1866 Austrian Artillery - 10mm

More of the excellent Pendraken figures. This time Austrian artillery. These come with the seats for the crew when limbered. They're quite solid castings for their size and were nice to paint. As many would already know, the Austrian artillery in the 1866 campaign were actually superior to their Prussian counterparts. The problem however perhaps lay in doctrine and deployment. The latter tended to keep their guns further back and removed them quickly when threatened. The Austrians on the other hand brought their artillery up close to ensure support for the infantry. This often resulted in them being overrun or shot down as per "The Battery of the Dead" at Chlum when they deployed 150m in front of the Austrian Infantry and were overrun by the Prussian Guard.

1866 Austrian Hussars - 10mm

This is the second edition to my 1866 Austrian army. All included in the Pendraken army pack. Having picked a period that would perhaps be quite obscure to many (The Austro-Prussian War, aka The Seven Weeks War) I'm now grappling with the obvious problem of painting guides and uniform details. Hence I'm eternally thankful for the abundance of forums such as TMP and Pendraken's own, where people have posted up links and suggestions. Having been one of those pre-internet gamers (even though it was primarily Games Workshop/Fantasy stuff) I feel heartily grateful for the resources that are now at my fingertips.

Back to the issue of late 19th Century warfare, and I've just finished reading 'Sedan 1870 - The Eclipse of France' by Douglas Fermer. Anyone interested in the Franco-Prussian War should grab it. As well as being incredibly tragic, I found it a great introduction to the conflict. Although also quite excellent I feel it's perhaps less dense than Michael Howard's book on the same subject.

Austrian Infantry 1866 - 10mm Pendraken.

I bought these 1866 Austrian Infantry from Pendraken as part of their Army deal. Impressed with some of the smaller scale figures folks have been bringing along to the club I thought I'd try my hand at them. I was also inclined to consider the current costs of collecting armies in 25/28mm metal, as much as I still love my Napoleonic French I'm only too aware of the time and £££'s it's put in to get a decent sized force.

The army packs from Pendraken are only £25 each, and you get a worthwhile amount for your money. Although they don't come with command units, what I got was enough to field two whole divisions and still a few left over. The painting itself seemed intimidating at first and I probably wasn't used to picking out jackets and packs with careful paint blobs. However, it was nice to see the detail appearing once I'd used block colours and then added a thin wash all over. I decided afterwards on a bit of highlight to make the colour pop a bit more. I managed to pick up the Osprey edition of the Austrian Army 1836-1866 (1) cheap from Amazon, and in it was listed the charts and references for lapel colours and facings. The Army pack mentioned in this instance includes both infantry in Kittel and greatcoats (above photos show two units in Kittel and one in GC). The basing was done with green flock and chinchilla sand from the local pet store - the latter comes in large bags for only a couple of quid. Nice considering it's probably exactly the same stuff you're buying in hobby stores for three times the price.

Anyway, I'll be looking forward to buying a few more of these in the very near future.