Ed M's Wargames Meanderings

Sunday, September 4, 2016

BLOG IS NOW OPEN

Hello and welcome to my blog. I've given up on trying to post some sort of statement defining my blog, explaining why I'm blogging and how I'll be going about it. I also gave up on trying to figure out just when enough material was enough to get going. In short, I think the title, "Meanderings," captures the ethos of the place. Please take a look at my content pages (and check back: I'll be expanding content over time). And please don't waste much more time on this bit of blather..on to my first bit of eye candy, the 1836-1849 Austrian grenadier conversion below....

PRE-1850 AUSTRIAN GRENADIER

This is the latest in an ongoing project of mine, the working title of which is Chocolate Box Wars. I'll say more about this in later posts, but the focus of it is the continental armies and wars of the 19th Century (in 28mm). Despite there being some excellent figures available, there are huge gaps in the lines, forcing you to improvise to get a complete force. Thus far, I've had good luck repurposing figures from other eras and doing some minor figure modifications to do 1st Schleswig Holstein War Danes, of which I've been posting on TMP (and I might repost those here at some point). Now that I've got a blog, I'll start posting here. This is my latest production.

I've got a start on the Austrian Army, with an eye towards the pre-1850 uniforms. One reason for this is that the grenadiers lost their bearskins in 1850. The 1836 bearskin, however, is a departure from the Napoleonic version. As can be seen in the below illustrations, the distinctive plate on the front is gone (instead there is a grenade badge), the sharp peak at the top is gone and more rounded, and the entire thing has become more bushy.

(Images below are from: Left: The Austrian Army, 1836-66, Osprey Men-at-Arms 323, Darko Pavlovic; Right: Gustav Ritter Amon von Treuenfest: Geschichte des k. k. Infanterie-Regimentes Hoch- und Deutschmeister Nr. 4. Wien 1879, After p. 503)