Ponderous Painting Progress

Botta d'Adorno Regiment - march!

Painting my small corner of the late  Eric Knowles' Seven Years War collection continues, albeit at a somewhat glacial pace. I had hoped to have daily painting sessions during the Xmas/New Year break, but didn't quite manage that! One good piece of progress, however, has  been completing a second batch of Austrian Fusiliers of the Botta d'Adorno  regiment.  Some matt varnish went on them the other day, and I gave them and the previously-completed group each some colours as a finishing touch. I'm keeping it simple, I know they aren't going to win any prizes, but they look fine to me, especially at 'table top distance'. I am in fact inordinately pleased, as this is the first time I've painted a unit like this in several decades!

As you can see, I now have 32 figures completed, Having started with Bob Cordery's 'Portable Wargame' rules, they make four battalions for Bob's brigade-level game - though it seems the real-life regiment only numbered two field battalions.  But I also want to be fairly flexible and use other rules too, so  I think they could  also be used as follows: 

-  two 16-man battalions in WRG 1685-1845 rules

-  two 'companies' for Young and Lawford's  Charge!

-  two  four-base ( 4 figures = 1 base ) 'units' - generally battalions - for Sam Mustafa's 'Maurice' 

- for Keith Flint's 'Honours of War', perhaps three battalions if we reduce to 10 figures per unit, or one full-strength (20) and one weaker battalion (16).

- no less than four Brigades for  'Volley and Bayonet' - big battles! 

All this depends on not being too precious about base sizes, of course. For Volley and Bayonet, for example, I think temporary thin cardboard bases might be used for the 'brigades', with the figures (which are based in twos)  gently tacked down on them using blu-tak or similar. Or just group 8 figures together so that they obviously represent a brigade - probably 2 ranks of 4 will do.  I am interested to compare and contrast  different rule sets - I think the current mini-campaign using the 'Soldier King' boardgame could be made more interesting by choosing different tabletop rules to try out for each battlefield encounter. 

I also have some Grenadiers for the same regiment. I think perhaps I should paint, say, four or eight of those.

Meanwhile, I have finally made a start on some cavalry -  just six of the Erzherhog Ferdinand Cuirassiers.  In 'Portable Wargame' terms they will make a regiment; in other rules, perhaps more like a squadron.  A small unit to start with, and practise on - baby steps for a beginner - seemed right, not too daunting. 

Erzherhog Ferdinand : starting painting

As you can see it is very early days yet - Henry Hyde's 'Wargames Compendium'  has a good page or two on horse  markings, which I found useful.  That pot of red paint in the background is going to play an important part..

For reference, I have Eric Knowles' painting notes  - I will honour  his ideas by painting these as the regiment he had in mind. 

Eric's Notes: sadly I don't have 'MW' Feb 1990 issue..

It occurs to me that Eric must have planned his forces in some detail - I wonder if he intended to put together the order of battle for a particular campaign or engagement?  I found the 'Seven Years War Project'  website at  www.kronoskaf.com , which conveniently summarises each regiment's service during the war - perhaps with a cross-reference between the several units I have from Eric, all might become clear.

Meanwhile for a bit more knowledge and  detail on those Cuirassiers, I have Osprey Men-At-Arms no. 271 'The Austrian Army 1740-80 (1) The Cavalry' which is proving most useful. My chaps should be not a million miles from the fine-looking Cuirassier Officer at right on the cover. 

 

Good ol' Haythornthwaite and Younghusband

Now back to a working week, so I have less free time, but the lockdown and the weather is likely to make the next few weekends pretty quiet, so I have some hopes of pressing on with the above, and more. I've also been keeping the 'D-Day Dodgers' Italy 1943-1945 in mind, doing a bit of reading around that with some interesting books, and I hope to mention that in an upcoming post.

All is rather grim in poor old Blighty at the moment, the next several weeks of winter  are going to be a long haul, I'm afraid. So, I hope we can all use our hobbies and interests to help get us through and keep us cheerful. Keep safe, and well, everyone.