More painting

Above an Elite Austrian - my first ever Austrian to paint

Todays Musings
So I have formed my Imagination Blog (http://jacko-thedancingbear.blogspot.com/) called The Principality of Rio) for the formation of my 1710 Imaginary army. Ion already has some troops painted, I have the figures I just need to paint them. So in the Rio blog I shall endeavor to sort out my army list and have a special area for pictures from that regime.

Some painting updates -
I am painting a raft of figures at the moment from different nations and periods. The variety is keeping me entertained and the paints I used are on all figures pretty much.

A single British infantryman from my Indian Wars skirmish set. I think from memory I have about 24 to go and I also vaguely recall these Front Rank figures are 14 years old.

And the single French infantryman I'm painting - from the Orleans Regt. This is a Redoubt figure, quite different from other redoubt figures but very nice. I have about 10 of these, some farmers and about 30 Mohicans to finish. Once they are done I plan to do some skirmish games.

Below - Another Russian unit being added to the Allies - The Revel Regt. Base layers done highlights to go. They look better in real life than they do in that photo and the yellow shoulder straps should give a good bit of colour.



Some dismounted Perry Dragoons of the Italian Guard Dragoons. The pack comes with quite a few which will be quite usefull - Im not sure if for a game or a Viginette......perhaps foraging for some pigs.



Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr. 10 - one of my Prussian reserve units. Bigger tha normal (30 as opposed to 20) but lower quality. I can't wait to have the Prussian milita Brigade in action (90 figures in Battalion mass). My only Lanwher unit ran at the sight of its own shadow in the first game so will be interesting to see how 3 units get on.


And the 1/52nd Foot for my British - Old Glory figures and I quite like them. 30 to a pack though so the leftovers will be converted into Riflemen.


And thats about it for today.

Stock Take

Last night I retrieved my box of Unpainted Allies in order for me to sort out the Landwher and Militia units that I need painting. I’ve found some anomalies in my figures in that I appear to have more units than I have recorded.

I have 3 Russian Old Glory Units painted and I was under the impression that I only had 1 OG Unit to go but I appear to have 2 – that’s always a good sign. So following are my list of Units to paint as well as loose army lists.

Anyway here is a pic. I have an absolute love for Militia troops, I dont know why - I guess its the swagger of masses of ill-trained men marching against trained troops.





British
Painted – 1/33rd Foot, 2 RHA and 1 RA Bty.
Unpainted - 1 KGL Hussar (Redoubt- half painted), 1/52nd (Old Glory-75% Painted), 1/7th Foot and 2/69th Regiment of Foot (Redoubt), 1/1stnd Foot, 2/2nd Foot(Front Rank), 2/73rd and 1/79th Foot (Cameron Highlanders) 749Highland (Victrix),

Belgian
Unpainted - 7th (Belgian) Line Regiment, 35th (Belgian) Jaeger , 4th Line (Belgian) (Victrix)

Russian
I have mixed up some unit names – When posting on the blog I need to remember to check things first !

Painted – Murmansk Inf Regt,21st Jaeger, Taureda Grenadiers, 3 Horse Artillery, Finland Dragoons, Astrakhan Cuirrassiers
Unpainted – Revel Inf Regt (25% Done), Chernigov Inf Regt, Pavlov Guard (25% Done), Selenguinsk Inf Rgt, 1 Horse Artillery.

Prussian
Painted - 2nd Silesian Hussars, 2nd West Prussian Dragoons, 2 Foot Bty, 16th Infantry Regt(Carmine), 5th Infantry Regt (Orange), Jaegr No 3, Neumark Landwher Bn No 8, Pomerania Landwher Cavalry no 2

Unpainted 2 Foot Bty, , Reserve Infantry Regiment Nr. 10, 10th Infantry Regt, Pomerania Landhwer Inf No 1, Rhineland (Militia)(50%) Inf, An Unknown Dragoon Unit)

I also remembered that I use my Prussian Jaeger Incorrectly in that;

i) They were armed with Rifles (I have just been treating them as normal muskets)
ii) They were attached to units, so I need to spread mine about a bit
iii) They didn’t have a standard (But I knew that already – I just couldn’t help adding one at the time)
iv)The last battle report had the wrong Unit numbers.

Austrian
Unpainted - 1 Line (Elite 300% Painted) – I thought I had 3 ?

French Allies
Painted -
Redoubt- 3 Line, 1 Cuir, 2 Lancer
Old Glory- 1 Gren
Front Rank- 6 Line, 2 Dragoon, 1 Cuir
Minifig- 2 Gren\Chassuer
God knows how many guns I have done.

Unpainted -
Redoubt - 1 Lancer
Victrix - 3 line (One is 70% done)
Minifig - 1 Line (25% done)
Perry – 1 Dragoon, 1 Hussar

Yikes ! So quite a varied lot of figures to be done. I am currently painting 8 figures each from 4 nations to keep the interest rolling.

What have I got left you ask ?
28mm WW2 (RoE), 15mm WW2 (A bit aimed at Skirmish games), 20mm WW2 (A tonne), 25mm Sudan (For Skirmish), 15mm Napoleonic, 6mm Napoloenic, 6mm ACW, 1/72 ACW and 1/72 !8th Century aswell as 28mm French and Indian Wars.

Grosshuntersdorf 1813

http://archdukepiccolo.blogspot.com/2010/07/napoleonic-campaign-continues.html.

Ion and I continued the loose campaign we had going that is a flow on from previous games. After my reverse at the Falsover River Von Jaxen had retreated and planned a spectacular ambush of the French as they surged towards Berlin. The French were strung out along the road while the Allied entered from the South, and while outnumbered,  the Allies had hoped that choke points would constrict the French formations and enable them to punch a hole throught the French Centre (With some luck! ). (Below the French Forces march east towards Berlin)

Jager Bn No 3 (With unhistorical Landhwer Standard :)) and the 2nd Silesian Hussars were assigned the task of drawing in as much of the French Left flank as they could.

My Centre and Right Flanks were ordered to push into the French at speed and not stop until "you see the whites of their eyes". The pic below shows the centres ragged line of the 16th Prussian Infantry, Murmansk (Russian) Infantry and the Astrakhan Grenadiers making haste for the French while the Finland Dragoons attenpt to carry the guns, while on the right 21st (Russian) Jager and the 4. 2nd West Prussian Dragoons harried the French Squares.

More action in the centre.

On the left flank the Jager held the French left  , while the 6th Prussian Infantry defended the edge of the woods from 2 French Line marching in disorder. A Legere unit was quickly seen off however a French column struck (A French Column charging through woods in disorder is a sight to see !) and a melee ensued that lasted for 3 turns from memory but the end result was the Prussians simply running out of men.
(pics to come)

In the centre all I needed was some luck and this is where things went wrong ! The Russian Dragoons never made it and the French Artillery exacted 100% casulties each round.  16th Infantry and the Murmansk Infantry stopped after some pounding from the Artillery to leave the Astrakhan Grenadiers to attempt to carry the French line alone. They engaged in short range fire with the French Line and both units suffered badly. I just couldnt get anything to go my way until at the end when it didnt really matter (My morale held though even despite a pasting)

Below is the end result - Prussian Hussars and the Artillery (Quite useless on the day) watch the Allied line bolt past them.

Conclusion - another reverse and my army is sent streaming into the hinterland. Todays game with laced with poor dice rolling on my behalf. My artillery was abysmal, I think the entire game they exacted 3 casualties while Ion's artillery took 7 in the first round of firing. Trying to get superiority of numbers at strike points is also an issue when my units are weaker than the opposition, and I am outnumbered but with some luck I could of have at least punched the French centre.

His army battered  and the French looking forward to Sausage in Berlin - What will Von Jaxen do now ?  He really needed to make contact again with Brigadier Kittenhatz and his Brigade of Landhwer.

[And curse that 12pdr and curse that camera ! Whem my camera decides it has run out of juice it gives you 3 seconds of life left and then turns off. ]

Small Update

Tonight I'm trying to get the Allies up and running for an upcoming game. Most of my troops needed rebasing anda few figures added\improved. I guess I was in such a rush for the last game I went t a little too fast and never got around to tidying up. Currently on the table are:

3 Prussian units being rebased, 2 Russian and 2 Allied Cavalry, on the painting area are they 12 figures needed to tidy up the units and the time honoured cup of tea.

Weekend Works

A weekend of some activity as Ion and I may have a game coming up this week. Arabella is teething and her grumpy times seem to be just as I sit down to do something - such is life.

Currently I am mounting and basing some Russian Dragoons, and tidying up the basing of my existing Russian and Prussian forces (Going to double bases). I am also adding some new Standards to some units and those half painted ones that I ahve the command completed for.

Due to poorlighting, dead camera and the kitchen bench covered in dishes,slowcookers and other "hobby" paraphenalia I will show some older pictures instead.

My painting "area" - which is the dinner table. When I paint I need to get everything from the cupboard and set it all up, then at the end of the night put it all away (Arabellas high chair sneakily became a storage area while this goes on). Once we move to a bigger house I plan to have a more dedicated area where I have more space and dont have to move everything.

Of the CSA forces I have done some infantry regiments and some artillerymen (All 1/72 Italeri), I'll finish a few more infantry units before I do the Cavalry. Below are some Gunners (and those in the background), I quite like the mix of gray and red and all I need to do now is finish the guns.(The black fellows are an undercoated infanrty unit)

And finally an infantry unit to be based. When I undercoated the  figures I had the brainwave of basing them first. I really dont know why I did that as I just had to take them off to paint. Not as much detail painted on the 1/72s as I find 3 layers is too much for them, so I just run 2 layers.

After I get my Allies sorted I will finish the ww2 28mm  Russians (yes Hayden !) and get some pics up - I have about 30 Russians, 1 76.2mm AT gun, some mortars and some HMG's. I also need to finish the PzIV, the germans and the French !

ACW

Wow almost another month of World Cup action. Spains win today ended my ridiculous schedule of 2am and 6am wakeups.

After reading one of the ArchDuke Piccilo's posts on his CSA Cavalry I got out my CSA troops and started to paint. ACW and napoleonics were my first periods and my ACW are all 1/72 plastics, there is something about painting these figures in 1/72 that is quite nostalgic for me. I think it has been 13 years since I had an ACW game but in those days I used to play every 2 weeks roughly for at least 4 years. I have even managed to find some old units, I think they would have to be 19 years old so its bringing back some memories.

Currently painting the following;
8 Gun and crew
2 23man Cavalry units
8 Infantry Units
And various tidy ups of existing troops.

Its taken a few days of experimenting to get the painting  colours and style right but I think I have it now. The Italeri figures are quite neat so its quite refreshing. It is also amazing how many 1/72 you can paint compared to lead 28s.

Photos to come.