An Old Timer .

Whilst rummaging in my boxes of scenery I came across this - the older of you will recognise it to be the classic Hinchliffe Models box that they used to ship their figures in - ah! how many times have I excitedly open a delivery of these - something rather 'Dickensian' in them with their purple tissue paper packing . This one had but one figure in it -

I have no recollection of purchasing this figure , a Austrian Hussar Officer ( the above photo is from the present Hinchliffe catalogue)  as I didn't have any of their Napoleonic figures and can only assume it was bought as a sample figure for a long forgotten project .

As I have a Foundry 28mm Austrian army I thought it would be nice to get the old chap painted and onto the tabletop as a sort of Austrian Brigadier Gerard , so here he is ready to be painted up .

Well I really enjoyed painting this chap , I used my Liquitex acrylic tube paints I got for Christmas and he is in the uniform of the 4th Hesse-Homburg Hussar Regt. I find these older figures (it must be 40 years since Hinchliffe started producing figures?) have more character than the modern ones do , a certain style ! . He is now off to join my Austrian army as a Brigadier of the cavalry.

The Gilded Staff.

Whilst my wargaming room is in a somewhat disheveled state I thought I would post some pictures of my Austrian Generals which I have got finished . I rarely put my General figures on multi figure bases but I thought Arch Duke Charles deserved his staff with him (this photo is a bit fuzzy my camera is acting up - or the fault lies with the operator).

An Austrian Brigadier and map, I really like the Austrian General uniform.

An Austrian Cavalry General , very dashing indeed . These figures are the last of my Austrian 28mm Napoleonic project needing painting - finished ! phew ! that has taken about 6 or 7 years to do , feeling pleased with myself at the moment (lots of other unfinished projects in the 'corner of shame' under my wargaming table though !).

The Dreaded Re-basing .

I was preening myself thinking I had almost finished off my Napoleonic collection when I get my final Austrians painted , then I remembered that my Bavarians were still on the old single bases . Overcome with guilt I thought it would be a worthy thing to get them re-based .

Having re-based the whole of my Austrian and French forces I have worked out the best method to remove the pennies that they were mounted on (they were going to be a single model Old School project , but I've decided to use 'Black Powder' rules instead) by fastening them in the vice and tapping CAREFULLY on the edge of the penny which loosens the glue and you can twist the figure off .

The figures de-based and only hit my finger once ! .

Gluing them onto the bases . The Bavarians in 1809 used a different regimental organisation to the French of four companies - so two bases per company , to the right my half eaten lunch not an nasty accident ! .

I also found a Austrian cavalry General which will get painted up when I have finish off my Austrian Infantry which are nearly completed .

Getting There And Camera Problems.

Sorry for the very poor photo but I'm having problems downloading photos from my camera - suddenly my computer doesn't seem to want to do it (Grr ! bloody technology !) so I have resorted to my phone and Emailing it to my computer , unfortunately my phone has a poor camera . My gut feeling is to take the camera/computer outside and 'repair' it with a BIG hammer ! . On a happier note I've got over half of the Austrians done and as a treat I did one of the mounted General figures . Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible ..........

P.S. after fiddling around and finding it will not download photos from my wife's camera as well, I found I can download the contents of the camera 'sim' card plugged into the computer ! so this will do for now . I Googled about this issue and the consensus of opinion is that it is Windows 10's problem (as seems half the ills in the world).

Better - but the evening light streaming in behind it don't help ! .

First Six Of Thirty Six.

Started the mammoth paint of my last Austrian infantry unit . It is going to be Infantry Regiment No. 28 Graf Wartensleben  with grass green facings . Doing them in groups of six and once I get into the swing of things should be quite fast , the advantage of the figures being the same pose means that once you have got a few done you go into auto-mode knowing were the paint goes . I'm doing it with a black undercoat and trying to leave some of it showing to suggest shading . These are ready for a coat of gloss varnish tomorrow.

A Small Triumph Over Adversity .

Having got my new spray can I was beset by foul weather - but this morning managed to get them done - 'Huzza' - only got to paint them now ! . Just noticed on this photo that our 'wheelie bin' has 'A Coat of Many Colours'

Doing The Worthy Again.

I usually have a stock of figures sprayed up ready for painting but when I looked in the cupboard I found I'd run out . This then raised the question what to paint next ? - after some thought I went to the 'Corner of Shame' in the wargaming room to see what unpainted figures were there . I came across this box of Austrian Napoleonic  , they were the last figures of this project yet unpainted so with a hint of guilt I thought it would be a very worthy thing to clean them up , give them a spray undercoat  and start painting them and it would be something different for a change.

Bit of a challenge cleaning thirty six figures , but I buckled down and got them done and mounted on a couple of strips of waste wood ready for spraying.

I also found Archduke Charles and his staff so I did them as well , however they needed 'green stuff' to get them to sit on their horses properly . Pleased with my mornings work I thought "better get them sprayed up whilst it's fine weather !".

So I took them outside - picked up the spray can of black paint - shook it and thought " Hmm not much left !" - got one side of the figures done and the can ran out !!! - you can imagine the language ! (well it would be better if you can't) - don't you just hate it when that happens ! . So I will have to wait till I go into town at the weekend to buy a new tin . Oh well half way there to finishing them !.

Finished ! .

Well I've finally got them finished ! - I had to wait till I'd got some more brown 'Bastex' too finish off the bases , that's the last of the Austrian cavalry done and gets over my phobia of painting Hussars - see - http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/manning-up-and-doing-worthy.html.

The uniform is of the 2nd Regt. of Hussars Archduke Joseph . This gives me a total of 36 figures for this regiment - Austrian Cavalry units were very large compared to other nation's .

To celebrate their completion I painted up a Brigadier to lead them - this is a 'Front Rank' figure slightly bigger but matches the Foundry figures not to bad ! . This leaves only one Austrian Line Battalion and a French Chasseur a Cheval to paint up .

'Manning Up' And Doing The Worthy.

There are some units that never get painted , you keep looking at the silver figures and put them back into the 'corner of shame' (under my gaming table where all the unpainted and unloved figures hide) . One of these has been my last unit of Austrian Napoleonic Hussars , I've painted two units of these already years ago (24 figures) and they were heavy going ! - I like Hussars in the Napoleonic period - so colourful ! , but are they a pain to paint ! , they are so 'busy', lots of different colours but sooooo complicated to paint ! . So when I pledged to finish off my Napoleonic lead pile I felt I had to 'man up' and get them done . It started badly - I sprayed the horses and because of the temperature/moisture they went grey ! as seen above , a bad omen !.

However I pressed on , I painted the the horses in batches of threes and then stuck the riders onto them (having painted the trousers / lower bodies) then did the top halves . I've got half the figures done so far - much to my surprise and delight and they await a coat of gloss varnish to finish them . Will post again when the unit is finally finished .

A Plethora Of Austrians.

Well I've started painting my remaining Austrian Napoleonic figures , I must have had these at least 10 years - so it is about time they got paint on them !. The first unit I've got done is a Styrian  Landwehr battalion - one of the problems of photographing such a large unit is getting them all in the photo .

A close up of the commander - (Hmm ? a similar build to my good self !) .

Another command group - this chap looks a bit grumpy - probably thinks he should be in charge . I had to draft in several officer figures to get this unit up to the full strength of 36. 

I then started on the mammoth task of the three battalions of Grenadiers - each of 24 figures .

A Grenadier battalion was made up of three companies each from a different regiment , so there will be three different facing colours to break up the monotony .

Having got several figures left I decided to do a head swap to give them their own special Brigadier . Well that's 24 done only another 48 to go !. (click on photos to enlarge)

Doing The Worthy Again & The First Game Of The Year.

Been away to my wife's family for the Christmas season and on returning decided to paint up some more Napoleonic figures as a worthy thing to do . So I picked out the first couple of boxes from the 'corner of shame' and these turned out to be the remaining guns and crews for my French and Austrians .

I'd taken my camera to immortalise the festivities and people have been fiddling with it and I'm not sure I've returned it properly to the original settings hence the less than brilliant photos of these guns and crews . I must say I rather enjoyed painting the four guns and accompanying figures so this bodes well for getting the rest of the figures done this year .

I then pondered what game was going to be the first of the New Year and decided on my old favourite of TSATF and the setting of the NWF . The scenario is for a couple of companies of the Borsetshires and a company of Gurkha's plus a Gatling gun to capture the Pathan village which is on a important cross roads , the opposition initially are a couple of Regular Afghan companies and a gun with further tribal reinforcements coming onto the table  .

The Regular Afghans in the village put up a stout resistance .

An action shot from behind the Gurkha's skirmish line .

The feared Afghan 'Highland Guards'  and artillery move up the road to the village.

A colour shot of them , the figures are by Foundry and shortly after painting these I found out that maybe the tunics should have been a dark green (sigh!)

The Borsetshires advance on the village in skirmish order under heavy fire  (the figures are a mixture of Foundry and Old Glory). I will post an update of this action later in the week.

Doing The Worthy .

I was looking at a post I wrote about 12 months ago stating what I hoped to achieve in the coming year . One of the statements was that  I was going to get some more of my Napoleonic figures painted up. Hmm ! haven't touched them yet !.

This French Infantry battalion was already blacked up ready to paint so overcome with guilt I decided it would be a very worthy thing to get them painted . Was not looking forward to it to tell the truth, 36 figures and French infantry is a bit of a task ! , but I 'buckled down' and got on with it ! .

It was not as bad as I thought it would be , the figures were a hotch-potch of full dress and campaign dress so there was a pleasant mix of poses and figures and I managed to get them done in a week !.

They are the 18th Regiment of Ligne and are the last of the French infantry figures I had left unpainted 'phew' ! . I still however have about 4 unpainted Austrian battalion to do ! .

Seeing I've got them varnished and based up I have rushed them onto the table as reinforcements in a game I'm playing at the moment (centre of the table near the table edge) . Rather pleased with myself getting these done as I was dreading doing them , I wonder if the 'curse of the newly painted ' will dog them in the game ?.

The Mother Of All Re-Basing.

If I lived in Victorian times my wife could probably have me certified and locked away in a private asylum somewhere!. Flushed with the the success of the re basing of my Indian Mutiny figures I have decided to re base my entire Napoleonic collection ! - that's approximately 600 figures , each one based on a penny ( originally this period was going to be Old School ) . I've made a start and have got 5 Battalions done ( each of 36 figures) , more 'Basetex' and static grass have been ordered - but I have managed to stick the modelling knife into my thumb twice (with accompanying bad language and dance around the room) and think I'm getting repetitive strain injury in my right hand - I've said it before - 'I must be mad !'.

LATER

Necessity being the mother of invention ! - I've found that putting the penny which the figure is on  in the vice and tapping it sharply with a small hammer parts the figures with it quickly and easily - without the risk of bloodshed ! - above another regiment ready for 'Basetexing'.

Shiney Napoleonic's and the Corner of Shame .

The other day I got locked out of my wargaming room ( not my wife doing a sit in over the amount of toy soldiers ), I could only get the door open about a foot (not enough for me to squeeze through !) and so I had to resort to lying down and feeling around the door to find what had jammed it - the culprit being the boxes of unpainted lead that reside under my table in the 'corner of shame' ( a phrase coined by wargaming colleague 'A' I believe?) they had slid down under their own weight and due to my bad stacking ! . Whilst reaching round the door trying to move things out of the way the cat joined me thinking this was a game I had devised to entertain him . When I managed to get in I started to try and sort things out and was shocked by the amount of Foundry Napoleonic's I have amassed , they were bought in a few years ago when they did some great deals and there has been the odd purchase off eBay - 'that was to good to miss !'.

This set my thinking I should get some more painted , Napoleonic's are not the easiest to paint and I've had problems with finding a rule set I like . Now I have been converted to 'Black Powder' ('A' takes the credit for this) this would be the time to lessen the lead mountain . My original concept for my Napoleonic was to be a Old School project so everything is high gloss and mounted on pennies , now in 'Warbase' sabots . 

This Napoleonic expansion is to be part of my master plan for next year (more of this anon) . To start off with I've got this French Infantry Battalion done - they are in campaign uniforms so this made them easier to paint and have been give a coat of yacht varnish to finish them off .

Trying to photo 36 figures in line is a bit of a problem !. My next unit will be a Austrian unit I think . I think most gamers have a 'corner of shame ' in one form or the other as it's easier to buy figures than it is to paint them !. I was once told that all an alcoholic needs is a acquaintance who drinks more than he does - so he can say "I'm not as bad as him !" - well when it comes to unpainted figures I can say " well I'm not as bad as 'A' ! ".