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.
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.
Hey Chris, the fusilier is looking great so far. Looking forward to your future posts.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of in the same boot as you with having to paint both armies if I wish to play SYW, and I'll be doing Prussians and Russians from Foundry as well.
I am still debating on starting my SYW stuff or Napoleonics, but I'm starting out with Foundry's Cossacks and will go from there. As far as I know, most of WF's SYW range is still available, but I think most of their stuff is going to Regimental sets. I noticed a few single packs were no longer available, but not that many.
I'm excited about Maurice as well, but also like Black Powder and the Last Argument of Kings supplement. Still waiting on new edition of Die Kriegkunst, but I fear those rules have so little support that day will never come.
Sorry to blab on so much, I guess you can read some more of my thoughts in the recent January posts on my blog if you're interested.
http://derfeldmarschall.blogspot.com/
Good luck on your projects!
Jason
Thanks Jason, looks like we will be doing things in a strange kind of parallel. I agree totally about BP and Last Argument of Kings, but I am ignoring them at the moment as they are so "basing neutral" in that you can pretty much do whatever you like with them, but I'll save my thoughts on that until I have them all properly sorted out in my head. Love your blog, by the way, and am now following.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris! I have Might & Reason and Lasalle, so I'm pretty excited so see how Maurice turns out. Sam Mustafa has been pretty flexible with base sizes recently.
ReplyDeleteRight now I plan to basically follow what Angus Konstam and Dougie Trail have done on their site for playing Die Kriegkunst and BP.
http://www.edinburghwargames.com/
Unfortunately Die Kriegkunst (and GdB for Napoleonics) might be a bit too serious to get my fellow local gamers to game with me. So that's where BP comes in and I'm all for playing for fun and the visuals anyway.
Like you, I plan on doing my SYW guys clean like "toy soldiers" and then paint my Naps with a more gritty/realistic campaign look.
In the meantime, I'll be starting out small while I gather the funds for an WF order.