GNW/SYW Swedish Infantry

I completed all three units at the same time, even though I started them in series, as once I'd finished with one colour I just continued on the next. Just must have been in a good painting mood this week.

So the net result is three very fine looking unit, but the picture had to be taken in artificial light so it doesn't do them justice. I expect that given their blue coats they will end up fighting beside the Prussians against the Austrians (supported by the French)

From front to back the units are Skaraborg, Jonkopings and Vasterbotta.

Apart from finding some suitable commanders I consider this army now completed!

(Well maybe if I discover details of the Böhnens Fribataljon I might add those.)

Austrian Commanders

After completing the cavalry I realised that I had no commanders for my Austrian forces, so after some searching around I put these together.

The mounted generals are all Revell SYW Austrian Dragoon Officers with spare bicorne heads added from the HaT Napoleonic Austrian Dragoons set. These really fitted a treat as I found the other bicorne heads I had from the French infantry (Hat and Italeri) were far too large. The foot figures are from the Strelets Allied Allied Chiefs of Staff (2) set.

Notes from Romain over on The Guild picking up on various flaws in my depicting of a Austrian general's uniform

The hats are perfect!! So are the plumes! Well done indeed!!!

If you allow me a couple of comments for your info:

Austrian generals of the period had no lapels on their coats (only gold lace, Feldmarschälle had embroidery), and the vest was always red (red being the colour for the generalship) with the same lace. Moreover the neckcloth was definitely black by that time.

Generals would always wear white wigs (regs!).

According to original regulations we dug up, generals did not carry pistols, as they were not supposed to fight! I was very surprised when I learned this (pleasantly mind you)! It spared me the costs to buy a pair and have holsters made. However, all 4 corners of the shabraque would sport embroidered cyphers (emperor's initials and crown).

If you are interested, I can post a couple of pics I have from our reenactments. My uniform was designed for Marengo, where coats had changed from the collarless (open) version of the XVIIIth to either standing collar with coat buttoned (one central row) and no lace except for the cuffs, or still open (and heavily laced) with standing-drooping collar (which is the version I chose).

In the field, most generals would wear the Oberrock. The colour would be close to pike-grey (blueish-grey) or kornblumenblau (light blue).

As generals would buy their uniform from their own money, they seem to have used the opportunity to choose their own "style" within the limits (or outside).

The best example for this is probably the coat preserved in the HGM reputedly worn by Napoleon when he sneaked out in 1814. It sports a standing-drooping collar (a bit outdated ) AND 2 rows of buttons (like the Oberrock) which is totally out of regs!!

Black Prince

At Derby, on impulse, I picked up a set of Zvezda HYW English Knights on the B&B. Included in the figures was a model of Edward, the "Black Prince" The heraldry was all moulded on so the figure couldn't be used for anyone else. Luckily I need a commander for my Hundred Years War English, and this is just the character.
I changed my usual style of block painting over to a black undercoat then dry-brushing progressively silver, then white, then yellow, before touching up the blue and red areas. Overall it has certainly brought out the heraldry well.

Wikipedia details on the Black Prince

Austrian Revolutionary cavalry

I have continued with the production of troops for the French Revolutionary wars in Italy with a couple more cavalry regiments for the Austrians. This time I've added the Liechtenstein Hussars and one of my ficticious Frundsberg units.



The Hussars are a bit of a composite as they are Italeri French Hussars on British Light Dragoon horses, but they are quite close to the original style. The Liechtenstein Hussars fought in Italy at Marengo.

The Frundsberg Light Dragoons are a straight painting conversion of the Italeri British Light Dragoons. I did buy a few to many of these, but this is an excellent use of the spare figures.

All I need to sort now is the artillery, who wore a similar coat to the infantry with a corsehut.

DAK AT team

For those interested in the basing the base colour was coffee, highlighted a slightly more yellow version of pale stone and very small blobs of a darker static grass.

The 37mm Pak36 is from Matchbox along with a couple of hard plastic figures from their kits. The last figure is from the Revell DAK set.

Will

GNW/SYW Swedish Hussars & Artillery

Continuing on the Swedish theme, here are the Swedish Blau Hussars from the SYW using the now rare Revell figures. In front are the Swedish gunners in their GNW uniform (it became blue for the SYW). The guns are some Austrian ones I had been painting for my WSS Austrian Army so I don't have to use my TYW ones (it's the same model though). I've sorted a couple of guns out for the SYW, which I will paint in blue/green as per the Napoleonic period gun colour, but I'm not sure I could justify using that colout for the GNW.

Next in this era will be the infantry.

Will

Basing - my approach

None of my approach is new, I've just copied the work of others, but as requested several times, here is my approach. The unit being based is the SYW Swedish Blau Hussars, plus a few other bits.

Step 1 glue the figures down to a base. I'm still using mounting card and fixing the figures using a hot glue gun

Step 2 I paint neat PVA all over the base and then dip in in my sand/crushed kitty litter mix.

Step 3 Brush off all the loose basing material. A lot of the larger bits come off at this stage and might leave a bare area, if so just repeat step 2 on the area.
Then paint dilute PVA over the whole base, this ensures the basing material is firmly fixed

Step 4 - apply the base colour for the terrain. for most of my figures I use a chocolate brown colour, normally using a tester pot of ordinary emulsion paint and diluting enough so it flows easily. This is just slopped onto the base just being carefully where it meets the figure

Step 5 - Highlighting the surface. This is the step where I have the most difficulty with ordinary emulsion paint, some of them just will not dry-brush, but I haven't found out how to distinguish which is which. Normally I use a dry-stone colour for the highlight

Step 6 (Final) Once the dry brushing is dry, it's back to the neat PVA again, added in a random pattern and then the base is dipped into static grass and left to dry.

Notes

1) For infantry units where the base is quite cluttered I quite often paint and texture the figures based before gluing the figures onto the mounting card as it is easier (and safer) than trying to do it all in one step.

2) Make sure that you leave adequate time for drying between the stages I normally leave about 4 hours plus

3) Make sure all gloss and metallic surfaces are completely dry before starting otherwise the basing material gets attracted to them. In order to show the steps I left painting the swords until after I finished basing

4) Crushed kitty litter is produced by putting ordinary kitty litter in a plastic bag and hitting it with a wooden mallet or similar until it is sufficiently fine.

I hope this helps

Will

GNW/SYW Swedish Cavalry

A couple of units produced from the excellent Zvezda Swedish Dragoons of Charles XII. Out of the 18 figures in the set I produced one dragoon regiment, one cavalry, a general and a separate vignette.

Basically the cavalry unit (right) comprised all the figures waving swords, while the dragoons were made up of the remainder including the dismounted figures which I was not sure about, but they came out OK.

I'm not sure exactly how I'll use them, as I don't plan to do the Great Northern War (at present) but they will fit in OK with my SYW armies. As for uniforms I'll try and paint them as generically as possible for both periods. The cavalry is the Sodra Skanska regiment, which I discovered (after painting) had also been painted by Phil Olley, so I expect it to perform well.

Catching up

Well, I managed to complete quite a few units over the last couple of days, first off is a small number of Vietnamese civilians I painted using the Orion boxers, I found during a recent game that I didn't have any potential "targets" though one of the US players manage to waste another player's figure despite queries of "are you sure?"

I had some Lithuanians light infantry for my Teutonic order army, so they are now finished, but I'd like some more, but not enough to buy another packet of Zvezda Lithuanian Knights.

Finally, Macedonian Prodromoi. I had been searching for these guys, part came via a trade, and the rest via a lucky purchase on the B&B at Derby. Now I just seem to have Zvezda and Hat Macedonian Cavalry to spare.

Plus units over on the Frundsberg blog

Will

On the Workbench - November 2008

Time for a quick reflection, Xmas is approaching rapidly and I need to get my wish list circulated around the family. In general creating this is reasonably successful as I usually get a few bits off the list and I avoid getting bits I don't need/want. What I try to do is slacken off on the purchasing so there's enough on the list.

Over the last month, I've gained enough Zvezda Great Northern Wars Swedes to make 3 regiments plus I've already enough cavalry for 2 regiments, so my plan is to create a brigade each of SYW'ish Swedish. The third regiment of cavalry will be from my stash of Revell SYW Prussian Hussars, probably as the Blue Hussars. I just need a good online reference to check the uniforms before I start(*).

Other plans

• Finish the cavalry to support the Austrians in Italy in the Revolution, they now just need basing
• Paint up a Frundsberg Light Dragoon Regiment to support the Austrians (I'll probably add a unit of Austrian Hussars to go with them)
• Base up the Macedonian Prodromoi and Teutonic Order Light Infantry
• As a background task I'll get started on the Strelets Medieval Levy 1

Will

* Swedish lace wars sites found so far

Leuthen Journal - unfortunately not enough definition on the prints to read the text
Kronoskaf - has details of the infantry uniforms
Svenska regementen under indelningsverkets dagar - unfortunately in Swedish
Royalfig - has flags