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

My Marshfeld

While the first inspiration for this project was my love of 1/32 soldiers, and the 2nd my love of Napoleonic history, the 3rd clinching inspiration was finding a site to actually stage the battle.

Here is my marshfeld, with the step up elevations representing; 

1. The Russbach escarpment in the top center

2. Bisamberg heights at  the far end.

Cheers

Happy New Year everyone!

Hope y’all had a great holiday season and look forward to a great year ahead.

I will be posting more now as we’ve entered the depressing darkness of post-holiday winter. Lots of Austrian units to assemble and some French ones to reorganize.

Cheers all 

So I did order additional Hat Carabiniers in the new true French blue! Lol

 Decided to buy another 5 sets of the Hat Carabiniers in the latest dark blue of the recent restock to (re)make my 2 guard Chasseur bats.  

Will use the turquoise Hat Carabinier figures formerly used for these Bats somewhere in the similarly colored Army of Italy. And to spur further improvements to my Army of Italy, which includes 2 bats made from Hat Elites in greatcoats, I also bought 3 boxes of the recent restock of this set (which I hope is in the same turquoise as my existing Longcoat figures, or I have a new problem).  Perhaps I will use these as part of a build out of Broussier’s Div (which until now I have not done because I reassigned it to the French right as emergency reserves to counter Johann’s army approaching from Unter Siebenbrunn).  We shall see what opertunities this creates.

As for the Austrians; after assembling all the I Korps Fusilier Bats/Regiments I kinda lost some steam (as I Korps alone has about 1,800 figures).  Still need to assemble all the German Fusilier units in III, V & VI Korps.  I have purchased them, just not put together the figures or units yet; Although I have assembled & organized all the command figures for each of these battalions.

Cheers!