I knew this would happen, a MASSIVE box arrived this afternoon from Elite Miniatures, typical, tomorrow I head off down to Newquay for a 4 day WWII fest, so I have a happy evening ahead packing, boning up on the rules for the game ahead, printing OB's, digging out my dice etc plus the small matter of sorting through 1300 Austrian figures....oh, and I think I'm supposed to spend a bit of quality time with the significant other prior to my departure. How is a man supposed to concentrate on his nearest and dearest when his head is full of Grenzers and whether the mix of variants will work?To be honest, one obviously has to prioritise one's time here, and I've already spent a couple of hours going through the infantry and working out how to mix the figures. Having bought all these different units they need a bit of mixing up. I bought 4 x 48 of the new "Collector's Series" Austrians which are chock-full of variants to mix in with the old style adv/chrg mix. plus Mr Moreby bunged in about 90 of the other variants within the btns...all told I think each of the helmeted btns (of which there are 13) will get about 14 different infantryman plus different officers/stds drummers etc. They should look pretty whacky. The big strength of the Elite figures is the energy they can display. If you want seried ranks of identical march attack figures (nothing wrong with that- it can look great) then don't buy Elite, Front Rank will do a better job, and if you are short-sighted..Foundry. However, I really liked the idea of trying to replicate the feel of all those drawings of Austrians in action during the 1809 campaign, no orderly ranks but swarming mobs of infantryman rushing forwards....we shall see.
Anyway, a bit more sorting out then its time to get my head into WWII mode.
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Now that's what I call exciting! Enjoy...
ReplyDeleteIan
I hope that you don't burn out painting all of those Austrians. Of the 1,300 how many are infantry, artillery and cavalry? Painting cavalry sort of breaks up the monotony of hundreds of infantry figures to paint.
ReplyDeleteAchtung! That's one heck of a lot of painting. Interesting you have chosen Elites for the greater variation in poses over Front Rank. I do like the FR figures but the lack of variation and the Teletubby proportions make the infantry a bit on the well... not as good a hordes in different poses anyway. I've found that the deep definition of the sculpting of the Elites does make them easier to paint in that you seem to do a lot less than on other makes to get a good result.
ReplyDeleteI love the Calpe Prussians you did too - beautiful figures and a very nice paint job and hand-painted varnish! Its true you'll live longer (and paint a lot more!) if you don't spray!
I've just posted some of the results I've got on Perry's French with spraying (I can get outside to do it) but I've taken to painting it on the commands as it gives a better result on the standards etc. Be interested in your comments if you have the time (take a break to avoid the infamous Austrian 'white-blindness' and hand cramps from that much painting!)
http://docsartofwar.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Doc
Ahhh all that white, I look forward to your glorious army.
ReplyDeleteAn amazing rate of painting you have maintained.
Cheers
Paul