Napoleonic Austrians 1792-98 - Command Group - MK2 Conversions from AWL02

 Following on from my October post, I have now converted some AWL 02 Loyalist skirmishers into Command group figures.

The "loading" skirmisher figure holds his musket diagonally across his body, with his right hand at stomach height and his left hand at neck height.  

The first step is to remove the musket above and below the right hand and the bayonet above the left hand.

The second steps are:

Flag bearer - 

2.1 drill a hole in the right hand and insert a length of 0.4 or 0.5 mm dressmaking pin.  Either don't tell the dressmaker or buy a dedicated supply of pins!

2.2 attach the pin to the left hand and leave about 1 - 2 mm of pin below the right hand (to represent the foot of the flagpole in some sort of carrying belt).

Drummer - 

2.1 attach a drum under the left arm.  I used 2mm diameter plastic rod cut into a 3mm section.  I positioned the drum at an angle to that the hands were just above the top of the drum.

2.2 attach drumsticks to the hands.  I used some very thin wire that was decoration around a wine bottle.

2.3 embellish the drum with straps and a top hoop from the wire.

Fifer - 

2.1 remove the right arm and make a new one from wire.

2.2 attach a short length of staple to make the fife.

2.3 add a plastic fife case under the right arm.

Here's the unpainted figures - 

I plan to post again, once these are painted and based.  I hope this inspires you to have a go at Austrians 1792-98.  

The flag bearer is the easiest of these conversions, so you could just substitute in an officer and make a flag bearer, to get a suitable command group.  Or go mad with knife & glue and make some music!! 

Repurposing Baccus 6mm French Guard Grenadier a Cheval

Here's some (hopefully inspirational) examples of "other purposes" you can use French Guard Grenadier a cheval Baccus 6mm figures for...

This post was in response to a query on the Baccus website forum.

1. French Line Carabiniers (the obvious choice, really...).

2. French Line Dragoon Elite Co - as part of a command base. 

3. As part of a non-command base.

4. The Mounted Officer has been reemployed as a mounted officer of the Italian Guard - in this case the Grenadiers...

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)