MY SEVEN YEARS WAR IN 30mm AND 40mm
Austria - Regiment IR3 Carl Lothringen,
Austrian Infantry Regiment IR3 Carl Lothringen, together with their grenadiers, march out of barracks in preparation for the presentation of their colours next week. The second btn. is still understrength, but hopes to be at full strength, together with their colonel next week for the full ceremony.
Scale Comparisons
Feedback to my new range on social media has been fantastic, so today, I thought that I would give readers an idea of scale comparisons, although the images do not really do it justice.
Like for like, Crann Tara, Minden, Savoy, My range
My own range has been scaled at 30mm from bottom of shoe to tip of bare head.
A small peek at my first Austrian regiment.
The colour party for Austrian regiment IR3, Carl Lothringen. Hopefully fully recruited and ready to parade next week.
Many thanks again to all who have shown interest and visited my blog.
Prussian Infantry Regiment IR23. von Forcade de Biaix
This is the first completed unit in my new 30mm collection. The regiment has two Btn's, 1st Btn in the foreground with colours, and the 2nd Btn following behind. The colours are hand painted on tin strips, and feature the Leibfahne and a Kompaniefahne 1747-1806.
Each Btn is made up of five bases of six men, giving a 30 man btn. Also included are two bases of six grenadiers which will be converged in action, a btn gun, command figures and a mounted officer. "Big" regiments is the order of the day...spectacular on a wargames table.
IR23 was raised in 1713. It was considered an elite unit, hard fighting and one of the best in the Prussian army.During the Seven Years War, Friedrich Wilhelm von Forcade, Marquis de Biaix commanded.
My next featured unit will be Austrian Infantry Regiment IR3 Carl Lothringen.
It certainly seems a long time since my last post, and so much has happened in the interim period, too much to discuss now but certainly in the future.
So last year, I had a long conversation with well known eighteenth century wargamer John Ray, about what I was doing, and what my plans were for the future. My eighteen century 40mm armies were up to date, and after doing my demonstration game at Partizan, I felt that I had exhausted the scale, if not the period. I had never felt 100 percent happy with the 40mm collection, and having regularly seen John's collection on his forum, I felt that I could have done better. In the course of our conversation, John suggested that I start again, and after a few days of considering the logistics of starting from scratch, I decided to give it a go. I wanted a 30mm figure which was distinctive, anatomically accurate, but with the potential to convert. It needed to fit in with the eighteenth century linear look, but it also had to have the potential for conversion, to allow the production of vignettes. I was basically looking for a figure that was the same scale and detail as the old Phoenix ceremonial range, had the character of a Willie/Edward Suren figure, and had the look "en masse" of the old Stadden sculpts.
So I was off, I would hire a professional sculptor to do the masters, and make vulcanise moulds and cast them on my own centrifugal casting equipment. I drew up a plan in four phases which would ultimately give me reasonable armies for Prussia, Austria/Hungary/Croatia. (No point in producing half a range.) As many of the figures were quite similar for both nations, masters could be converted and cast, to reduce sculpting costs. The first phase would be Prussian/Austrian infantry and officers, second phase cavalry, third phase artillery crews and fourth phase Croats and Hungarians.
I decided that Andrew Stadden would be the ideal sculptor for my job, I contacted Andy last November, and we arranged a sculpting program, which would fit in with my casting and painting needs.I explained to Andy the style of figure I was looking for and supplied uniform specs for each model. To make make casting easier, and to allow less compromise with the sculpting, we decided to produce figures with separate arms. This is probably unique among wargaming figures, but it differentiates the figures from others that are on the market. Assembly is more time consuming, but casting is simplified and a wider variety of figures can be achieved.I also went for oval bases, which tend to cast easier than square ones.
So for my first post in some years, I would like to introduce my Prussian and Austrian 30mm infantry sculpts.
On Saturday we attended the annual Claymore show in Edinburgh. There seemed to be fewer retailers than last year, possibly the timing of th...
