Napoleonic Austrians 1792-98 - Baccus AWL01 Conversion update

 Way back in early August, I posted pictures of the nearly completed Revolutionary Wars Austrians, suitable for battles 1792-1798.  Austrians on Workbench  Painted Austrians

The figures were, at that time, nearly ready for basing.  I was trying to get some decent photos of the finished, based, flagged & flocked figures done, when disaster struck - the new type of acrylic spray varnish I used "frosted" the figures to an unacceptable degree..... Aaaargh!

Having read (on the internet...) that olive oil can cure frosting, I painted the figures with oil and left to dry.  The frosting reduced, but basing revealed that they were now sticky, so the static grass went all over the figures and stayed there.  Double Aaargh!  

So I then washed the figures off, gently, with a bit of water and very dilute washing up water and left them to dry.  For a month.  Repainted the hats and left them a week or two....

I reverted to one coat of gloss enamel spray varnish, followed, a couple of days later, by a lighter coat of matt.  The figures now have 4 coats of varnish, so should cope with a little rough handling!  They have now been successfully flocked & flagged.

The acrylic varnish was Games Workshop, the enamel varnish I've used for 15 years is Rail Match.  To be fair, I have also been using GW "bone white" as undercoat and that has proved most excellent.  Yes, I did religiously follow all the instructions as to shaking the tin and temperature and humidity......

So, on with the Austrians.....

The overall effect:

From the left

From the rear

The Green faced unit:

The "Pinks"

I hope that this encourages you to try them!

Figures: Baccus AWL01

Bases: Warbases 1" square 2mm MDF (For BBB Rules)

Basing material: Macterials (on Ebay) Fine model basing sand

Varnish: GW Toughcoat x 2, Railmatch Gloss, Railmatch Matt

Salad dressing: Olive Oil (Don't use the cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil - it's just wasted on them!)

Flag: Napflag 1792 Pattern (Baccus do these as well...  see the Napoleonic/Austrians page in the catalogue)

Air Apaches - B25 Mitchell Strafers - 345 Bomb Group

 One of the distinctive sets of markings were those applied to the 345 Bomb Group, operating in the Pacific.  

These planes represent the Hells Belles squadron - with a bright blue Bat emblazoned on the nose of their B25-J strafers.  

The strafers carried 6 or 8 fixed .50cal MG in the nose, a possible 4 further fixed .50 cal package guns either side of the cockpit and the top turret packed a further 2 .50cal.  They also had bombs in the bomb bay.  Their tactics were to go low, with the element of surprise, hoping to shoot up the Japanese planes whilst they were still on the ground.

The models are 1/600 Tumbling Dice, USAAF markings from Doms Decals, the Bat nose & tail Apache markings a combination of hand painting & suitable letter transfers.  I added a battery of nose guns and side package guns to the Tumbling Dice model.

A lone Bat in close up...

D-Day Dakotas

 A few photos of my D-Day Dakota Fleet.  Fuselage codes CJ - 71st Sdn, & CU 72nd Sdn, both from 434 Troop Carrier Group, 53rd Troop Carrier Wing.  Based at Aldermaston.

The planes are Tumbling Dice 1/600.  The USAAF decals are Doms Decals.  The wing stripes are painted by hand - as were the originals!  The D-Day markings do make the slightly boring OD over light grey a little more eye-catching.

The initial D-Day drops of 82nd & 101st Airborne took place on the night of 5/6 June, so this must be one of the follow up drops on 6 June.

3 planes from each squadron:

After running into the Luftwaffe.....

Napoleonic Bavarians of 1809 have got their own page !

 I have just created a page to showcase my 1809 Bavarians, based for the BBB ruleset. 

Here's a couple of pictures to whet your appetite!

Napoleonic Austrians 1792-98 - Baccus AWL 01 Figures review & conversion - part 2 - PAINTED

I have now painted a few test bases of Austrian troops - (using the American Loyalists AWL01)

Front view:

Rear view.  Sorry about the poor quality photo - I'll do some thing better once they are based!

WJ Rawkins ebook on the Austrians says that they did not powder their hair, but did retain the queue, so I went with that approach.

Hussars - 7th Hussar Command Base for BBB Napoleonics

Last century, when my Brother and I started wargaming, he bought volume 1 of the Funcken book of French Napoleonic uniforms.  As we were at the Belgian Army museum in Brussels, this was, of course, in French...

It is beautifully illustrated (though sometimes there are debates about the accuracy of some of the uniforms within) and inspired us both to keep on wargaming.  At some point I was given the book.  

In the last couple of years, having decided to build 1/300 / 6mm armies suitable for Napoleonic gaming using the BBB rules system, I started painting up the French army for 1809.  

Most recently I've been painting French Hussars (both 1809 & 1796-1800) so I've used the page below, together with sources on the internet, to pick colourful and flamboyant uniforms.

Here is the double page of Hussars (or as much as I can get in the scanner!):

The 7th Hussar Trumpeter from the Elite Company, resplendent in red uniform & white colpack, was an obvious choice.  

For BBB we use Standard bearers/flag stands to indicate troop quality (Raw = no flag stand, Trained = 1 Flag stand & Veterans = 2 Flag stands) - I wanted a 7th Hussar Command Base, with flag and Elite Company Trumpeter.  

I used 4 x Baccus French Hussars (NFR06) with 2 x French Elite Light Cavalry (NFR12).  The addition of Elite cavalry to each base provides elan and helps spread the Hussars further, so I can have more!  

The Elite troopers are based on the Chasseur a Cheval de la Garde Imperiale, so the plumes were moved to the front of the colpack.  I made a standard bearer by removing a trooper's sword and replacing it with a dress makers pin.  The flag is from Napflags and is free on the internet.

Here they are:

Here they are with the 5th Hussars (also a command stand):

So, a further stand finished - ready for the backlog of Napoleonic battles I hope to fight once we restart face to face gaming.  I hope that this inspires some of you to give these troops a go.

Stay safe & keep painting!

There's a bit more fluff on the photo table than normal, as it is currently part of a mask production line...  Also - now I've photo'd them, I have noticed that the bases need a little bit of tidying up....

Napoleonic Austrians 1792-98 - Baccus AWL 01 Figures review & conversion

I have previously mentioned the ongoing "French Revolutionary Army project".  This has lead on to the need for suitably attired Austrians for the Armies of the Revolution to oppose (and probably vanquish).  

They need breeches, gaiters, coats, falling (as opposed to standing) collars and a round pillbox hat with a false front - called a Kasket.  

I used the excellent WJ Rawkins "CB2 Austro-Hungarian Army" e-book for uniform references.  This source informed me that whilst Austrians in this period had rucksacks, they left them behind with the company wagons whilst going to battle.  So no packs needed.

Baccus 6mm miniatures has a wide range of troops, but no direct figures exist as a substitute.  

Time, therefore, to look further afield.....  to the American Revolution (or "war of independence", if you will....).  It was suggested on the Baccus Forum that AWL 01 "Loyalist infantry" would be capable for fighting for Kaiser and Empire, as well as King & Country.

So, I bought a pack, which arrived Monday.  Yesterday I got to unpack & review the little beauties.  Here they are:

Two types of figures - infantry on the right and command on the left:

The Command strip does not have a Standard Bearer or Drummer, it does have a soldier shouting (NCO?) and a soldier with a large bag tucked under his right arm.  He is not carrying a gun, which may be a mistake on his part.....  I christened him the "bagman"

The ordinary infantry look like this:

I originally planned to use Prussian Officers, Standard Bearers & Drummers.  Consulting Rawkins, the Austrian Officers wore Bicornes, but the Standard Bearers and Drummers wore the Kasket hat.  The regular infantry have falling collars, no packs and guns.  The Kasket on AWL01 has a rounded top, but once they have a suitable paint job, this should not be a problem.  

So, I decided to do some serious converting - chop the head off a Loyalist bagman and then join it to a Standard Bearer body.  The donor body's spare head would then be joined to the bagman, providing a suitable REMF guarding the wagons/mules.

It so happens that I have yet to select soldiers guarding the wagons for the army of Bavaria - so two donor Bavarian Standard Bearers were chosen.  I also had a spare Landwehr Standard Bearer, so the deed was done for a total of three conversions.  I chopped the heads off, drilled out the flag pole and inserted a pin (I do this on all my Standard Bearers - avoids flag pole droop...).  I glued the heads to the bodies and the side of the head to the pin, which makes for a stronger join.

There was a low point, where I was trying to find a tiny silver head that had "pinged" off the cutting mat onto the light grey carpet, but eventually I ended up with 3 Kasket topped Standard Bearers & 3 rear echelon troops, two Bavarians and one in a Bicorne.

The photos are not very good (sorry) but show progress to date.

I would recommend cutting the heads cleanly, trying to ensure that the swapped heads will fit well on the new bodies.  Sawing, in this scale, removes too much metal.

So, if you are interested in Austrians suitable for taking on the Revolutionary French, this may be the answer.  At the very worst, you trash a couple of figures.....  

I'll post again once they are painted and gaming table ready.

Planes from Storage 1

As we were clearing out our storage the other day, I found a box or two of treasures - painted 3 years ago, but still not photo'd or played with.

Here, for your delectation....

Checkertail P40s

Hawk-75s of the Finnish Airforce....

All 1/600 Tumbling Dice planes (the Hawk 75s are Myrskys....), Decals from Doms Decals, stands Litko.

New Page - The Army of Wurttemberg 1809

I've just added a page - the Army of Wurttemberg 1809.  A couple of teaser photos....

From the Workbench - 4

A little while ago ......  OK, nearly three years ago, I started a Ju52 Floatplane project.  A couple of weeks ago I finished making it and got it underpainted.  Here is this weekend's work - the paint job.  Here goes:

As you can see, you get quite a lot of Ju52 for a penny!

In addition, I've increased the WW 1 collection a little:

HP 0/400 Heavy Bomber

Halberstadt CL2 in camo fabric.  These were used to bomb targets from low level, so I added rear MG (of course!) and bomb racks for the gunner to drop on the Tommys!

I am quite pleased with the "pointillist" camo result.  

Once they have been gloss varnished I'll apply transfers (decals) and we'll see what the finished result looks like.