Who're you?

Considering I'm supposed to have all the time in the world I never seem to have time to do things when I remember them; and I'm easily distracted. This isn't much use if you're supposed to be pursuing a project with an almost fanatical single minded approach.

Since the last proper posting back in June, I've been on me jollies, done some decorating and actually painted some leads, but the Olympics were a hell of a distraction. Normally I'm a rugby union and boxing with occasional league and a bit of football thrown in bloke, but I became fascinated by the field and track, judo, canoeing, rowing, boxing (obviously), hockey, handball; the list goes on. The big 'newies' for me were certainly handball and judo. Of course I knew a bout them, but they really caught my attention.

While I spent the nineteen days of sporting bliss polishing the settee, but my son-in-law actually made it to one of the men's Hockey days in the Olympic Park and came back full of beans. He was very impressed with all of it.

So, that explains (mostly) why I've been pretty idle for the past couple of months, but I doesn't explain why I'm bothering to explain. It's not as though anyone's life has been endangered by the silence and in our house it'd be welcomed! Nevertheless, you can't overcome the old protestant work ethic eh?

Anyway, time for a moan, but it's really more of an observation. Young Henry has got his own library tickets (his mother enrolled him a couple of months ago when he'd just turned one – she can't keep up with the demand for books!), which means that for the foreseeable future he's going to need ferrying to and from the library: this is where I come in. I resurrected my ticket (it's a swipe card thing actually) with the idea of seeing how much reading material of any reasonable quality the government cuts had left us. Not overly much round here, I'm afraid, but I won't go into politics just now. However, I did do a quick exercise to see if a perennial 'problem' with libraries still exists – and it does. You can still find, say, volume two or volume four of any series, but never volume bloody one! Where do they go? Do the Libraries Department only buy one copy of the first volume? Is the same bugger renewing it all the time? Has somebody nicked it? Has it worn out? If there are any librarians out there, what's the answer?

Well, enough of this interesting stream of consciousness crap and on with the leads. I've churned out Austrian and French napoleonic line troops and boring they are, so I thought I'd just bung up a few piccies of (to me) the more interesting stuff.

First off is a shot of the Baden Baden battalion actually based and ready for the table. As with just about any unit, they look a lot better based up, but they're still the most boring looking unit I've got. This probably means they'll be red hot on the board and put far prettier units to shame.

The next batch of photos are all Austrian command bases for the Napoleonic project. They're a mix of 'old' Battle Honours (pre move to the US) and AB. Nice figures let down only by the need for speed and a sloppy paint job – a dark wash and brush up or pretty fast layering.

Austrian Corps HQ

 

Austrian Div HQ

Austrian Brigadiers

These figures all all a mix of battle Honours, AB Austrian Napoleonics and AB Revolutionary Wars. yes, I know, but it's my army and I can do what I like!

The following shots are of the fist grenzer unit (there'll be four, all different regiments – very unhistorical), each battalion being represented by a support base and four skirmisher bases. In my rules (still in unending development), a battalion has either three or four bases each of six figures for standard or large units – cribbed from Shako. Light infantry units are two types, the better being , say, French or British which have three 'normal' line bases, but two of which convert to two skirmish bases each, giving the configuration mentioned above. Poorer skirmishers can only operate in this skirmish formation, whereas the better units can revert to normal line configuration. Does that make sense? Anyway, here are the 1^st Szeckler:

This is (more or less) what they'll look  like on the board

There's a bit of a debate as to whether the grenz regiments fought as line or skirmish troops after Mack's reforms when he tried to shoe horn them into operating as line units. I've taken the skirmish option, but only given them average capabilities (might restrict this further), which is certainly a downgrade from the earlier period. Still, I'm happy with this (for now anyway!).

The figures are from the new AB Revolutionary Wars packs (I think the later ones are crap by comparison) and are a bit of a challenge in that they represent three variations of the field uniform. There's no definite answer (as far as I know) as to the leg wear of the troops, some source saying the 'domestic' white trousers, others the  tighter blue Hungarian style, but both are represented here. So, as I planned four battalions anyway I'll probably do a couple of mixed units (as with this one) and one each with all white or all blue trousers. The battalions will each be from different regiments, giving different facing colours,which is hopelessly inaccurate, but they're in the wrong uniforms for the 1809 campaign anyway, so I can comfortably live with that. ;O) 

Finally, an old Old Glory figure I found when I was in the process of sorting out the loft and ditching stuff. This chap was bent and battered, but still primed and stuck to his bottle top. I didn't have the heart to bin him after such devotion to duty, so he's ended up as a brigadier for my partly finished French Dragoon Brigade. I've taken liberties with the uniform details, but nobody's going to notice when his brigade is riding over their units eh?

And so that's it for now. Sometime in the next few days I'll post the results and observations of a paint brush comparison I've been doing for the past three months or so. A couple of budget ranges of decent quality brushes against some mid range and top flight brushes. It's not as clear cut as you might imagine, so watch this space. I might also publish my answers to Fran and Ray's bloody insane questionnaire . . . .