My current preoccupation is mid nineteenth century warfare. You can’t travel far without meeting the resurgent French Empire. Here is my offering on french artillery around the time of the Franco Austrian War of 1859. Being a few years before the American Civil War it can be argued that conflict obscures the war which inflated French self belief and probably contributed to their Prussian undoing by 1870.
In the Spring of 1848 a provisional government sprang up in Milan after the Austrians under Field Marshall Radetzky withdrew their troops eastwards to the “Quadrilateral”.
The Provisional Government sought protection from Piedmont under King Charles Albert.
At the same time they raised their own forces.
Here are the Milan Line Infantry of the National Guard in field attire.
* Prior to the Austrians retiring, protests included the Milanese refusing to smoke as the Austrian Government had a monopoly on tobacco sales!
Within a year the uprisings were squashed and Field Marshall Radetzky was a hero of the Empire – complete with Johann Strauss Senior composing the Radetzky March to celebrate the Austrian victory at Custoza in July 1848.
John at just add varnish posted his Waterloo 1815 Austrian artillery from the 1850’s. And as it happens I was gaming with very same figures.
So the game report will be a while coming and in the meantime here is a quick snap. My Austrians are in brown as per the box art.
John at “just add varnish” blog was having a clear out and thought I might like some between the wars armour. That is ww1 to ww2 so 1920/30’s era.
Thank you John. These were most welcome and have allowed me to dabble in some tank or tankette gaming while I paint up my infantry.
So here they are. A wopping 15 items! Generous John or what.
The John@justaddvarnish inventory
First Column
Second Column
Third Column
Here are some of them in close up. They show the excellent artwork by John@justaddvarnish
Thanks John these will definitely be appearing again in my “between the wars” games I have entitled Fauxterre 1930 and Fauxterre 1930+.
As much as I like too fat laddies productions and no doubt infamy will get the thumbs up, other manufacturers and scales are doing business.
Minairons have just dipped their toe in the 1/72 scale market. It is a test of the customer base and unlike kick starters you could say this is a rolling start production even if the roll is barely perceptible to start with.
They have opted for the back end of the baroque, or great northern wars or malburian or as they have called it – the war of the Spanish succession.
Starting with some skirmish troops their low key announcement showed the figures contrasted with the splendid zvezda great northern war swedes.
These look fantastic and very tempting……
Without drifting too much into the issue of scale in wargaming, this post covers my solution regarding mixing metallics and plastics for my Normans in the South project.
So the lead in photo shows horsemen because this is where the most pronounced differences tend to show up.
left to right we have
Strelets 1/72 Norman cavalry
Tumbling Dice 1/72 Norman and Saxon cavalry (command figures!)
Citadel 25mm Mongol cavalry
Citadel 25mm Saracen cavalry
Lamming 25mm Norman Cavalry
Greenwood & Ball (Garrison) 25mm Viking Cavalry
Lancashire Games 25mm Malburian Cavalry
Typical BIG 28mm cavalry (ok he gets a base as well to make the point)
It is also worth noting the base thicknesses in these photos.
What I have found is that in the raw you notice height, bulk and head size. These then affect how you see the figures. Once painted and based the differences seem to be less pronounced.
The last shot shows – SHQ 20mm saracen; strelets 1/72 norman; Hatt 1/72 ElCid cavalry; Tumbling Dice 1/72 norman and lastly another Hatt 1/72 Hun.
Bases are similar thickness so no adjustment needed or to be exploited.
OK last point – my solution.
Using some maths – 12 inches or a foot being 304.8mm for my purposes. Now assuming someone 6 foot high you get the following in real height of 1828.8 mm; at 1:87 (HO) = 21mm; 1:76 (OO) = 24mm; 1:72=25mm; 1:65=28mm and 1:56=32mm (fractions ignored)
So marrying 20mm (1/87) and 25mm (1/72) figures should be tricky although apparently less than 25 to 28mm.
But here is the rub research by a top university shows that the average height of people living in england changed as follows.
167cm pre roman; 170cm roman; less during the dark ages (no figure given because it was dark!) 172cm circa 1066 and 173cm by the 1100’s. Then it drops until recovering to 173-174cm during the period 1400 to 1650. Heights then declined to less than 169cm by the 1800’s! by 1970 we were averaging 177cm.
So that means for a 1/72 warrior he could a 23mm celt; 23.6mm legionaire; 24 mm norman; or a 23mm british redcoat again in the 1800’s. In short averages throw up millimetre differences so actual variations in height will be even greater. So in 1/72 a 21mm (4foot 11inches) high figure next to a 24mm (5foot 11inches) high figure is possible. Add to that variations in helmet shape and size and freedom beckons.
Finally it really comes down to the figures you like, I like the SHQ Saracens, I like the tumbling dice norman and saxon commands and I like the strelets norman and saxons (yes with hands the size of heads!)
so my solution has to be : I will take some notice of scale, maybe more about bulk than height, and paint the figures I like. I can always squint at the jarring mismatches when they do happen.
Happy Painting & Wargaming.
postscript – scale creep was always with us and good enough in “charge or how to play wargames” anyway. Are those “half round lancers on ponies?”
So I will complete my Carolingian cavalry with my Mediterranean style basing
I use gloss partly because it gives protection as these figures are to be handled and partly because at 3 feet away on a game table it lifts the colours
The budgie grit bases will get a 3 stage paint job and some tufted plants!So that’s it for these chaps, next up are some strelets normans
Having explained my latest approach to basing I should say that my wargaming choices are very modest. In fact the whole plastic figure thing was aimed at “keep it simple”. And that goes for painting and finishing – simple acrylics mainly block painting and gloss varnish. my figures are intended to be handled and mostly viewed at 3 feet or 1 metre away.
Even my Wars of the Roses 28mm figures have received such treatment although I did some flesh/clothing washes here and there. And they felt a bit questionable – “was the effort worth it?” well thats more about my painting skills/impatience I think and not the technique being worthwhile.
And when it comes to plastic I seem to have moved to the point where a bad Plastic Soldier Review will encourage me to buy – maybe a paint job can rescue a poor figure. The question is can my painting rescue the figure or actually make it worse? Beauty as they say is in the eye of the beholder.
And I have found to my eye that a base I like significantly enhances my figures – when looked at on the table at about 3 feet of course.
So actually close ups on screen are probably not that helpful in some cases. Anyway here goes.
Essentially I based the figures on 80mm x 60mm laser cut MDF from pendraken miniatures, daubed on pva glue, emersed in a tray of budgie grit, shaken and set aside to dry. A day later, inverted to shake off the last loose material, it was out with the paints.
Then base paint. Now this base is the result of several attempts to get the right colour. I could say at this point I spent hours rerunning the La Vuelta vids poring over the helicopter shots for the right ground look but I would of course be fibbing or maybe not………
I found I could get some wacky colour outcomes and actually the ones I thought would be too bright I decided would look better for a mediteranean location.
I discovered an old revell acrylic pot of “rust” was the best base colour (need to source an alternative as I don’t know anyone who stocks revell acrylics now given the dominance of vallejo and citadel).
And the ochre and then either ivory or white highlight came from B&Q and Johnstones sample pots. And then some final decoration.
I finished the base off with some greenery taking a cue from La Vuelta again and using bright green foliage. Lots of railway model suppliers provide a range of foliage plants.
And that wraps it up for now. I think the extra steps taken here are worthwhile and enhance the figures. I plan to do all my mediterranean medievals this way. Next problem is getting the table top to match.
Hope to see you soon.
The Wargaming Erratic 