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

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Shahbahraz: Either that or I decide to use them in the least useful fashion and get them into trouble! Or they just don't show up, depending on the set ofrules used. The possibilities for things to go wrong are endless!

@Warboss Nick: Thanks very much. Seems like they must have worked OK, since several models were in production, with barely any changes in length. Maybe the idea was born out of being used in forested/mountainous areas, so a shorter barrel was easier to handle and to reload while sitting in cover. But honestly I don't know. I do know that they were substantially shorter than regular infantry muskets or even the shorter than the Jäger-Karabiner (Jäger carbine). Regular infantry muskets were between 150,5 and 151,7cm in length, while these Jägerstutzen were only 105 to 106cm long. They got extra long bayonets (over 60cm IIRC) to make up for that in case they get into close combat.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Heyhey, here I am again. Last night I put together some Napoleonic Austrians for my own collection:



In the front Carinthian Landwehr (they were on the way in Tyrol as part of the Corps Chasteler), in the back a 3-pound gun with crew, in the back right 6 Grenzer light infantry and their leader. (in between a Grenzer from a prior unit I used for basing reference; I should have taken him out before taking the pictures).

 

The figures in the back (artillery, Grenzers) are all by Front Rank (but they are standing in the back! I'm such a crazy dude.), the Landwehr is by Old Glory. Because nobody else makes Landwehr in top hats ("Hetherington Hats") in 28mm. Interesting. So I'm glad I found them. It's not going to be easy because the casts are a bit uneven. On the one hand great, because they were cheap and I think there are 6 doubles in the set of 30 figures at best. So just perfect for skirmishing. Old Glory seem to have a system where they combine different torsos and legs and then add an individual head. Something like that. In any case very good. And you get two flag bearers, two officers, two drummers and two corporals. Also cool. Less good are casting and durability. The guys come in a plastic bag; that means that the flagpoles are completely spaghetti-like, of course. Doesn't matter; cast-on flagpoles have to be replaced by metal sticks anyway. With muskets (and especially bayonets) this was more problematic. Only one bayonet was broken off out of the bag, but after cleaning and sticking them to bases, about 30-40% of the guys had their bayonets snapped. The material is quite soft, and the connections between muskets (which are not very well cast either) and bayonets are very thin.

 

So as long as they are not too bad to paint I think I will have a lot of fun with this unit. Because you gotta love odd things. Or 2 units, if you go to Sharp Practice. Militia, Landwehr and so on consists of 10 figures each if I remember correctly, and then you need leaders.

 

This is what the uniform would look like. Something different.




So yeah, that's that. Happy weekend!

[Ray Rivers]

Never go half way, do you?

What happened to the coach?

[Shahbahraz]

Very nice. Looking forward to seeing these with paint on.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Ray Rivers: Nevar. I'm all about "110% is half-assing it", "refuse to lose", "all or nothing", "second place is the first loser", "pressure makes diamonds", "if you don't have 2 hours to work out every day you don't deserve a hot date" and all that good stuff.  Oh, the coach? Meh, I got bored, primed it and left it standing around somewhere gathering dust.

@Shahbahraz: Me too! Let's see when that happens.


Today I did another step on the Austrians. I never knead up the right amount of putty. So I thought why not instead of eating any surplus as usual, why not make something nice?



No wonder I never get anything done.

[Shahbahraz]

You're as bad as me, I've been procrastinating on hundreds of ancients for Infamy Infamy, and instead of painting what I have, I've just been buying and prepping more.

[Ray Rivers]

@Ray Rivers: Nevar. I'm all about "110% is half-assing it", "refuse to lose", "all or nothing", "second place is the first loser", "pressure makes diamonds", "if you don't have 2 hours to work out every day you don't deserve a hot date" and all that good stuff.

 

So I thought why not instead of eating any surplus as usual, why not make something nice?

Well, that's creative! 

[Warboss Nick]

Good to see you are doing some Austrians for yourself, too. I am always torn with Old Glory as the do have some nice extras. The quality however... Adding different hats to Perry plastics was not an option?

Got to love the Schneemann - I’ll have to try something similar for the Peninsular, a scarecrow maybe.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@Shahbahraz: Well, I can report that I haven't bought any new figures since Janu- no, wait. Since May- no, wait. Since early August.

@Warboss Nick: Cheers! Yeah, working away at glacial speeds on those guys. I'll write a review about these figures once they're done. At the moment I'm very much torn. Yes, they are bordering dodgy. But on the other hand, I LIKE dodgy things and I really like all those facial expressions. There's some proper character heads on those. And I like the variety of subtle differences among the set. Very, very few doubles in there. The problem with adding different hats to an existing plastics set is that nobody does these hats. At least I couldn't find any. And even the metals I got off OG now had the cockades in the front. All of the sources I looked at note the cockades to be on the side. So I cut them off the models and added new cockades made of green stuff to the sides of the hats. I'll probably add some Eichenlaub later as well.

Here's a WIP shot:

full size image:

As written above, I removed the cockades from the hats and put new ones made from Green Stuff on the sides of the hats, where they belong according to my sources. Loads of bayonets snapped during the clean-up process. In this case the chunkiness of the muskets came to my aid. I made new ones from toothpicks. So far they stick pretty well. Let's see how long they last. If they come off - oh well. I'll make a new one.

Of course I also snipped off the flag poles and drilled holes for wire rods.

So yeah, early WIP shot there. Next step I assume will be hair, then faces and handy, then I guess it's time for ...I don't know. greatcoats, I suppose. And then it goes on from there.
edit: oh, I forgot the breeches. I guess those are the next thing I should do after the hair and skin.

[Shahbahraz]

Well, I have to say I rather like those, chunky, animated, perhaps slightly wonky in a couple of cases, but they look great. If it was me, I'd splash paint on that drum and reckon they were the best painted figures I'd ever completed 

Looking forward to seeing further work. It's a great project.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Well, I have to say I rather like those, chunky, animated, perhaps slightly wonky in a couple of cases, but they look great. If it was me, I'd splash paint on that drum and reckon they were the best painted figures I'd ever completed 

Looking forward to seeing further work. It's a great project.

Funny thing is that I think that those represent people better than digital sculpts with copy-pasted, symetric faces. I'm exaggerating of course. Many digital figure drawers get really good by now and the technology's also catching up, but somehow bumpy, odd, grimacing, crooked, etc. (also exaggerating) somehow fits people better. I don't know. Might have something to do with 'soul' or empathy or something.

Look at the lengths I go to justify my purchase.   I also always have to think of other painters (of the pro kind) who'd dismiss such sculpts right away because they're not 'pretty enough'. Makes me like'em (the figures) more. Don't get me wrong, I love me some neat plastic perrys (or Perry plastics rather), flawlessly-cast Front Rank, and so on, but I ALSO like the other figures. In fact I like most figures once I got them in hand; 3 hours into the project I like them at the lastest. I just like miniatures. Well, again. Actually, before I started painting these here I didn't touch a paintbrush in a week. No idea when that last had happened. But it was my birthday, I'd been a good (and stressed) boy throughout August, finishing 40k stuff I undercharged on, so was a bit miffed at painting anyway (and physically was unwell), so I took a week off. I did play solo games and wrote battle reports (which always takes me ages to do). And then, when I picked up the paintbrush again, on Sunday I just enjoyed painting again. Maybe that also helped in liking these figures.

Ask me again about my fondness of those dudes when I have to highlight those Hetherington hats.

[Shahbahraz]

Amen..  I get you.. testify brother!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Okay, fun time's over. Time to put away my 28mm single-based 1809 Austrian Nappies and get going on those 28mm single-based 1809 Austrian Nappies. I decided to just throw these in here, because they fit the subject matter:



In the back you can see the Landwehr, in the front 20 chaps of IR14. That's one of the regiments with black turnbacks, cuffs and collars. These will either end up looking really classy or really boring. A fun bunch though. Perrys metals (with 2 Perrys plastics smuggled in. First time I'm painting Perry plastic austrians!), 2 NCOs, 1 very cool officer model, 1 ensign, 1 drummer, 1 sapper. I think they're meant to be used with the Chosen Men rules by Osprey. Anyone of you got experiences with those rules? My own preference would be Song of Drums and Shakos, but I never read Chosen Men.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Yo, yo. Here I am, and I don't have much to do tonight. So I finished the Austrians from infantry regiment No.14:







Hope you like them. Next up: french 6pdr gun and crew, 2 French colonels.

[Shahbahraz]

Those are just great. The more you look the more excellent detail you see. Like how neat the stripes on the drum, or the buttons. Lovely work. Thanks for sharing.