French Revolutionary Cavalry (1)

My first two units for my French army of the revolution/Egyptian expedition era. The two units are the 7ieme Hussars (bis) and the 22ieme Chasseurs both of which were in Egypt.

The figures are an amalgam, the bodies are Revell SYW Prussian Hussars, as they have the mirliton with flame, and the horses are from the Italeri French Hussars and the Hat Chasseurs a Cheval respectively. I built them as full strength regiments (4 bases), although I will generally use a single "squadron" (2 bases) for most Egyptian battles.

I enjoyed painting the these units and hopefully they will be in action soon once I finish the Mamelukes as I will then have enough units for both sides for a small battle.

Will

TYW Hessian Cavalry

At the same time as painting the cuirassiers I decided to finish off some other TYW cavalry that I had half started about 10 years ago. At that time I was painting figures for Lutzen/Brietenfeld and I prepared more figure than I needed. I was also unsure what to paint them as, until I saw an article in the Pike & Shot Society journal "Arquebusier" on the Hessian army of the period.


So here they are the red, green and blue cavalry regiments of the Hessian army. Each unit has the relevant coat colour and as close flags as I could find. The use of standard coats was not that common, but it does make the units easier to use on the table top.

The figures are all the (now rare) Revell TYW Swedish Cavalry. I have kept to the same flock basing as used for the rest of my TYW army

I will definitely be painting a few more TYW figures from my stash as I have a mind to refight Jankow 1645. This is a battle involving a higher proportion of cavalry so I may be painting yet more cavalry. If anyone knows of a detailed OOB for Jankow please let me know. (I've ordered Guthrie's Later TYW via inter-library loan but it may be a while arriving)

Will

TYW Cuirassiers

My original Thirty Years Wars armies were produced using the Revell TYW figures back in 19.. . Since then I have played quite a number of games but always needed a few more cuirassiers for the Imperialists. As part of a swap organised via the Trading Department I got a number of the Mars copies of the Revell figures, providing enough figures to provide 2 cuirassier regiments.



The two units selected were a copy of the Bohemian Cuirassiers from the League of Augsberg site and Pappenheims Cuirassiers, since I had the flags from this site (very useful TYW flags page, but lots of images & slow)



If there was any reasonable choice then I would not have used the Mars figures, firstly because it's a breach of copyright, (it's very blatant and I don't understand why Revell doesn't act), secondly the quality is not that good, the figures are produced in a low temperature soft plastic and the moulds are not always filled properly, this was particularly the case on the horses. Adding a wire pole for the standards was a nightmare as the plastic flowed away from the hot metal, it was very much trial and error to get the poles in place. I'm glad that I had not decided to created Wallensteins Lifeguard with lances.

Will

Back from Spain

Just back from a long overdue holiday. We spent the last two weeks travelling in Spain,. Starting in Madrid and covering a lot of art museums, unfortunately both the army and navy museums were closed on the day I tried to visit them. Then onto Cordoba for a solid dose of Muslim Spain (city walls below), quite an impressive city.
Then Cadiz for a change of scene and unexpected warm Atlantic breezes. Finally Nerja for walks in the mountains

Now back for some painting and gaming.

Will

Russian P39 Aircobra

My impulse purchase at Fiasco, jumped the painting queue and got assembled and painted quite quickly. The model is by HobbyBoss and is classed as an easy build kit, it certainly didn't take long to assemble. The paint scheme and decals are for the P39-N flown by Major Sirotin in 1944

My only complaint was that the aircraft is tail heavy so it doesn't sit properly on it undercarriage. I normally assemble my aircraft flying but the kit only gives the option of having undercarriage down. In retrospect I should have taken the time to modify it into a proper flying version. (I may still do this if it gets damaged)

My impulse for buying it is from reading "Attack of the Aircobras, Soviet Aces, American P39's and the Air War over Germany", by Dimitriy Loza a while ago when I found a copy in the local library. Very heavy reading in the classic soviet style.

Will

Polish Registered Cossacks

I found the equivalent of these on the wab-ramblings site ( unit1 & unit 2 ) and I had to do the same and provide my renaissance Polish hussars with some light cavalry support. In my case the figures used were HaT Napoleonic Cossacks


I had forgotten the thin legs on the horses and the need to pin the body to reduce flexing in use, as most of the recent horse models I have used have been well positioned with two strong points of contact with the base and sometimes three/four. As the plastic was old and quite stiff I actually had to drill a pilot hole for the pin.

What I still need is some free cossacks, but for these I need the Orion Cossack figures (promised shortly) and some pancerni, but unfortunately nothing is easily available in plastic yet.

Will