More Prussian Pondering

The observant amongst you will have noted that by breaking up my old Prussian Uhlan unit to produce the Landwehr Lancers it left me with six odd regular lancers. The remedy for this is of course to make up the numbers with some of the figures Ian sent me earlier this year.

My attempt at PN89 Prussian Uhlan Lancer (mounted) charging.

Once again I have had to try to match Matthew's painting style which is very tricky as his detailing on the original figures is superb with some incredibly fine lines on the jacket seams. In the end I've had to fudge it a bit but with luck the new troopers will blend in when viewed from playing distance on the table.

PN5 Private (with separate musket).

I've also painted the test figure for the next Prussian infantry unit using the casting with separate musket I posted about a couple of weeks back. I'm looking forward to starting on the whole unit of these as they are something a bit different and the quality of the castings is superb.

Austrian Artillery Review

Here is the promised parade of the full Austrian artillery contingent.

All the guns, limbers, horses and over half the gunners are original Hinton Hunt figures. The remainder of the gunners are very nice DK versions.

I completed this second limber using figures Don sent me earlier this year.

There are 6 guns, 2 limbers and 24 gunners.

I aim to have one gun battery for every two infantry units in an army so I'm thinking I will need one further Austrian infantry unit to balance things up but that may have to wait until next year.

Austrian Artillery Expansion

Following the rapid expansion of the Austrian infantry and cavalry forces this year I felt it would be a good idea to also add to the artillery contingent. I've been able to do this once again thanks to the generosity of Don W.

The figures are a mixture of Hinton Hunt and DK castings that have been refurbished by me in a style that fits in with my existing two batteries. The guns are all original Hinton Hunt ones.

I have a limber to do and then there will be a full parade of the whole six batteries. 

Pondering Prussians and a wargame at Tony's

You will remember that earlier this year I was the lucky recipient of some very nice vintage Hinton Hunt Prussian castings from Ian. Amongst them were quite a few of PN.5 (the figure cast with a separate musket). I've been wondering about the best way to animate these so couldn't resist having a go and after several attempts I came up with this.

I did try a few other options but none of them looked very realistic poses so this rather safe version will be the one I use for a unit.

This week I was fortunate to get an invite to Tony's for a War of the Spanish Succession game with his superb Les Higgins forces using his Corporal John Lite rules. The rules have some similarities to C&C but Tony has done away with cards and introduced a clever brigade activation system instead. The game progressed at a fair old pace and we fought to a conclusion in four hours which was impressive. Tony has already posted an AAR here so what follows are just a few photos of his lovely toys.

This is the view from my side of the table. I went for the Austrians again as it seemed a good idea after my success at Nigel's last month.

French cavalry on the move.

The view from Tony's side of the table.

I've always had a thing for cavalry with lobster-pot helmets.

This cavalry clash was a big one and it lasted for the whole game.

My lads got a lucky break with a random event double move that allowed me to rapidly advance my centre.

This village was worth 1VP to whoever held it. Here you can see the French have beaten me to it.

And here you can see that I have pushed them out - hooray!

These very smart chaps are from Hessen-Kassel. They went forward bravely and immediately routed. The mini-dice shows which brigade they belonged to.

This unit of French cavalry hid in a turnip field for much of the game. Nice to see those old Britains hedges.

In the last turn of the game I managed to destroy one of Tony's guard cavalry units and unhorse both of his cavalry commanders (that was 3VPs).

More Hessians this time hanging back a bit.

The table at the end of play, I managed to just pull off a victory on points.

Here the Comte de Marsin pushes forward with a regiment of infantry but a bit late to affect the outcome of the battle.

Next up will be a few more Austrians then things will definitely be going in a Prussian direction.

Hampden at Hendon (Off Topic #40)

We were in London this week and I managed to convince Mrs S to take a trip out to the RAF Museum (not sure how I did that) because I wanted to take a look at the Hampden that has recently gone on display. There are very few examples of the Hampden Bomber left and I had never seen one before. My interest in this aircraft is that my father - W/O Dennis Spencer DFC - did his operational training on them in Canada during 1943.

It's a very sleek design and impressive even without wings fitted ("where are the wings?" said Mrs S - good question).

It has a very long thin tail. There are upper and lower gunner positions just above and below the wings.

As a Navigator he was impressed with the excellent visibilty from his position (or 'office' as he called it) in the nose. To me it looked like an incredibly exposed location and one that I personally would never have wished to occupy.

The Navigator's position was in this plexi-glass 'greenhouse' in the front of the aircraft and just below the Pilot's position. The Navigator was also the Bomb Aimer and had a machine gun for forward firing.

See how ridiculously narrow the fuselage is (old git is for scale).

He told me that the fuselage was very narrow hence the nickname 'flying suitcase' but I didn't think it would be this narrow. How he ever managed to crawl back (under the pilot's seat) and up to the observation hatch to take readings with his sextant and then return again whilst in flight baffles me. I'm not very big but I doubt I could even turn around inside the thing. If you were in trouble and had to put on a parachute and find an exit I can't see how it would be possible. Fortunately for him this was never put to the test as by the time he completed training and returned home the Hampden had been declared obsolete.

The rear part of the fuselage has been reconstructed but an original part is displayed next to it that still shows bullet holes from the day the aircraft crashed.

This particular aircraft was recovered from Russia in 1991. Operating from the Shetland Isles it had crashed there in 1942 during a mission to protect an Arctic Convoy. At this point in the restoration only the fuselage has been made good so there are no wings but it's still possible to get a good idea of how the whole aircraft would have looked.

The engine and wheel give a better idea of the size that a fully restored version would be (old git again for scale).

The Beaufighter.

One nice thing for me is that the Hampden is displayed next to the Beaufighter which is the aircraft my father actually did fly operations on.

Vienna Volunteers

In with the all the Austrian figures Don sent me recently were quite a few Der Kreigspieler Landwehr and Freikorps castings. These have been difficult to properly identify as the codes under the bases are not clear and I can't find any illustrations. However I was determined to use some of them and so I've mixed a few in with Hinton Hunt Jagers to form my version of the 'Vienna Volunteers'.

I believe the DK figures are 104/1 Militia (Tyrolean hat). The Jagers look like they may be Hinton Hunt BRN43 Brunswick avant-guard advancing.

This unit was apparently armed with a mix of muskets and rifles so combining the figures works well. The original paintwork on these is by Don and I have refeshed them and made a few changes to fit with my house style. I think they're looking pretty smart and who wouldn't want a unit of Landwehr in their Austrian army?

The flag-bearer may be either DK or Clayton but I can't find any listing that has a tyrolean hat so he may be a conversion.

The flag is intriguing - Don painted this from notes he made during a museum visit many years ago but can't remember what unit it was for. It's so unusual that I just had to keep it.

Aspern-Essling at Nigel's

Yesterday I took a trip across the border to join Tony and Goya at Nigel's sumptuous wargame room in the heart of the rolling Cumbrian hills. Nigel had devised a scenario based on the battle of Aspern-Essling that gave him the chance to put virtually his entire Austrian army collection on the table, which he said was a long held ambition.

I commanded the Austrian left with Tony taking the right, Goya had the French left while our host took the French right. By the time the game ended the table was positively groaning with the weight of toy soldiers. What follows is not a blow by blow account but I hope gives a good flavour of the game:

Starting positions: French on the left, Austrians on the right. The edge of Essling is represented by the wall (bottom left) with Aspern at the far end of the table. There is a bridge at the centre of the French baseline to represent the pontoons to Lobau Island from which direction their reserve will enter play. 

The French are ensconced behind the Essling brickyard walls ready to take pot shots at my men as they advance. I kept clear of the place expecting that the position would be a hard one to crack and it wasn't until towards the end of the game I realised Nigel's rules gave me an even chance of ousting them!

Austrian (or are they Irish?) Chevaux-legere - a very smart looking unit indeed.

Our plan was simply to press forward and converge our infantry towards the enemy centre and the bridge as we would win if we occupied it at the end of play. This forward movement also had the advantage that it limited the space for the French to deploy their reserves.

The trouble was that French reinforcements were already starting to arrive. Each turn they had to roll a D6 to see if the pontoons were swept away (on a roll of 1) but sadly they never were.

Nigel's cavalry are in units of 18 figures so here are 36 (yes 36!) Hinton Hunt Chasseur-a-cheval.

These smart looking Hungarians were under Tony's command.

Austrian Hussars - you can never have too many Austrian Hussars.

As the battle developed I attempted to get into character as Archduke Charles but wasn't sure about the Austrian accent. Fortunatley Goya was on hand to explain that it sounded something like a cross between Somerset dialect and Arnold Schwarzenegger. This led to lots of jokes about combine harvesters and scrumpy cider etc (Alright my luvver, I'll be back!).

Look at this - two regiments of Austrian Kurassiers hurrah! Imagine our disappointment to find that the scenario designer (who was suspiciously French) had rated them as Militia - boo!

All our men are crowding towards the bridge - our final reserve to appear was this splendid division of Grenadiers.

Tony and Goya fought this cavalry action for what seemed like the entire battle.

Looking a bit Charles Grant-ish I think. There were a heck of a lot of figures on the table now.

So near and yet so far - the Austrians attack the bridge but are repulsed (this unit was made up of figures originally in the collection of Don W and now absorbed into Nigel's forces). We managed 7 turns but things were still in the balance when we ran out of time.

Team photo - Austrian high command.

It was a real humdinger of a game and, although not fought to a conclusion, it felt like one would not be far off, so much so that Nigel has determined to finish it off solo.

It's always wonderful to get to play with Nigel's toys so a big thanks to him for the invite and also to my fellow generals for an enjoyable and memorable game. Also a very special thank you to the Archduchess for her hospitality, plum crumble mmmm...

********** UPDATE **********

Chasteler's 27th storm across the pontoon bridge!

Nigel finished playing the game and I think we can say it was a victory for the Austrians!

More Austrian Kurassiers

The Austrian forces now have their final (honest) cavalry unit. These represent the 12th Ferdinand Kurassiers and bring the cavalry contingent to a very respectable 6 units.

You can never have too many cuirassiers.

All the figures except the trumpeter are original Hinton Hunt castings from Don W's collection that have been refurbished for me by the brush of the talented Goya. The trumpeter is my own work.

Red and white is always a nice combination.

The whole of the Austrian cavalry - 72 sabres!

I'm thinking that the French cavalry may just be starting to worry...