7 years War Austrians

End of an undergraduate year is properly mental, so I've been very busy. I've done very little since the Utah beach battle. The VBCW battle didn't happen, too many clashing diaries but James and I did play a really great couple of games of Necromunder to test out the rules. I have a Palantine type set of figures, rules for them not out yet, so they doubled as Esher. I won the 1st battle and then we swapped the board round and James won the second. We will play this again. No photos though, no charge in phone.
Other news, last Christmas I painted my aged parents (don't tell them that) a couple of figures. My dad always said he was in the Bengal Lancers when we were little - don't think he's ever been on a horse. So he got a Bengal lancer. My mum is a fan of greek mythology so she got Talos. She has now asked for more of these for next Christmas so i've taken advantage of a Foundry sale and bought Gorgons, Cyclopses, Hydra, Cerberus and a Chimera. They will keep me busy and the Chimera looks impossible to paint.
You can tell it's been a while since my last post, I'm rambling on.
I have started a 10mm 7YW project and have finished the Brunswick army, typically they fought on the wrong front as the plan is for Austrians vs Prussians. Still what can you do. So I've started the Austrians. I'm building all the units for the Battle of Lobositz to give me a good force. This was the 1st major battle of the war (about 35K men for the Austrians and 28K for the Prussians). These will mainly be Pendraken but i picked up loads of Austrians at Partizan and have finished some of them

• Major-General Wied's Infantry Brigade
  • Nikolaus Esterházy (2 bns)
  • Kaiser (2 bns)
  • Harsch (2 bns)
• Major-General Perony's Infantry Brigade
  • Alt-Wolfenbüttel (2 bns)
  • Baden-Durlach (2 bns)

Dragoons - Liechtenstein Dragoons, Erzherzog Joseph Dragoons and Batthyányi Dragoons 

The figures are Old Glory Grand Scale but don't occupy as much physical space as Pendraken so the units look smaller, the cavalry are in 2 pieces, which is annoying as they never fit right, they come in pack sizes that don't match the basing plan and they are more expensive than Pendraken. Other than that they are fine.

I have a couple of Grenzer regiments to paint and then I've bought a load of Pendraken artillery and grenadiers to add to the force which only leaves me 30 packs to buy to finish the army.

Onwards and upwards

Even more painting done. Really cleaning out the partially painted stuff and have found more to do. In the mood now so hopefully a good weekend of painting, nothing else to do. But for now I have done this
Union ACW regiment. Picked these up at the Border Reiver show couple of years ago. 30 x 28mm Old Glory figs for about £20. Not the best figures but it's another regiment to add to the vast ACW collection (got some limbers to assemble next)

The thing I hate most about Vallejo paints is that I always squeeze out too much paint. Not wanting to waste it I have used it to paint the following modern figs. i had these set aside for the challenge and even for the bonus rounds. Luckily I have more. These are Empress and lovely figs

The search has found some more figs to paint and to assemble. What a bloody annoying hobby!

Attecotti - possibly

It feels ages since I've done any painting, life, work and not being in the mood have all stopped me. However last week my mojo was rising and I spent 3 evening painting some dark age / late Roman Briton berserkers.
The Attacotti (Attecotti / Atecuti) are a ferocious tribe from the Strathclyde area of Scotland (possibly) that appears in the 4th Century AD. They were supposedly a bit mental.
The Old Guard have a couple of guys doing Arthurian types (Stu and Steve) and I have a Pict army that needed bulking up.
At the Border Reiver show a couple of years age I bought a pack of Old Glory Maoris, the reasons are a bit sketchy and they have sat on the lead mountain ever since. In a flash of inspiration I decided to turn the Maoris in to Attacotti. Problems were some feathers, some tassles, wooden clubs and grass skirts. The feathers and tassles were easily removed, the grass skirts filed doen to loin cloths and I left the clubs - they seemed appropriate.
Painting was pretty straight forward, lots of flesh and muted tone but it did me the opportunity to try out tattoos.

 Pretty pleased with them and with my other berserker types gives me a couple of regiments. I've ordered a few more figs from Newline, who have a massive sale on, to complete the army. I have a formidable army now.

The Great game

I'm currently reading The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk about spying in the NW frontier and it is a fantastic read full of daring do and great battles. Like all true wargaming butterflies I got the bug to play. I've got loads of figures for the late 19th Century stuff but the thing that really pushed my buttons was the Russian / Persian wars of 1807 - 1827. These looked at great chance to play large scale skirmishes. So I went shopping

I have loads of irregular Persian troops, Afghans and the such, but no regulars. The only real source is Westfalia but these are a little expensive for a flight of fancy (£9 for 6 infantry and £14 for a single camel gunner). So I went looking and Old Glory had what I thought were suitable figures at less that £1 for infantry and £24 for 6 camel gunners. So I bought them. Unfortunately they aren't right. The infantry will be a tough conversion to regulars but an easy one for militia - only hats need doing. The camel gunners weren't armed with 1lb cannons but with wheelocks. Luckily I have some swivel guns that will convert them nicely. probably a score draw on success.

To fight them I needed some Russian Napoleonic troops so off to Perry for some infantry, some Cossacks and an artillery piece. These will work straight from the box with forage caps instead of shakoes.

Next some Perry some Madhists to complete the collection for now.

Finally I gave my first public lecture on Thursday, The Newcastle University equivalent of the Royal Institute Christmas Lecture to a room of 200 children and parents. I really enjoyed it.

The bags are field geology kits that I gave out - bribery and 100 new geologists in 5 years

To close i bought this yesterday from the cool independent record store - Germ Free Adolescents by X-Ray Spex which got me thinking about other great songs from my youth especially this one