Prussian & Austrian Moulds 3104 & 3105 Released

Prince August have now released the next two moulds in the series. 

This is a bit of a lazy blog painting wise as all I have done is downloaded the pictures from from the PA website. I did however cast the figures (from pre-production moulds), which were then painted by Richard Hattersley, a regular gaming opponent, so I don't feel too guilty. 

It is also worth adding that these new moulds are more detailed than the earlier three, with detail such as musket slings and gaiter buttons added.

I have discussed both of these moulds in the past, but now they are out I will fill in a bit more detail.

3104 - Prussian fusilier drummer and (guard) infantry at march attack

This mould was added as something of an afterthought to fill some gaps in the Prussian range (sculpting and design wise actually came after the Austrian mould).

Contents:

3104/1 - Infantry body (march attack position),
3104/2 - Musket and left arm (for march attack),
3104/3 - Fusilier drummer body
3104/4 - Prussian Guard inf. – head,
3104/5 - Prussian Guard officer - head,
3104/6 - Prussian Fusilier head,
3104/7 - Prussian Fusilier head.

The sculptor did not originally think that a march attack figure could be fitted into a mould due to the length of the figure. Eventually he hit upon the idea of casting the musket and arm separately, a bit more assembly work, but it does produce the classic march attack pose. Obviously although labelled as 'guard', it is suitable for use as musketeers, fusiliers, grenadiers............. 

The fusilier drummer is is a rework of the the earlier one, but without the lace on the arms. It was really intended to be used more for the Austrian infantry than the Prussian fusiliers, but PA did not want to mix an 'Austrian' and 'Prussian' in the same mould - so it's 'Prussian'.

The fusilier heads are added so that that there is no longer a need to cast all those NCOs to get the heads (there was a mix up in 3103 which should have had a fusilier head in it).

And last but not least guard heads for officers and men with fancy hat lace to make up the guard battalions (many fusilier officers could also use this head) - and also make it more attractive marketing wise.

As you can see it's quite a squeeze to get it all in.











And some of Richard's brushwork

3105 - Austrian fusilier infantry advancing and march attack

As discussed some time ago, the Austrian (German) infantry posed a bit of a tricky one for us. In the end we went for a single mould, taking maximum advantage of the head swapping abilities of this range.

Contents:
3105/1 - advancing Infantry body,
3105/2 - March attack infantry body,
3105/3 - Musket and left arm (for march attack),
3105/4 - Fusilier officer head,
3105/5 - Fusilier infantry head,
3105/6 - Fusilier infantry head.








The bodies are similar to the Prussians, but with without a sword, and with the single Austrian haversack. Two fusilier heads are provided to fit the bodies, and also an Austrian officer's head; these can be used with Prussian moulds 3101 & 3102 to make up the command groups.

And again some completed figures.

If you want to see them made up into units, using the 'Prussian; commander look back at my postings of 9th & 27 April

And there are now enough troops and poses to start pulling together a couple of decent armies (well the infantry anyway).

It isn't yet possible to do grenadiers, but the wait should't be too long, a suitable head with a bearskin will be available in the forthcoming Hungarian moulds,

As always keep the comments coming!

More Austrian fusiliers

Austrian Infantry

I am told the Austrian infantry mould is at the factory, but do not have a release date yet - some time in May I think.

Austrian fusiliers at march attach

A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a battalion of Austrian fusiliers advancing, these were made from moulds 3101, 3102 & 3105. I've now done a couple of battalions in the march attack pose, which uses the same three moulds (again a bit of work on the drummer and NCO's pole arm).

I chose IR 22, as I thought these fought alongside the Russians at Kunersdorf (well that's what it says in Pengel & Hurt), and decided to paint them early war so I could give them coloured turn backs; when I was almost finished I discovered they should also have blue vest and trousers - I had done them white !?%*&!!! This gave me two problems, most obviously they needed some more work on them, but also they now look like Hungarians - never mind, I'll have to find a Hungarian regiment with red trousers!

And now I find out they were not even at Kunersdorf and P&H sold me a dummy - never mind they look nice!

I decided to take the plunge and paint up two battalions (this is how my Karoliners are organised); the photo below has the two 16 man battalions on their movement trays and ready for action in 'Maurice' or 'Field of Battle' or some other newfangled set of rules.

When I paint two battalions, I always give them a single flag each, one the Leibfahne, and the other the Regimentsfahne, this means that the two battalions can be combined into a larger 32 man 'Old School' unit, as shown below. 

Having painted these up, I think this march attack pose is fine, and we've decided to stick with it for the Hungarians and Russians.

Prussian fusiliers

I've also painted the second battalion to the Prussian fusiliers, so here they are with their chums ready for an 'Old School' outing.

Which pose do you prefer??

I'm interested to know whether you prefer the advancing or march-attack pose

First Three Prussian Infantry Moulds

Prussian Infantry Moulds 3101, 3102 & 3103

The first three moulds have now been released. Although packaged as Prussians, it is intended that many of the parts can be used with future releases to make troops of other nations. I don't propose to 'review' these, as I have had a lot of input into their design (I can't sculpt, just ideas and sketches) - I will leave that to others.

I have downloaded the parts diagrams from Prince August's website and included a description of what is in there. Where I have inserted a nationality against a part I have used the following 'coding':
- Prussian - means it is intended primarily for that nation.
- (Prussian) - means that the part is intended for use in other nations.

3101 - Prussian Officer & Musketeer Standard Bearer

The parts in this are:
3101/1 - Officer (Prussian) body.
3101/2 - Sword.
3101/3 - Prussian officer head, tricorn, no moustache.
3101/4 - NCO (Prussian) to carry standard.*
3101/5 - Prussian musketeer head, tricorn & moustache.

* The standard bearer needs to have the hands drilled out to accept wire flag staffs. (This was done to allow the correct size flags to be fixed - the poles on the Karoliners are only big enough for a flag designed for a 28mm figure.)

3102 - Prussian Grenadier Drummer and Fusilier NCO

The parts in this are:
3102/1 -  NCO (Prussian) body.
3102/2 - Prussian pole arm.
3102/3 - Prussian fusilier head, mitre & moustache.
3102/4 - (Prussian) drummer.
3102/5 - (Prussian) grenadier head, mitre & moustache.

3103 - Prussian  Musketeer & Grenadier 

The parts in this are:
3103/1 - (Prussian) rank & file body.
3103/2 - (Prussian) grenadier head, mitre & moustache.
3103/3 - Prussian musketeer head, tricorn & moustache
3103/4 - (Prussian) rank & file body.
3103/5 - (Prussian) grenadier head, mitre & moustache*
3103/6 - Prussian musketeer head, tricorn & moustache

* I have to confess to there having been a bit of a lost opportunity on this mould. It would have been better if there was only one grenadier head in the mould - the other could then have been a fusilier, this was not picked up until too late. There will shortly be another mould 3104 (I think) with fusilier heads, so it might be worth leaving them a while - unless you want a lot of NCOs.

Finished Units

I use my existing 40mm troops in 16 man units playing with 'Field of Battle' (Piquet), or 'Maurice' rulesets, which are both very good. I have cast up and painted a unit each of musketeers, grenadiers and fusiliers to show what can be achieved with just these 3 initial moulds.

Prussian Musketeers

Prussian Grenadiers
 (Actually 3rd battalion IR No 15 as I wanted to give them a flag!)

                

Prussian Fusiliers

3104 (Probably) - Prussian  Fusiliers & Guard (not yet released)  

This additional Prussian mould will probably be added to fill some holes in the range:

Fusiliers:

• Add some more fusilier heads
• Provide a drummer with no hoops on arms (will also be used for Austrians & Russians)
• Provide a march attach figure, a pose only recently developed and seems popular.

Guard - just heads

• An officers head with the fancy lace & no moustache
• A rank and file head with fancy lace and moustache

Below are some photos of the 'greens.' 

New march attack with guard head

3101 Officer with new guard head

As usual feedback would be appreciated.