AUSTRIAN LINE INFANTRY: 1866 (ISH)

New Addition to the Austrian Regular Infantry Establishment.

In an earlier post, I had mentioned that my days of "major" painting projects were behind me and that future painting would be more limited affairs.  This post, dear readers, follows through on that with a recent addition to my Post Napoleonic collection: two more units (ostensibly battalions) for the "White Peril" (aka, Austrians).  In my most recent Frontier Battle game, I fielded a  divisional sized force on each side, which was perfect. For the Austrians, I was able to do so by substituting two grenzer battalions for two line battalions in one of the regiments. Put another way, I had ten of twelve line battalions needed to field two "by the book" Austrian brigades (each of six line battalions plus a Jager battalion) .  Thus, I decided to round out my Austrians with two more battalions of  "white coats" so that I could field such a force without substitutions--leaving special units like grenzers free to be included as supplemental elements. And so, dear reader, you see the two new units in the above picture.  As usual, in this post you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

Keen-eyed observers (or those who have suffered through this blog long enough) will recognize that these figures are not Austrians, but 1855 British Infantry from the Perry Miniatures British Intervention Force line.... 

...which I find to be excellent for representing any of the shako-wearing Post Napoleonic Continental armies, in particular the Austrians, as the above illustration shows.  Northstar does a superb line of Austrian 1866 infantry. However, they are in greatcoats, and I prefer my "Chocolate Box Armies" to be in their national "toy soldier" glory. In this case, the elegant Austrian white....

...so I went with these figures. For the curious, there is an earlier post with more detail on the project of creating the Austrian infantry force (above) which these are joining. Truth in lending: I did have my earlier Austrians done by commission, which gave me some pause in trying to add to them since I would need to get the look of these units consistent with their comrades.  The main sticking point (for me) is/was the white on white, which is why I had them done professionally in the first place.  Unfortunately, the pro painters who did the previous figs were no longer in business, so I was left to tackle them myself...

...Each unit is two stands.  One stand with two infantrymen and a specialty figure (either an officer or a drummer), and one stand with three infantrymen.  I decided on the light blue facings of the famous "Hoch und Deutschmeister" regiment.  Each regiment is three battalions (by the way); the third battalion for this regiment is among my previous units. 

To get the desired differentiation of the white on white, I did the coats in light gray; gave them a very light wash of black, and then drybrushed them with flat white. I then painted all the strapping black and then overpainted them in flat white, leaving the edges black. In this way, they stand out from the coats, being both a brighter white and outlined...

...these steps create what I refer to as hidden effects, things that don't actually draw attention to themselves but are important to the final outcome. And so all of this effort also is hidden to the observer, except as a collective outcome. I also might add that the black-primer method never worked for me, which others have advocated for as a shortcut for white-outfitted units.  I still prime in white, and still paint over it even for white uniforms (the white primer by itself just doesn't look finished to my eye). I have my suspicions that I could probably do something less laborious and get a similar outcome. But these are the habits that I have developed and work for me, for better or worse, and so I stick with them--and the fact that I am among the rearguard who still use enamels probably also limits my options.  Nevertheless, I suspect that I'm not unique and that others have their own painting habits grounded in their own skill sets and priorities, which may or may not actually be the most efficient. 

...Two new battalions on parade to round out my Austrians (plus a couple of handy individually mounted figs to use as needed). 

Excelsior!