Sharp Practice 1809 Project - Update 2/2023: Sharp Practice AAR

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Thanks very much. When I varnished the guys now and put them in the box I thought I liked the bases as well. Maybe I was in an odd mood or expected something else when looking at the picture first or something like that. Oh well. They look fine.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

What's this? Have the stars aligned? Do cats and dogs live together now? I actually started placing paint on the Landau coach!



I also started converting the Russian Tsar into an Austrian staff officer. Now I'm a bit conflicted - Online I saw a picture of a Landau coach with bone-white wheels. It does look tacky. And it does look great. Pretty sure it's a bad idea, but somehow I dig it. Should I go for it or keep the wheels black, maybe with a slightly shinier metal band around them or something?


Also relevant to this project: I started cleaning the Poles! No pictures yet, but boy, those Murawski figures are pretty. Lovely horses (all of which saying EBOB on the bottom side of their bases ). Very daunting too. That polish force will be quite work intensive to do.

[Shahbahraz]

Looking forward to seeing the Poles but that Landau sure looks pretty. I would consider white wheels to be gauche but maybe a lining colour?

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Shahbahraz: Thanks very much! Yes, the wheels are a problem. I'm inclined to agree with you. I assume they'd be black, right? Or very dark wooden colour.


Another WIP shot of the Landau coach with Austrian staff officer:



Things be proceedin' slowly. An annoying fact dawned on me: That coach won't drive anywhere off-road, so I might have to keep the base more road-like and bare, with a few little tufts of grass here and there, else it would look off on a road. So I won't be able to get as much colour into this figure as I'd hoped to. Let's see. Any ideas?

[Ray Rivers]

Looks great!

As for the base... DuckDuckGo "road ruts."

An example:

[Shahbahraz]

If you wanted more colour you could paint the spokes in the green body colour and add lining detail.

[DintheDin]

If you wanted more colour you could paint the spokes in the green body colour and add lining detail.

Coach, figures and horses superbly painted!
I concur about the spokes.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Shahbahraz: Good point, I think I'll give that a try.

@DintheDin: Thanks. It sounds like a good idea.


Right, today I was out doing some field research.


full size image:

full size image:

"What are you doing, human."
full size image:

There are perks to sitting right at the outskirts of Vienna. Had to deliver some figures to the inner city, so I had a look at some of the Fiaker coaches standing around. The larger ones for 4 people are basically the Landau Chassis. The wheels are mounted a bit differently (single suspension on each wheel rather than one suspension for each axis), but otherwise they're pretty much the same thing.

[jon_1066]

Looks great!

As for the base... DuckDuckGo "road ruts."

An example:

Don't make them like this.  The old double rut with a green swath down the middle is a modern phenomenon due to the internal combustion engine.  The drive on this carriage is from the horses hooves which churn up the middle bit just as bad - if not worse - than the wheels.  You would therefore see a fully churned road with ruts and mud all over. 

If it is summer or not so muddy just a full width dusty road would be suitable.

[Compas]

 I'm particularly looking at the Advance Guard

[Warboss Nick]

If you wanted more colour you could paint the spokes in the green body colour and add lining detail.

I‘d also go for green with black metal. That would be most in line with the main body of the landau.

As for the base I wouldn’t overstretch the quality of (dirt) roads in that time. The base looks the part, just don‘t add (too many) tufts. That being said, a little off road would surely be possible and might have happened on the battlefield (rear).

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@jon1066: Thanks for the heads up on that detail! I did not know that, but it's good to know. I never got the "strip of grass in the middle" because the horses usually also move much closer to each other than the wheels are sat. Good to have that confirmed.

@Compas: The Austrian one? I decided to get the Infantry for both sides (or first two sides) done first, then I'll add cavalry. Not the least because I was too preoccupied with waiting for the Perrys to release Plastics. At the moment I'm a bit tempted to wait for their Austrian Hussars to be released and get some Front Rank Cheveaulegers. For the Polish army I got two units (8 each) of Lancers, plus some leaders/musicians/flagbearers. So the Austrian Advance guard so far is just the two groups of Grenzers for the Polish campaign, and a handful of Jägers for Tyrol.

@Warboss Nick: Yeah, I painted the spokes green now, and I think it's the way to go. At first I didn't like the look, but it's growing on me. As for the roads: Very good point. Only problem is that my own dirt roads are of top notch quality and width, so I should make the base fit that in some way. I learned that in the Song of Drums and Muskets test game a few months ago:



AAR and Rules Review: https://www.tabletopstories.net/language/en/2020/10/song-of-drums-and-shakos-battle-report/

I think I'll have to find a mid-way between the amount of vegetation on the base on this ACW supply coach and a bare road somehow.


Anyway, merry christmas!

[Warboss Nick]

Ah, the gras tufts dilemma. Without them the base looks bare. With them it looks strange on road.

Thanks for the AAR and rules review!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Warboss Nick: Indeed. Especially as my brain's trained to think that in the end I'll add green fuzz on the base (most of the time anyway), so that's worked into colour scheme/balance considerations and all of that.


Heyhey. Despite all the plans I started working on my own Napoleonics during my days off.



Cleaned and based the Poles, primed them (black!), painted up some test minis. Those will follow soon. Just so you know in which direction this is going.

Just the infantry for now so I got the infantry done for both sides, then I'll add cavalry.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Roight, that's the five testers for the 8th Infantry Regiment of the Duchy of Warsaw done:


full size image:

Maybe I'll change some bits, maybe I'll refine some bits, but overall this is what I'll go for. Now only to repeat this 12 times.





Hope you like'em so far.