A look back 10 years ago.

 I was looking back through my blog and wondered what I was up to 10 years ago - and came up with this ! . I was deeply into the Italian Wars of Independence , I need to get these figures back onto the tabletop again ....

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Piedmontese Lancers .

My next order from Irregular arrive at the weekend comprising of 2 squadrons of Lancers and a gun, crew and limber/team . Spurred on I painted up the first of the Lancer units .

They are the Lancieri Di Novara , I've decided to go a bit more cavalry heavy with the Piedmontese force and as I haven't got any lancers in my Unification of Italy project they were an obvious choice . Just to make things a bit more interesting they had their shako covered with a 'yellow' waterproof cover . Irregular figures are not the most detailed but they do paint up quickly and at 'wargaming table distance' (about 3' ish) they look as good as any other manufacturer .

The road to Palermo Part 2 (a strange little game)

 

The 'Thousand' finally came onto the table , both sides where rather tardy bringing up reinforcements 

The Piccollotti did sterling service holding up the rather lacklustre Neapolitan Light Infantry who rolled a couple of 'blunder' rolls and failed to close with the enemy. 

Garibaldi finally deployed his forces as time was running out .

The Neapolitan High Command who dithered through out the game and where slow to react.

I had allowed 12 moves for the game and with both sides reacting slowly neither came to grips as time ran out - a victory for the poorly lead Neapolitans as Garibaldi failed to break through . A poor performance by both sides - a strange little game but nice to get the figures on the table again . Garibaldi needs to buck up if he is to conquer Sicily and oust the Neapolitans .

The road to Palermo.

 

It occurred to me that I haven't put up a battle report for a long while and also it's ages since I fielded my Garibaldi collection on the tabletop .. Here we see the man himself leading his 'Thousand' inland after landing at Marsala and moving inland towards Palermo  .

The locals rally to his banner and the 'Piccolotti' lead by Friar Pantaleo skirmish before his advancing force .

The local Neapolitan General hearing of the enemies advance  rushes his force to intercept them.(the Brigadier has a tactical rating of only 6 - so perhaps not much rushing)

The leading Battalions of Light Infantry march through the village in the Sicilian sunshine .

The table set up , the Garibaldini arrive on the road on the left and the Neapolitans through the village on the left . I will be using 'Black Powder' rules for the game and will report back soon. 

 

Normal service is resumed .

Now that the decorating of the house is nearing completion (hurray) I'm finally getting around to painting toy soldiers again (hurray again) . The first up is the 54mm Garibaldi figure I got the other week . 

 

My Hero (?)

I don't 'do' heroes really , I think the word has become somewhat devalued by the modern media when everybody is a 'hero' whatever they are doing . I don't doubt they exist nowadays but a couple of characters stand out from the past for me - Ernest Shakelton and Garibaldi . Garibaldi was described by AJP Taylor as ' the only wholly admirable figure in modern history' , of course I have him in 25mm as part of my Italian Wars of Independence collection , but when I found that Imperial Miniatures did a 54mm mounted figure I had to get one . I've just been gluing the three parts of the model together and am looking forward to painting him - in the 'toy soldier' manner - who knows he may be appearing in the ranks of 'Red Army' eventually .

 

Above and beyond the call of duty .

I placed an order with Irregular Miniatures before Easter for some figures to finish off my French Army for my Italian Wars of Independence . Amongst these were 6 mounted IWFU27  Hussars/Chasseurs in Busbies to provide another small unit to go with the ones I already have . I received an email from Irregular to say that my order was on it's way but unfortunately the Hussar with Busby mold was broken and now unusable , however he had modeled busbies onto the ordinary Hussar with shako using Milliput to provide the figures I needed ! - what service ! , I've always been a big fan of Irregular but to actually do something like that was charming thing to do - above and beyond what they need of done - So a big thank you to Irregular Miniatures for that ! 

 

Back to the painting again .

Having got the present round of decorating finished I'm starting to catch up on the backlog of painting projects . These poor chaps have been based and undercoated since before Christmas and patiently waiting in a box - their time has come ! 

They are of course  Zouaves for the French army I'm slowly amassing for my Italian War of Independence , I have chosen to give them the white summer uniform trousers - just to be different . The figures are Irregular 25mm - perhaps a little old fashioned but I do like them and they are easy to paint and of course Irregular are famed for their prompt mail order service .

 

Back to figure painting .

Got back off holiday and finished these French Artillery for my Italian Wars of Independence . My French have been rather neglected of late and these gun and crew have been wanting completing for quite a while , I even did the hated limber and team - as you know I hate doing these BUT when done they always add something to the tabletop/game . Overseeing the crew is another mounted French Officer , the figures are of course Irregular 28mm . I have another gun and crew to paint and a small unit of Cavalry whilst I'm in this mood .

 

Not a good day for 'The Thousand' .

First apologies for not illustrating this battle properly - as things got exciting I forgot to take photos . The Sicilian irregulars tried to get around the enemies right flank but being 'wavering' had to take a morale test when they received their first casualties and promptly fled ! 

Their commander Friar Pantaleo was unable to rally them ! , he was formerly a Spanish Napoleonic guerilla from  'Parkfield Miniatures' an odd little figure but matches the Irregular figures in stature .

The 'Thousand' advance but are outgunned by the Neapolitan Carbineers and start taking casualties .

Sensing victory the Neapolitan Line and Foreign Carbineer Regiment advance and drive the rebels from the field ! . Well that didn't end up as I expected - the Neapolitans rolled very well and Garibaldi's very badly , I classed the Neapolitan Foreign Battalions as veterans and the Line as poor and although their Commander was not brilliant the behaviour of the 'piccolotti' was very poor and took the pressure off their right flank allowing then to concentrate their fire onto Garibaldi's volunteers and drive them off .. Inspired by this game I have reset the table and re-jigged the forces and will replay it . 

Return of 'The Thousand' .

Been looking through some of my old posts and realised it was over twelve months since I had any of my Italian Wars of Independence on the tabletop and thought it was time to get them out again . Here we see Garibaldi reviewing his volunteers as they march to reconquer Sicily . 

The column is proceeded by a skirmish screen of the local 'piccolotti' , a fine mix of old Hinchliffe and Foundry figures .

The opposition , a brigade of Neapolitan's , Irregular 28mm figures .

The Neapolitan commander - only a command strength of 6 - not a brilliant tactician . I use 'Black Powder' rules for this period and am having to give them a quick once over to remind myself how they work as it's a while since I used them . 

A overall view of the action with Garibaldi's force nearest the camera and the Neapolitans drawn up in the fields around the cross roads . I'll report the result of the battle in my next blog post .

A Slight Deviation .

I had the table set up for a TSATF N.W. Frontier game ( http://tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com/2019/02/return-to-rogan-josh-valley-part1.html) Then I remembered my old gaming pal 'R' was calling round , since he moved to the deep South I don't see him very often so whilst visiting family up here he was calling for a game . Not wishing to force my eccentricities on other people (TSATF isn't for everyone) I converted the table from the N.W of Indian to the N.W of Italy and we played a game set in the Italian wars of Independence 1860ish .

We used 'Black Powder' a set of rules we both know and I was the Austrians and 'R' was the Piedmontese . It was an encounter game between to advance guard forces trying to capture the bridge over the river . 'R' got there first with his Lancers and drove off my Hussars whilst his infantry moved up .

It was a quick and eventful game but due to my poor leadership values of my Generals I struggled to respond to his attacks and soon the casualties mounted up (the red counters) and my force fell apart before my reinforcements could arrive  , a great game even though I lost and proves you can fight a game successfully with BP without masses of figures .

Distaff Day.*

Well after a longish break from painting over Christmas - a combination of the festivities, family commitments and 'Man Flu' prevented any useful work , I have started again and as an effort to get projects finished off I have painted my Austrian guns and crew for my Italian War of Unification 1860 .

As I have said before (and will say again probably) I hate doing limbers in any shape or form - but do like them on the table as they really look the business, so I did a Austrian one to complete the force . The guns , crew and limber are of course Irregular 28mm and I'm pleased to say this finishes off my Austrian army and I do believe my Italian Wars of Unification ! , Huzza ! . It has taken four years I think and I have armies for Garibaldi , Naples , The Papal State , Piedmont/Sardinia and now Austria , Phew ! - like Toppsie 'it just grew' ! . 

P.S *St. Distaff day is a Christian festival on the 7th of January when women returned to their spinning using a distaff spindle after a break over Christmas .

Austrian Secret Weapon.

The Austrians had rocket batteries in 1859 , in fact they used them in the First Schleswig-Holstein war 1848-51 , but what they looked like I have no idea ! , I have Googled them but came up with no results , Irregular do a Congreve Rocket in their Napoleonic range - so I asked Ian if he could send me one with a replacement Austrian gun crew - as always he was happy to help . If anybody has any more info I would be pleased to hear , till then this model will have to do ! 

Austrian Command .

One of the drawbacks with Irregular is that they tend to do only one General per army . So I have been making variants for my 1859 Austrians . The right hand figure is the original figure , the centre one is a slight conversion using a different horse, adding a sash and plumes to his bicorne using 'green stuff' . The left hand figure is a more ambitious conversion using a British officer in 1890 Home Service Dress (!?) , I scraped off the various straps over his shoulders , added  coat skirts  , sash and  lengthened the  trousers using 'green stuff' . I cut the head off and added an infantryman's head and shako . 

This is the Austrian Commander in Chief and a Hussar bugler on the command base , he is a British General from the Irregular '1890 Home Service Dress' range with a rather  impressive beard ! . I cleaned off the various straps, added longer coat skirts and trouser legs , I also added a sash around his waist . I CAREFULLY cut off his peaked cap and added a bicorne , tidying up with 'greenstuff ', so that is the Officer Corps sorted out for my Austrian army .

Austrian Hussars.

Still beavering away painting 1859 Austrians for my Second Italian Wars of Independence . These are Austrian Hussars from the  12th Regt. Heller . They probably should have a black waterproof cover but that would mean you wouldn't see the white shako.

They count as a 'small' unit under Black Powder , I'm not painting a lot of  cavalry for my various armies as not many seemed to be used in the smaller actions in Italy that I'm playing .

The Titler Independent Border Battalion.

I was going to have another Grenz Regiment but when I found out about the Titler Independent Border Battalion with their light blue uniforms (and a name worthy of a 'Carry On' film)  I couldn't resist painting them instead ! .

The figures are of course Irregular and have just got based and varnished in time for a game tonight with my wargaming colleague 'A'  when they take on the Sardinians .

Austrian General And Artillery .

As both my wargaming colleagues who are the Generals in my campaign are still on their hols I'm still busy painting up the Austrian army to fight my Sardinians . I thought it time that I did a General for the first Brigade and here he is in undress uniform , I'm not sure if I've got the right shade of blue/grey for his tunic as the various colour prints I looked at seemed to vary greatly . The figure is of course by Irregular.

You have to love an army that paints their guns yellow ! - well maybe it' a bit to bright ? - but I tend to go for the bright option ! .

Just got my copy of this , not sure how useful it will be as it covers 22 years , quite a long time with several uniform changes and different wars - a thin book to cover a big subject ? - we will see ?. However it is nice to see Osprey starting to do a series on a era that is not covered well in English. 

Austrian Grenz Regt. Szluiner.

Whilst all this O.S. Franco-Prussian War Campaigning has been going on I've been busy painting up some more Austrians for my Italian Wars Of Unification aided by the rather damp Summer weather we have been having which (luckily) has prevented any major or prolonged gardening tasks .

This is the first of my Grenz  the rather hard to pronounce 4th Szluiner Regt. with nice orange facings . The figures are of course Irregular 28mm , I rang them up about eleven o'clock in the morning with the order and Peter said "we'll try and get them out today" - I thought "great ! be a couple of days" - they arrived the following morning ! - now that is a great mail order service ! 

The Austrian Army Of 1859 .

I've started on the last of my armies for the Unification of Italy - the others being Garibaldi's Red Shirts , the Neapolitan army , the Papal army and the Sardinia/ Piedmontese . This one is the Austro-Hungarian Army who fought the Sardinians and French  in 1859  . The figures are of course Irregular - not to everyone's taste but I think they have a certain style combine with an excellent coverage of the period , cheapness and a marvellous mail order system . 

They are the Infantry Regiment No. 41 'Keller' and will be the first of two battalions for this regiment . The Austrian force will be about the same size as my other armies in this project - six units of infantry , two guns and crews and a few cavalry ( cavalry didn't seem to play a large part in the battles in Italy) . I've always been interested in the Austrians - anyone who can wear white and get away with it has my admiration (if I was to wear white the first thing I would do would be to spill yogurt or burger relish on it !) , a unit of Grenzer are next and I've just found out that the Independent Border Battalion 'Titler' had light blue jackets with red facings - a wargamers dream come true so I'll be including them in the orbat .

A Converted Papal General

In my last post I mention about being short a General figure , The one mounted General I had was in full uniform - cocked hat etc and I wanted one in the more usual campaign dress . So I cut the top half off a officer on foot (pointing)and removed the mounted officers torso , drilled and pinned them together , there was meant to be a gap - but not that big ! .

The resultant waste bits - will go into my box of metal to be used for home casting.

I decided to mount him on his horse before I started filling in the gap .

I then made up some 'Green Stuff' and filled in his mid drift and gave him a frock coat , waist sash and modelled his left arm , I had lots of 'Green Stuff' left as I always mix to much up !.

Then I undercoated him and the following day painted him up and put him on a base  .

Here he is in charge of his Brigade , half of which has retreated (a fine start to his career !) , but hopefully the Papal Zouaves will save the day ! .