More head swapping

I've been playing again................

Following on from the previous post. The charging French dragoons were originally painted as a large 'old school' unit - so there are quite a lot of them. (Enough for 3 of my smaller 8 man units if I paint up two more standard bearers and musicians)

Having done the first unit with a straight swap of heads with tricorn I decided to be a bit more adventurous. and make a unit in forage cap.  I used the 'bonnet de police' from the SYW French infantry - again it fits quite well and looks fine size wise.

I have to admit that this combination of the Karoliner charging cavalry and the new SYW heads is really growing in me, and I might cast up some more?

Interestingly, when I started this project all I asked PA to produce were some more heads!

What a difference a head makes?

I had a game using the 'King of the Battlefield' rules last week - well worth a try if you have not used them.

During the game I thought how well the Russian cavalry, which are Karoliners, converted during casting/assembly with the new SYW heads fitted in with the new range. Rather than sidelining the old figures, I decided to try and 'upgrade' some of my painted units - something I was nervous about, as potentially it could ruin them - however I think I got away with it.

I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with the older figures, however all of the new range have larger hats and more facial detail - so the older ones look a little out of place - the photo below shows the difference.

One of the units in action before change.

And the same unit after the head swap.

The process I adopted was much easier than I had expected - the important thing is to keep things as clean as possible (it was done with the figures on the bases), as follows:

• Cut off the head with a pair of snips (this leaves an uneven surface)
• Square off the join with a sharp craft knife (avoid a file as it makes a mess)
• Drill a small diameter pilot hole (I used an electric mini drill)
• Drill out the full size hole for the head to be fitted - use a pin vice for this to avoid generating heat which would damage the paint
• Undercoat the heads before fitting
• Fit the heads (I find the Russian officer ideal)
• Paint to match existing.

I have done 2 units so far, I think they took about 3 hours each.

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.)
• 
  

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.