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Tuesday 5 August 2014

Hungarian Infantry Update


I've been off on my holidays in 'sunny' northern England for the last week or so - which is my excuse for the long quiet spell.

Chris (Chris Tubb the sculptor) has sent me the photos of the greens for the Hungarian infantry, and I should get my grubby hands on the test moulds later this week.

I posted some photos of the officer and NCO back in May/June, now I can show you the rest. As usual they all can take separate heads so there will be fusilier and grenadier options.



Officer      


The officer is in a different pose to that in the Prussian 3101/1.     

In the new pose the right arm has been lowered to accept a separate pole arm or musket as an alternative to the sword shown.













Standard Bearer


The standard bearer is in the same pose as the Prussian 3101/4.

In the Austro/Hungarian army the standard could be carried by either an officer or NCO.

In action.with the NCO more likely to carry the standard; however we decided to go with an officer with an open coat to provide more variation in the range. (With a bit of conversion work he could provide an alternative standard bearer for other nationalities)






NCO


The NCO is another new pose and has been discussed before.

The right hand can carry a variety of weapons such as the pole arm shown, or a musket.











Drummer 


The drummer is in the same pose as 3102/4, but with the distinctive Hungarian uniform
















Infantry March Attack


The same pose as 3104/4 & 3105/2, but in the distinctive Hungarian kit.

This is shown with the grenadier head, it could also be assembled as the fusilier option.
















Infantry Advancing


And finally the old faithful advancing pose as 3103/1 and 3105/1 but in Hungarian kit.



















A rear view (an earlier photo before the shoe laces), with the Austrian type kit, but with the sword as carried by all Hungarians.












I'm not sure when these will be released, hopefully not too long.

Next up are some cuirassier cavalry.
(Update 28/08/14), it looks like the cavalry are being delayed and the Russians infantry are next up.

As always please let me have your thoughts.

Saturday 12 July 2014

Do you want to Accessorise?

Thanks for all the recent feedback.

I had a chat with the sculptor and we agreed we should get some cavalry released as soon as possible to add some more varaiety. The Hungarian infantry (3 moulds) are almost done, so they will be next out, then a cuirassier, followed by the Russian infantry, then on to more cavalry, artillery and light troops.

We also wondered about releasing an 'Accessories' mould, to allow more customisation - it has always been the plan to allow as much mixing and matching as possible. Unfortunately we are finding it difficult to fit the 'extras' into the moulds, especially now there are the separate march attack arms.

I thought I would start a wish list of what to put in, with a bit of an explanation as to why. Most of these parts will also probably appear in other moulds, so I'm not sure how good an idea it is - it probably depends how much of the range someone is going to buy?

  1. Austrian grenadier head with side curls. This is sculpted (I used it on my grenadiers), but we could not fit this into either the Austrian or Hungarian moulds. It might be useful for anyone who wants to make Austrian grenadiers without buying any Hungarian moulds - or to add onto the cavalry. (Will probably fit in the 'dragoon' mould.)
  2. Hat-less head (probably in the artillery moulds)
  3. Bandaged head (probably in the artillery moulds)
  4. Head with mirliton, to allow the Hungarians to be converted into Prussian frei korps etc.  (Probably in hussar and Grenz moulds)
  5. Head with jager cap to convert Austrian & Prussian infantry (will be one in light troops mould)
  6. Cuffed hand for Prussian officer - pointing
  7. Cuffed hand for Prussian officer - with cane
  8. Cuffed hand for Prussian officer - with pistol
  9. Hand for NCOs (and Hungarian officers) - with musket for grenadier command (will be in Russians)
  10. Hand for NCO - with Austrian NCO halberd (will be in Hungarians) 
  11. A finial and if possible chords, for the standard pole.
  12. A bare musket (suggested by Ross)
  13. A bare sword (suggested by Ross)
  14. A wounded soldier (suggested by Stokes - possibly too much space - we will see)
  15. Open hands for use in conversions (suggested by Ross)
  16. Austrian Pioneer heads (suggested by Rahway)
Do you think the mould worthwhile - would you buy it?

Let me know which on the list you would like (in number order), and feel free to add to the list - if you can think of something that would be useful for say Imperial troops let me know and I will include it.

Saturday 5 July 2014

Cavalry - initial thoughts?

PA are planning to bring out some 'heavy cavalry' in the not too distant future -  the sculptor is working on them at present. The designs are at a very early stage, this post is really to get some feedback on our initial ideas.

Troop Types

For the initial range PA are aiming to cover cuirassiers and dragoons (inc.horse grenadiers) for Prussia, Austria and Russia, and for each provide an officer, standard bearer, musician and trooper. By using multi-part figures this can be done without the need for 24 moulds!

How many horse types will be needed?

Historical saddlecloth shapes

After a lot of searching of books, plates and websites it is clear that there are quite a few interpretations of what was used, however the details shown on 'Project SYW' seem to be a fair representation. There appear to be four basic shapes needed?


1. Prussian Rounded

All Prussian cuirassier regiments except 13
Prussian dragoons regiments 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12










2. Russian Rounded

All Russian regiments of cuirassiers and dragoons.










3. Prussian Square

Prussian cuirassier regiment 13
Prussian dragoons regiments 5 to 10










4. Austrian 'Square'

All Austrian regiments of cuirassiers and dragoons had a square saddlecloth, which in many illustrations is shown with rounded corners.







What to produce???

PA are only going to produce a limited number of moulds, so there are going to be some compromises to be make.

Currently I think the initial range might include four sets on moulds, basically:
  1. Prussian cuirassier (round saddlecloth)
  2. Russian dragoon (round saddlecloth)
  3. Prussian dragoon (square sdaddlecloth) 
  4. Austrian cuirassier (square sdaddlecloth)
And from these the Austrian dragoons and Russian cuirassiers can also be made, as can a lot of heavy cavalry from other nations.


Any thoughts?

Saturday 28 June 2014

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!


Thursday 26 June 2014

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!

Wednesday 4 June 2014

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............



Sunday 11 May 2014

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?