Sunday, December 8, 2013

1859 - Austrian Dragoons / Sardinian Commanders

In a change of pace from recent painting activities, Sardinian commanders and Austrian dragoons muster off the painting desk for the 1859 15mm project.

First up are four Sardinian commanders from Mirliton.  Nice figures that fit in with both Old Glory and Freikorps mounted command.  Actually, I much prefer the Mirliton offerings to Old Glory.  With the addition of these four commanders, three such four-figure command packs have been fielded.


Accompanying the Sardinians off from the painting desk are twelve Austrian dragoons.  These dragoons are also Mirliton and are painted as the 6th Horvath Dragoon Regiment.  Mirliton cavalry models are quite nice!  During the 1859 campaign, the 6th Dragoons were part of the 2nd Army Reserve Cavalry Division under Mendorff.  At a man-to-figure ration of 50:1, these twelve dragoons represent four squadrons.


Continuing work on the 1859 project, four limbers and one caisson have been primered and placed into the painting queue.  Not my favorite item to tackle but having limbers on the gaming table is appealing.  The Freikorps limbers contain teams of six horses.  That is a big team to field.  I may decide to field four team limbers only.  We'll see.

11 comments:

  1. Wow - cool figs and period - I though they were 28mm at first. Best, Dean

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I find it a very interesting period. Having walked some of the battleground has heightened my interest.

      Delete
  2. Beautiful, love the command stands!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful work, sky blue is such a lovely color for these fellows! I have to laugh about the limbers. They are not fun, but will look nice on the table!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Monty! I am not laughing about the limbers yet. Once completed then I can look back and recall that it wasn't so painful.

      Delete
  4. I hadn't realized the later Austrian Cavalry had light blue pants - interesting! Another period NOT to get started with... but I'd much rather do mid 19th century Europe than the ACW. The history of the later is great, but the uniforms not so much, and the lack of Cavalry makes the tactics rather dull as well.... strictly IMHO, of course!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Peter! Valid points on ACW. Uniforms tend toward sameness unless, of course, you field regiments from the early part of the war. What says style and flamboyance better than Zouaves in pantaloons rouge?

    I prefer the uniforms from the 19th Century European wars too.

    ReplyDelete