Austrian Dragoons by Doug Mason, and a bit of news

I can't help but notice its been 7 weeks since I last posted here, I wish I could say that a lots happened wargames-wise in that time, but I'm afraid thats not the case. I've had little time for games or painting. My output has been insignificant; I've STILL got 4 lancers to finish for that regt, although all the horses are done and the rest are based and finished. On a positive note I am coming up to my annual quiet period in terms of work which is normally  a productive painting period, so lets hope so. 

One thing I did manage was to get Mike Ingham to part with these dragoon figures painted by Doug Mason. I did nothing to them other than touch up the bases, they are the Elite figures. This gives me 2 regts of Dragoons now, plus the 2 hussar regts, and 1 lancer. I have one regt of 36 Chevaux legere (why give Austrian cavalry a French name?) still to paint- this will give 6 regts and a total of 240 cavalry.

There are stiil the Cuiraissiers to consider,but they can wait.

In 2 weeks time I will be heading up to Scarborough for Gerry's birthday bash which he has kindly invited me to. While I'm obviously looking forwards to this, it's also a bit sad as it will be the last time I will get to play 25mm napoleonics up there. Its not been any great secret that ill-health is forcing Mike to shut down the holdiday centre. Gerry is now well underway embarking on his own enormous - and I mean enormous!-10mm project (He already has erected a brand new, purpose-built "bunker" with about the same amount of table space as the current centre!). He is looking to replicate what they had in 25mm in 10mm in a couple of years- should be fascinating, and is going to be upping the figure scale so what was a 36 man btn now has a mental 108 figures. The man is nuts.

Although some figures have been sold, the rest of the collection (which is still massive), including all the buildings and terrain is moving down to the Basingstoke area under the stewardship of Mark Freeth. I spoke to him this morning and he has new premises sorted, and is hoping to put his first game on in February! He said he should have a website up next week. He is going to be doing Napoleonics, plus ACW and Malburian, and has already rebased all the WWII stuff (!) for Flames of War. He has some new ideas and will hopefully breathe a bit of new life into the WHC. I wish him all the best, and am looking forwards to playing there (and its only an hour up the road!).

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WIP: Lancers

September has been a fairly hopeless month in terms of gaming, painting, and blogging I'm afraid. So, just in case you thought I'd jacked it all in I'll put up some pics of the Austrian lancers I don't seem to be able to finish. 

Elite figures and horses with a few mounts from elsewhere (Connoisseur, Alban, Firing Line). 

Bases obviously not done yet, still awaiting painting, brushing and grass bits. So far I've just done 32 out of what will be a massive 48 man regt - 8 squadrons of 6 figures. I picked the the third regt as I liked the red Czapka, plus the trumpeters apparently wore white ( though I've had trouble confirming this). Plenty of conversions and head twists, plus a few replacement heads from Firing Line. Lance pennons by GMB. There will be a standard bearer, although I'm not sure if Austrian light cavalry actually carried them in action. All the lances were soldered, and the officers sabres replaced. I also played about with some of the horses, teasing out manes and tails with the soldering iron to give them more movement. In the end, however, I decided life was too short. I might do this again for officers and the odd special, but otherwise.No. 

I hope to get these finished this week, I guess I've had a bit of mid-project blues with the old Austrians. It will pass.

I have also decided to give these chaps their own staff officer - seeing as they are such a big unit. I found a lovely Bicorne Uhlan officer, and I've tweaked him a bit- changed his sword arm, added a steel sabre and soldered a "flying" scabard onto him, again to impart a little movement. I'll post him when he is done. 

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Duff-up in John's shed: The Austrian's first outing

Things start to go wrong on the Austrian right- the line is in the process of being shot to bits

I slipped up to Cambridge to John's shed for the day in order to get the Austrians actually on a table for the first time. There wasn't a massive amount of thought put into the game, it was just a bit of an excuse for a duff-up. John is easing his way back into Napoleonics after a lengthy lay-off so we wanted just a quick, low intensity game that wasn't going to tax the brain an awful lot.

Close up of the attack columns on the left. Everything fine at present (sausage roll in support)

It was a pretty straightforwards set-up, a village complex on the (Austrian) right, some skirmish buildings and walls on the left,  a few woods in the centre. No big artillery platforms anywhere, French defending. We didn't have a huge amount of time so the French deployed quite far forwards,which didn't help the Austrian cause much. In retrospect we probably could have been a bit cleverer with the terrain, 

Panorama of the early stages

The only decent area for cavalry was in the centre which unbalanced things somewhat. I concentrated the Austrian's new shiny hussar brigade there and the French had a regt each of Chassuers, dragoons and cuirraisier plus a horse btty.  Each flank had an infantry division to take the respective village areas. The one on the right had a dragoon regt attached.

We used a variable morale system for the infantry, all btns were treated as 1st class line until they took their first morale test,where-upon they rolled to discover their true class: Austrians: 1 to 3- 2nd class line. 4 to 10 1st class line.

French: 1 to 4 -2nd class line 5 to 7 1st class line, 8 to 10, veteran.

French young guard: 1 to 5, veteran. 6 to 10 Elite.

All cavalry was line and all artillery was 1st class.  

The Austrians fielded 1 infantry division of 2 Grenzer, 5 line btns with a 6lb btty and 18 skirmishers, these took the left flank. In the centre was a hussar brigade with 14 squadrons of hussars each of 6 figures.

On the right was an infantry division of 6 line btns with a dragroon rgt of 6 x 6 man squadrons plus a 6lb btty and 12 skirmishers. All btns were 48 man strong. 

5 battalions: should be enough to take a village, surely?

Connoissuer French attempt to outflank the Austrian left

The French had a 2 infantry divisions each of 6 x 36 supported by a 6lb btty, 24 chassuers and 18 skirmishers. One of each occupied each flank.

In addition they had a young guard division of 4 x32's plus a heavy cavalry outfit with 1 x 32 of dragoons and 32 cuirraisier with a 3 gun horse btty.

All in all, I think the French were too tough for the poor old milkshakes.

The Austrian right develops

The Austrians trundled forwards, because of the speed of our set-up it meant the Austrians couldn't really get any artillery preparation, however they manfully pitched into the attack against each village. They actually did ok, they got forwards,got the guns into position and started to work  towards their objectives.

In the centre the massed hussars nullified the french cavalry, a typical ding-dong Grand Manner cavalry scrap continued through the whole game.  A lot of folk can't cope with the cavalry system in ITGM but the more I read of historical accounts the more they turn out like ITGM battles. Units go forwards, battle it out, retire, new ones go in, the original ones rally, go back. Its all about having local reserves. Both sides (typicaly) won the combats they should have lost, and lost the ones they "were certain" to win. The rest of the cavalry was squeezed on the extreme Austrian right, and this went a bit more to the script, with the Austrian dragoons making short work of a chassuer regt, which forced a couple of French btns into square and took them out of the fight for the village. 

A recent new acquisition: Classic Connoissuer infantry painted by Doug Mason, skulking in square.

On the left a grenzer btn waddled in line through a wood on the the extreme flank, it never got anywhere for the whole game but it did tie down 2 French btns (a bit) so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Meanwhile the asault against the skirmisher buildings and the walled compound went in. John concentrated a lot of fire on one unit (always a mistake in my book) but the size of the Austrian units allowed it to be shrugged off. I had some success at first and things were looking rosy.

6lb battery supporting the Austrian right

The French artillery btty retreated when charged and the lead 2 Austrian units crunched into a lone French btn manning the wall. In fact I had a bit too much success. The French btn routed after the first round of combat, with relatively light casualties. I would have much preferred for it to have stuck around for at least a second round of combat as I had 2 more btns to re-inforce with and the French had one. This would have allowed me to ruin 2 French units, as it was it meant the French just pulled back a bit, I couldn't exploit, and the 2 units I had in the front line were badly shot up. They took more and more fire from the flanks and that was about it for my attack on the left village.

Hussars and Grenzer demonstrate in the centre

The right hand flank told a similar story, despite the dragoon's success I couldn't get sufficient  force to bear on the village, I was reasonably successful at clearing the walls but couldn't find room to deploy those big Austrian firing lines. When I finally did, it being Austrian, it took so long to deploy that it was shot down before it could do much damage. Again, the Austrians after initial successes just couldn't finish off those Frenchies.

High point for the left. The Austrians couldn't get over that wall.

Things were coming to close, dinnertime was approaching, and the Austrians had run out of steam. We called it a day.

So in the end it was a suitably inauspicious start for the Austrian army, but then, as we all know, all troops get beat the first time out!

(Good Lord!! I've just noticed...60,000 hits!!- does that mean I can have drink?)

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Hussar problem solved

I mentioned that while I was up at the Wargames Holiday Centre I was hoping to make a few purchases. Well,I did indeed, and here are a few pics of some of them. Mike has been selling off quite a few units this year in order to "slim down" the collection (for example, having nearly 180 x 36 man French btns seemed a bit OTT), and I hoped to buy a few units I'd always really liked. High on the list were these 2 regts of Austrian Hussars, 1 of 36 men and another of 48 (Wish they were both 48's).

One of the problems I've always had with the Austrian army is the hussar uniform. Now I know they invented the things, but I've always thought the Austrian hussar uniform looked more at home in Billy Smart's Circus than on a battlefield. All that purulent bright green, stupid red trousers, and yellow plumes...Give them some long, floppy shoes rather than hussar boots and they would have looked better.
Subsequently I've never had any great desire to paint any. So from years ago when I first saw these rather more subdued paint jobs they always appealed. They are all wearing overalls and the green is (a more realistic) darker shade.  Despite this they are still suitably gaudy enough for hussars, with their red shabraques with yellow piping and either bright or dark blue dolmans.

They are (naturally) the Elite miniatures castings, painted and converted by Doug Mason. All the sabres are pins soldered into the hand and are very tough. Even after many years of service up in Scarborough I only had to replace 3 swords out of 84. Doug has done plenty of bends and twists to these figures. There are only 4 basic figures here, officer, trumpeter and 2 trooper figures, and he really has imparted an incredible sense of movement to the models which really look the part of hussars at full tilt

I just did a minimal amount of work on the bases to blend them with my standard basing. Just an oilwash and highlight then some grass clumps added. I also gave them a quick new coat of gloss. I had contemplated giving them a matt coat, but they look infinitely better in their original gloss glory. I'm developing a bit of a theory about gloss V matt: Gloss varnish isn't terribly fashionable these days which is actually a bit wierd. There is no debate about it bringing out the colour and establishing a visual contrast between the figure and its base, this is simply optical fact. Nonetheless, a lot of folk "prefer" matt these days. Anyway, my theory is, that gloss varnish makes well painted figures look even better and badly painted figures look even worse, while matt varnish just dulls everything down to a more median uniformity (no pun inteneded). So for Mr Average painter (like me, and most of you) we think our stuff looks better when we matt varnish it, because gloss just shows up all the cock-ups, while matt is more....forgiving.
Anyway, thats my theory.

These figures were painted by someone who really knew what he was doing, and it shows up even better in the flesh than through the lens of my rather inadequate camera.

These weren't the only figures I bought from Mike, there are more (I just kept peeling off the tenners until he said stop) but the rest will have to wait for another time.

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Long WHC weekend (part II)

The Allied right early in the game. Looks reasonably secure at this point.

So to continue the narrative of last weekend, we carried on with the made-up (before you all go Google-crazy) battle of Goerlitz. This is what I call a "Mike reinforcing" battle. (at least, I assume it is one of Ingham's). Mike does like to design scenarios where one or often both sides receive their reinforcements gradually throughout the battle, usually on a simple die-roll (turn number + 3 average die), and coming on to the table at pre-designated entry points. This means (horror of horrors!) that wargamers actually have to come up with a plan in advance, and then pretty much stick to it. It's one of the strengths of the vastness of the holiday centres' table. Its no use deciding to bring on a formation in one area of the battle and then attempt to march it (even with tactical moves) from one end of the table to the other. It will rarely get there. 

Decide where it's going, decide what it's job is, decide what happens after that (amazing how many wargamers are utterly incapable of this).

Anyway, down below are the respective OB's - many apologies but I don't have a map.

Allied OB

French OB

The French therefore had a mountain of cavalry (15 regts!) and hardly any infantry (a paltry 16 btns) on the table to begin with. The allies could muster a 2 to 1 advantage in infantry and almost parity in numbers of cavalry figures(though not in regts/sqdns). The French did have the advantage of a reasonable defensive line. A large sector of their front was covered by hedges and woods which would prevent the Allies from pushing forwards quickly, and they controlled 3 key villages. The central one was on a hill and dominated proceedings, particularly the road net in the sector where the Russian Guard infantry would eventually appear. So this had to be cleared in good time to allow some of the key re-inforcements to move up.

It was garrisoned by the Polish infantry division, just 8 btns, a hussar regt and a battery. The infantry were a bit good though, for although they moved and fired as line (+3), they tested morale as if they were all elite (+5). Tough little critters.

I was up against this with 14 ropey old Russian btns, a light cavalry regt and a big old Russian 6 pdr battery. 

In the event it was a really tough fight. 4 Russian btns went right with half the skirmishers to clear a wood with just a single Polish btn in it, the outcome of this was rarely in doubt but it slowed me down a little which I'm sure was the general idea.

Around the village the Russian battery engaged the French in counter-battery fire and the French quickly realised they were on a loser and retired out of sight of the Russian battery which then switched it's fire to the village and the units around it in support. It did sterling work! and inflicted hefty losses on the Poles. Not that they seemed to care. Even with the infantry testing as Elite, Nick blithly rolled high roll after high roll for their morale tests. After about 8 or 9 turns I got the Russian attack against the village set up. It should have been a walkover, and in some ways it was. I had 8 btns going in against just 4 Polish, and I won all 3 melee phases, the Poles were well and truly stuffed. Naturaly they just passed morale meaning I bounced ...

My first attack against the Polish held village, after a massive morale roll, the Poles held, but the losses they had taken in the process meant they couldn't stand for long.

This was the begining of the end for the Polish division, as the 4 units which has defende the village were thoroughly exhausted, being almost at 50% strength. I had 2 units badly damaged, and 3 more with minor losses. A few more turns saw the rest of the Polish division eliminated as they made a series of brave but piece-meal attacks.

Elsewhere the Prussians were arriving and were embroiled in fighting over the hedgerows, on the extreme left the other Russian corps was pushing forwards supported by the Russian cavalry corps which was destroying any French cavalry in it's path.

Prussian columns move up in the Allied centre, the wood in the top of the picture finally having been cleared of pesky Poles

 Then the French started arriving in numbers. However, they all turned up on the flanks! division after division. I had pushed my cossacks forwards in a smart-ass move to sit on the roads I just KNEW the French reinforcements would arrive on in order to strengthen their (now destroyed)

centre. They never appeared, just more and more on the western and eastern edges. They were inexorably pushing back on the eastern flank, despite the Prussian's best efforts, having beaten off the French to their front. The Russians on the western flank told a similar story, with the French guard now lined up against them.

The "Polish" village in the top left, Prussians advancing in the centre, relieving the Austrian advanced guard in the foreground. French infantry move up to (temporarily) occupy the hedgerows 

In the centre the Russian guard infantry had streamed into the gap left by the Poles, and lined up alongside Pahlen's victorious cavalry. There was a brisk, one-sided fight as the Russians mopped up 4 btns who were  still in their sector. They settled down (supported by 3 batteries) to await the French Guard.

The Russian reserve cavalry appeared on the left but never really got going while it's front was covered in routers from Eugen's corps. That was the situation at turn 26 (not bad going) when the game ended. As for the result?

I'm not sure..drawish erring on the side of the French, but at a massive cost.

. Although the French were in a slightly better position they had incurred enormous casualties, both in infantry and cavalry. All in all a fine game and a great week-end.

There is one more thing I need to tell you about the weekend, avid readers here will recall I was intending to purchase a few figures from Mike..this I did,  but that will have wait for a few days, when I will have pictures aplenty.

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Long WHC weekend (part1)

The view back over the French centre and right flank. Dom looks thoughtful, Gerry, errr...doesn't.

Last thursday saw me making the familar trip up to Scarborough to the WHC, this was to be a long weekend with 2 games on offer. The plan was to get there for about 2.00pm for a Corunna(ish) scenario which was to play until Friday afternoon, then once a few more people had arrived,  change over for a fictitious 1813 bash which could accomodate more players. As it was, the Peninsular game still had 10 players, so the players each had relatively small commands and the game played quite quickly and smoothly.  

I played on the French left and was tasked with taking one of 2 villages which dominated the road network which the British needed in order to get to the waiting arms of the RN.

This probably proved easier than it should have done, my opponent had racked up 8 or 9 battalions behind the village, including some fairly choice kit, a couple of guards batallions and 2 big Scots units. As it was he would have been better off spreading out a bit more. What transpired was that both myself and Eric on my right flanked the village rather than assault it directly. Due to the lack of troops on the flanks we were able to easily penetrate the defences which on my flank consisted mainly of a solitary highland btn. A punchy unit, and if it had had a couple of mates quite capable of putting up a stiff fight. On its own however, it was easily brushed aside. The end result was that the British behind the village were caught in a crossfire from myself and Eric, with units being continually pinned by retreating units in front of them.

Rule number 1 in ITGM:

Space Management!

Part of my division attempts to outflank "my" village, which is out of shot to the right of the picture 

In the end, it was a fairly comfortable and total French Victory (contrary to Noel's verdict  here:  http://garagegamer.blogspot.com/ ) Although his perspective might be coloured because he was on the extreme flank of the British with the Light Division, which he handled with considerable expertise. Unfortunately I think his troops would have been the only part of the British army to get away. The rest were cut off.

"My" village in the background, successfully outflanked. The British driven out, and are now being pushed back to the left of the picture. 

None-the less, it was great start to the weekend (I don't recall talking to my dice AT ALL...I think I am being horribly misrepresented!), and got everyone in the mood for the main event which was a larger 1813 game; Goerlitz. We started the game on friday afternoon and got a few turns in without getting into serious contact before packing up for the day. After a couple of extra arrivals (and a night in the casino), and we were ready to go on saturday morning....to be continued   

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Some recent additions

IR 30 Prinz de Ligne

July draws to a close amid a frenzy of wargame activity. Despite being the busiest month of the year I've kept the painting up, finishing the above unit. I MIGHT, just might, get a second batallion done as well, which would be fantastic - I've just got the last 13 figures to finish so it's quite likely. Ordinarily, I'd say no problem seeing as there are still 11 days to go in this month, but this coming extended weekend will see me nipping off up to Scarboro' for a couple of Napoleonic games- looking forwards to it immensely. I think we are doing Corunna (never done that before) plus some made up 1813 bash. I can't wait.

Front Rank artillery adjutant and some random Rupert 

Apart from the prospect of 4 days gaming with some like-minded folk, I'm hoping to make a couple of purchases, as Mike is selling a few units and I've asked him to reserve a couple of favourites of mine. I'm afraid I'm going to be a total tease and not say what they are, so you'll just have to tune in next week and I'll post a few pics.

The Sash and Sabre samples were a crippling disapointment, little stumpy-sub-Foundry things...no use to me at all.

Some Front Rank Grenzers shield the Elite column

A far more interesting set of samples came from Alban miniatures, I got some of their Austrian hussars and horses. First, the horses, which are very nice. The hussars only look good on the light horses, although the heavies are lovely sculpts as well and will come in handy elsewhere. The hussars are really lovely figures with true, un-exagerated detail. A bit like Stadden's best effort. No buttons like wheel-nuts or gurning faces. They all come with a seperate sword arm which I rather like. The only problem is they are a little small (or perhaps not as big) compared to the my Elite masses. They may work ok on their own, I'm not sure yet. I think I'll have to paint up a few and do a comparison.

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Grubby old Grenzers

 Grenzer regts 16 and 17

So, June quickly draws to a close, not a bad month in the world of Austrians, despite a crippling work schedule (Sir Elton John and Lady Ga-Ga being demanding souls), nonetheless, I got over 90 figures whacked off. This included finishing the second 48 of Grenzer. This means I now have 96 of these critters, all with green facings. Subsquently I can use them either as 2 x 48 man units or as 3 x 32's which is some nice flexibility. Eventually I will add another 2 x 48, so will be able to field 4 x 48 or 6 x 32!

 32 man Grenze units are pretty weak in ITGM, which seems accurate.They fight and morale as militia - i.e only plus 1 for morale but they do fire as if they are veteran. So 48's can be a bit pokey in the right circumstances  (sat in a village is always a favourite) They are still a bit hopeless in woods though (move as militia) which doesn't seem quite right. I might need to think about this.

Front Rank officer throwing his weight around with his slimmer Connoissuer squaddies

I'm going back on track with painting line infantry next, this will be the seventh German btn, probably with pale grey facings. The first batch have just been undercoated and are awaiting the old Army Painter treatment.

After six months of not buying (m)any Napoleonic figures my purchasing gland has been getting twitchy. I've been checking out the Sash and Sabre range- I've got some samples on order from Old Glory UK, command for both line and grenadiers. Even if they are not quite what I'm after I'm sure they can be shoe'd into a unit somewhere. I'm over halfway with the line infantry, and will wind up with 16 btns of Germs and Hungarians....but it doesn't seem QUITE enough...so maybe a division of the S&S chaps would round off my army nicely. We'll see.

FR command, Connoiseur and Elite make up the rest

The other Company I've been looking at are Alban. While I like their infantry a lot, I don't think they will fit very well with the massed Elite units, which is a shame. However, the hussars they make look fabulous, and I don't think a cavalry unit will present the same asthetic problems. I don't have any Hussar figures yet at all (that may change very rapidly) but Austrians really should have plenty. I'd like to wind up with 3 units, and I might make them 48 man regts.

3 x 32 or 2 x 48...the choice is mine

Saddened to hear of the death of Paddy Griffith, I re-read his "Forwards into battle" recently. A fairly seminal work IMHO, one of those books that upset a few folk because it challenged the way they LIKED to think warfare was conducted, and arrived at conclusions which weren't cosy with their view. Part of what good historian should do.

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A few landmarks of sorts

The latest addition to the Austrian army: IR 37
The last couple of weeks have seen a few slightly notable points of interest.
First off, it was my birthday recently. Now once upon a time, birthdays meant wargaming related presents. That doesn't seem to happen as you get older. So any wagaming stuff has to be a "self-present", which is actually FAR better anyway, because you actually get what you want (not that I've ever really needed an excuse to spend money on wargaming). Also, getting older usually means you have more money, so, unless you are going to have a mid-life crisis and spend it on impressionable young women, you get some excellent "self-presents".
With all this in mind, I ended up in Foyles the other day (as opposed to one of those seedy basement clubs a few yards away in Soho..see "impressionable young women" above), where I spent a happy evening perusing the shelves in the silence you only get in bookshops. Three of the books I bought were ones I probably "should" have bought ages ago and just haven't got round to, a couple of the others were more impulsive.
First off, I got hold of the second and third volumes of "Thunder on the Danube" by Jack Gill. These are pretty much indispensible for anyone interested in the Austrians, particularly if you are leaning towards 1809 as I am. So they were long overdue. I've only dipped into them so far but they promise to be everything all the gushing praise I've heard for them  has suggested. Looking forwards to reading them.

More IR 37. Less pose variation than in the German regts, but plenty nonetheless
The third book I bought is Adkin's "Waterloo Companion". Now, I've only a moderate interest in the Waterloo campaign. It has always seemed a bit of an aberration to me in the terms of the Napoleonic wars overall. So much has been written about it, and so many people (wargamers) base their entire impression of how Napoleonic warfare worked upon the way this battle (and campaign) was conducted, when so much about it is highly a-typical rather than representative of Napoleonic battles. Anyway, thats a bigger subject than I've got room for here.
That does nothing to change the fact That Adkin's book is brilliant. Packed with all sorts of detail, some of which anyone who has boned up on the battle will be familar with, some less so. The text is nice, full OB detail which corrects a few errors found elsewhere, some really lovely original colour uniform drawings, Highlights of the battle rather than a full narrative, and for me, the real winner, is some brilliant maps and detailed deployment diagrams. It really helped me understand a lot more about the battle, especially in terms of time and space. There is a lot there even for someone not that interested in Waterloo
The other 2 impulse purchases were the 2 slimline "men and battles" series from Histoire & Collections: "Hanau and Montmirail" and "1809, Essling".
Both of these are great little books. They sort of out-Osprey, Osprey if you see what I mean, same money, not brilliantly translated text, but excellent diagrams, a few contempory drawings I've not seen before, LOTS of full colour, detailed OB, and a few pages of "Beano annual" style uniform drawings.
(If every Osprey was as good as this they might be worth the money).    

Painting Shakoes makes a nice change from helmets!
Other Landmarks recently are the passing of 500 figures painted so far for the year! Which is brilliant, because it means I'm bang on target for 1,000 by Christmas. The most recent additions are pictured here- Hungarian infantry. Less pose variation than the Elite Germans, but they still have plenty. I tried a slightly different white technique (through forgetfulness more than anything else), but they turned out fine. I just did Spray white, Army Painter and then Highlight white rather than add another off-white shade after the AP. It makes them a little brighter, but not that much.
Finally, I have had over 50,000 visitors to this little site. Which is ...extraordinary really... Thank you all very much for being interested in my little wargaming world...but, you really should get out more.  
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GMB Versus The Flag Dude

May has been a poor month for painting as I remarked last week, although things picked up in the last couple of days and I managed to up the number to 48 which was another German Infantry batallion, this time IR 63.

So not too bad, this means I'm still just about on course for 1,000 figures for the year providing I don't have too many more months like this.

A tiny difference between this unit and all my previous line infantry is that these fellows have a standard from The Flag Dude. I saw these at Salute and couldn't resist buying a couple. They are actually 7 years War standards but giving the "scrunching" its somewhat impossible to tell the difference, and, lets face it, if I hadn't mentioned this, you'd have never known.

IR63 Bianchi, sporting a Flag Dude standard 

To be honest, trying to compare the 2 is a bit like asking which footballer would you prefer in your pub team, Wayne Rooney or Lionel Messi? Both companies are brilliant and worlds apart from anything one could produce for oneself, the quality of both is so incredibly high. Particularly given their relative cheapness.

Which gives us our first comparison. FD are £3.00 each while GMB are £3.50 for 2. With GMB you have to cost in the finial and staff which adds a bit over a quid for 2  flags so the cost is actually about the same(ish)...buttons really either way considering the effect.

Obviously the big initial attraction the FD is that everything is done for you, and done very nicely. Flag is "scrunched" rather attractively (though probably not realistically), The finial is included and the flag is attached to a lengthy staff,in fact the only thing that needs to be done is to trim this to a desired length and paint it.

With GMB you do have to do a tiny bit of work.

The pole  needs to have its finial attached, and then the flag glued to the pole. My prefered method for this is to cut the flag out, fold it so its creased centrally around the pole before "dry fitting" it. Only then smear PVA glue over the inner surface of one half of the flag before folding in and lining the flag up as neatly as possible. At this point a bit of scrunching can take place. I always try and do it to expose as much of the detail of the flag as possible (otherwise, whats the point?). Then leave it for a couple of hours before giving it a few thin coats of brushed on gloss varnish to stiffen it. Finally give it a coat of matt (or not, depending on taste).

More IR63. Custom "scrunching"

The final analysis comes in the detail. The printing on the GMB stuff is slightly better, and their finish a little bit finer. Also the colours on these Austrian flags is a little more vibrant.

I can't comment on how this is with other periods. One nice thing is that the ranges are somewhat complimentary, there are items that each company do which the other doesn't.

I.R.24 Baron Strauch. Proud of their GMB flag

Oddly,  the deciding factor for me is the fact that the GMB flags aren't the finished article which FD are.

The reason for this is that with GMB I glue the standard with the finial to the figure before priming. So all painting and handling takes place with a bare standard pole, but one which is firmly glued on bare metal with the glue painted over. Then, when the figure is completely finished and varnished I attach the flag as outlined above.

More GMB.

With FD flags this isn't possible. Because the flag is all done you can't attach it until after the figure is finished. One could prime the figure and then attach the flag, but this would mean having a great big flag flapping about (ok,not actually flapping but you know what I mean) while painting the standard bearer which I'm not that keen on. Subsquently, I ended up gluing on the FD flag once the figure was finished and then varnishing over the glue. Not ideal.

So, for me, GMB has it. Just.

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