Vom Kriege Napoleonic Tabletop Wargaming

I have number of 15mm cavalry figures in poses that expose the figures swords to being inadvertently bent while handling. These poses appear to be done to make the casting process easier. Recently I decided to try and bend the sword arms on these cavalry figures in positions that provide more protection from damage during handling on the wargaming table. The figures are Essex and have already been painted so this exercise was going to test both the malleability of the lead as well as the paint job. The end result was surprisingly good. I did break one arm early on but I was able to glue it and learnt from that experience to successfully bend 15 other figures. Below are some photos of the original figure next to a figure with the arm bent. The key to doing this was to slowly bend the arm using my fingers while carefully watching for any signs of distress at the bend point. It might also have a bit to do with the quality of lead in the figure. Anyway, it was successful enough that I'...

I've nearly finished painting up around 400 x 15mm Warrior Miniature Austrians over this COVID period. Hussars, cuirassiers and generals will round out the complete army. The photos are taken on a new printed fleece wargame mat with a subtle 70mm hex grid.

I'd just finished priming some 15mm Warrior Miniature Austrian Uhlans, and realised that the figures would look much better with the lance pennants trailing behind the figure. The pennant is cast in line with the figure to suit the limitations of the cast. I wondered what would happen if I twisted the pennant and lance 90 degrees. I had been reluctant to do this as I thought the lance would invariably break. Well, I took a pair of pliers and slowly twisted one pennant. The lead appeared to twist nicely and at 90 degrees still appeared to be fairly solid. I'm sure you can't do this more than once but I'm very happy with the outcome. Here is a photo of three figures. The one on the let is the casting as it comes. The other two have the pennant twisted at 90 degrees. You can even see the casting line on the lance and how it has uniformly twisted.

Just finished painting 9 batteries of Napoleonic Austrian artillery. These are 15mm Warrior Miniatures. I again used a black undercoat technique on both the figures and the guns. It certainly sped the painting up and I love how forgiving it is as you don't have to paint right to the edges. The Warrior Miniature figures don't have the nicely raised features of Essex so I found the white straps a bit of a challenge. Lots of tidying up had to be done to get to something satisfactory for the tabletop.

Just finished painting 48 Austrian Jagers in a single week. A record time (for me). Working from home has allowed me to paint while I'm listening in to Skype meetings! Couldn't do that in the office. These are 15mm Warrior Miniatures.

Just finished painting 4 battalions of Austrian Grenadiers to add to the 17 line infantry battalions already completed since the COVID isolation increased opportunities to paint that pile of lead. The figures are 15mm from Warrior Miniatures. Two battalions are Hungarian and the other two are German.

Just completed painting 3 units of Hungarian infantry. Theses are 15 mm Warrior Miniatures using a black undercoat technique.

After finishing around 120 Austrian infantry figures, I'm now working on some Hungarian units. I'm testing out some alternative painting techniques for this batch as illustrated below.

I've just purchased a whole lot of Warrior Miniatures 15mm Napoleonic Austrians. Now for the task of painting them all. I've experimented a lot with the white uniform and settled on the following method:

Current state of figures is in this  spreadsheet My objective is to have 1 corps of 2 divisions per side at 10,000 troops per division.

Current state of figures is in this spreadsheet My objective is to have 1 corps of 2 divisions per side at 10,000 troops per division.