New PA Catalogue & SYW Plans

Prince August are about to issue their new catalogue, which you can find on the link below:

http://www.princeaugust.ie/joomla

There is a lot of emphasis on the SYW range, which I think shows a high level of commitment to getting the range finished.

PA are also showing that they are genuinely trying to produce a flexible modular range of figures suitable for use by both wargamers and their traditional casters. The wargaming text is really aimed at beginners. It is based on something I wrote for them many months ago, some errors have crept in which I did not get chance to 'cut off at the pass' (I only really have contact with the sculptor), but I think they are on the right track.

The wargaming shots are mine, unfortunately there is not a lot can be done with just 8 small units of infantry (which is all I have painted), and no artillery, cavalry, light troops or staff officers, which are not yet released - but I do think they will come in the near future. (The figures do actually mix in quite well with the Karoloners, however PA only wanted the new figures in the photos, so just infantry).

To show how the two ranges compare, below is a shot of a game with the new SYW and Karoliners together. The SYW in the centre are crisper, more detailed, and a little larger (but I am using pre-production moulds which do cast a bit bigger), but probably no more so than the Karoliner marching grenadiers. We have no problem using them together, however having said that I think it in future I will only cast Karoliners if a SYW is not available.

As always comments welcome..............

........and, I've finally figured out how to add a 'follow' button to try and get more feedback!

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!

Another look at the Hungarians

Hungarian Officer

First of all another look at the Hungarian officer; the coat lace has now been corrected and more added to the cuffs.

With the tricorn he can command fusiliers, the right hand can accept different weapons so could have the sword as shown, or a pole arm. Also as with all the figures in the range the figure has a separate head, so for the grenadiers he could wear a bearskin and carry the sword or musket.

Hungarian NCO

In the Hungarians there will also be a new pose for the NCO figure, this has been made more animated than the Prussian offering. The left hand is raised to encourage (push) the troops forward, as with the officer, he could wear a bearskin and carry a musket to help command the grenadiers.

Some Eye Candy - Next Releases 3104 & 3105

Here is a photo of some of the forthcoming releases painted by Richard Hattersley (I avoid showing his figures as he puts me to shame).

From left to right:

• The new Prussian march attack figure with the new guard head (3104)
• The Prussian officer (3101) with the new guard officer head (3104)
• The new Austrian march attack figure (3105 - BUT note that the grenadier head is from the later Hungarians as there is not enough space in the Austrian mould, also the sword scabbard is added)
• The Prussian NCO (3102) with the new Austrian fusilier head (3105). The bags on the Prussian are not correct for the Austrian, but not it is considered worth another mould for this minor problem - possibly paint the lower bag brown to match the haversack on the rank and file.
• The new Austrian advancing fusilier (3105),
• Another grenadier (Richard likes guards, grenadiers............ and artillery!)
• The new Austrian march attack fusilier (3105)

As always comments are welcome............

Hungarian Officer

I've just come back from a weekend in London playing 15mm ancients to the Armati rules - the figures look really small after spending the last few months with 40mm!

The sculptor is currently working on the Hungarians, and in particular is making an officer in a different pose to that available in the Prussian moulds.

The right arm has been lowered so that it will look right carrying either a pole arm to command fusiliers, a musket to command grenadiers, or a sword to command either.

Also, by holding back the right arm the front lacing (which needs changing) can be shown better.

3101 Prussian Officer
The raised arm best suited for a sword

Proposed Hungarian Officer
Can carry sword, pole arm or musket.

Any thoughts?

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

Someone has bought some moulds.........

..............and they work!

Below is a link to Ross Macfarlanes's 'Game of the Month' blog, where there are some photos of his first castings, and his thoughts on the figures - thankfully good..............

http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/2014/04/hot-off-press.html

If anyone else has starting doing any casting from the moulds, and have any photos you would like to share let me know.

Plans for the Russians

PA are planning to do three moulds for the Russian 'line' infantry, so six figures plus a selection of heads and weapons.

When putting together this range, the Greenwood and Ball range of booklets are often used during reference and discussion, although relatively slim at 24 pages these booklets are packed with information. Nigel Billington at 18th Century Press has kindly allowed me to reproduce some of the pictures from the Russian book to describe what is being planned:
http://www.18thcenturypress.com/syw.html

 Summer Uniform

For the Russian infantry, during summer it was normal to leave their heavy coat and knapsack with the baggage, and fight in their waistcoats. Equipment would be light with just their cartridge box on a single shoulder belt, and a sword on their waist belt.


In the Seven Years War the Russians fought all of their major battles in the summer, so the summer uniform seems a good option. It also means that the figures are quite distinct from those of the Prussians and Austrians.





For the summer uniform, as far as I can figure out, the rank and file and NCOs would strip down to their waistcoats. The officers would probably wear their coats, officially drummers should retain their coats, but G&B, Osprey and others show them in waistcoats, so either is fine. So the current plan is:

• Rank and file - waistcoat - two new figures
• NCO - waistcoat - new figure
• Drummer - waistcoat - new figure (if you want the coat use a Prussian)
• Standard bearer - in coat (use the Prussian)
• Officer - in coat (use the Prussian)

Grenadiers

The Russian grenadiers wore a very distinctive helmet, which clearly needs to be covered by a separate head.

Another item which distinguished the grenadiers from the musketeers was the cartridge box worn on the front of their waist belts. At first sight it would seem that a separate figure is needed for his, however due to the pose and semi-flat nature of these figures the box would hardly be visible, and can just be painted or stuck on, so we decided it was not worth a separate figure?

The first two Russian moulds

We have pretty much firmed up on the first two moulds.

Mould 3109

• Musketeer/grenadier (summer uniform) advancing
• Musketeer/grenadier (summer uniform) march attack
• Heads for musketeers and grenadiers

Mould 3110

• NCO (summer uniform) with separate musket
• Drummer  (summer uniform)
• Again heads for musketeers and grenadiers

And the third mould????

There are still spaces for two more figures in a third mould and we have not finalised this yet - current favorites are in bold:

• Observation Corps musketeer in summer uniform advancing?
• Observation Corps musketeer in summer uniform marching?
• Musketeer/grenadier in winter uniform advancing?
• Musketeer/grenadier in winter uniform marching?
• Musketeer/grenadier officer winter uniform with musket?

(The Observation Corps wore their cartridge box on the front and had no shoulder belt, they also wore dragoon boots rather than gaiters. The suggestion is that the figure is in summer uniform, so no coat).

Any thoughts?