Pages

Monday 20 October 2014

The Hungarians are coming


The Hungarians are sculpted and the moulds ready, release is delayed for a few weeks waiting for the packaging to be finalised - but they are close.

Below are the mould diagrams so you can see how they are laid out.

Mould 3106 - Hungarian Officer and Standard Bearer






1. Officer's body

2. Officer's sword

3. Standard bearer's  body

4. Officer's head in tricorn with moustache (x2)


Mould 3107 - Hungarian NCO and Drummer




1. NCO's body.

2. NCO's pole arm (halberd)*

3. Drummer's body.

4. Fusilier's head in tricorn with pompom, hair in plaits and mustache (x2).

5. Grenadier's head in bearskin with cap plate.



* The halberd can be filed down to make a quite reasonable partizan for the officer (see
post 10 September).


Mould 3108 - Infantry Advancing and March Attack

  

1. Infantry march attack body.

2. Arm and musket for march attack.

3. Grenadier bearskin  plain/grenade

4. Infantry advancing body

5. Grenadier head, with cap plate.

6. Fusilier's head in tricorn


(It might have been better with two tricorns in 3108 and the two grenadiers in 3107, however there are plenty of tricorns spread about so this should not be a problem).

As always feedback welcome.



Thursday 18 September 2014

Light Infantry (2) - Grenz & Pandours

Last updated 19/09/14.........

Following on from discussions about Frei Corps and Jager, some thoughts about the Grenz and Pandour. A hole in the PA range which needs filling.

Pandour Uniforms

Austrian Grenz


There was quite a lot of variation in the uniform worn by the Austrian Grenz regiments, so one of the troop types needs to be chosen. The Pengel & Hurt book on Austrian infantry contains a lot of useful information, including the illustrations and table below.



The table is useful, as at a  glance it can be seen that the ones with coat type 'F2' are marginally more common, so it makes sense to produce a figure which represents 60-63 & 69. Below is an illustration from an Osprey book, type 'F2' is on the left and type 'E' one on the right. Of course a good representation of any of them can be done with a bit of work and a paint job. 

  3 - Gz IR 60 Carlstadt Liccaner  (F2)       2 -Gz IR 64 Waradin Creutzer  (E) 



Russian Pandours









There is another reason for choosing the 'F2' type - it is also the one which is most similar to the Russian pandour regiments.

There are minor differences, but the Austrian figure is pretty close. 

This is a grenadier, others would be similar but with no plate on the hat.


















Head Types

This really depends how many moulds are made, as depending on what else goes in beween two and four heads will fit.

Going back to the P&H illustrations and table it can be seen that  head types  'A' and 'D' are most common. These are very similar so just the type A would be enough, so a couple of these in each mould.

The Russian hat tapered slightly towards the top, so at least one of these.


The Cloak?

Austrian Grenz were famous for their red cloaks, which were generally rolled up over the haversack, but as far as I am aware there are no illustrations showing the Russian Pandour with them (if anyone has some let me know), so there are really three options:

  • Give all the figures a cloak, and accept the Russians will be wrong
  • Give none of them a cloak
  • Cast the cloak a stick on - not sure how easy this is for multiple poses.

What does everyone think?


Officers

Grenz officers were very similar to  those in the Hungarians, so I would suggest  there is no need for additional figures.


Poses

As there is no need for officer figures, and following on from earlier discussions on poses I would be temped to have two moulds, so four figures, and I would go for:

1. Infantry standing firing
2. Infantry kneeling firing
3. Infantry advancing
4. Not sure, options (in current order of preference):
      a. Infantry loading
      b. Infantry/NCO at trail, pointing
      c. Musician

As usual comments welcome.