Friday 29 April 2016

Austrian Army finished - ROLL CALL!

It's done! The Austrian army is finished and ready to go on campaign. Time for a parade.


You can't have a parade without officers. A C-in-C stand and eight 'brigadiers'.
The dragoon regiments. Seven regiments in total, including two in horse grenadier uniform pictured just behind the cuirassiers. They are, front to back, DR 31, 6, 28, 38, iii, and in horse grenadier dress DR 1 and 37.
The cuirassier regiments. Eight units in all: they are, front to back, left to right, CR 25, 21, 12, 29, 8, iii, 14 and 23.
The hussar regiments. Five units in all: they are, front to back, HR 11, 32, 2, 30, 24.
The German musketeer regiments. Eighteen in total (including two combined grenadier units): they are, front to back, left to right, IR 36, 10, 47, 22, 41, 14, two combined grenadiers, IR 29, 3, 23, 50, 28, 12, 59 and 1.
The Hungarian musketeer regiments. Four in total (including one combined grenadier unit): they are, front to back, IR 31, 2, 37 and one combined grenadier.
The Artillery. Twelve guns including one howitzer. 

This may be the only place I might make an additional purchase; I might buy another one or three howitzers, without crew, to swap with guns to give a better historical mix.
The Grenzers. 

There are eight units in total from three districts. 

Front to back, there are three Karlstadter units, two Warisdiner units and three Slavonisch units.

Each represents a battalion rather than a regiment.
So there you have it. My Austrian army. It is fifty six units strong and comprises 168 mounted, 640 foot and 12 guns.

My Seven Years War collection is now officially my largest. With the fifty units of Prussians and fifty six units of Russians I can reveal it now comprises:


  • 162 units.
  • 530 mounted figures. 
  • 2,055 foot figures. 
  • 36 guns.

That makes a grand total of  2,641 figures: Wow, they soon add up. There are also some civilians and some transport wagons and a coach with teams but they just confuse the count and can't shoot anyway.

I suppose the question now is, have I finished, and the answer is probably not. At some point I'll probably buy a few howitzers for the Austrians and Prussians, a further battery of guns and a few heavy unicorns for the Russians, some limbers and teams, and a pontoon train. I will also, at some point, buy a load of French and Indian War stuff for large skirmishes, but apart from some civilians and limbers / wagons the collections will have little crossover potential so I'll count those 'armies' as a separate collection anyway.

Unlike my Punic collection, which absolutely dragged after the first 1800 figures, I've enjoyed painting these to the very end. I do hope I feel the same about my next project. This has been a long time coming and I've prevaricated for far too long. The next new painting you see will Front Rank Napoleonic figures for my Peninsular War collection. I've recently finished re-sorting through all 28 Kg in the lead pile, and even added a further couple of hundred pounds worth at Christmas to cover one or two first order blunders, so with fifty three units all bagged up I'm all set to go.

Next on the blog, Lobositz 1756 which I'm preparing for Derby, then a Bohemian Blitzkrieg campaign - well now I've painted the bloody things I'd best get playing with them!

23 comments:

Fredavner said...

Fab!

Steve J. said...

Wow, they look seriously impressive all lined up.

Paul "TuffSkull" T. said...

Simply beautiful. I love your painting, and on mass like this is just stunning. Great collection!

John Ray said...

Very Impressive.

I have really enjoyed following the progress of your amazing SYW collection. Your table-setting games are equally wonderful. My plan is to copy your Paltzig setting for the visit of Charles S. G. later this year.

I think if it was not for your new project you would surpass the numbers in my collection in a couple of years.

Regards
John

rct75001 said...

So Impressive an effort and a collection.

They look wonderful and powerful all out on parade.

Richard

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi John, good luck with that, are you all hiring the guides hut? Pass on my regards to the old boy.

Fire at Will said...

A splendid force. Nice to see an army laid out

Ray Rousell said...

Magnificent James!

Rodger said...

A very impressive sight!

Colin Ashton said...

Wonderful James! They look amazing. Time for me to get my Austrians finished!

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Fantastic! I wish I could paint at your speed!

Christopher

Der Alte Fritz said...

What a splendid looking army, well painted and nicely based. Congratulations for finishing the army. Have you considered using any of the Crusader Austrian senior generals ( they come mounted and dismounted) to pad out your command figures? I find that the Crusader figures fit in nicely with the Front Rank figures. I use both in my Big Battalion armies.

French and Hanoverians next?

Jim

Prufrock said...

Most impressive!

Fredavner said...

Fab!

Gonsalvo said...

Really gorgeous Army, James!

marinergrim said...

Superb. Inspiring.

Jonathan Freitag said...

Impressive sight!

peter said...

Amazing! What an army! Very impressive!

Greetings
Peter

tidders said...

Very impressive

Phil said...

Most impressive and most beautiful..."en route pour la gloire!"

WimVdB said...

Very impressive!
What a collection;

David said...

Now that IS an army! What a splendid sight! Well Done that man!

BigRedBat said...

My golly, James, that is a formidable collection! Very well done.

I do like your approach of planning the armies in advance and assembling the bulk of the minis, and the way you paint through such large quantities of minis in an organised manner. I tend to buy random batches of painted and unpainted minis from eBay, which gradually coalesce into collections, small or large, which isn't nearly as efficient!