Just finished the Museum miniatures Hay Wagon, with Eureka horses. This was a fun little project and will be suitable for anything from Renaissance up to Napoleonic.
There needed to be a little bit of cheating with the scale of each part of this. The horses looked huge when compared to the figure and the wagon, so to boost the height of the other parts the figure and wagon had card under them to boost them up to so they looked better with the horses. This also helped the miniatures when sitting alongside 18mm figures.
Some of the pics are a bit blurry but you'll get a good idea how the wagon turned out.
I may at some point add a rope or reigns or something so the figure is pulling the horses and not thin air.
The wagons from Museum Miniatures are coming along fine. The only issue with the models was that the sacks on the grain wagon will be difficult to fit if you glue the wheels to close to the wagon body. I did this and had to trim the grain sacks about 1mm thinner to fit between the wheels.
The other issue, and this isn't a criticism of the miniatures, was that the horse were tiny. These are true 15mm so the small size was to be expected, but compared to my other figures the horses seemed totally wrong. You can see this in this picture, which has the first wagon half painted.
This picture shows the draught horses compared to French heavy cavalry, and even considering that the cavalry are on large horses, I would have though the draught horses to be big animals as well.
The French horses are from Warmodelling, so with that in mind I remembered I had a couple of spare Warmodelling Austrian horses from a limber set. These were closer in size to what I needed.
Unfortunately I only had two of these, while I needed four - and the horses can't be ordered separately from Warmodelling or their sellers.
I was on the Fighting 15s website, looking at Eureka's Seven Years War figures, and noticed their really nice wagons in the Russian range. Not only did they have wagons, but they sold the horses separately at 40p each, so four were ordered. They arrived quickly, three days after ordering I think, and they are big horses! They are 18mm scale, but still BIG!
I really like these, and they do look like work horses. My only grumble is that the from the pictures there look to be 3 variants. These were all the same. Here's one last picture with the heavy draught horses and the hay wagon. I'll post more when this model is finished.
I was browsing through eBay a couple of days ago and was looking at some figure packs from Museum Miniatures on buy-it-now deals and noticed these rather nice carts and wagons. Now I don't know about other wargamers and miniature collectors, but I've always liked a bit of useless eye candy to sit around the game table as nothing but decoration. These pieces of the collection add no combat value to your army, but I have always thought that they can enhance a table.
So two wagons were duly ordered, and only a couple of days later they dropped through the letterbox. I had no idea how these would scale; whether they would be traditional 15mm and tiny compared to newer figures, or whether the quality would be poor - even though judging by the picture on eBay they looked decent.
Having opened these, I saw immediately that these are really nice models. Simple but highly effective.
They came packed in small poly bags, with the traditional folded card with company name.
The first wagon was a simple flat bed carrying sacks, pulled by two small ponies (I assume these are small horses comparing them to the figure that accompanies them) and a figure of a civilian driver on foot. This fellow will be fine for any period from late medieval, through renaissance, to the late 18th century. Now that I see them I will use these alongside my Vendean figures as the broad brimmed hat matches their look.
The flat-bed can be used without the sacks and is just as nice without the load.
Both wagons fit together really easily, and even without any gluing you can see how well the parts go together. I probably won't glue the sacks to this base so that the miniature can be used with or without load.
The hay wagon is a bulky bit of kit. The hay load is massive, so much so that you don't actually see the wagon. The rear wheels fit directly onto the hay load. Overall this is a great looking little set and I'm looking forward to painting it up.
So how do these scale up beside my other figures? Obviously these have only put together for the photos, so they don't have the same height advantage of having a base under them, but they look fine beside both AB and Blue Moon's Austrians.
As I said, these will be part of my Vendee collection, and here is one of them alongside some Vendean rebels.
Once I paint these I'll post up the finished pictures, but I'm already confident they will look great alongside my army.
Getting ready for some more painting, and after a much needed break from masses of white uniforms, I've been picking up some more bits and pieces for my Austrian army.
I came across, and managed to win an opened bag of Old Glory's NAE8 Austrian Caisson.
Popped the bag open this morning and emptied out the parts. Everything was complete and flash free. I separated out the parts and what you get is two caissons, each with four horses and two riders.
The horses are quite small compared to the newer ranges, as are the riders. The riders are also wearing post-1800 shakos, so not really suitable for Marengo, but they are nice little figures with three (maybe four) variants.
I've quickly glued the wheels to the caissons - the rear wheels attach to a separate axle, and the front wheels attach to the from axle (I'm not really sure what the correct name for the front section of a wagon/caisson is). These all fit together easily and cleanly. There's also two small parts that I assume fit to the top/front of the caisson.
All in all, this is a nice little set, though quite small compared to newer figures. Sitting beside my other caisson they seem far to small, but they may look better once painted.
I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Blue Moon wagons and Caissons, which should be the correct size. Hopefully they'll do earlier riders as well as ones in Shako, so that I can have properly uniformed troops for the era.
After a busy week or two preparing for a job interview, its back to some painting. I've been working on a few bits and pieces rather than trying to finish another Austrian battalion, just to break the monotony of the constant white uniforms, and first up is another little ammunition cart from Hallmark/Magister Militum. This one is again being pulled by a Warmodelling horse and the figure leading the horse in from Blue Moon. I have a feeling that maybe the uniforms should have been blue, so maybe some can shed some light.
Here is the two completed carts together. I'm not sure whether these will be used "in game" for anything other than window dressing but the General de Brigade rules to give you the option of using rules for ammunition shortages and replenishing units.
Next up is another 3pdr regimental artillery piece. This one, another Warmodelling gun, is crewed by a Campaign Game Miniatures artillery team. These are really easy little figures to paint, slightly more chunky than my others, but for size they fit really well and can easily mix on the same base with what I already have.
Here is all my artillery together in one large battery. The Austrians rarely seemed to have combined batteries like this, but its nice to see them all together and to see how well the different ranges mix.
After painting a pile of white uniformed Austrian infantry I needed a change. I'd enjoyed creating my first two artillery units and fancied doing some ammunition carts or wagons.
After a few searches on the internet I spotted a couple of things that looked interesting. I found that Magister Militum carried the Hallmark range of Carts, Wagons, Equipment and etc. The wagons and carts come without horses or crew. I wasn't sure how the figures they have would compare to the ranges I'm using, so I had to look elsewhere.
I decided on Warmodellings Limber set, which was reasonably priced. Unfortunately this set has limber riders wearing shakos, which I think is a later uniform that you would see at Marengo. Luckily I had a few leftover Jagers, so a quick headswap or two later and the addition of a couple of plumes and I had the riders I needed.
Here's the finished ammunition/supply wagon...
Next up was an ammunition cart, again from Magister Militum / Hallmark, and using a Warmodelling horse. The figure leading the cart is a Warmodelling Austrian Line Infantry figure from the casualty pack. He was a bareheaded, fleeing figure, but with the addition of a Green Stuff bicorne, he now looks suitable as Artillery. To be honest, I'm sure the pack and equipment are totally wrong, and he probably shouldn't be wearing the brown uniform, but it looks good.
And finally, here are both sets together....
