Saturday, November 28, 2009

Annual Light Troops SYW Game

My colleagues Bill and Randy have been beavering away at building up their mass of French light infantry, cavalry and horse holders for said cavalry. This is all in preparation for our annual light troops game that we hold each December. This year's game is next weekend, Saturday December 5th (Leuthen Day too as I recall?).

I had to make a brief foray back into the painting of SYW figures and add a squadron of dismounted Black Hussars (Foundry figures) to bring those forces up to 36 mounted and 36 dismounted figures. I intend to make some horseholder stands using the Eureka Saxon hussar horseholders, but I won't have them done in time for this year's game. The hussars were finished on Thanksgiving Day and so I turned my attention towards adding a squadron of Crusader Miniatures Bosniak Lancers.

The Crusader Bosniaks are wearing the post 1763 uniform so technically they are not in SYW kit. That's no problem as I intend to use the figures as Milady de Winter's mounted bodyguard lancers. So a fictional unit can wear almost anything. The Crusader figures are in summer uniform of short jacket and baggy trousers, sans the bulkier kaftan of the winter uniform. They wore all red uniforms in the summer and the black kaftan in the winter. If you have been following the exploits of my Lady de Winter character, you will know that she prefers to outfit her private troops in black uniforms. Accordingly, I gave the Bosniaks a black coat and retained the red trousers. The shabraque remains black with red "van dyking" - a sort of saw-tooth edging on the shabraque. The black and red combination looks very nice and I will post some pictures later in the week when the unit is completed.

The lances are red and have a "barbershop pole" strip of black running up and down the lance. This was a pain to paint, much harder than the van dyking on the shabraque. Thank goodness I only plan to have two squadrons or 24 figures in this unit. The lances would drive me crazy if I had to paint many more.

One little nit to pick on the Crusader figures -- the sculptor used eBob horses, which are very nice and elegant; however, his riders don't seat snuggly on the horse and so I had to wedge in a lump of green epoxy putty underneath each saddle in order to fill in the gap left by the skinny horse. Gluing lances into open hands is not a lot of fun either. I prefer a solid hand that allows you to drill a hole into it, resulting in a firmer grip on the lance or flag pole.

6 comments:

  1. Looking eagerly forward to enjoy the battle report -and specially to discover Milady de Winter's lancers!

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  2. I am looking forward to seeing these fellows.

    Furthermore it is good to once again read of Eighteenth century troops instead of those later things.


    -- Jeff

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  3. Hi Jim,
    you wrote, you have added a squadron of dismounted Black Hussars (Foundry figures). Do you mean the von Ruesch Hussars (Nr. 5)? They used mirlitons and Foundry, as far as I know, only offers dismounted Hussars with fur caps. Are these your own conversions? I would love to see pictures!
    Thanks alot for your highly motivating blog entries. I still wrestle with my first BIG batallion (IR41) :-), but would like to add some Hussars for a skirmish game.
    cheers
    Olaf

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  4. Sir will you posting any pictures of these fine figures the Bosniak lancers any time soon

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  5. Excellent news that there will be more pics of your SYW collection - especially the Kleine Krieg troops. I have some of the Eureka Saxon hussars and they are superbly sculpted - the horse holders are brilliant.

    A tip for fixing lances/standards into open hands more firmly - I get a pair of pliers and gently squeeze the hand shut around the lance/pole. In order to avoid damaging the sculpting of fingers etc, some aluminium kitchen foil or cloth between the pliers and the figure.

    Regards,
    Ronan the Librarian

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  6. The Foundry Black Hussars in mirliton are available -- if not listed, then just ask Bernard and he will dig them up for you. I will post pix within the next day or two.

    The Bosniaks are nearing completion, but it takes a lot of time to van dyke the shabraque, and then do it again whilst one adds white lines around the teeth. Then I have to paint a black stripe all around the lance pole. And don't get me started on lance pennons.

    Good tip on bending the hand closed with pliers and covering the teeth of the pliers with foil. I've been using duct tape which is fairly sturdy as well.

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