The Saxon Army of 1813 (21.3. Grenadiers, Infantry and Artillery)

[Nysse]

A few evenings of frantic painting spread over the last week saw me finish up both the light infantry regiments for the project. The lack of variance in the sculpts was both a blessing and a curse. With only three different poses there's quite a clone wars vibe to the units, but then again it was pretty darn quick to get everything painted up as 16 examples of each of the three poses really allowed for some fast assembly line work on them. And I lazied out a bit on the paintjobs as well by doing the green base with my airbrush and then skipping the highlighting stage after a light black wash. Doesn't really seem to need it as much as the lighter and brighter colours do and with the red piping it pops enough from your normal viewing distance on the table.

I swapped out the pompoms on the great coated officers shakos for some plumes with a simple green stuff conversion. Ended up being a bit too tall, but not really noticable on the table I guess. I'd also forgotten to take into account the officers when I ordered these guys, so I was left with 4 extras. Still not too bad as we're using small dice as markers for casualties and different morale effects so they found use as tokens for the units.

They are based with just two to a base as at least according to my research they seemed to be deployed in skirmish screens and thus will do that during our games as well.

Next I'll probably take a few weeks break from this project and work on some fantasy and sci-fi stuff. So most likely no updates until mid-February or something like that. Probably either grenadiers or then some cavalry. Uhlans and Hussars need to be converted so that might be a fun little project for next, but we'll see what will strike my fancy when I'm done with my next Skaven unit.

[Inhaber Jerry]

Fantastic. Do you airgun the whole miniature or just between his collar and gaiters?

[Nysse]

I basecoated them black and then covered them pretty much completely with the green.  They're way too small to really bother trying to basecoat just the green parts of the uniform in green. Trying to be precise would take much more time than could ever be saved by doing it. The only colours that really had any coverage issue were the flesh shades, everything else just went on as a single coat.

I do the same with all the white uniforms as well. Just basecoated white with an airbrush and all the other shades picked out before cleaning up the white areas where I accidentally messed it up with another shade.

[Nysse]

Some more Saxons after a month long break spent painting some Fantasy and WW2 stuff.

This time finishing one of the last battalions of the 24th Division with the combined grenadiers in the von Spiegel battalion. It was formed of the grenadiers from Prinz Maximillian, Rechten, Prinz Friedrich August and von Steindel regiments. In reality there should be both yellow and green facings, but I decided to simplify things and paint everything green just for the sake of clarity. With only 18 men in a unit I felt it might have seemed a bit too busy with some of the soldiers with different facings. And to be honest I was lazy

The project is starting to look pretty good. After these it's two more grenadier battalions and 4 infantry and then it's really just cavalry, some artillery and all the officers. We're finally getting around to starting our 1813 campaign with the first small game played in January and the first "proper" big battle coming in mid April in the form of Lützen. My Saxons won't be needed there yet so there's still some time to get them finished, but with the campaign rolling it's really providing a much needed boost for my motivation!

[DintheDin]

They look great!
I always admire people who give a proper treatment on the shades of white uniforms...
But also your yellow for the Zastrow cuirassiers, one of my favorite units, is fabulous!
Good luck for a glorious ending of your big project!   

[Nysse]

They look great!
I always admire people who give a proper treatment on the shades of white uniforms...
But also your yellow for the Zastrow cuirassiers, one of my favorite units, is fabulous!
Good luck for a glorious ending of your big project!

Thanks! Luckily the white is fairly simple. Just on offwhite shade with a thinned black wash over it and most of the area painted with offwhite again.

[Melnibonean]

These are great looking battalions/regiments. You're going to have a very impressive looking army by the time you've finished.

[Lysandros]

There is something special about AB figures.
Barton is the best sculptor in this scale. They are true classics. and really capture elegance.  You have done them proud and a great collection.

[Nysse]

There is something special about AB figures.
Barton is the best sculptor in this scale. They are true classics. and really capture elegance.

Couldn't have said it better myself! Definitely the best sculpts in this scale I've ever seen. Shame that the amount of poses is fairly limited though.

[Nysse]

Yet more Saxons! The last few weeks have been fairly productive with two infantry battalions and two artillery batteries finished. And the finish line really starts to be in sight! Only three more Line infantry battalions and the Leib Grenadiers left and then I'm done with all infantry except for making casualty bases for all units. The Leib Grenadiers will need some green stuff work to have the correct uniform and I noticed I'm actually missing some infantry models so I need to order reinforcements. I also really need to start working on command bases and cavalry. I'm not a big fan of painting horses at this scale (or any scale really) so I've been putting it off and focusing on other minis. But I guess I'll finally have to do them now so I can get the project done

The first unit is the second combined grenadier battalion, this time from the second division in the form of battalion von Sperl. Again it should have a part of the unit with red facings, but I was lazy and the unit looks more coherent with all facings being the same colour.

Regular Line infantry in the form of Battalion Niesemeuschel and then two batteries of artillery representing the batteries attaches to the second division.

[Inhaber Jerry]

Smashing them out!

Wonderful presentation and photography. I really do like you use of tufts and flowers for the base. The battery looks especially grand.

Are you planning any enemies for this contingent to fight?

[Nysse]

Smashing them out!

Wonderful presentation and photography. I really do like you use of tufts and flowers for the base. The battery looks especially grand.

Are you planning any enemies for this contingent to fight?

Thanks!

I'm probably not going to paint any opposition anytime soon. Clubmates have some pretty extensive collections of Prussians, Austrians and Russians and we're only really lacking some units in the largest battles like Leipzig. And even that only happens if we fight the whole battle at the same time instead of splitting the separate actions I might go for some Prussians later on as they are needed the most, but even on them there's 60+ battalions available.

I might continue painting some other smaller states to fill gaps in our club collections or then paint some more French as there's gaps there as well (entire Young Guard missing for example). But with 6 regulars and some others who occasionally join us we have all the major combatants more or less ready. And even on the smaller states we're pretty well set with nearly all German states done. Brunswickers might be a nice quick project, but we'll see when I can finally finish these guys!