Grenadier Command

Having finished the rank and file figures for my Hungarian Grenadiers I have now moved on to the Command group. The officer is one of my all time favourite Hinton Hunt sculpts - he has a real swashbuckling swagger about him I think.

AN.30 Hungarian Grenadier Officer, charging

The drummer has been a bit of a problem as I had used all my DK Grenadier drummers to convert to line drummers. The solution was to decapitate a French drummer and replace his head with an Austrian Grenadier's one.

FN/6 French Drummer, charging - converted to Hungarian Grenadier drummer

On a different topic, Tony recently donated this characterful Preacher figure by Warrior Miniatures to my stalled ECW project. I just couldn't resist painting him.

If you're going to wargame the ECW period you need one of these

The next post should hopefully feature the full unit of Hungarian Grenadiers on parade.

The Joy of Flash

The human mind is fickle. When I was buying direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 1970s I can remember the dissapointment of receiving a Jiffy Bag full of figures, halfheartedly wrapped in newspaper with loose bits rattling around. The figures that weren't beyond repair were covered in ridiculous amounts of flash metal that took literally hours to remove. In those days there was no point in trying to complain or leave a bad review (there were no reviews) and you just had to suck it up and be greatful that at least the packet had arrived.

Fast forward to now and I have a warm glow of nostalgia to see figures with their original flash attached. This doesn't happen often as the majority of the figures in my collection have been prepped and painted by others and then stripped and repainted by me. Most of the flash is therefore missing although it is always a surprise to see how many people in the past have just painted over great chunks of it.

AN.85 Austrian Uhlan (Lancer) (mounted) charging.

So I've been very excited to start prepping a unit of 'virgin' Austrian Uhlan Lancers that have never been painted and still have all the flash attached. I've had these figures for a very long time and I thought that, with the recent growth spurt of the Austrian infantry, it was time to start thinking about adding more cavalry.

Meanwhile work on the Grenadiers continues and I have just completed a 'company' with green facings to add to the combined Grenadier Battalion.

I like the idea of having a unit with mixed facing colours.

And last, but not least, Goya sent me this picture of a recently completed Austrian unit for his own forces. This is IR1 Franz 1. These are more of Don's old troops that have been very sympathetically restored and rebased by the great master.

The rank and file are AN4 but the command figures are Hinton Compatriots. The flag apparently has the design etched on it and Goya has done a fab job with this.

I like the Barber Shop pole effect on the flag staff and will be nicking this idea for my Grenadiers!

Hungarian Grenadier

This is the test figure for my next unit which will be comprised of Hungarian Grenadiers in the firing position AN.33 Grenadier, firing. I've been wanting to paint this unit for a long time so I'm pleased to finally have them on the painting desk. When finished this will bring my total number of Austrian infantry units to 8 which I consider to be a respectable size for an army.

There's a lot of detail on these figures but they deserve the extra painting effort.

The figure pictured is a vintage casting but I will also be using some rather nice reproduction figures to make up the numbers.

I'm going with the facing colour and white on the bearskin patch which may not be historically accurate but looks good.

Now some of you may remember that my 51st Gabriel Spleny regiment has a 6-figure company of Grenadiers in its ranks. These figures will be transferred to the Grenadier battalion and their numbers made up with musketeers. I know some of you may object to me tinkering with the old regimental establishment but we must change with the times and anyway, the old unit can easily be reconstituted if needed.

Austrian 23rd Archduke Ferdinand Regiment

Here then are the Austrians I promised you in my last post. This unit will represent the 23rd Archduke Ferdinand Regiment because they have rather nice poppy red facings.

So how have I managed to knock out another unit so fast I hear you ask? Well, the answer is that I haven't actually done very much myself to contribute to their mustering-in. The original paintwork is by US gamer Don W and they have been spruced up by none other than Goya who added the black lining to match them to my own style. All I did was add in the command figures, base them, and give the whole lot three coats of gloss varnish.

Don's original brushwork gave them grey lined straps and Goya very kindly changed them to black to fit in with my other troops. The headgear is all Don's work.

The rank and file figures are all vintage castings that Don bought direct from Hinton Hunt in the early 80s. They are:

21 x AN/4 Musketeer, charging

1 x AN/1 Officer, charging

1 x DK Grenadier drummer (with head swap conversion)

1 x AN/9 Standard bearer (David Clayton)

Here you can see how neatly they fit in with the 26th Schroeder Regiment I completed last year.

Don has very kindly sent me quite a few castings so there will be more Austrians to come.