The Combat at St Ulrich 7YW

Yes, it’s an Honours of War game and I seem to have been looking forward to it for ages.

I had to remind myself what was important in this era, leave enough space to deploy, secure your flanks and deliver a devastating first volley.

The Austrian vanguard is on the move and the Prussian rear guard intends to give them a bloody nose before retiring.  Here, is how things stand.

The Austrian commander having considered some unusual options decides to play it safe.

He prioritises getting his troops deployed and his guns up. 

His cavalry will protect against their Prussian counter parts.

The Prussian commander is intent on a more daring strategy. He intends to rush his infantry forward and dish out some punishment before the Austrians have full deployed.      

Let’s see how they get on.

The Austrians have mostly deployed and up come the Prussians.  Is that echelon accident or design? 

Is IR Botta going for the Prussian flank?

The full picture so far.

IR Macquire Painting White on White- A Method

This is IR Macquire and as you can see their uniform and accoutrements are mainly white.  This of course is a painter’s nightmare especially in the smaller scales.  The difficulty is making detail stand out and not be subsumed in a sea of whiteness.  There are many proposed solutions to the problem from black lining which looks unnatural to building up various shades of grey or cream to white which is very time consuming.  Worse, unless very skilfully done it might not work.

I want to share another method to bring succour to fellow aficionados of French or Austrian Forces. Let’s turn again to IR Maquire who could so easily be a white out but instead have nice definition.  

This is how they were painted in a timely and effective fashion.

The cleaned-up Blue Moon 15/18mm castings were given an undercoat of undiluted white.  Then the bases were painted tan with no care to avoid overrunning on shoes or gaiters.

Once dry the hats, gaiters, shoes, scabbards and cartridge boxes were painted black. Once again overrunning was ignored.  Then musket stocks and hair and haversacks were painted. Coloured facings and cockades were added.

Finally flesh and metal buttons, hilts etc were carefully painted and the locks, barrels and bayonets of the muskets.

Once dry the castings received a wash of undiluted brown ink and were left to dry overnight.

Then using white I painted over the now nicely delineated straps, turn backs, hat lace and highlighted limbs and waistcoat edges. Leave to dry, varnish and base.

I hope you’ll agree they do look tolerably nice.

IR Haller

I seem to have recovered my Seven Years War painting mojo.  Here are a couple of pics of IR Haller.  I’ll complete another Hungarian regiment and see how I’m going.  

All the toys are Blue Moon 15/18mm.  They are very nice but it is as well to carefully clean them up before painting as very fine wires of flash cling to the castings and may only become visible during painting.

The lovely flags are from Kronoscaf.  http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=Main_Page

As Honours of War requires five bases per unit compared to Field of Battle’s four I’m making up the difference with a base of Grenadiers.  These of course can happily be brigaded together for Field of Battle games.  Also painting 6 grenadiers at a time is not an overwhelming task.  Once again I'm appreciating the six figures per 30 x 30 base effect.

All good.

My Seven Years War Prussian Collection

The more I think about it the more I see the merit of the Photobucket debacle inspired collection post.  Not least because some of my projects are coming to fruition and will shortly see the table top.  I guess I'll be doing a few more posts like this.  Here is most of my Seven Years War Prussian Collection.  

Barring the Old Glory artillery all are Blue Moon 15mm biggies.

The Generals

The Cavalry

The Infantry

The Artillery

My Seven Years War Collection-Austrians

As a result of the Great Photobucket Attempted Shake Down all the photos in my Seven Years War posts on this blog disappeared.  

A shame I think and annoying for those interested who click on the link and find me describing something they can't see.  So here most of them are again. 

I suppose this is telling me I'm ready to paint some more 7YW stuff. Two battalions of Hungarians I think. I'm interested in giving Honours of War a go. 

Grenzers and artillery Old Glory the rest are Blue Moon.  As you can see I've gone for 6 figures per base for line infantry.  It's expensive but I like the visual effect.  I blame Kubrick's Barry Lyndon.

Generals

Cavalry

Infantry

Artillery

Prussians shortly.

Some incremental SYW Prussian Progress

I thought I’d better get my SYW skates on what with the Blue Moon Hungarian infantry command being on its way.

So, the first of three units of Prussian cuirassiers is now done.  These fellows are the Markgraf Friedrich von Brandenburg cuirassiers with a nice flag from Kronoscaf.  Some generals too. 

More Onontio tomorrow.

That’s Them!

These lads are my Austrian General Staff for the Army of Maria Teresa as you can see they have spotted something.

“Thank God” Says Daun to Von Browne “it’s the Hungarian foot command”

“Yes” Replies Von Browne “We can finally field our Hungarian Battalions.”

"Oh" says young Maguire "There's the Hungarian Grenadier command too!  Ah no..false alarm."

Most of my SYW collection are Blue Moon 15mm who have just released their Hungarian infantry command pack.

My Prussian Dragoons Are Done

Blue Moon cavalry come with enough figures for three units so of course I have three units of everything with a horse.  More than I might have chosen if I’m honest, still now they're all done.  

So here are the Von Normann Dragoons

The Von Blankensee Dragoons

And of course the Truchseb Dragoons that I finished earlier. 

That's it as far Prussian Dragoons go for me.  They do look nice though.

Prussian Progress

Slowly but surely Frederick’s army, or part of it, comes into view. 

Here are the Von Belling Hussars who will be getting a guidon as Frederick denied most Hussar regiments flags.  The little white dots on the Mirltons are my attempt at creating an impression of a semi reclining skeleton.

The Truchseb Dragoons below with a nice flag from Kronoscaf.

The first Prussian battery is done, two to go.

Back to the Carlist War next.

Prussian Infantry

More Blue Moon figures here, the more of them I paint the more I like them.  The six figures per base is really working for me and I guess it’s what got this project off the ground.  It does mean it takes time to complete a unit and I found it refreshing to turn to the much simpler Carlist uniforms during painting.

The Kersell Fusilier Regiment.

Here we have a mixed battalion of Grenadiers.

The Prinz Von Preuben infantry Regiment which is a base short until I ask Andy at Old Glory to send reinforcements.  

Now I need to paint some artillery, one 2 gun battery at a time.

Austrian Cavalry

Three new additions to my army of Maria Theresa.  First the  Kálnoky Hussars.

Then the Erzherzog Joseph Dragoons.

Finally, the O'Donell Cuirassiers. 

Once again, they are Blue Moon figures.

A Carlist Lacuna

Despite being very eager to press on with my Carlist War project I find myself stymied by the lack of new releases from QRF.  It’s not without its upside though. Desperate to assuage the Carlist urge I bought some of the Fantassin Carlist command figures to see if they would fit with QRF.  As you can see they do indeed and so will provide more variety in my anticipated Carlist War armies.

The main beneficiary though has been my 7YW project most of which was purchased over a year ago, partly painted and put away with a disinterested sigh.  The key to its revitalisation, apart from the Carlist lacuna, was my realisation that I needed the Barry Lyndon effect and that could be had by using six figures per base for the infantry.  

It costs more and takes longer to paint a battalion but I think it looks much better than four to a base.  The figures are Blue Moon and Old Glory and progress proceeds apace. 

More soon.


Stop Press! QRF have added some new figures to their Carlist War range!