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Post by paintdog on Jun 11, 2020 12:08:45 GMT
Conundrum.
By the time I finish painting my SYW Austrian army, it'll have 13 battalions of infantry; some Grenz, the rest Line & Grenadier.
I'm basing my HaT SYW Austrian grenadiers, 4 figures to a base with 4 bases (ie 16 figures) for a battalion.(Line get 20 figure units).
The grenadier battalions that use the Action poses have a command base (officer, drummer-with swopped head - from the Command set) and two privates advancing whilst the other three bases use 2 firing figures, standing in front of 2 loading figures. Looks pretty good.
Having cut the last of the figures off the sprues, I find one battalion is two grenadiers, loading, short. Darn.
Solutions: 1. use two advancing grenadiers instead. Makes up numbers but breaks the symmetry of the unit. 2. I have 2 spare HaT SYW Prussians figures reaching into their cartouches (from that Action set). Do a head swop. These wouldn't jar as much as 1. but the uniform is slightly different. 3. Buy another box of the HaT Austrian Action set. For TWO figures?
Which option would you recommend?
donald
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2020 13:07:44 GMT
Hmmm interesting dilema for sure.
I guess its how much you want to maintain the look & feel of the unit. If it wont niggle at you and your pretty laid back with such issues, go for option 2. You maintain the reloading pose but uniform isnt quite right.
However if i was in the same position and knowing it would niggle with me and my OCD about keeping regiments correct etc, than I would buy 1 more box. Expensive for just 2 figures, but cheap for making sure I dont lose my marbles everytime I look at "that" section!!! I would probably want some dead/wounded anyway which may be possible to convert out of the rest of set. Also, theres always possibility of reusing the spare figures. You may decide you want a few more additions to your Austrian Army in future. Or even convert for something else.
Do any metal manufacturers do SYW figures? If so, may give an option 4?!
Notice that Newline do a 18th Century 20mm range and within contain SYW British? Are these more similar to the Austrians than the prussians? They may be at smaller end of scale though so might have play around a bit.
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justme
Quaestor
Only ever speaking for me. I have no idea what others think or want.
Posts: 9
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Post by justme on Jun 11, 2020 20:18:52 GMT
I would, and have, buy the extra box, paint up and sell the remainder. When hat produces their Netherlands Carabineers I guess they will come in boxes of 12. I need 49!
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Post by paintdog on Jun 11, 2020 20:33:47 GMT
Clearly a "First World Problem" but it does niggle. I have a couple of Revell Austrians loading but they look too thin to fit in well. Hmmm. I'll think about it.
donald
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Post by Tripod on Jun 11, 2020 23:05:07 GMT
Maybe Hat could sell you a single sprue to solve the problem cheaply? If it is available the Austrian sampler box may be another solution. Let's hope Hat will return the support you have shown them over the years. Good luck.
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Post by paintdog on Jun 11, 2020 23:22:14 GMT
Maybe Hat could sell you a single sprue to solve the problem cheaply? If it is available the Austrian sampler box may be another solution. Let's hope Hat will return the support you have shown them over the years. Good luck. Interesting thoughts. HaT: got a sprue?
And no offence but HaT owes me nothing.......given the pleasure their figures have given me over the years, it's the opposite.
.....and just to cut the saccharine a bit: where are the SYW cavalry, HaT!!
donald
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Post by minuteman on Jun 12, 2020 7:30:29 GMT
Conundrum.
By the time I finish painting my SYW Austrian army, it'll have 13 battalions of infantry; some Grenz, the rest Line & Grenadier.
I'm basing my HaT SYW Austrian grenadiers, 4 figures to a base with 4 bases (ie 16 figures) for a battalion.(Line get 20 figure units).
The grenadier battalions that use the Action poses have a command base (officer, drummer-with swopped head - from the Command set) and two privates advancing whilst the other three bases use 2 firing figures, standing in front of 2 loading figures. Looks pretty good.
Having cut the last of the figures off the sprues, I find one battalion is two grenadiers, loading, short. Darn.
Solutions: 1. use two advancing grenadiers instead. Makes up numbers but breaks the symmetry of the unit. 2. I have 2 spare HaT SYW Prussians figures reaching into their cartouches (from that Action set). Do a head swop. These wouldn't jar as much as 1. but the uniform is slightly different. 3. Buy another box of the HaT Austrian Action set. For TWO figures?
Which option would you recommend?
donald
Donald, I'm not sure that I'd see this as a problem as such? Or if it is a problem, it' s one of those 'nice to have' ones. After all, across the whole of your Austrian SYW army, what is the marginal cost of a grenadier...or two: probably not much more than 20p per figure? I'd simply buy another box and keep the surplus as spares (and I have many hundred of plastic warriors in my spares box collected over many years). You never know when you might need a spare or two (figures sometimes go missing, get trodden on etc); or even, just de-base a few, flatten them (a technical term) and use them as prone casualties. Or for conversion, if you like that sort of thing (I happen to). Or. if you feel you need to use the figures right now, why not create an extra unit as Frei Korps (von Schony perhaps?) or even have a go at converting these spares as extra Grenz? Light units don't need the symmetry of Line and Guards units; you can mix the poses up. PS: Good to see this thread as an extra plug for SYW cavalry. Still much needed, more than ever in fact. It will happen, one day.
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Post by paintdog on Jun 12, 2020 7:52:35 GMT
PS: Good to see this thread as an extra plug for SYW cavalry. I'm incorrigible.
Von Schony. You made me go look. How fantastic is Kronoskaf? What a wonderful unit to add to the dastardly Prussian army. Something to think about.
Believe me, my friend, the "missing" two grenadier figures are just a minor gripe & not a full on whinge.
Apropos to this topic is army size. We have, twice a year, Really Big Battles with 2000 or more figures spread over two days but most games take place on a Saturday or a night. This means you have to resist putting too many figures on the table in order to fight to a finish and to have room to manoeuvre on a smaller table etc
Thus I have larger armies & ones just for the shorter games. My French SYW is a large force but the SYW Austrians are intended for the shorter games (2 of us have the smaller sized Prussian forces each, which provides for either sized game).
Thus, I will shortly be able to field an Austrian army with:
5 X Grenadier battalions 6 X Line infantry battalions 2 Grenzer battalions
1 X Hussar regiment 1 X Dragoon regiment 2 X Light Dragoon regiments (Saxons) 1 x composite Horse Grenadier regiment
2 batteries of artillery
requisite staff , ADCs, limbers, wagons, regimental guns etc.
Probably too many Grenadiers & not enough artillery.
Clearly a couple of extra battalions will not upset the balance but I have to watch any tendency towards megalomania.
cheers donald
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Post by minuteman on Jun 12, 2020 12:21:10 GMT
PS: Good to see this thread as an extra plug for SYW cavalry. I'm incorrigible.
Von Schony. You made me go look. How fantastic is Kronoskaf? What a wonderful unit to add to the dastardly Prussian army. Something to think about.
Yes, the Von Schony Frei-korps is a little like a SYW 'Dirty Dozen', but a colourful unit which would no doubt operate in a somewhat unpredictable manner on the table....you wouldn't put them in the place of honour on the right of your first line! And neither would King Frederick, never in a hundred years: But they are perhaps useful out on the flanks when up against the Grenzer.
Yes also to the effect of 'unit-creep' when collecting armies in plastic. It is a problem I know well. I am currently trying to work out quite what to do with a few 'extra' sets of French WoSS infantry which I have, perhaps, over-purchased...but they will eventually make it into a considerably larger-than-planned army of King Louis as a few additional Foreign infantry battalions.....Swiss, Scots, Irish, Germans, and anyone else who has a score to settle with the English, Dutch, Danish and Austrian kingdoms of the early 1700s.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 12, 2020 17:44:47 GMT
Personally, I would use the Revell loading figures as I think that they are more accurate. If the firing figures have their left foot forward to fire it makes more sense that the loading figures do the same or they would need more space in the line. You probably already use the Hat Drummers for your Revell Musketeer Firing Line. Also I would suggest Head swopping the Advancing Grenadier to give you, on the one hand the Grenadier Drummers and on the other Artillery Fusiliers with a sword to accompany your Artillery when it is limbered up ready to move. From the photo´s of your Austrian army I see that you use the Revell set but only have 4 crew. This is an excellent set with enough crew figures for the 3 cannons to show 1 being fired, another being loaded and a third being aimed, with still a few figures left over. I use the pushing and pulling men as Pontooniers in a cornflower blue uniform with scratch built pontoons on a modified Hat Napoleonic Ammunition wagon. You never know when you may need to cross a river to beat those pesky Prussians or retreat from them.
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Post by paintdog on Jun 12, 2020 20:42:13 GMT
Thanks, Malcolm. The rules I use indicate the size & power of the gun by its crew size: a medium piece has 4 crew, a heavy has 5. This also indicates how many firing dice you can throw. And I'm all out of Revell SYW Austrian artillery, most of 2 boxes going to my SYW French army.
I'll think about your excellent suggestions.
donald
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Post by richard on Jun 13, 2020 9:28:28 GMT
As with everyone else, I say just buy the extra box. The spares always get used in the end...
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