Türkenkrieg 2 - Heinrichsen 40mm Flats

Finished a few more figures. Bulked up the officer's hat a bit with green stuff. Still on the smallish side but improved. Painted in acrylics as usual.

 

 

 

Random Knights - 54mm Plastic

Apropos of nothing in particular, here's a few pictures of plastic knights I painted.  They're a mixture of the Italeri 100 Years series and couple older ones of which I'm racking my brain to recall the maker. Accurate ?   One of these days I'll have to put together a better photo shoot including the metal Tradition figures.

Still plugging away on the Prinz Eugen flats. Should have enough painted to warrant a new post sometime later this week. I've been busy at work, and also clearing out my 54mm Romans on eBay. I put up what I thought were the less appealing sets this week and I must say, people really seem to like Romans !   

Türkenkrieg - Heinrichsen 40mm Flats

 

Here's another interesting set of antique designs from Heinrichsen, Prinz Eugen. 40mm in scale and first issued in 1887.  It features Prince Eugene of Savoy's campaign agains the Turks 1716-1717, culminating in the Siege of Belgrade in 1717.  This is right in the sweet sport for me so far as the historical period goes and the Ottomans add an exotic touch.

I scanned the following image from my copy of Ortmann's The Collector's Guide to Model Tin Figures (good book if you can find it).  The diorama consists of a few thousand 30mm flats and depicts Prince Eugene crossing the Danube in 1717.  It's one of the things that inspired my interest in the Ottoman-Hapsburg wars.

The Prinz Eugen set contains 45 figures, about evenly divided between Ottomans and Imperialists.
There are several well-animated figure groups like the one I've painted here.  In this set, the Austrian army has no cavalry figures for some reason, aside from two mounted officers. The Imperialist infantry are evenly divided between Austrians and Bavarians. As the Bavarian contingent was 6,000 strong out an army of 100,000, I'd have preferred grenadiers or Austrian cavalry but Bavarians it is then.

I hesitated to get this set because the Austrians didn't look quite satisfactory to me, with smallish hats and the coats too short. But they're really not so bad once the paint goes on.  And some of the Bavarian infantry are equipped with billhooks for unhorsing Turkish cavalry, there may be some historical precedent for that but I'm more inclined to believe it's an anachronism.  Considering the designs date to the 19th Century, I can't nitpick these figures too much on the grounds of historical accuracy.  I'll enjoy them for what they are and they should keep me busy for a while.  Painted in acrylics, as usual.

Neckel French Infantry - 30mm Flats

 

Here's a set I've had for a while. Pulled them out when I inventoried my WSS flats suitable for gaming purposes a few weeks ago.  They're sold by Berliner Zinnfiguren as # 229/24, Frankreich 1756-63, Linieninfanterie im Halt. It comes with 25 castings, primarily the three figures which I have test painted here, but also command. The bases are engraved "NS" and also attributed to Neckel by Berliner Zinnfiguren, not their own Scholtz figures which concentrate heavily on the Prussians and to a somewhat lesser extent their Austrian enemies.  Outside of Germany, Neckel is not an easy editor to order from as they have no real internet presence, so dealing with Berliner Zinnfiguren's markup could be the lesser of two evils compared with hassles of trying to order the old-fashioned way.

These aren't bad, but not exceptional either. Certainly not up to the gold standard of the classic Bavarians, Blue King's Army series.  A couple things I don't like about them, the powder flasks look oversized and the hats aren't so good. The static pose is another thing, I've really come around to the viewpoint that for wargaming purposes you just can't beat the utility of marching/advancing figures. But I have these and they're paid for, so sooner or latter I'll get around to painting the rest of the battalion.

BZ stretches a point by selling these as Seven Years War figures. To my eyes, the stockings and belly mounted cartridge boxes place make them better for the WSS - War of the Polish Succession.  They'd be easy enough to convert to gaiters but I chose the lazy route of just painting the stockings white. Painted in acrylics.

Here is most of the command group. Interesting that the standard bearer on the right really is 7YW and an elegant Ludwig Frank engraving which outshines the others.  Not sure if Neckel or BZ substituted him in here with these earlier troops. Too bad the flag seems to be blowing the wrong way relative to the other standard bearer.