SYW Project: Planning and Beginnings

After a somewhat interesting weekend of travel to London and back (how did I manage to pick the only day of the year so far when Brno airport had to be closed due to snow? It turned a 3 hour trip into an 8 hour one via Bratislava ...), I finally have all of my Seven Years War figures in one place and can sort out what I have. I placed several orders with Foundry over Xmas and the New Year while they had their sale on, but had some of them delivered to my brother's place in London to take advantage of the UK prices. I won't go into a long anti-Foundry rant, after all, I do like their figures and nobody is forcing me to buy from them, but I will never understand their pricing policy and am amazed that they make any direct sales in what they term the Rest of the World at all. At the prices they charge though, it'd be nice if they got the orders right - they have already sent me two of the wrong regiment packs (which I kept and just reordered as it appears they are all definitely disappearing), and there was a problem with a third regiment pack this time around.

Anyway, I picked up the Prussian army I ordered along with a few other bits and pieces, and brought them back to add to the orders delivered here and my eBay purchases. A bit of sorting out produced this:

This is what I have to work on at the moment. As you can see some of the Russian (nearer) stuff has had a start made on it - well, some of it was started a couple of years ago but then life got in the way. Anyway, it's all sorted by unit - 24 foot or 8 horse, although some have a few missing or extra at the moment.

Russian Foot:

This is the Russian foot and artillery. There are 4 regiments of musketeers in coats and 2 in kamzol, as well as a regiment of grenadiers in each - though I need 6 more grenadiers in kamzol to complete the unit. The gap in the box is for 16 figures which are in the painting queue at the moment. This is only 8 units of foot; I'd like to add some observation corps (2 x musketeers and 1 x grenadiers), but I'm not sure whether the figures will ever become available again. I hope so, or that I can find some on eBay. If not I'll possibly take a look at Sash & Sabre to fill out a few more units. Either that or just buy some Crusader Austrians and turn this into an Allied army.

The artillery consists of 3 Front Rank pieces, with Foundry observation corps crew, and a Front Rank caisson. I'd like to add another 3 pieces with normal artillery crew - at the moment, the Russians have no more artillery than the Prussians - that can't be right!

Russian Horse:

The Russian cavalry has been started on too. I painted up 12 cuirassiers a while back, which have been split into 8 and 4. I have enough figures now to make a second unit with 2 left over - so another 2 blisters for 3 units of cuirassiers. I'm not sure whether that might not be too many, though.

There's only 1 unit of dragoons, 1 of horse grenadiers, 2 of cossacks (with a little help from TAG) and some TAG Tartars, which will be used as Kalmuks. Yes, I know, too heavy on the cossacks and too light on the dragoons. I may have to buy a few more dragoons, but the cossacks stay!

So there's the Russians, now moving swiftly on...

Prussian Foot and Artillery:

10 units of foot: 3 musketeers (2 with lapels, 1 without), 4 fusiliers (nearly 2 of each), 2 grenadiers (1 of each) and some Frei Korps (still need 6 figures). There are more fusiliers than  musketeers (not good) but that's because I was sent extra by Foundry in one of the orders, almost enough to make the second unit without lapels. Unfortunately they also sent me a unit pack of grenadiers without lapels as part of the army deal in which the command figures were all replaced by grenadiers with lapels. Foundry have promised to send a pack on, but it's irritating all the same.

There are also 3 guns with crew.

Prussian Cavalry:

And the Prussian cavalry. 3 units of cuirassiers (one Garde du Corps), 2 of dragoons, and 1 of hussars in fur busbies (though I guess I'll have to buy a Front Rank trumpeter in mirliton). I definitely want to add a unit of hussars in mirliton for the Death's Head Hussars, and probably another unit of cuirassiers - I just need to add a command blister.

So there it is. This is my other major project of 2012 - and I think it'll be more than enough to keep me going this year! Any comments and criticism on force composition gratefully received. And if anyone has any spare Prussian Frei Korps, or Russian observation corps figures they want to sell, please let me know...

A new start for 2012

Well, it's exactly 2 years and a day since I last posted anything, and as is clear, I didn't get much done when I started blogging last time. 5 posts in and then the start of a new term hit harder than I had expected and it all fizzled out. I've found my feet at the faculty much better since then and have managed to sort my timetable out, so no excuses this time.

I've decided to give it another go, in the hope that it will motivate me to get more done this year than last. 2011 was a difficult year for most, and especially in the first six months I found myself taking on any work that came my way, just in case. While things got easier in the second half of the year, I had house guests almost perpetually, with a friend who'd been made homeless staying here for the last 4 months. I have got some painting done over the last couple of months, but nowhere near as much as I'd like. Restarting this blog is a way of making me do better, and structuring what I do a bit better.

So, first of all, projects for 2012. I know I suffer from "Oh shiny" syndrome as much if not more than others, so the idea of me sticking to one thing and one thing only is just not going to happen. However, I can't have no plan, for that way madness lies. So I will allow myself 2 major and 2 skirmish projects for 2012, and no more!

Main Periods

1. Napoleonics: My first wargames figures ever were some 25mm Minifigs Napoleonics bought from a shop in Winchester in 1977 when I was all of 8 years old and there is no way I could go a whole year without them. The good thing is I have bought almost all of what I need to get my two starter forces up and running. The first 4 battalions of infantry for Donzelot's 2nd Division at Waterloo are now done, and 2 proxy divisions for the 13eme Legere have been repainted, so I just need to do 2 more battalions (17eme Ligne) and that's done. Captain Cantin's foot battery is painted and based, and the 7th Hussars are primed. All that's needed on the French side is the 3rd Ch. a Cheval, and a couple of units of Cuirassiers - one of which (the 1st), is half painted.

On the British side, everything is bought, apart from the cavalry. I'd been waiting on the Hussars, but I still have so much to do that I think I'll wait some more and see if the Perry twins' British dragoons appear before the end of the year; it's still a long way away after all. I need to get a few of the infantry units and the artillery battery done before the end of March as I am hoping to host a game for Texas Jack from TMP. The rest, the cavalry, the French and British limbers etc etc, can all wait till later in the year.

2. Seven Years War: I've had a lot of Russian SYW troops for a while now, but nobody for them to fight (live in the Czech Republic and you have to provide both sides). Foundry having a 30% sale - making their figures nearly affordable - and my dear ol' Da' flying out from Blighty making the offer to carry stuff out for me meant I decided to take the plunge and buy some of the beautiful Prussian range, and at UK prices. A few days later and another order was placed - hey, it was Xmas! And then when my father arrived, I discovered that two of the regiment packs I had ordered were the wrong ones: Cossacks and Prussian Cuirassiers instead of Musketeers with lapels and Fusiliers without. When I phoned up I discovered that all the packs that were disappearing were being withdrawn for good, so I just reordered them instead, and will keep what they sent me. I can't believe they are removing all the packs just when I am getting into SYW... I guess there will be a lot of trawling of Ebay from now on. This project is where my money will be going this year.

Skirmish

3. SAGA: Like many others I have caught the SAGA bug. I was lucky enough to get in a test game at Salute last summer, and despite the game ending with mutually assured destruction, it was a blast. I've bought quite a lot of scenery and enough figures to do warbands for the Anglo-Danes and Vikings. When the Conquest infantry come out, I'll buy some packs of cavalry and one of infantry (I want shields with bosses and I'm too lazy to bother with converting them) and make up a Norman band too. I already have some Foundry crossbowmen and some BTD Norman bowmen waiting. The only other purchase I envisage here is a pack of the Gripping Beast unarmoured plastics when they come out, but you never know.

4. 15mm Sci-Fi: The final project for 2012. It should have been 2011's skirmish project but it got sidelined. I have found a good set of rules in Gruntz, and the unit cards are easy to use for my son, who is the main reason for me getting into this in the first place. I have bits and pieces from Khurasan, GZG, Rebel Minis and Combat Wombat and am sure that I'll be adding bits and pieces throughout the year. The beauty of this is it is free-form, everything works with everything else and I can pretty much add anything I want (or more properly Seb wants) into the mix. It doesn't hurt that it is so comparatively cheap either!

So, those are the projects. I am going to set myself a target of 50 painting points a month (28mm: infantry -1, cavalry - 2, gun + crew - 5 / 15mm: 1 squad/tank/walker etc - 5 points). It's a high target, but it's better than setting the bar low - and I have to get things ready for Texas Jack come the spring. This blog is primarily going to be a motivational tool for me - but if anyone stumbles on it and finds it interesting then that will be an added bonus. And it's great to have my first follower in DeanM, especially since he is one of my inspirations.

Well, it's been a long post. Next time I hope to get a couple of piccies up as well. That beats a wall of text any day.