has been changed again. I spent a lot of time stirring, warming, swearing. The paint, I fear, is crap. I might as well apply yogurt to my soldiers. Thus I am back with my Foundry pots - they seem OK - maybe they've thickened up with being opened. I must revisit the Citadel range again - I have to admit that I don't really understand Citadel paints any more - nothing is just a pot of paint, it is a base colour, or a highlight colour, or some bloody thing or other. I must pay attention, and get some decent gold and silver paint in.

I was spoiled, decades ago - eons ago - by a brief flirtation with Rose Miniatures gold paint, which came as a jar of metallic powder and a jar of clear medium, into which you mixed the powder. It was fiddly, but it produced a magnificent finish - never seen anything as good since. Anyway - persevere.

Flag work starts tomorrow.

Thanks again to Old John, who has been heroically helpful with links and uniform sources, and to all others who have offered help and advice.    

WSS Project - Quick Update

I've been tinkering away with my Bavarian forces - mostly the infantry, since, as is the case for the Austrians, for the cavalry I am waiting for some more reference materials on organisation and uniforms to arrive via the Xmas post.

I have to acknowledge a lot of valuable help and advice from Old John, who also sent me a load of sample figures and some handy uniform info. I'm waiting for the postie to bring Anton Hoffman's The Army of the Blue King, plus the CD version of the Robert Hall book on the Austrian Army (from Baccus), plus a couple of other odds and ends. I was also lucky enough to find a pre-owned copy of Mr Hall's little booklet on the same subject in the long-OOP Kuhn series.

To start with, I am aiming at armies based in 1702-03. For the Bavarians, it looks as though, with the addition of a smallish number of extra figures, the troops I have will provide about 10 or 11 battalions without a lot of work. My final plans for the Austrians - and all the cavalry - will have to wait until I have some better information -  they will end up as a compromise between what I'd ideally like and what I have. Here's a couple of pics of progress to date.

Apart from a couple of missing flags, these boys are retouched, rebased and ready to fight. Here are two Austrian battalions (provisionally from the regts Trautmannsdorf and Lapaczec, though I may change my mind when I'm better informed), plus the Bavarian infantry regiments D'Octfort, Spilberg and Tattenbach, and the Dragoner Monasterol, who still need a couple of dismounted bases to operate as dragoons with my rules

Sorting things out - more Bavarians - on the white tray are the basis of 2 bns of the Leibregiment and 2 bns of the IR Mercy (formerly Haxthausen); lined up on the tabletop to the right are what I have to build up into 2 bns each of Bettendorf and Kurprinz, and 1 bn each of Maffei and Lutzelburg - some extra figures needed, especially command, but it's shaping up. There may be a grenadier battalion coming up as well - thinking about that

I intend the Bavarians to have two regiments of dragoons, one of carabiniers, maybe 3 of heavy horse as a first instalment. I have two batteries waiting to be painted up, and have yet to make up my mind how (or if) battalion guns could be supplied. They also have some French friends to help out - I haven't fully thought this through yet.

I'm pleased with the possibilities offered by extra figures from Irregular Miniatures' Restoration and Marlburian ranges, and from Lancer Miniatures - Newline may offer some possibilities as well - I have yet to try these. Then, of course, the extended range of Les Higgins figures from Old John are essential.

All excellent fun...