RSM Austrians Re-based

RSM Austrian Regiment "Kollowrat" with their new bases.

The great RSM Summer Sale has been fairly successful so far, with 8 battalions preparing for transfer to new ownership. One of the buyers had me rebase his new battalions on 2-inch square bases for "Might & Reason" rules, but these bases could just as easily be used for Black Powder, BAR, Age of Reason or even Rusty's Rules. I thought that I would show you the before and after views of the battalions, i.e. with the old form of basing versus my new method of basing figures. The following two pictures depict the Austrian regiment Neipperg in its "before" and "after" method of basing. The figures are RSM figures painted by Bill Biles, circa 1994.


The Austrian Regiment Neipperg in the "before" basing method...


Austrian Regiment Neipperg (front left) in the "after" method of basing.

Please click on the pictures to see an enlarged view of the figures.

The old system called for gluing the figures onto plastic bases and then covering the bases with some spackling compound, then dipped in flock. It was cutting edge in 1994, but looks rather tired and out of date by today's standards. The painting is average because we largely did not shade and highlight our figures back then. Indeed, my own painting style has improved and changed over the years.

I had to rebase all of the battalions, so I stuck them in the freezer for about an hour, in order to loosen the bond of the superglue that I had originally used to glue the figures to their bases. In most cases, the figures popped right off the plastic base, but it was a bit of a chore to cut and hack up the old bases. Once the figures were loose, I then took an exacto knife and scraped off all of the remaining spackle compound that was still on the figure's base, so that they would be nice and clean for their new bases. Finally, I had some nice Litko bases, sized at 2-inch square, on hand and I used these for my customer's new basing. I highly recommend the Litko bases. They are inexpensive, but they look very nice and have clean cuts so that every base matches up snug and true to the next one.


The righthand stand of figures was painted the other day in order to fill out the regiment with "march attack" poses. I tried to copy the style of the other figures, that I painted back in the 1990s. See if you can tell the difference.

The client asked for six battalions all in the march attack pose, which I was able to do, save for one unit (Kolowrat) that was short about 9 march attack figures. So luckily, I had some RSM Austrians already primed and ready to paint, so I was able to paint up the extra figures very quickly. RSM figures paint up fast and easy, which is one of the reasons I like them. Then I decided that having only one flag per battalion did not look right. So I decided to reflag the units with brand new GMB Designs flags that I had on hand. This meant that I also had to paint up six new flag bearers so that each battalion would have two, instead of one. In most cases, I clipped off the old flag and replaced with a new GMB flag, while the new flag bearers were painted from scratch.

I think that you will agree that the end result justifies the extra effort. The new basing really brings the figures to life and the two new flags adds a spiffy touch to the unit. This is an example of the type of service that you get when you buy figures from Der Alte Fritz.

Additional RSM Units for Sale

Going forward, I have decided to sell the rest of the Austrian infantry and cavalry as single battalions or single cavalry regiments, in order to clear out the remaining units. They are priced to sell at a very reasonable $4.00 per infantry figure and $5.00 per cavalry figure, unless otherwise noted.

RSM Austrians for sale:
1. Austrian regiment Gaisruck/advancing/violet facings (30 figures) -- $120.00
2. Deutschmeister regiment/advancing/dark blue facings (30 figures) -- $120.00
3. Luzan regiment / advancing/green facings (30 figures) -- $120.00
4. Los Rios regiment/ advancing/ green facings (30 figures) -- $120.00
5. de Ligne Dragoons (RSM) / green coats & red facings (20 figures) -- $100.00
6. Erzherzog Ferdinand Cuirassiers (RSM) (20 figures) -- $100.00
7. Schmerzing Cuirassiers (RSM) (20 figures) -- $100.00

Old Glory Austrians for sale
8. de Ligne Dragoon (20 figures) better paint job @$6.00/figure = $120.00
9. Croats (24 figures) better paint job @ $5.00 /figure = $120.00

For those who are building larger units, the two green facing musketeer regiments could be merged into one big 60 figure unit. Likewise, the two RSM cuirassier units could be merged into one 40 figure unit.

I will update the basing on any figures purchased and reflag the units with GMB Design flags, if that suits your fancy.

New Bespoke RSM Austrian Units
I also have 7 bags of 36 figures of Austrian musketeers in "march attack" pose that I am willing to paint, flag and base for anyone interested in brand new units. These will be painted with two-tone shading/highlight colors and be flagged and based to your specifications. Since these will be painted to order, the price per figure for the new RSM battalions will be higher than the old wargame units that are on sale right now. The new figures will be attractively priced at $6.00 per figure (so you get the figure and a nifty Alte Fritz paint job for $6.00).

Interested buyers should contact me at my yahoo mail box:

altefritz1740@yahoo.com

and we can make arrangements to deliver your order in a timely manner.

RSM Austrian Summer Sale

Lot #1 Austrian Brigade: 120 infantry, 40 cuirassiers, 4 artillery pieces with crew, and 2 mounted generals. Price: $750 plus shipping and packing costs.

[click all pix to enlarge the view. double click to double the size of the picture]

I have decided to sell off all of my RSM SYW Austrian and Prussian armies. This is a rather emotional thing for me, since some of these figures were among my first ever wargame units and I have fought a lot of enjoyable battles with them over the years. I need to reinvest the proceeds into other projects, mainly some needed home repairs. Eventually, I will replace these with my Minden armies, but after giving it some long thought, I decided that I do not need to have three different SYW armies.

I have grouped the Austrians into three lots of figures. All three lots have a nice variety of infanty, cavalry and some artillery plus mounted generals. So you can start with a nice brigade of Austrians from any of these lots. I have also grouped the figures by facing colors for those of you who might be interested in combining the battalions into "Big Battalions" for BAR or Charge rules. As is, they are 30 figure infantry units and 20 figure cavalry units that would be suitable for a number of rules such as Black Powder, Age of Reason, and Rustys Rules, to name a few.

The Austrians are priced reasonably at about $4.00 per infantry and artillery figure and $5.00 per cavalry figure. The painting style is "average" with no shading or 2 or 3 tone painting. In some cases, the cross belts have been lined. All figures have eyes that are done very nicely and avoid the bug-eyed look. My painting style and abilities have changed considerably since I first painted these figures, so I am not pricing them at my current market rates for painted figures. However, they look nice and will give you a nice brigade or two that is ready for battle.

Lot #1: $750 plus shipping

The first group includes two battalions in red facings and two battalions in blue facings. You could easily group them into two 60 figure units for BAR or Charge, or keep them as 30 figure units. There are six figures per stand and five stands per battalion. One of the stands in each battalion is a grenadier stand, so you could detach and converge the four grenadier stands to create one 24 figure grenadier battalion and have four 24 figure musketeer battalions.


Lot #1 Austrian infantry with blue facings in march attack pose. You could combine these two battalions into one BAR-sized 60-figure unit.


Lot #1 artillery: 6-pounder (left) and 12-pounder (right).


Lot #1 cavalry: two regiments of cuirassiers. They look so similar that they could be combined into one large 40 figure regiment.

Lot #2: $730 plus shipping


Lot #2: 20 hussars, 20 light dragoons, 120 infantry, 3 cannon with crew, and 2 mounted officers: $730 plus shipping.


Lot #2 infantry closeup: two battalions with violet facings and artillery crew and general.


Lot #2 cavalry -- 20 Baranyai Hussars and 20 de Ligne Dragoons.

The second lot of Austrian figures contains two battalions of 30 figures in green facings and all in the advancing pose. Thus they could be converged into one 60 figure battalion for BAR or Charge rules. These are the Los Rios and the Luzan regiments.

There are also two battalions in violet facings: Gaisruck and Sachsen Gotha, so again, they could be converged into one battalion.

The Lot#2 cavalry include the first two cavalry regiments that I ever painted: the Baranyai Hussars and the de Ligne Dragoons.

Lot #3: $850 plus shipping

Lot #3: five battalions of musketeers, one btn of Croats, 20 Old Glory dragoons and an officer stand with two figures.

The third lot of figures contains figures that may or may not match up well for larger units. There are three battalions in red facings that could be grouped together to get one super large 90 figure battalion or two 45 figure battalions or three 30 figure battalions. Then I have added two other blue facing battalions with a mix of marching and advancing figures.

The lot also includes one Old Glory Austrian dragoon regiment (de Ligne) and one Old Glory Croat battalion of 24 figures. The Croats were painted by Leonard Albright of Lexington, KY and I painted the dragoons in my "middle period" so they have some shading and blacklining to them and are painted to a higher standard than my other figures in these three lots.


Close up of the blue facing infantry battalions.


Old Glory Croats. These are very nicely painted by Leonard Albright.


Old Glory de Ligne Dragoons, painted by Der Alte Fritz.

How to buy these figures
If you are interested in any of these lots of figures, then send me an e-mail with your interest to my box at:

altefritz1740@yahoo.com (corrected e-mail address)

I will be happy to work with you in terms of getting the figures shipped in a timely manner, or if you would like to have the figures rebased in a more modern style, we could work something out for the extra time spent on the rebasing. They could be rebased with static grass and gravel with multiple figures on each base, or as single based figures.