HAPPY NEW YEAR & SYW Update

Best Wishes to everyone for the New Year.

Sorry I've not written anything for a while, my gaming interests have been elsewhere.

With lock down I have not had much chance to play with my toy soldiers, however I have done a lot of on-line gaming. A group of us have been playing Commands and Colors Napoleonics, using the VASSAL platform for the game and DISCORD for the chat. If any of you are feeling a need to get some interactive gaming done I can highly recommend this combination, as to play requires constant discussion/interaction between players, so almost as good as a face to face game.

Plans for the SYW Range

I have recently had a chat with Chris Tubb, PA's sculptor, who assures me that PA are planning to continue/complete the SYW range, however as you can imagine the pandemic has made things difficult for them.

The good news is that I am in possession of 3D prints of some of the next releases, which will comprise a mounted general, grenz and other light troops, as discussed in previous posts these will have a variety of poses and heads so will cover most armies. Hopefully we should see these in production in the next couple of months.

Everyone take care - hopefully we will all be gaming again soon. 

Prussian Cuirassiers - Rossbach

I thought I had better write something to let you know I am still around!

Quite understandably, Prince August have gone quiet during the pandemic and  not been able to release the new staff officer and light troops moulds I was looking forward to.

I have painted up a few more cavalry units, but they are just 'more of the same', so nothing worth discussing here. I have however recently had an attempt to make a unit of Prussian cuirassiers. Neither the old Karoliners or new SYW range have anything suitable, so decided to have a look at the old Rossbach range - and spent my hard earned pennies on the 3 Guarde du Corps moulds (trooper, officer and standard).

I was not happy that they fit in 'as cast', so did need a little work..............

As usual I swapped the heads for the Prussian infantry officer from the SYW range. The one on the Rossbach figure is not bad actually, however I decided they would match in better if I changed them.

The troopers have neither a carbine or valise, I decided I could live without the valise, but really wanted a carbine. The figure has the sword low on the right side, just where the carbine hangs. I initially thought that I was scuppered, however after a little experimentation I found that it relatively simple to cut a groove down the back of the sword using a hacksaw blade, and then slot in a slightly filed down carbine from the dragoons.

The Rossbach moulds do not include any musician, and the Karoliner and SYW do not match the style, so the best I could come up with was to cut/file away the whole right arm of an officer figure and replace with the trumpet from the SYW Austrian cuirassier. The Austrian cuirassiers are rather on the large size, so even after some filing down the trumpet arm has a bit of a 'lobster arm' effect, not brilliant but he will do (oops a bit of basing paint to clean off).

Size wise the Rossbach figures are on the small side, see comparison with the Karoliner/SYW Austrians.

I am not overly impressed with the results, and think we really need a a figure adding to the SYW range. However having invested in the moulds I will possibly do one more unit to have some units to put on the table.