Austrians!

[jdp]

Like most gamers I have the attention span of a goldfish if I am not given a clear goal. In the past I went to GTs and every year I painted up a new army for the years competition. Thus I now have six fully painted 40k armies. Then I got into FOW. I am playing once a week and have knocked out four armies in that system.
These are the games I play most but I have enough armies that I have no burning need to finish any new armies and thus have been adrift for awhile now. I paint some Epic and then I paint some Warmaster but I don't have local friends who play these games and I haven't been able to muster the will to finish two armies to host at my gaming group.
Then my friend Joe told me about a new game his friend Dave had played and loved. Lasalle was going to bring Napoleonics to the masses and do so through well written rules with army lists designed for tournament play. There it is gentle readers the spark we needed! I have always liked the idea of Napoleonics, cool uniforms, men ranked up behind command staff with flags and flashing swords, bigger than life commanders shaping the destiny of a continent, this was a goal to aspire to!
I needed an army and had no desire to fight on the Peninsula like Joe and his East coast crew but fortunately the French had a stalwart foe I could respect on the continent, Archduke Charles and the Austrians! These guys went toe to toe with the French for 15 years and often got the worst of it but had some notable wins on the way to ultimate victory. They wore snazzy white uniforms with colored trim to boot!
So there we have it kids, a Lasalle Austrian division in the offing! Currently I am painting IR13, the 13th Infantry Regiment who had dark green facings on their uniforms. I have almost completed the first stand of six and should have a picture up soon. I have three 36 man infantry battalions and two eight horse cavalry units of Chevaux-Legers from Sash and Sabre models to paint currently and then will be picking up the new Victrix plastic to suplement the infantry. The rest of the models, principally cavalry will come from Old Glory who will also be supplying my 10mm Napoleonic force for the same system via their "Old Glory Army" deal.
So that's it for now updates will follow, hopefully regularly but you never know!

[The Iron Duke]

Looking forward to this. My dad's an Austrian and collected Napoleonics as a kid, and I always wanted to paint up a few Austrians as a gift for him, so I hope you don't mind if I steal some tips from you. Good luck!

[emperorpenguin]

I look forward to seeing them, austrians are possibly my favourite napoleonic army. Unsung, largely ignored by gamers, no fancy pants guard units for them, I can't wait!

[sigur]

Very much looking forward to this.

[jdp]

Alright so here is a brief non-picture update, yeah I know if it ain't a pic it ain't real...
So my first unit is moving along. I have a stand of six which just need its base finished and then its done. the next five bases are 3/4 of the way through basecoating. Since I'm doing 30 guys at once progress is slow, I spent 45 minutes just basing backpacks earlier today! However this will let me finish a whole unit at once. Will I do this for the next unit? We'll see but I think I'll probably do one stand of guys at a time next unit.

I have had a change of heart as to where I am getting my miniatures. While Old Glory 2nd Ed. is very nice, sculpted by the same guy who does Sash and Sabre, the rest of their line is inexpensive shall we say. Since I am putting a lot of time into this project I have decided to get a higher quality of miniature. I have selected Front Rank Miniatures for my non-plastic figs. I plan on placing a decent size order this week or next. Looking to grab six units or so.

Army list wise I think I have decided to start out with an Austrian Avant-Garde Division. This works for me for a couple of reasons but mostly because I will be getting a unit of Jaegers, two big units of Grenz, two big units of infantry, a big unit of Uhlans and a horse artillery unit. On the attack I'll get an additional unit of Hussars and one more of infantry.
That's a lot of different stuff to paint as opposed to just 8 units of infantry or grenadiers.

[jdp]

I finished up my first stand of Austrian infantry today, I'll try to take some pictures and put them up tomorrow if the weathers decent.

:Edit: Just kidding about having finished that stand. I just received a new book on the Austrians and it turns out most of what I thought was black leather was actually white leather so I am repainting those parts, hopefully pictures tomorrow.
Good gracious the Hapsburgs loved their white!

[jdp]

So here is a quick picture of my first stand of Austrians.



This is IR13 one stand of six in a Lasalle large battalion.

P.S. This is a photo from a new camera indoors at night, expect better pictures in a little while after I have a chance to play around with the camera some more and shoot in the daylight!

[big p from gmg]

Those are rather pretty... Doing Austrians in 15mm so you are way braver than I am!

[jdp]

@ Big P. : Thanks! They are actually 28s from Sash and Sabre. I like 15s for WWII but when I drop scales for Napoleonics I'm going to go all the way down to the Grand Scale of 10mm.

So here are some more pictures of my first stand, I think these came out better.


so here are the guys, left, right, and center. Hmmm... that reminds me of a drinking game.







So what do you think folks? Comments and criticism are both welcomed and apreciated!

[Codsticker]

Those look like very nice sculpts for 15mm, and a very tidy paint job to boot.

[sigur]

I think those are 28mm, right?

Anyway, the new pictures look much better. Nice work there. Do you always use that kind of cloth as background for taking pictures? I tend to get problems with my autofocus when using textured backgrounds.

[Codsticker]

Neveremind... you are correct; I was going by big p from gmp 's post but I see now that jdp corrected him.

[jdp]

@codsticker: Thanks, they are actually 28s, a little small compared to GW heroic stuff, but larger than old true 25s. Lots of nice detail and the price is right, $50US for 50 men, can't beat that! Only problem is Sash and Sabre has relatively incomplete lines currently. Hehe you posted a correction while I was typing, disregard my they are 28s comment!

@Sigur: Thank you. I just grabbed a hand towel to give myself a neutral backdrop. I have had decent success with this method. I actually threw the towel behind them because I was having trouble getting the autofocus to grab the miniatures, I think there was too much white for the camera.

So I have the next five stands dipped and under way. The question I am mulling about is how many flags to include. All battalions got a regimental standard but the first battalion also got the Imperial colors. I am a firm believer in flags = cool so am leaning towards giving all my units the twin flags spread over two stands so I have enough room for the officer and drummer as well. Then there is the question of where to get flags. The flag dude has some really nice stabdards that come mounted with finials and all sorts of crinkles whish I like. Also Ron is a nice guy, I met him at Origins last year. There are also the download your own flags which I might use as place holders from Warflags. Anyway I have thirty guys to finish off before I worry to much about the flags.

[bayard-88]

Very nice. I think whole unit will look great on the table

[jdp]

@Bayard 88: Thanks! I can't wait to have all 36 guys on the table myself.

So here is a quick update what I have in the to do pile, infantry and cavalry riders;



Here are the horses and 2 guncrews for my six pounders.



This is the reason my painting is slower than it used to be.



Little league hockey three to four times a week seriously cuts into the old painting time. That being said it was cool watching the boyo score a goal this week and grab a hat trick plus two two weeks ago!

[Codsticker]

+1 for sculpting your own hockey player.

[jdp]

+1 for sculpting your own hockey player.

Thanks, he's still a work in progress of course...

[jdp]

Well, I placed a large order with Front Rank today, four units of cav, tons of skirmishers, officers, and the big man himself Archduke Charles rearing on his grey waving his hat! Can't wait till they get here. Updates will definitely follow!

Edit:Package dispatched from Front Rank via Parcelforce Worldwide with guaranteed delivery of March 17th. Hopefully sooner!

Update Edit: USPS Express tried to deliver this order today March 15 whlie my son and I were out, I'll try to get it later today or early tomorrow. Needless to say I am impressed with how quick it arrived from England.

[jdp]

I picked up my front rank figs from the post office today! All figs present and accounted for, fast service considering it came trans-Atlantic to Ohio in seven days from ordering.

First impressions of Front Rank figs are definitely good. Detail is crisp mold lines are minimal. These are heroic 28s they scale very similar to current GW Cadians. They are definitely larger than my Sash and Sabre figs. They will look fine on the table together but I would not recomend mixing them within a unit. I'll be basing and priming some of these guys soon so I'll try to get some comparison shots done with some other figs. I'll try for an update on my painting which progresses. The problem is batch painting a unit of 36 guys is just slow work for me. That being said I'll sneak some WIP shots in with my comparisons.

[jdp]

So I finished my first unit for my Austrian division last night. Here they are in all their white and green glory, IR13!









This is a "large" unit under both Lasalle or Blackpowder. 36 men on 6 stands. Large units give you extra dice for shooting and hand to hand. They also tend to be harder to break. The down side is they can be unwieldy due to their size, they also take longer to paint and more cash to field! Austrians field large battalions for most infantry units something to remember before starting this army.
While I am using Lasalle to help generate my army it looks like I might be using Black Powder for the actual games. I have quite a bit of painting and building to go before I have a fieldable force so we'll see what rules win out in the end. Probably both!
My next unit will probably be cavalry. I have the horses painted for a unit of cheveux-legers but have fully assembled a unit of uhlahns who I might paint first, I love lancers!

As always C&C is desired folks!