An Unexpected Project.

For the last 25 year or so a bunch of about 200 Austrian figures have languished in a plastic bag or have been lying based(in varying stages of repair) in boxes in the garage. On Friday, on a bit of a whim, I took them out and decided to paint them and rebase them as to the standard of my current figures.  Austrians had historically larger battalions than those of the French but had the same number of companies (six). This would have meant that I would have had to have recut bases to signify a larger physical size of the battalion. I didn’t want to be bothered by all that so I decided to stick four figures to a base rather than the normal three. This meant that an 18 figure battalion now becomes a 24 figure battalion – with the same dimensions.  Visually, I think this improves the look of the battalion and the Austrians do take on the look of a battalion mass. All of the figures are Esci or Italeri and have the middle period Raupenhelm which in my humble opinion really define the Napoleonic conflict for the Austrians. I am no fan of the shako but of course will paint a post 1809 army later to take on the French at Leipzig.  I have 9 “German” battalions and one grenadier at the moment in the process of being painted and am having a ton of fun. Austrian line make for really pleasing figures inspite of the white uniforms.  Photos to come J