One of the things I've always loved about the Napoleonic and Revolutionary periods is the great variety of uniforms and the obscurer the unit the better, so painting an Austrian army involves a lot of white uniforms and the occasional side-track into something a little less white.
I've been very conscious of the fact that I have moved away from the initial concept of this blog to build the Austrian army that fought at Marengo. Painting up a pile of French made sense, as did creating a Piedmontese allied army, but I found myself being tempted by the Seven Years War and then War of the Spanish Succession periods. So I had to get a focus back to the Austrians.
I still didn't feel like painting more white uniforms but was determined to do more Austrian troops and a unit that always interested me was O'Donel's Frei-corps.
I'd seen this unit in the Osprey Men-at-Arms book "Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars: Infantry", though the information is a little sparse. O'Donel's Frei-corps was raised in Galicia in 1790 and was named after its commander, Oberst Graf O'Donel. The red Hungarian trousers were so different from the usual blue, and the unusual shako with its double feather all gave the unit a very unique look.
There are no miniatures specific to this unit, and as it is so obscure, that I doubt there ever will be. The cost to manufacturers would not get a return on how many could be fielded in a game.
Luckily the uniform is close enough to the early revolutionary Grenz that AB's lovely figures could be used. The main differences were the AB miniatures had visible waistcoats and, of course, the Shako ornaments.
The choices were to either paint the figures as they were, or to do a bit of conversion. I've done both to compare - the conversion involved drilling a small hole, add a little plastic pin, and some green stuff to build the feather, cords and pom-poms. This took a bit over an hour for one miniature and I'm not sure I could do the full unit.
So the big choices, do a couple of conversions and mix them in the unit? Or do them all?
Here's the figures, and any feedback or opinions would be greatly appreciated...
I've just seen this image of the new Revolutionary era Austrian Grenz Artillery crew from AB / Eureka, thanks to Dave Hollins who sent a link for the picture. I will definitely be getting some for my collection. Not sure when they'll be getting released yet but hopefully soon.
Welcome to my new Blog. It has taken a while to start this as I've been concentrating on getting some figures painted so that there is something to show on here, but now I'm ready to get the blog up and running.
I've had an interest in Napoleonic wargaming for many years and have started quite a few armies, but never completed that many. I've had French, Russians, Prussian, British, and Austrian, all from a range of manufacturers including Minifigs, Essex, Old Glory.
The newer and larger miniatures from companies like AB, Warmodelling, Blue Moon etc, where you also get a few poses rather than a single pose like we had way back, have reignited my interest. So during the summer holidays I put aside my 15mm scifi project and my 28mm World of the Greeks project, and started a new army - a 15mm Austrian army for the Battle of Marengo, 1800.
I was lucky to spot a Order of Battle for Marengo in a back issue of Wargames Illustrated. The OB was for the General de Brigade rules, and I'm not sure how accurate it was, but it was a good basis for making a start.
My first battalion to be completed was the Banat Regiment of Grenzers. Although I'd had some Austrians from Minifigs many years ago, I never had any Grenzers, so I decided to try something different from the usual white uniformed troops that make up the majority of an Austrian army.
Here is my first completed battalion;
The Banater Grenz IR#4.
The figures are from Warmodelling (previously Fantassin).
Next up was my first line infantry battalion. I was lucky enough to pick up a bundle of figures from eBay that was composed of exactly how many figures I needed for a battalion, so this was the next unit, a German line unit. The IR23 Toscana comprised three battalions, this represents the first of the three;
Toscana Regiment IR#23/1
The figures are from Old Glory (currently available from Timecast).
I'll post more figures as I complete the units, with more line infantry, artillery, jagers, and generals all almost ready for the table.
