Austrian Artillery - 15/18mm Blue Moon

While still trying to get the painting mojo back over the holiday I was unfortunately taken ill and ended up spending some time in hospital. All was fine and I had nothing to worry about, except being careful what I eat for the rest of my life, or suffer from stomach issues. But the worst thing was that I lost any painting momentum I had managed to get back, and sitting painting for any length of time still gives me stomach pains.

So I had to start small again. No 32 figure battalions. No cavalry squadrons. Just a couple of guns.

There were bought cheaply off eBay and were listed as Blue Moon 3 pounders. The crew were included, and were as described, but the guns look different to what is shown on the Blue Moon website - mostly the wheels that are not the same. Anyway, they were cheap, so they got painted.

For these I went a bit risky with the crew. Not big risky, just a little bit. I gave some brown trousers!! And I painted an infantry officer as an artillery officer so I had an artillery crewman wearing a helmet!!! Controversial or what? I've always liked the look of the artillery in helmet, and though the helmets probably never made it onto the field, I felt I could get away with it for one officer.

That's me finished 7 artillery bases but I still have to have 23 guns in my army, so loads still to do. The ones that I have already done were from Warmodelling and were 6-pounders pretending to be 3pdrs, so these may be replaced.

15/18mm Austrian Cavalry Comparison Part 2

After I did the comparison post on Austrian cavalry it was pointed out that I'd missed some. Obviously I don't have every manufacturers figures to hand to compare them, but there are some that I did have that I forgot about including, so here is another comparison with other figures.

These are, from left to right in both pictures, an Austrian Hussar from Blue Moon, a Uhlan from Battle Honours, a Dragoon from Boki Miniatures on a Campaign Games Miniatures horse, a line infantry officer from Old Glory, and an AB general.

These are all roughly compatible, although the Old Glory figure and horse seem a lot smaller. For other Old Glory mounted figures I've remounted them on larger horses and they look fine, but this is a single piece casting, so maybe not the best representation.

The Battle Honours figure is a little small as well, but would possibly benefit again from going onto a larger mount.

Blue Moon's figure is by far the smallest of the separately cast riders, and although he's on a larger mount he still looks like a very small 15mm figure, especially when you consider that Blue Moon's foot figures are closer to 18mm than 15mm. The other issue with this range is that the horses are very thick through the body, so other figures can't sit on them comfortably.

So, the only range that I would like to have shown that is missing is the Fantassin/Warmodelling/Battle Models range.

Here's a link to the last comparison in case you missed it... LINK

Hopefully this is a help again.

IR23/IR47 Combined Grenadier Battalion

Here is the IR23/IR47 Combined Grenadier Battalion. I used Blue Moon's German Grenadiers to build this unit, my second grenadier battalion. These are really nice figures and match well with the German infantry though they seem taller - which they obviously should be. Maybe its just the height of their bearskins adding to effect, but they do look slightly bigger in scale.

Anyway, I didn't find this to be an issue and enjoyed painting these up. I decided that I needed to have some Austrians that looked like they had been in combat. They always look like they are straight off the parade ground. We really need a manufacturer to do some "campaigning" figures for this nation. There are plenty French or Peninsular British that look as if they've fought a few fights and walked many more miles.

So to try and make these a little less pristine I changed from pure white to a stone grey (and mixed in a little brown or sand on various figures). The effect was quite subtle and unfortunately seems to have been lost on the photographs - probably due to the flash. 

And here they are, a Combined Grenadier Battalion with grenadiers drawn from IR23 Toscana and IR47 Kinsky. The command base and one half of the battalion is wearing the red of IR23 as (I assume) they are the senior regiment, while the rest have the dark green of IR47.

Once I had done these I got out the rest of my completed battalions and set them out on the table. I was quite impressed by how it looked and I'm really motivated to get onto my Austrian cavalry.

Here is the two battalions of IR47 Kinsky with the combined grenadiers in the background.

Followed by three battalions of IR23 Toscana.

And finally the Hungarians, IR52 Anton, O'Donel's Freicorps, and a combined Hungarian grenadier battalion at the back.

Consular Guard and Dragoons, and some comparisons.

I was having a look for specific figures for Napoleon's Consular Guard and for the French Dragoon regiments at Marengo, but there seem to be few 15/18mm figures to choose from. From what I can see the main differences in the uniforms from 1800 and the later styles are slight, with the main difference being the length of the coats.

As I had a set of Old Guard Grenadiers and a later French Dragoon regiment sitting doing nothing I've had a go at painting these for Marengo and hoping they work well enough until the correct miniatures become available - I know AB do Dragoons for this period but the cost for two 12 man and an 18 man regiment would be a little too much just now.

Consular Guard Grenadiers - Using Warmodelling Old Guard Grenadiers
For the list I am working to for Marengo I have to build a 40 figure Consular Guard Grenadier battalion. The figures I have are a mix of Warmodelling's Old Guard plus other line Grenadiers, some with green-stuff added plumes and cords. I would have preferred to get AB figures for this set, but the AB figures are standing ready whereas these figures are marching.

I've had a look at as many reference pictures as I can find and I think that apart from the shorter tails, the main difference between the Consular and Imperial uniforms is in the colour of the turnbacks, collar, and cords.

I've painted a base as a test and think they look fine.

French 9e Dragoon Regiment - Using Campaign Games Miniatures Dragoons
Again, as with the Consular Guard, the main difference I could see between the 1800 Dragoons and the later uniform is the length of the coat tails, so already having a set of Campaign Games Miniatures (CGM) Dragoons sitting unfinished I thought I could use these for the 9e Dragoons at Marengo. I've painted up a command base of three figures to see how they look, and the main change I made was to trim the eagle down to as close to the proper shape (it still needs filed down a bit as the metal is quite hard and getting it smoother without the proper tools didn't work - I need to straighten the standard as well)

 

COMPARISON PICTURES
I've been posting on this blog for over a year now and some of the most popular posts are the comparison pictures between different companies, so here are some more. I hope these are helpful...
 Cavalry Comparison - Blue Moon, Warmodelling, Campaign Games
The first picture is of three command bases, the first one from the left is Austrian Hussars from Blue Moon, next is Warmodelling Spanish Cavalry painted to represent French Heavy Cavalry, and the last is CMG's French Dragoons.
My opinion had been that the Blue Moon figures were my preferred figures, but after painting the Warmodelling figures and seeing them side by side I find the BM figures to be far too small. The CMG figures' poses are a little rigid, and a little lacking in animation, but they are solid looking figures.

Grenadier Comparison - Warmodelling, Old Glory, Blue Moon
This picture is a selection of French "grenadier" figures from various companies, and different periods, again just to show scale. The figure bases from left to right are French Old Guard (painted as Consular Guard) from Warmodelling, Old Glory's Polish Line Infantry Grenadiers in Czapka, Warmodelling Line Grenadiers, Warmodelling Line Grenadiers for 1806-15, and lastly a Blue Moon Line Grenadier company.

Gardanne and the 44e Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne

Gen de Div. Gardanne
44e Demi-brigade

Gaspard-Amédée Gardanne had become governor of Alessandria in 1799, but in July of that year the city was besieged and Gardanne was forced to surrender, being taken as a prisoner of war. Before long he was exchanged for Austrian General Mack and released. Once back in Paris, Gardanne assisted Bonaparte with the coup d'état.

In early 1800 Gardanne was promoted to Général de Division.  He joined the Army of the Reserve in April 1800 and then took command of a new division in June. Leading his division, he fought at Montebello.

On the 13th of June 1800, Gardanne was in command of the advanced guard and had positioned himself to lead his troops in to Alessandria with just the creek separating the opposing forces. Neither side was aware of each others strength, and the terrain favoured the advancing Austrians, but Gardanne distinguished himself nonetheless.

Gardanne later received a sabre of honor for his conduct at Marengo and he went on to serve with the Army of Italy until the summer of 1801 when he returned to France.

Gardanne was in command of Saxon troops in Silesia in 1807 when he fell ill and died.

Gardanne's Brigade

44e Demi-brigade de bataille              3x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line 

101e Demi-brigade de bataille             2x 30 Figures.    Grade: Line
Skirmishers                                          12 Figures.         Grade: Line

 

44e Demi-brigade, 1st Battalion

Regimental History

1642: Created
1645: Named Regiment Mazarin-Italien
1651: Renamed Regiment Anjou-Etranger
1660: Renamed Regiment de Orleans
1791: 44e Regiment de Infanterie
1793: 44e demi-brigade de bataille (formed from the following):

2e bataillon 22e Regiment de Infanterie
2e bataillon Volontaires de la Correze
5e bataillon Volontaires de Rhone-et-Loire

1796: 44e demi-brigade d'Infanterie de ligne (formed from the following): 

92e demi-brigade de bataille (2e Bat 46e Regt d'Inf, 5e Bat Vol de la Haute-Saone and 2e Bat Vol d'Eure-et-Loir)
2e and Depot bataillons 44e Regiment de Infanterie

The 44e Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne fought at Marengo with its battalions split between Gardanne's Brigade and Dampierre's Brigade according to the army list that I am working from (which appeared in issue 290 of Wargames Illustrated). According to this list there were three battalions with Gardanne and a further one battalion with Dampierre, although I was of the impression that the regiment would only have three battalions. To remedy this I think that for one of the battalions I will not include a flag, unless I find it the meantime that there were more than three battalions in a demi-brigade.

The Chef-de-Brigade for the 44e at Marengo was either Francois-Joseph Offenstein or Adrien-Joseph Sauder, but I've found conflicting sources for who was in command at that time.

This unit has been built using Blue Moon's 1805 French in Greatcoats and command figures from AB. The Blue Moon command figures have an Eagle Bearer rather than a standard flag so rather than convert the figures I used the AB range. They mix quite well as you can see.

 

 

For comparison purposes here is the Blue Moon battalion alongside the previous battalion I've completed, which uses Warmodelling Miniatures. The Blue Moon are noticeably smaller and in more regimental poses, bur they should look fine on the same tabletop.

 

 

While painting these I had a look for some inspirational images on the internet and found these pictures.

 

 

15/18mm Napoleonic Comparisons - Generals part 2

While painting some of the new Blue Moon Austrian Generals I thought I could do a bit more browsing on the internet for inspiration, and I found some very nice pictures.

These were my favourites, from (I think) the Mollo Collection. I particularly liked the aides, so on my first Blue Moon base I painted the figures as these.

General

General Adjutant

Aide

Staff Officer of the Quartermaster-General's Staff

I also found these two images, that although they were possibly earlier than 1800, they are quite good reference pictures.

 

 So, here are my painted Generals and General Majors....

The sets above are Blue Moon (left) and Old Glory (right).

 

These sets are  Warmodelling (left) and Old Glory (right).

And here are the Blue Moon (right) beside Warmodelling (left). Those two brands match quite well in my opinion.

After painting the new generals and seeing them side by side with other makes they fit in really well, even though the figures themselves had looked smaller. The biggest difference that I now see when comparing the various makes is that the Old Glory figures seem too large and bulky, especially those massive bicorne hats. I think I may dump those figures as I complete the Blue Moon ones.

I still haven't decided who this base will represent, but here are a few more pictures to let you see how nice these figures are. I also think I need some practise on painting horses. I don't think I'm getting them quite right.