Workbench

I now have permanent a workbench, the trouble is seems to get full of clutter

Currently I am slowly rebasing some 15mm Napoleonics and a unit of SYW Prussians are about to be issued their cheap and cheerful flags made from images on Kronoskaf.

At least the view from my hobby room across the Wharfe Valley is nice at this time if year.  

Some more re basing

Last year I started re basing my SYW collection using the Peter Gilder method. Here are some Saxon Hussars I did.

The trouble with this method is I found it took too long and whilst looking good would take me ages to do my SYW collection.

So I decided to try to replicate the classic look using an easier method that I could use on my existing bases as well as new figures.

First up some Prussian Red Hussars. These we origanally based some 15 years ago and I have tarted up the basing  rater than rebasing from scratch.

These have had their groundwork repainted and dry brushed.  The grass effect was then added using Woodland Scenics Light Green turf.  Once this was dry PVA was lighthly brushed on and a dusting of Javis Light Green Fine Turf was sprinkled on and the base tapped to remove excess. This provided a lighter contrast and mimicked the yellow dry brushing of the Gilder method.

Here is an example of a re based Front Rank Grenz officer.

And to finish off here are some units.  Old Glory Austrians rebased on smaller 30 by 40 bases. I have gone for smaller bases and have two 16 figure unit so I can play different rulesets on smaller tables but have the flexibility to have 32 figure units if required.

And some more of those Red Hussars. 

Downsizing - 6mm

I purchased some Baccus 6mm SYW figures at Vapnartak as part of my downsizing experiments.

Here are my first go at this scale. The Austrian Waldeck Regiment.  I have organised them as a 48 figure unit and based them on 2cm square bases.

I intend to use these for rules such as the Wargame and use markers for casualties and officer loses.  I will use cm rather than inches.

These chaps were actually a lot easy to paint than I thought.

The full unit deployed.

So I have tried 6mm, 10mm and 15mm in the last few months for my downsizing.  

So having tried all 3 of the smaller scales my verdict is........6mm

Zinnfiguren unit finished

The basing on my first complete unit of Zinnfiguren took a bit longer than planned.  

The unit is 17/22 Puttkamer Grenadiers as they may have looked at the Battle of Lobositz.  

Battle of Leuthen

Spent a very pleasant day yesterday gaming the battle of Leuthen at Chez Colin using Honours of War. 

The Battlefield is snowy (I do like model railway back drop). Looks cold.

Outside there was snow on the hills which added to the attmosphere.

The battles opens with the Reichs Armee units retreating in disarray.

 

A unit of Austrain Hussars bravely, some would say foolhardy, advance to cover the Reichs Armee retreat. 

The church, defended by the Rot  Wurzburg. 

Charge - the Austrian Hussars throw themselves at a unit of Prussian Cuirassier. Although they lost the Melee they did slow down the Prussian Cavalry.

The Rot Wurzburg look the part. So much so that the Prussians spent the whole game avoiding them and instead throw a few long range artillery shots into the church.

The Prussian advance gets on track. I am sure that every unit was classed as superior.

Austrian Cavalry finally arrive to stem the Prussian cavalry on the Austrian Left wing. 

A scene of the early moves showing Von Jarvies attacks on my poor Austrisn Infantry. 

Whilst the Austrisn left wing cavalry were able to stem the Prussian Cavalry there was little we could do against the  Prussian Infantry who superiority ground down the Reichs Armee and Austrian Infantry.

Der Jung Wellington (aka Dave - brush for hire) started the day slowly but picked up speed after an excellent lunch.

Boom, boom  Austrian artillery opens up. Robbie commanded the Austrian right wing. I was soo engrossed in my own battle that I had little idea of what he was up to.  I do know he lost a few Austrian generals as casualties.

The end is nigh as Prussian Infamtry demolish all before them.

All in all a thoroughly good day out with good company, great gaming and nice soup for lunch.

Seven Years War Zinnfiguren

Over on the AMG forum I was discussing gaming with Flats. Well as a result I decided to paint a unit of Prussian Grenadiers. 

I bought these figures from Fechner a while back but only painted a few as a tester.  

Well I have almost finished a unit, a few highlights to the faces needed, before basing them on a single 10 by 5cm bases.

This unit is the 17/22 Puttkamer Grenadiers.

This photo shows are thin these chaps are. 

I made a few mistakes and learnt a few tricks and I hope to get get these finished and based over the weekend.

I have some more Grenadiers and some Austrian Cuirassier to paint.  

I can see me doing some more of these.

Down Sizing - 10mm

My impending house move means gaming at home will use a small board on the kitchen table.  Whilst I can still use larger figures I will need to use smaller figures for those bigger games.  

I have painted a few 15mm however I have often thought I should have a go at some Pendraken 10mm SYW.  So I ordered a couple of packs of March Attack Infantry to see what how they painted up.  

Here are a few images of my first Austrian unit - the First battalion of the Waldeck Regt.

I have based these figures 6 to a 2cm square base.