I first had the idea of an Austrian force for Sharp Practice ages ago, back in 2019 but I didn't do anything about it until 2021, once I'd got round to buying an initial tranche of Perry figures. Even then, they sat around in a pile of other boxes until this summer. Here are my first completed figures;
Next, two groups of German Fusiliers (Perry doesn't do plastic Hungarian troops) so I was denied the chance to paint Fusiliers wearing nice sky blue Hungarian trousers.
My project will have a total of six groups of eight Fusiliers, officers and NCOs, all from the 57th Regiment, which had mauve (officially described as "pale red") facings and yellow metal buttons. I've been working on these solidly for two weeks now and are all painted. I'll do another couple of posts about them soon.
I actually bought two boxes of infantry and an extra command sprue, which gave me enough bodies to do a separate unit of Landwehr in four groups of ten if I field them as Militia or five groups of eight if I want to use them as an 1813-15 regimental fourth battalion, which was comprised of Landwehr. There will also be leaders, obviously. These are undercoated so I'll get round to them soon.
The command sprues also contain pioneers with aprons, so I have three of these too. I don't really have any specific use for these, but each company had one pioneer. I've painted them up and I'm sure I'll find a use for them, maybe in specific scenarios.
I also bought some metal Grenzers to use as skirmishing troops. I have enough of those for three groups of six plus a couple of leaders. These are also undercoated and will be my priority now that all the Fusiliers are done.
In addition I have a box of Chevaulegers, which are glued together but not yet undercoated and another of Hussars (so pretty, I just had to get some). To round things off I bought some Eagle Miniatures Jägers which I will probably use as rifle-armed Landwehr Schützen. The figures aren't strictly accurate for Austria as they aren't wearing gaiters, but they will look fine when painted.
This has turned into a much bigger project than originally planned, but that is always the way, isn't it?
Wow! These look great, and it is certainly an exciting project.
ReplyDeleteCouple more boxes and you can have the makings of a Black Powder army too...
But I'm never going to play Black Powder, though. Sharp Practice is always going to be my Go To rules for the Horse and Musket era.
DeleteCarole -
ReplyDeleteSharp Practice sounds like the kind of rule set good for 'affairs of outposts' - 'der kleine krieg' - the sort of thing that might happen any day between the great battles - or even on their fringes. I like the Austrians - my favourite not-French army - partly, I suspect, because I reckon the white uniform has such a battlefield 'presence'. I've been working lately on rounding off my own Austrian Army - a unit of hussars (painted as the 7th or 10th) and a unit of Grenze. These are Minifigs metals.
Now, Minifigs don't 'do' grenzers specifically, so I used Hungarian figures as 'near enough'. With brown jackets and full length blue pants, they look like what they are supposed to be. As you're using shako-hatted guys, it seems to me you could paint them up as Hungarian, the blue of the pants going down to the shoes. Just a thought. As I am very fond of the dramatic looking helmet the Austrians favoured until about 1806 (or so), most of my army is so accoutred even for 1815 campaigns.
I like your 57th 'Graf J. Colloredo' Infantry. I'll be looking out for more on this project.
Cheers,
Ion
Yes, Sharp Practice is ideal for larger skirmishes. The rules allow for nice narratives to develop during play and the role of leaders is very important. As for Austrian headgear, I did think about doing mine in helmets, but I decided to go with the shako in the end for speed of painting as much as anything else. I might hold fire on Hungarians for a while and save them up for a couple of groups of Grenadiers. That would look pretty spectacular, I think.
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