Austrian Hussars

Unless you like tin figures there aren't any companies which make Hussars or Uhlans from the Austrian army. This presented me with a tad of a problem when I was trying to fill the ranks of my 1809 army. Here was my solution:

1) Horses are Zvezda Guard Lancers with the carbine at the side of the horse removed.
2) Bodies 1815 Prussian Hussars
3) Heads Hat Industrie Austrian Infantry
4) Carbines ESCI ACW Confederate Infantry (cut down) and glued flat onto the sabretache.

Ok, so they aren't the prettiest of my creations but they do at least look the part.

I need another two squadrons so the project continues. Next Up this year will be the Jägers, Grenadiers and the Grenzers. Fun times. Photos to come.

Austrian Uhlans

I must admit to having had an awesome Christmas. The weather has been great our holiday house has been filled with guests and is now mercifully empty again. I've been hiking and biking and beach walking with the family. I've eaten too much and caught up on some reading which I had been planning. On blog related matters I have something to report as well.  I finished the Austrians I had been painting and all they require now is basing. I have been working on head swaps for my hussars and the Uhlans are taking shape as well.  Actually, they are Zvezda French "Polish" lancers but they scrub up to be 1813 Austrian Uhlans at a pinch. A belated Merry Christmas to all who stumble across my blog

Austrians Revisited

After a  year of not painting I have finally restarted my project. I am painting the last battalions of my "German" infantry. I have decided to paint the Hungarian battalions at the same time. These figures  are really quite pretty in their ranks. I will have to see over the next few weeks if the interest in painting can be rekindled but I must admit to really enjoying getting the paint brushes back out again.

Random post just to keep the blog alive

One of my anal retentive tendencies is to wish to "finish off" a collection. When it comes to Osprey Publications, a small but significant number of earlier issues are advertised on their site but have been out of print for a good many years. This tempts me but gives me no way to scratch the itch (which is very annoying). This means that I have to turn my attention to sites like Amazon or Ebay. Over the last few months, I have scoured the globe looking for these titles and as of today am only 5 away from feeling replete. This will mean something like 215 titles sitting in my hobby nook waiting for me to take out my paint brushes so that they can be consulted. I am hoping that the sheer bulk of these will shame me in to restarting my hobby in the New Year. I haven't posted a single newly painted figure in over a year and that really isn't good enough.

Anyway.... Blog post finished.

Delayed New Titles

Being a  little country our international infrastructure does not have a great depth. Case in point being a couple of weeks ago when a farmer decided to do some digging on his farm and took out the only pipeline which brings aviation fuel from the Marsden Point refinery to the rest of the country. This meant that international flights were severely curtailed. On one of those flights was my latest package containing my Napoleonic/18th century purchases. Anyway....2 weeks late they are safe on my book shelf.

Going Back to the 18th Century

I'm going through a bit of a 7 Years War thing at the moment. All my figures are Napoleonic but that might change. Some really interesting history 50 years earlier!

New titles on the doorstep.

Got home from mowing, hacking and mulching up at our holiday house and found these on the door step. Another 10-ish titles still in transit. Pretty sure McMillan publishers have my picture on their fridge at work. I am branching out a little in to the Seven Years War and British Empire in India. As of now however , I  am going to focus on getting my Austrian figures together for a possible 2018 Jan start.
The cool thing about this weekend was that I was able to get some reading done. Right now I'm reading Citizen Emperor by Philip Dwyer. Napoleon from Dwyer's perspective was a megalomaniac and an opportunist who was also a pretty crappy general. Not sure I agree with Dwyer but he has certainly put in the research and presents a compelling line of argument. I guess the "romantic" Napoleon of the mid to late Eighteenth century is the image that I am most comfortable with.