Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Ottoman reinforcements

After bolstering the ranks of the electorate army last week, i decided that i needed to do hte same for the Turks. I've had most of these miniatures kicking around for a year, I just didn't have any motivation to paint them.

Sunday night I painted the last 8 tufecis skirmishers, and another officer. These figures are of course The Assault Group miniatures. I highly recommend them for anyone doing Ottoman Turks. the price seems a little high , but the quality is second to none, and shipping is free.
The freshly painted Tufecis Skirmishers(TAG minis)
all 3 groups of tufecis with 3 officers in the lead.


Next up i decided to finish off the 3rd  group of Timarli Sipahis. these would be the feudal Sipahis. once again, these are The Assault Group miniatures.

8 new Sipahis.

all 24 Sipahis in 3 ranks, with command in the lead


I decided that I am going to field them in 3 ranks of 8 (each rank a group)  because lets the Lancers make up the entire front rank, while the other 2 ranks are  swordsmen. another interesting thing is that the musician is actually an extra TAG polish trumpeter.

I have eventual plans to expand the Turks with a unit of 24 light cavalry(haven't decided between Delhis or  Akinjis), 2 unit of 24 Levent infantry and, after all that,  unit of 12 Sipahis of the porte.




Thursday, August 23, 2012

Giving the Electorate Some Love

so starting on Monday I began working on the remainder of the Metzger Kuirassier regiment for one of my Sharp Practice Imagination armies, the Electorate of Lustigzollern - Großgesaß. I had an officer and one squadron of 8 figures.  this week I've polished off the remaining 2 squadrons of 8 figures and the remaining 3 command figures. everything but Colonel figure  are crusader Austrian cuirassier figures. the colonel figure is a Front rank Austrian Curiassier officer.

the Metzger Kuirassier regiment with command front and centre.
Colonel Metzger at the left and Rittmeister Szólát at the right.


and tehn last ngiht i decided to finish of the battallion artillery contingent. i had 2 guns and 8 crew painted already, but i needed to finish the limbers and ammo carts. the guns and crew are Crusader austrians, and the  limbers and ammo carts are Front Rank.

Battalion artillery contingent of the Kurfurst regiment



Some people might ask why the battalion gun crews are all in artillery uniforms instead of some being in the parent regiment's uniform.  In the Electorate army, battalion guns are actually from a special light artillery company in the artillery arm. This artillery company is parceled out to the regiments upon the beginning of a campaign.  during peace time, they train with both the infantry regiment they are assigned to, and with the company in batteries.  this has come in useful in the field, as the battalion guns can be detached and from a light battery of their own if need be, and still be effective. but to do so, it was decided from the start that they need to be self-sufficient, and cannot rely on additional manpower from the regiments. thus the battalion guns are manned entirely by the artillery arm.




Thursday, August 16, 2012

French Brigade and Russian Beginnings

It's been about 3 weeks since i last posted.  Ive taken up reenacting(war of 1812) this summer, with  the 21st US infantry, Treats Company.  my location is well suited to 1812, since I live right in the middle of  "1812 country".  I joined a US unit, because there aren't enough reenacters of US units  in Canada, and I have friends in the unit.

Anyway, I've had 2 weekends in a row with reenactments that soaked up a lot of my time(this last weekend being teh Seige of  Old Fort Erie, and all-weekend affair).  and  in between them i did a rush job on a trio of 40K  Baneblades for a friend.  I also got another squadron of Metzger Cuirassier mostly done along with a few more curiassier command for my imagination army.

Also I finished the french brigade. Actually I finished painting it about 2 weeks ago, I just hadn't grassed the arty and 2 infantry units until this morning.

Full Perry French Brigade

Close up on Artillery battery and Brigade commander

These are a commission for a friend.  i was paid for this(and another unit each of line and skirmish, 24 figures, to come) with 2 Warlord Russian starter armies.  unfortunately I'm going to have to wait until i can get command to start painting my Russians.  i was rather horrified to find out i had 192 Russian musketeers with no command!  In the past with other plastic sets, the command were also in plastic(like the ECW battalion starter army) so i just assumed there would be.  i mean, who would want 96 musketeers with NO command?  so I'll have to make a order direct to Perry Bros. for 18(!) command sprues. on the plus side, it does mean once i acquire the perry command,  i wil only have to add my artillery and jagers to finish off the corps.


Speaking of Russians, I did start painting a few and re-testing colours for Russian green.  to do this i painted a perry Russian high command set.   One of the first things i thought of when i heard the Perry's were doing russians was that i would finally get a good command vignette.  and to not dissappoint, the perry's scuplted a scene from  the battle of Borodino, which appears on hte back cover of the F.-G. Hourtoulle book about the same battle.

the characters pictured are as follows from the left: General Wilson(Britsh Observer) General Yermolov, General Barclay de Tolly, General Osterman-Tolstoy, General Kutuzov, General Ouverov, General Kutaissov, and Colonel Toll.


Perry command vignette picturing a scene from Borodino
These figure were spectacularly sculpted.  After having painted some french command which I though were a little rushed in their sculpting, these were an absolute joy to paint. I hope the Perrys sculpt some russian jagers in forage caps skirmishing. I need about 32...

hte next army command stand I'd like to get would be Foundry's Napoleon & staff(at Borodino).  it has Napoleon looking decidedly unhappy, with arms cross and feet up on a drum.

over teh next few weeks I'm probably going to be working mostly on imagination stuff, with perhaps a little tangent on some peninsular war British.