Friday 23 January 2015

Light Battalion Bach

One of the things currently unavailable for an Austrian army at Marengo is the Light Infantry battalions, probably because the main differences in these at 15/18mm scale are the colour of the uniforms. But it would be nice if specific Light Infantry were made available at some point.

The two Light Battalions that I need for Marengo are Light Battalion Bach, and Light Battalion Am Ende, both of which were Italian and therefore wore German style legwear. I had a pack of Old Glory Line infantry with trail arms that I had thought to mix with the March attack and road march poses, but these weren't very compatibly posed so had been relegated to the "maybe later" drawer.

When I decided that I was just going to use Line infantry as Lights, I thought these may work. They probably should be on skirmish bases for use during most of the game, and there were only 16 and 12 figures needed for those battalions, but I based them so they can also fight as line, and I'll get others for skirmishing Lights later.

As I've gashed my hand in a work accident I haven't quite finished these yet, but will post an update with the final 8 figures when I get enough pain-free movement back in my hand to finish the painting. I also couldn't achieve a good enough "JII" cypher for the front of the helmets so left those blank.

I'm not 100% sure I like these figures, so any comments are welcome...

4 comments:

Ken said...

These look good, Old Glory figures can be a mixed blessing sometimes but I think you've gotten the right effect! I'm building up an Austrian army myself, for the 1814 campaign and then 1809.

Paulalba said...

Great figures Colin!

Jonathan Freitag said...

I love the old Dave Alsop Old Glory figures! Although they are more of a true 15mm figure, the sculpting on the Austrians is very nice. Your brush work is good too.

I have many, many of these in my own Austrian armies.

Anonymous said...

Although it is hard to be sure, it does look like the Light Infantry battalions never actually went into their regulation uniforms during their brief 1798-1801 existence. i did show the official uniform in Osprey Campaign 70, which you have made a good version of, but recently a plate has surfaced on Markus Stein's site, which shows some contemporary illustrations by Koller (published 1802). the figire on the left of http://uniformenportal.de/picture.php?/81/category/19 would appear to be a Grun-Laudon soldier raised in Galicia (although shown as Unfarn - Freiwilliger), whioch supplied the troops for the 3rd and 4th Light Battalions, whicb fought at Marengo.

Well, i suppose you cannot be wrong either way!