Vaubanner Flags - a review

I recently made a purchase of some flags for my SYW project from Vaubanner in Canada. Since I haven't seen much of them on TMP (it was a sort of sight unseen buy for me) and people on this side of the Atlantic at least may not have had the opportunity to see them, I thought I'd post a quick review for you.

The complete order

When I started my SYW project the first the around, I cast around in the hope of finding a manufacturer who would be able to supply me with everything I need for both sides. My first stop for flags, GMB, has an incomplete SYW range, and I don't think it's likely to be filled out any time soon.  I did make enquiries about whether more flags would be done, but Grahame Black let me know that it wasn't likely in the near future. It was the same problem at Maverick, and while Stuart is exceptionally quick to respond to customer requests, I didn't really know how long it might take him to do everything I needed. I discovered that the Flag Dude, though, has a very comprehensive range, so I bought just a few of his excellent flags to get me started. Shortly thereafter, however, I got seriously sidetracked, and the project got put on the back-burner.

This time around, when starting again, I re-examined all my plans, and decided to take a look at the flags again. I wasn't unsatisfied with what I had, but I stumbled cross a couple of threads on TMP about this company I had never heard of before, Vaubanner, out of Canada. There were a few, indistinct, pictures, but there was a lot of praise, and most importantly a complete range, so I decided to take the plunge and order everything I'd need in one go. Brian Homenic, the owner of Vaubanner, was polite and easy to deal with and even registered the delivery for me for just a few extra C$s. 2 weeks later an envelope arrived, sans duty (hooray!), and I got my mitts on what can only be described as miniature works of art. I'll let the pictures do the talking...

Here are the Prussian flags, with a couple of Foundry figures to give you an idea of the scale of them. The fantastic detail is absolutely clear.

The Prussian flags

Below are the Russian flags I purchased, along with a couple of other flags from other manufacturers for comparison.

The Russian flags

The red French Napoleonic 3rd battalion flag on the left  is by GMB. I have a lot of GMB flags and I love them; they are a sort of gold standard for a lot of people I think. Here you can see the difference between Grahame's and Brian's flags. While the GMB flags tend to have shading worked into the design, you can see that this is not the case with the Vaubanner ones. On the other hand, the colour saturation of the Vaubanner flags is amazing, much higher than the GMB one. I really like the look.

On the right is an instantly recognisable flag from Rick, the Flag Dude.  Rick's flags come prepared already on the flag staff, with finials  and ready to go. They are also a lot larger than the flags from Vaubanner, as can be seen above. All of these things score points for the Flag Dude in my eyes. Some people may not like the animation he gets into his flags, but I love it. I'm also in favour of oversized flags - I want them to be seen not hidden away. And any work done by someone else is work I don't have to do, so it's all good.

Why then have I decided to swap and go with Vaubanner flags for my SYW project? Quite simply, the beauty of these flags is the main reason. The print quality from Vaubanner is just outstanding, and the difference is noticeable.  I also found a few discrepancies between the Flag Dude flags I received a while back and my (admittedly very limited) sources. Finally, while the Flag Dude range is undoubtedly less work, I can put flags on poles and paint finials myself, although I admit that I have yet to get anywhere close to the motion that Rick captures in his flags. That's something to work on. The only regret I have is the smaller size (the Russian cuirassier colours are tiny!), but I know that's in line with what they should be - I just like large flags.

I hope this has been of use to someone. If you're vacillating over which flags to get for your own SYW troops, don't! Order up some of these little beauties. You won't regret it.

IR19 - WIP

Despite having a fair few distractions, I have managed to start work on my SYW project by painting the first 6 figures in  IR19 Markgraf Carl. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have decided to choose regiments on the basis of having an interesting mix of facings and colours. IR19 has an interesting set of colours with a Maltese cross, and I have the added interest of having seen the originals in the Heeresgeslichtliches Museum in Vienna. The waistcoat and breeches are also straw rather than white so this has given me the chance to try getting the colour "right" there. I used the two darker colours of the Foundry Canvas triad, and then washed with GW Gryphonne Sepia to give a bit more depth of colour. I think it's come out ok. I also had to paint on the collar as the Foundry figures without lapels come without collars too. I didn't actually realise (well, ok - look) until I'd started painting, or I might have tried some greenstuff to make collars, but I am happy enough with the result. I have not bothered with the shoulder straps - so sue me!


Anyway, painting the figures has made me realise that I still have a load of unanswered questions, so I'll be posting on TMP later in the hope of getting some answers. Here is what I have done so far; if you see any glaring errors, please let me know. Bear in mind that the figures are not finished yet. I have yet to tidy up and highlight the black,  the buttons on the gaiters are unpainted, and I seem to have completely disregarded the fact that the tip of the scabbard should be brass. Luckily they are all quick fixes.

If we have a look at a close up, it'll show the areas which I am not too sure about...

Not being able to find out about sword knots is driving me crazy. I know that it's a small detail (like the shoulder straps) but I don't care - I want to know. I can't seem to find anything on Kronoskaf, Mollo and my Greenwood & Ball reprint don't have anything either. So, do I buy the Pengel & Hurt (I hate the (dis)organisation of the ones I have about the Russian and Austrian armies) or do I splash out on Englemann & Dorn? I am also making assumptions about buttons - I have interpreted "white" as white metal and painted them a pewter colour. Would that be right?

Here I have more "problems".  The musket sling should be red - I have seen many very bright reds on peoples' figures on the net, but I can't quite believe that this was the case. I have painted them terracotta, and given them a wash of GW Baal Red. It looks ok to me - but perhaps someone who has actually seen a sling might be able to put me right. The next problem is the cartouche. I'd read in Greenwood & Ball that the plate was in brass, but then I noticed this:

As can clearly be seen in the bottom right, the cartouche plate is in silver. Was this just a special feature of the I. Leibgarde, or were all cartouche plates in the "colour" of the regiment's buttons? Enquiring minds wish to know (well, this one does at least).

Finally, I have the problem of basing. With units of 24, I have 18 privates, 1 officer, 1 sergeant, 2 ensigns, a drummer and a fifer. The question is how to base them. I want to have 4 45mm x 40mm bases of 6 figures, but I have a feeling that overloading the command base with 5 or even all 6 of the command figures will look horribly unbalanced. How do others get around this?

On an unrelated note, I have just taken delivery of my first ever Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes - unfortunately too late to do most of these figures. Oh. My. Word. I've been using Foundry, Army Painter, GW and able brushes from |Maelstrom Games up to now. No longer. The paint actually goes exactly where you want it to! And you can load the brush up with paint without getting a huge blob of it anywhere. I wish I'd bought some years ago; quite simple, astounding!

As always, thanks for looking, and comments, suggestions, criticism and advice most welcome.

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 Cossack Interlude - TAG and Foundry comparison

I have just discovered that Jason over at Der Feldmarschall is intending to do things very similar to me - namely both Seven Years War and Napoleonic projects, and that the SYW armies in question will be Prussians and Russians from the Foundry ranges. When I mentioned in a comment on his blog that I am intending to use some TAG Tartars (excuse the spelling - I am a linguistic dinosaur and prefer the two 'r's), Jason commented that he thought the TAG ranges were very hit or miss. Well, although they are smaller than the Foundry sculpts, I don't think it is an insurmountable problem, and I like them, so I have decided to put up a few comparison pics in the hope it might be useful for someone.

I started off with the less extravagant of the Foundry Cossacks and their TAG counterparts. Here they are:

Foundry     TAG       Foundry    TAG

While the TAG riders are smaller than the Foundry ones, here the difference isn't all that great, at least in my opinion. Where it really is noticeable is between the larger (than life?) Foundry sculpts for the officer etc. and the smaller TAG ones where the rider is stripped to the waist. The Foundry rider is literally head and shoulders above the TAG one.

 TAG                        Foundry

On to the horses. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of the shape of the TAG horses' heads, but in my book, the Foundry horses are some of the best out there. Surprisingly, the TAG horses seem to be every bit as large as the Foundry ones - so they should work well together.

Foundry               TAG                Foundry

And finally a comparison shot of one of my Kalmuks next to a Foundry Cossack when mounted. I think sizewise these are perfect together - the Central Asian pony has the weird head again, but I'll just have to live with that...

TAG Ta(r)tar                       Foundry Cossack

Well I hope that's been of help. Now I must get back to some painting...

SYW Test Paint

With the release of Maurice this year, now is as good a time as any to revisit (read: actually start properly) my Seven Years War project. I have a fair few rulesets that I'd like to try out already: Might and Reason, Die Kriegkunst, Black Powder, but the fact that Maurice will encourage the Imagi-nation side of things has really caught my interest. While I don't want to create an Imagi-nation of my own at the moment, I fully intend to play fast and loose with army composition, in the sense of choosing units for their uniforms and flags rather than modelling a snapshot of the Prussian and Russian armies at any particular time.

As will become apparent, I have thus ordered rather a lot of the Foundry SYW range before it all disappears (sob).   There is a kind of method in my madness, but just how much remains to be seen. Anyway, some of it has already arrived and I decided to do a test paint of a Prussian fusilier, as I had a couple of extra figs lying around. IR 38 von Brandes being the most "typically" Prussian (red lapels, collars and cuffs with white waistcoat), that's what I went for, just to see how it would look. This is the result:

My inability to get the camera settings right notwithstanding, I think this looks OK, despite having missed a button. I used the same white palette for the clothing and the cross-belts, but I think I'll do what I do with my Napoleonics and use the Foundry Austrian White triad for the waistcoat etc. when I get down to unit painting. The sword knot is white as I don't know what colour(s) to paint it. I have ordered the 18th Century Press Prussian uniform guide to add to my Mollo and obligatory Ospreys and am hoping the info will be in there - otherwise I'm going to have to order another confusingly organised Pengel and Hurt or two. No weathering either - a Lace Wars soldier needs to look a little smarter than a French conscript of 50 years later.

Thanks for looking and as always, comments and criticism welcome.

SYW Russian Cuirassiers

This is the start of a new project for 2010, painting up a Russian SYW army. This is the first complete unit I have actually based, the 3rd Curiassiers. I was unsure about the coat, as my sources (the ubiquitous Osprey, Pengel and Hurt and Mollo) don't agree, the first giving red collar, cuffs and turnback piped white while the latter two give buff with a 6" red border.

I really should make sure all the flock has been brushed off when I take a photo.

Having asked on TMP, I was directed to the fantastic http://www.kronskaf.com/ , which seemed to provide support for both, a Knotel print agreeing with the Osprey while the templates agree with the others. Since I shall eventually paint up 3 units of cuirassiers, I have decided to do one of each with the last unit still in "dragoon uniform" under their cuirasses.

Something else I will change on the next unit is the colour of the cuirasses themselves. Next time they'll get the blackened iron treatment.

Ooops - a bit of a gap there. Something to remember for the next unit.

They were fun to paint and made a change from what I usually do. I don't really know much about the Seven Years War, but a lot of the battlefields are within easy reach and I think I shall be making trips to several this year, starting with Kolin.

The unit together.

Still missing a standard. Unfortunately GMB don't do the 3rd Cuirassiers, so I'll have to find one from somewhere else, or just leave the pole bare and wait and hope.

Thanks for looking, and best wishes for 2010.