IX Corps Saxon Cavalry

Here are my Saxon cav that were with IX Corps on the first day of Wagram. Most are Armies in Plastic figures, while the hussars are Dulcop.  Starting from the right (left side from face-on);  

 Heavy Cav Brigade (composed of 3 Regiments (but organizes as 2 regiments);

     Rear formation;  Garde de Corps Regiment (1st line) & Karabiniers Regiment (2nd line)

     Forward formation; Lieb Kuirassier Regiment (in line by division each of 2SQ) 

Light Cav Brigade (composed of 3 regiments but organized as 2 regiments);

     Right formation; Prince Clemens Chavauluegers Regiment (in line by division each of 2SQ) 

     Left formation; Herzog Albercht Chavauluegers (1st line) & Saxon Hussar Regiment (2nd & 3rd lines)

Apologies for the lack of saddles/shabraques but the figures do not stay on the horses when those are used (eventually to be fixed by gluing them & figures onto horses but doing so makes them more prone to damage when stored so not until I have more storage space).

The remaining Saxon Cav regiment at Wagram was the Prince Johann Chavauluegers Regiment, which on the first day of battle Napoleon detached to the II Corps (along with Dupas French infantry division, much to Bernadotte’s displeasure) but both returned to IX Corps for day 2, not that it helped the Saxons perform that day.  I have this regiment as 2 divisions of 12 figures each as well (but didn’t have time to set up).

Cheers!

Coming soon; finished Saxon Cavalry

 My return to the hobby and this blog has been delayed by a combination of heavy workload, family commitments and the lovely warm September NYC has enjoyed.  That said, I have not been completely idle.  A few late summer/early fall purchases have moved us forward towards our goal and will be discussed and the relevant units displayed, as the weather soon turns autumnal shifting my focus away from warm weather summer pursuits. 

Until then, I leave a teaser on my recently completed finished Saxon Cav units, which I have pulled out with the hope of posting pics of deployed units very soon.

Cheers

Summer & work distractions

The summer season warmth and a trip to Hawaii, plus a ton of work lately have choked off my posting recently, but despite this I’ve been able to make progress on organizing/ reorganizing many units.  

Still a little ashamed to say that despite receiving them in October last year, I have not finished processing all of my bulk purchase of Hat Austrian German fusiliers off their sprus, glued on parts and organized into battalion bags yet.  Only 2 more battalions of these left to be cut off spru & bagged, but many battalions were bagged without all parts glued on, so still have work to do on them. 

Made more progress on switching out the French command figures so that the French line, light & guard unit infantry figure colors now match that of the command figures.  Also used some of the Hat French carabiniers as grenadiers in a few French line infantry battalions (as several regiments grenadiers still wore the bearskins in 1809).  This has also allowed me to improve the composition of many French line battalions.

I know I keep talking about this but haven’t shown anything in a while, but I hope to get some units out to take pictures soon.  That said, I am spending a few weeks upstate spending time with my mom & sister, so it may be a while. 

Cheers to a happy summer!

Non-Wagram figures: Timpo Highland Infantry

Despite their obvious flaws (only 4 usable troop poses, excess of wounded figure in sets, short muskets and bayonets, etc) I have always loved these figures.  This is mostly because I think they capture the proud bold posture of their subject.  In particular the flag bearer pose, which I think is one of the best 1/32 plastic figures ever made, really embodies the Highlander’s strength & bravery in battle. Even include a good bagpiper and officer poses.

These figures have been out of production for decades, but only in the last 2 years have they become very hard to find & very expensive even on EBay.  Most of mine were acquired starting 20 years ago, before I seriously started my Wagram collection.  A couple years ago I took out what I had and sought to organize them in battalions similar to what I was doing for my Wargram figures, and realized I had too many for a single battalion, and too few for 2.  Slowly fixed this, buying whatever sets I found available for a decent price, but I hadn’t bought any in about 2 years.  Until this week, where a found a set of 17 figures that included the number of key poses I needed to fill out the 2 bats, and at a fair price.  While I pose had been partially painted, it wasn’t one I needed, so he didn’t make it into the battalions.

So here they are; laid out together, with the top 4 rows constituting my 1st highland regiment (firing) and the next 3 rows my 2nd highland regiment (advancing).  I may set them up and take more pics before I put them away.  

What do others think of this set?

More reorganization of bats based on new Hat figure colors

 Still working through making all the changes to my units to adjust for this after taking a while to plan it out.  Didn’t want to just wing it and end up with a living room covered in piles of figures for a week while I tried to figure it out on the fly.

Good news is I think it will improve the looks of my French army units as now the dark blue French troops (for the most part) and other French units will have NCOs & officers in the same color.  Because the Hat Chassuers aren’t available in the dark blue, and I had an old set of the Caribiniers in the same light blue as the new restock Chassuers I used a few of the Caribiniers in each color to fill out the bats as Grenadiers in 3 regiments that historically had their Grenadiers in bearskins in 1809; 

2nd line regiment & 56th line regiment in dark blue

French 1st line regiment (army of Italy) in light blue

Also am totally reorganizing Army of Italy units to assure each division’s composition makes sense from both a color standpoint but also the mix of firing and ready unit figures.

I will post pics and the reorg when done.

Cheers

Latest Hat Restocks

 So I noticed that with no announcement from Hat several retailers recently started showing restocks of the Hat French light infantry command, Voltigeur and Chasseur.  These follow their earlier recent restocks of the Carabiniers & Longcoat infantry sets, which had been announced beforehand.

Interesting not only because these restocks were not announced, but also the colors the various sets were produced in (at least interesting for me given I don’t paint them).

Chasseur restock; light blue (consistent with original production color & previous command restock but inconsistent with previous Chasseur restock) 

Light infantry Command restock; dark blue (consistent with recent Carabinier & previous Voltigeur restocks as well as previous Chasseur restock, but inconsistent with most recent Chasseur restock)

Longcoat infantry; dark blue (inconsistent with light blue longcoat command set)

The good news is that by redoing many of my units I can mix and match them to have consistent color between their command and troop figures (all except the dark blue Longcoat units).

The command figures look great in the dark blue!

My Marshfeld from another vantage point

 Here is the view looking north from just north of Aspern

1st;  toward the western part of Wagram escarpment (location of Deutsch-Wagram village).  With Raasdorf about halfway between and to the right of direct line of sight.

2nd; looks to the left of above pic, west of Wagram, with the Bisamberg in distance at far left of pic

Cheers