Austrian "3pdr" - and best wishes for the New Year.

Nothing much has been happening on the 40mm SYW front over the last few months. I am told the plan is to release the dragoons early next year - fingers crossed.

I have however, as suggested in my post back in March (was it really that long ago) had a play at making an Austrian 3pdr battalion gun using the following components:

• Wheels from new SYW range
• Barrel from the Karoliner 6pdr
• Carriage from the Rossbach 12pdr

I then made the following minor modifications:

• Added a cross piece in the trail - not quite correct but looks better.
• Drilled out the holes at the rear of the carriage, which made it look much neater,
• I originally assembled the wheels on the carriage as cast - but they looked too wide. To correct this I narrowed the solid/rectangular axle by about 2mm and then attached the wheels by drilling out 1.5mm holes, and inserting new axles made from the pegs of spare heads.
• Drilled out the end of the barrel.

As discussed in the earlier post, the dimensions are not quite right - however I am happy with the result and will be rearming my Austrians with them (when I start working on them again).

Best wishes to you all for the New Year.

Steve

New Regiments from Steven Marthinsen

I'm still here - just resting!  Sorry I have not added anything for a while - to be quite honest my gaming interests have been elsewhere, mostly 15mm Napoleonics (Commands and Colors) and 28mm WW2 (Chain of Command), and with no resent releases fro Prince August I have not had anything to report, however.........

Some Eye Candy

Steven Marthinsen has kindly sent me some more photos of progress on his SYW project - it is nice to see that the moulds are being used and enjoyed. 

Austrian Cuirassier Regiment No. 9 Sachsen Teschen 

Steven sent me a few comments about casting these, which I will pretty much just repeat:

"....the casting was pretty easy overall.  The only locations that gave me any difficulty were the harnessing bit below the horse's mouth and the carbine.  Moving the clamps around before pouring fixed most issues as I have always found that a loose grip on the mold allowing air to escape was better than a tight grip.  This does create a bit of flash but that is easily cut away.  Assembly was straight forward and fit reasonable.  About the only concern I have is that when I complete the regiment of 12 figures I mount them three to a base.  This is a heavy base given all the metal and the fact that they are a bit over-sized.  To their credit, however, they are strong figures and well attached to their bases; some of the older Rossbach cuirassiers have relatively weak connections to their bases."

Saxon Infantry Regiment No.4 
Prinz Friedrich Augustus

It would be nice to see photos of any other projects which are underway.

Hopefully we will see something more from Prince August in the not too distant future if I hear anything I will let you know.

Cavalry - any feedback?

The Cuirassiers have now been released for over a month now, so hopefully some of you have taken the plunge to buy the moulds, cast and assemble some figures. It would be interesting to get some feedback before PA progress to the dragoons, which are hopefully later this year.

Size

PA have accepted that there has been an issue with 'scale creep' with the cuirassier riders, and intend to correct this with the dragoons. The current plan is to make the dragoons about 7% smaller in all directions, this will:

• Reduce the rider to about 42mm tall, so he will tie in with the infantry (he is currently too tall).

• Reduce the horse to about 15 hands - which is correct for a dragoon horse (it is correct for a 16 hand cuirassier horse).

• Reduce the assembled weight by about 20%. (My assembled troopers weigh in at 90g each, compared with 60g for the K-931 cavalryman - that is 50% more bulk. If they are reduced by 20% they should weigh in at about 72g, so should a nice size.)
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Multi Part?

With the figures that I cast there were a few of issues with the assembly (note that I had a set of 'test moulds', so slightly different from the ones that went into production):

• On some castings the torso was narrow relative to the horse, so was difficult to align (I do however use a variety of metals from old figures, so can tend to come out different sizes as they shrink differently). This could be easily rectified by just making the torso wider, so that there is always an overlap.

• I had difficulty fitting the right arm, particularly on the trooper. The problem was that the peg often ended up too large for the socket. I fixed that by shaving down the peg, and understand that this was modified before they went into production.

I know that PA are considering whether or not to continue with the multi part route so your feedback would be appreciated. (My preference is to continue multi part, but make them such that fit is less critical).

Yet More Austrian Cuirassiers

Richard Hattersley has now painted the figures to be photographed for the front of the packaging - these are imposing chaps.

He has chosen regiment De Ville, which I was surprised to see had natural leather belts, which makes an interesting change (http://www.kronoskaf.com/syw/index.php?title=De_Ville_Cuirassiers).

Hopefully they will be available soon?

As always comments welcome.

More Austrian Cavalry

Cuirassiers

I have now cast and painted a second 'troop' of cuirassier regiment Maximilian, and also corrected the saddle cloth colours of the officers - which I am advised were blue - they do look quite impressive!

I have also finished a troop of regiment Alt Modena - the only cuirassier regiment in the army with blue facings.  I often play games with non-historical line ups, and it is useful to be able to easily distinguish a unit which may be fighting on the other side.

Before anyone puts me straight - I know the saddle cloth trim is probably incorrect (although there is a suggestion there could have been as shown), however it suits my style, ability and patience.

With respect to the size, I also took a couple of photos of them against the Russian marching infantry, which are the most upright.

They do not look all that out of scale, and horses are fine for cuirassiers, however the riders are too big.

Dragoons

Sculpting of the dragoons is well underway, and the current plan is that there will be an officer, a standard bearer, a drummer and a trooper.

Th original plan was for a trooper and horse in postures similar to to that of the cuirassiers. However I am having second thoughts on this, and think they might look better on a trotting horse for more variety - any thoughts?



As always please keep the comments coming.

Steve Marthinsen's SYW Project

In response to my request for photographs of your projects, Steven Marthinsen has kindly sent me photographs of some of his infantry units.

I also asked him for some background to his SYW project to allow me some text to put with the photos. He sent me quite a long email, which he has agreed I can repeat pretty much in full, - as it gives an insight into why he chose to use the PA moulds, and what else he would like to see.

Steven's email

"My experience with the SYW came straight out of Charles Grant and Prince August.  Charles Grant's 'The Wargame' and his fictional imagination campaign books are just great and tremendous inspiration.  However, the SYW would never have come about without PA because I specifically wanted the toy soldier look for this project.  I already do Napoleonics in15/18mm so really did not need another horse and musket era unless it offered something unique and casting your own armies is certainly that!

I currently have 15 regiments of foot troops painted and based along with 13 guns and crews.  I have one cavalry regiment, hence the reason I have been asking for cavalry molds for so long!  I am excited about the new cuirassiers but do hope they prevent more scale creep within the series.  In general the molds have been well mastered and easy to cast.  I would like to see a remaster of the initial Prussian molds to bring them up to date with the others (buttons on gaiters, better musketeer head and slings on the muskets).  In terms of basic molds for the SYW, we are so close to getting it done I hope that PA recognizes the benefit of having a complete range to offer gamers.  More cuirassier torsos and everybody's dragoons would do nicely to round out the basics.  Hussars, command and light infantry could then be added in the future to really fill it out.  British troops would sell well, especially on your side of the pond, but I would not want those to slow down completing the basic line of European continental armies (but of course I would still buy them!).

I use PA Model Metal exclusively and casting issues have been few, although some are persistent.  I do not believe the hub on the artillery piece wheel has ever fully turned out leaving me to file it down before filling the hole with putty.  The more important thing is that I do get the wheel spokes on a consistent basis so I don't mind filing the hubs.  The pegs on the Russian infantry heads are too thick and each one has to be filed down to fit in the hole.  That is annoying but doable.  The hands for the artillerist with the trail spike are awkward and the fit questionable.  Still, these are essentially minor complaints and overall casting has been quite successful.

Going forward, I have some regular and conversion regiments on the block to paint.  Austrian regiment Puebla used scalloped lacing on their tricornes so I used the Prussian guard head for them.  I created my version of Saxon infantry by using the Austrian musketeer head on the Russian winter infantry body.  Three regiments of French troops are primed and patiently waiting the brush.  Of course, all of this can be interrupted by cavalry molds!

For rules, my original thought was to use The Wargame with half size regiments, and I still might,  However, I recently tried Honours of War and really liked them.  The idea for rules will be to make them fun and not too complicated so players can enjoy the game and retain some of the feel of the old school toy soldiers.

That's it for now but feel free to ask for more pictures or anything else I can do to help with the project.  This really is a unique opportunity for PA and for gamers alike to be able to purchase and cast their own armies.  I realize it is not for everyone but honestly it is a lot of fun and you really do have more investment in the armies when you create them yourself."

Back to me...............

Personally it is great to see how the new range are being used. If there is anyone else out there who would like to contribute to the blog PLEASE send me your photos and thoughts.

'Scale creep' is an issue,  it is one of the many difficulties which has arisen with the change to digital sculpting - hopefully it is being addressed?

I know there are some minor issues with the range, and even after the years spent on this project it is sometimes difficult to 'mould' PA into the mindset of the wargamer - but in general I think we re doing OK.

As always your comments are welcome, I do pass them to the sculptor (who follows this blog), and they are taken into account.

Austrian Cuirassier - completed unit

Painted cuirassier

I have now completed my (the?) first unit of SYW cavalry, in doing so I made a couple of minor modifications relative to the figures as designed:

• The reins have been extended to the hand (they are a bit short in the mould to allow the figures to slot in easily). 
• I have added a sword hilt to the trumpeter and standard bearer, these were cut from a French infantryman's sword.

I painted the coats off-white (Vallejo Ivory Pearl White) - after my visit to the military museum in Vienna I am convinced that is what all of the white should be. It also looks better and also shows off the belting - I will probably try my next infantry the same way.

I have taken photos from 8 angles, so you should get a good idea what the new figures look like.

As with the older ranges, the horse is cast flat in the mould, however being multi part the torso is cast the opposite way, allowing detail on the cuirass.

The sword arm (and head) are also separate, allowing the arm to be well detailed.

The joint between the rider and horse is around the coat tails - but not really visible.

The fit between the arm and torso was a bit tricky and left a small gap, however it filled in fine with paint without the need for any filler.

There is also a separate carbine.

I think the figures look great, and are pretty much what I was hoping for. They are a bit more work than the older ranges, but in my opinion worth it.

Size comparison

As discussed in the previous post, these chaps are a bit on the large side. the horses are OK for a 16 hand cuirassier horse, but the riders are large (I think about 7%).

It only really shows up when the units are very close.

I am advised that the tooling work for the cuirassiers is underway at the factory, and PA have announced a planned release date in June.

The sculpting for the dragoons is also almost complete. I have asked if it is possible to 'plot' these about 7% smaller, this will bring the men into scale, and also reduce the horse from the 16 hands appropriate for the cuirassiers to 15 hands for the dragoons.


As always please let me have any comments/feedback, and I will pass them on to the sculptor to assist in deciding what to do with the next releases. (I will be away from my computer for the next week, so replies will be delayed).