Austrians on parade

I have now finished 4 x 48's of the Austrians (+18 skirmishers), which I think is not bad going. I feel heartened to realise that this is about 20% of the line infantry done! Although that does mean a bit of selectivity in ignoring the small point of the grenadiers, cavalry and artillery, but it makes me feel better. I should wind up with about 16 x 48 of line  plus 4 x 48s of Grenzer, so I'm sticking with my 20%.

Considering thats about 2 months work which included a long period of doing no painting at all because of the Falmouth game I'm well chuffed. Even MORE so because in the last month I've also re-done the kitchen, laying a new oak floor, redoing most of the woodwork and re-decorating it. So, not only have I managed to get this done and keep up the painting, my Brownie-point quotiant with the missus is through the roof.     

IR 4. "Hoch-und Deutschmeister

We also have a new tweak to the basing, in the above photo, you can see the addition of some little flowers which I couldn't resist from the Fredericus Rex catologue. I'd seen them on some other pics and liked it. I'm going to limit them to just one base per batallion (probably the command stand). I might bung some on Generals' bases etc.

IR 4 in the lead, IR 1 behind and IR 9 on the flank 

IR 9 (green facings) on the left in the above pic is a bit wierd, its flag has come out pink in all these pics!.In the flesh its a slightly paler yellow than normal which looks quite good and faded. Must be my terrible lighting.

I couldn't resist breaking a golden rule with this unit.: Mixing manufacturers. The mounted officer is a Front Rank figure,bunged in with the Elite masses. Personally I think there is a lot of cobblers talked about how "you can't possibly mix x with y". It might be true if you have 12 man units but in a batallion of 48 it really doesn't matter. 

I really like Front Rank as a company. They make what wargamers want. They do well detailed figures which are very painter friendly, they still sell singly instead of ripping folk off with packs made for "ease of production" (profit). They charge sensible postage. Individually their figures are lovely. The trouble is, if you put more than about 6 of them together they look boring. I've no idea why.

Some of their ranges suffer from "stumpy musket" syndrome, and their horses are a bit horrid, but generally they are great figures. They just don't do it for me. I wish they did. I find them really easy and nice to paint.  

So, what next? I'm quite in the groove for doing the infantry, so I think I'll do 2 more 48's and finish some gunners and then I'll have a division of sorts, rather than pitch into the cavalry just yet. I might treat myself to a Hungarian regt next. Shakos rather than helmets which will make a bit of a change.

Little yellow flowers shown to good effect
Off up to Cambridge tomorrow to Lander's for the week-end (cashing in on my BP surplus) for a Crossfire game. I'll get in some Napoleonic phots too.
On a final note, I bought some paints from Net-Merchants this week. Brilliant service! Ordered them monday morning, they hit the door-mat on tuesday. I've never had anything but good news from this firm.Highly reccomended.


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