Today we go back to my first love, the Napoleonic Austrian army, more specifically the artillery arm, with a battery of 6pdr guns. These will come in handy when we play LaSalle, which requires big 4 gun batteries. Anyways one can never have too many Napoleonic guns. I did myself no favour in the competition though as it always takes me forever to paint Napoleonic artillery!
I said it before and I'll say it again; the Austrians just knew how to look good in the field. No exaggerated fluff, no looking like Christmas trees, just a simple and smart dress, and the artillery was no exception. The guns are Sash & Saber, which are by far my favourites and really the only one I use, and the figures are Perry Miniatures. I must say I cursed a lot while cleaning the Perry figs, and it reminded me why I avoid them these days (heresy, I know). The sculpts are great, but the castings were horrendous. Anyways, I'll admit painted and finished they do look pretty good! As usual with the Perrys, the animation makes the figures.
The guns were painted using Foundry Ochre triad and finished with AP, and I really like how they came out. After many experiments in the last few weeks, these were also the first unit to get my new way of painting whites for cloth, using Andrea white paint set. It's less pure white than what I used to do, but I think it's more subtle and more realistic.
If I can muster the courage, and if Curt keeps the madness going next year, I'd like to paint a caisson and some limbers for my guns during next year's challenge! But not this year, I can only manage painting artillery in small dosage!
These guys should have their baptism of fire pretty fast, as we have a game planned in just a few weeks.
I believe this quatuor of guns adds 100 pts to my total. Not bad.
The Austrians are my second favorite after the "christmas tree" French, LOL. I have always loved their artillery - the brown coats and yellow and black carriages - pure class! Yous came out nicely, and the basing looks great, too. I see you're also a "bronze barrel" adherent like myself.
ReplyDeleteI have a Perry Cavalry 6# and howitzer to paint up - while I agree with you 100%b about Sash and Saber guns, they don't make the distinctive Cavalry pieces, even though I harangue the owner at every Historicon about making some! :-)
FOUR model batteries for Lassalle - OUCH! At the same time, I suppose you can't have more than 2-3 batteries at the very most.
For the record I do love Christmas ;-)
DeleteRe, bronze barrels : I can't see how they would stay black in the field. I would assume the longer they were used, the darker the bronze (with the reaction to blackpowder).
Well the four model batteries really look awesome on the table, but yes you rarely need more than a few batteries. And if I play a game with 2 guns batteries, well I have an embarrassment of riches, so no downside to the big battery ;-)
Nice looking artillery, love their uniforms too!
ReplyDeleteThe Austrian army of the Napoleonic Wars is one of my favorites as well. Sharp dressed men, all of them! I prefer the Austrians with their colored regimental distinctions over the egalitarian French, don't you?
ReplyDeleteNice work on you artillery. Very handsome indeed!
Great looking unit, looking forward to looking down their barrels.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Hi Iannick:
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I commented on this on the AHPC Blog but I really liked these figures. You do a great job of doing Naps in the big scale, and the basing is very dynamic. Bravo!
Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments!
ReplyDelete