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Friday 25 December 2015

Merry Christmas!

Sorry, I did not get around to any festive photos.




I would just like to say thank you for all the help and support I have had over the last couple of years.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Steve

Friday 11 December 2015

Russian 'Hybrid' Cavalry - Painted

(Updated with extra photos 29/12/15)

I've finished the Russian 'hybrid' cavalry in the usual toy soldier style. I'm quite pleased with them, I think fitting the SYW infantry heads onto the Karoliner cavalry results in a fine set of figures.

Some of the details are not quite right, it depends how fussy you are - certainly an option for any 'imagination' armies.

My apologies for the photos, my wargames table and lights are not easily accessible, so just a lamp on the desk in front of the PC!

Cuirassiers


The Russian SYW heads are a great improvement on the original head, a bit larger and much more detailed.




Horse Grenadiers


No standard yet as I am waiting for it to arrive - only ordered it yesterday!

I think the grenadier head sits very well, and results in a splendid chap.






So if you have the Karoliner cavalry moulds and the new Russian infantry they are worth a play.


Presented with flags

(Added 29/12/15)

The cavalry have now been presented with their flags, and blooded on the battlefield.

The cuirassiers lead the cavalry

Followed by the horse grenadiers - what a large flag you have!

Cuirassiers decide charge Saxon grenadiers - not a good idea - they will learn!


Sunday 29 November 2015

Russian (Karoliner/SYW) Cavalry


Don't get too exited!

For the last couple of years, with the arrival of the new SYW range I have concentrated on the new infantry figures and held off painting any more cavalry waiting for the new moulds.

However, I could do with a few more units of cavalry for a game I am putting on over the Christmas break. The new SYW cavalry is some way off, so I decided to use old Karoliner castings that have been sitting in a box in the garage for the last few years.

The Karoliner cavalryman K-931 is a nice figure (possibly not quite as stylish as the old HE version, but much more suitable for fitting in with the new range), and I already have a few units of them in my Karoliner/French army.



Although a nice figure, with the small head and hat it will not really fit in with my new infantry units, so I decided to have a play and see what this figure looks like with the new heads.

The Karoliner range have their belts on the outside, so are only really suitable for Russians and some cuirassiers, so I decided to do a Russian - probably cuirassier! I used the Russian officer's head, as this has formal curls, and also a large cockade on the front.

The head cuts off very easily with a heavy duty knife, and leaves a wide enough area to drill to accept the peg on the head. The fit is bang on, and if you use some thick super glue there is no need for any filler.


I think the more detailed and head and larger hat (the heads are cast in Model Metal for more detail) really bring the figure alive. I was so impressed that I decided to try a horse grenadier with the Russian grenadier head, which I think is also a good fit!


And even the trumpeter (K-931) and standard bearer (K-933) are easy to swap heads.


I have a small unit (8 troopers) of each on the painting table, I will post some pictures when they are finished.

I hadn't really noticed before, but these figures, particularly the trumpeter must be wearing very tight corsets to get a waist like that!

I'm sure the new cavalry will be an improvement on the Karoliners when they come out, and are needed for all the nations with the sword belt under the coat. However if you want to get some more mileage out of those old Karoliner moulds, or like me have some castings hanging around, this is worth a try.

After all...........if you look at the first few posts on this blog; when I first contacted PA all I wanted was some new heads!

Thursday 5 November 2015

SYW range is going digital!

First Sculptures

Chris Tubb (the sculptor) has decided to move to digital sculpting, as you can imagine there is quite a learning curve involved. This has contributed to the slowing up of figure production, but should pay dividends in future.

Changing to digital sculpting part way through the range needs to be done carefully. In order to 'calibrate' the digital design, rather than go straight to the cavalry it was decided to produce some French infantry to get the proportions, and 'feel' right.

The approach he has taken is to manually sculpt an 80mm infantry torso to mimic the pose of the figures already done, and then 3D scan this to form the basis of the new digital sculpts. The first figure digitally sculpted is a French Infantryman advancing, he is shown below with an Austrian in a similar pose for comparison (I know the Austrian grenadier should have a sabre, but it is a similar pose).



The pose matches quite well. Looked at side by side there is quite a difference due to the clean nature of the digital sculpt, however I doubt that would be anything like as obvious in a painted casting.

The musket is probably a more realistic thickness, but i just wonder if it might benefit from thickening up a bit?




Chris is planning to 'print' the figure in the next few days, after which he will make me a mould and I will cast some up to see how they look in the tin.

If you have any comments PLEASE let me have them, and I will pass them on.


Release of French Infantry?

It was originally planned to release the cavalry next, however with the move to digital the plan was side tracked (to a great extent by me), in order to try and get the feel right.

With the French so well advanced, after some test casts have been done it might be worth finishing off a French infantry range and get them into production, I would suggest a couple of moulds as discussed back in August.

Mould 1

  • Rank and file (turn backs) advancing - as above
  • Rank and file march attack (turn backs)- arms changed on above
  • Tricorn - fusilier - as above
  • Tricorn - grenadier
  • Bearskin with bag - grenadier

Mould 2

  • Drummer (no turn backs)
  • Officer (no turn backs), there was a suggestion that he could double as standard bearer - anyone have any ideas on pose?
  • Tricorn - officer
  • Bonet de Police
  • Bearskin with no bag - Cuirassiers du Roi (if it will not fit in the cavalry mould)

Mould 3

Easy to add an 'early' version of mould 1 with no turn backs for WAS etc.


Comments


The change to digital is happening, and if not done right could spoil this range. Your comments are important and welcome, so please make them, they will be listened to.

Cartridge box and sword


Rahway commented on the depth of the cartridge box, I thought it looked shallow as well and discussed with Chris, who sent me an additional image from the rear, the depth is OK.


The images seem to have some quirks, for example the base above looks tapered, but I am assured it is not!

The image raises another point we have been discussing. Putting the sword outside the coat leaves a large gap between the sword and leg, details like this may be OK for commercial spin casting, but not for producing the home casting moulds, there are not many options to make it suitable for home casting:

  • Fill in the gap, less work but could be ugly
  • Make the sword septate and glue on

We think that a separate sword is the answer, as:

  • It will look better, even if a bit more work
  • Later in the war the fusiliers did not carry swords so not needed anyway
  • For grenadiers and early war it can be glued on
Has anyone noticed he has two bayonets, one on the musket and one in the scabbard?

Saturday 17 October 2015

Irish TV visit to Prince August factory

For any of you who are interested here is a link to an RTE visit to the Prince August factory.

RTE programme

There is not much relating to the SYW range, but there are a few glimpses of the moulds being made. The process requires the masters to be repeatedly pressed between the rubber blanks, which explains why the figures have to be very robust.



There is also a lot of coverage of the Waterloo display, this is very impressive, but staging it has been the main reason why the production of the new SYW moulds have been so slow!

Saturday 8 August 2015

The Russian infantry has arrived

Well, at long last PA have released the Russians!

Below are the assembly instructions which I downloaded from the PA website. Not very good quality I'm afraid as I had to download PDF and then scan to JPG, as you can't load PDFs into the blog............unless you know better?

The figures look good, and as you can see on moulds 3110, 3111 & 3112 we did get the pouch to add to the waist belt to make the grenadiers, so something came of the delay. (I had to make my own pouch from plasticard).


I've not actually seen these black moulds, so I would be interested to receive feedback on how they cast.

The SYW range has been out quite a while now, does anyone have any painted up units they would like me to load onto the blog?


As always, comments welcome.

Friday 31 July 2015

French Infantry - some more thoughts

(Updated 03/08/2015)

Since the post on French Infantry on 31 January there was a lot of discussion about the need for new French moulds (the Karoliners are pretty close), and if there is a need what to put in them. There are still comments coming into that post, which suggests that there is interest in moulds for French infantry, so I have discussed with PA the possibility of doing some after the initial releases of cavalry.

I have read through and responded to all the comments, and hopefully my suggestions below cover most of what has been said - please put me straight if I have got it wrong?



Having looked through all my reference books, and the quite a few hours on the internet, I came to the conclusion that this Historex sheet is a good starting point for discussion.

Mould 1 - Rank and File


The first two illustrations give a pretty good indication of what I think the figures should include to make them distinct from the the what is already available in the range:

  • Coat with turn backs.
  • Visible external waist belt and scabbards for the sword and bayonet.
  • The large haversack slung over the right shoulder
  • Hair in a short pony tail extending not far below the collar

I would suggest there should be a mould with the usual advancing and march attack poses, kitted out as these chaps. For heads there would be:

  1. Tricorn, hair loose, clean shaven, for fusiliers (looks same as Russian musketeer)
  2. Tricorn with moustache, for grenadiers (could also be used as late war Russian grenadier)
  3. Plain fronted bearskin for Grenadiers de France (could also be used as 'German' grenadiers in Austrian army if you don't like the side plaits in the Hungarian moulds).


For use in Canada, it might be useful to fit in a 'bonet de police' as worn by the chap in the middle of the illustration below, In the moulds there is usually space for two figures and four 'bits', so a fourth head will not fit in a mould containing a the march attack figure with a separate arm.


Mould 2 - Drummer and officer/standard bearer


Many illustrations show the French drummers without the coat turned back as the third figure along in the Historex print. With the loose coat tails and belts and scabbards outside the figure is significantly different. (However if you wanted to minimise mould purchases, and already have the Prussians, then drummers are also shown with turn backs, so their drummer is pretty close, but the belts are under the coat and the Prussian coat is open down the front)

The Prussian and Russian officers are close, but not quite right, the Prussian's sash is too prominent, and the gauntlets on the Russian are wrong. if a suitable pose can be found then provide an officer who can either carry the standard or a pole arm.

As for heads in a second mould, an officer's head with tricorn and side curls would be needed, this would also be fine for the drummer (or use one from the rank and file), there is then scope to put in something different, perhaps:
  1. Tricorn, side curls, for officer (& drummer)
  2. Bonnet de police, for Canada (as requested by Paco)
  3. IF it will not fit in the cavalry mould, a bearskin without hanging bag. An alternative interpretation of the Grenadiers de France, and more importantly it would convert the Austrian cuirassier to the Cuirassiers du Roi (as requested by Duc de Brouilly).
  4. Might be space for something else, depends what second figure is


After these four figures what else is really needed for the French?

  1. Alternative rank and file mould with the coat without turn backs (also for WAS etc)
  2. NCO - armed with a pole arm, and the same baggage as the rank and file, but no cartridge box, the coat tails could be left down for variety??


Current thinking is (updated 03/08/2015)........................


Get the Cuirassiers and Dragoons released, the range needs cavalry (and artillery, light troops and staff officers)!

If it can be done quickly without much delay to the artillery etc, then release a couple of French infantry moulds to get collectors of French armies up and running, these could contain:

Mould 1

  • Rank and file advancing
  • Rank and file march attack
  • Tricorn - fusilier
  • Tricorn - grenadier
  • Bearskin with bag - grenadier

Mould 2
  • Drummer
  • Officer (who could double as standard bearer)
  • Tricorn - officer
  • Bonet de Police
  • Bearskin with no bag - Cuirassiers du Roi (if it will not fit in the cavalry mould)

However PA have not yet decided whether or not to do some French early, as it will cause some delay to tthe artillery and light troops. However there is a case for releasing some French infantry after the 'Austrian' cuirassiers and 'Prussian' dragoons,


As usual, thoughts please?