Sunday, November 3, 2013

Anatomy of a Project - SYW in 18mm

The SYW collection has been tucked away in boxes for far too long.  With the recent addition of a Swiss battalion to the mix, I figured it was time to pull the figures from their holding containers and hold a review.
This project began as a means to satisfy my curiosity to purchase and paint a few Austrian battalions from Eureka's 18mm range.  My original intention was not to produce a gameable collection.  In the past, I had painted and fielded two SYW armies in 15mm using Old Glory figures.  During a desire to field 15mm Russians Napoleonics quickly, I traded the collection away in exchange for Russians.  I know, I know; I should have kept the SYW figures since they were painted to a higher quality than those Russians I received.  Also, I wouldn't need to begin again from scratch.  That is another story, though.  

In an attempt to qualify the stages of this project and provide a bit of history, I pulled data from the Painting Log and constructed the following graphic.


In 2006, I purchased a few regiments of Austrians to field a small, "sample" contingent.  At that time, I had no plan to turn this into a full-fledged project.  In 2007, I continued fielding more Austrians.  At some point, the draw to paint Prussian opposition overcame my original goal and a few Prussians were purchased and painted.  In 2008 and 2009, my thinking likely switched from the notion of fielding a "simple collection" to "hey, why not build two forces to game with!"

2010 saw the Austrians add allied foot support and an escalation of the cavalry and artillery arms for both Austrian and Prussia.  Another high output year occurred in 2011 seeing many new infantry regiments mustering out from their billets.  Productivity dropped in 2012 and 2013 as other "more pressing" projects came to the fore.

Current strengths of the project are,
                      Austria          Prussia
Infantry           37 bn             28 bn
Cavalry           44 sqn            50 sqn 
Artillery          13 guns           13 guns

Now, on to some photos of the collection.
Overall
Austrians Overall



Prussians Overall

Prussian Infantry, artillery, command

Prussian cavalry

Prussian cavalry

Prussian cavalry

Prussian Infantry

Prussian Infantry

Prussian Infantry
Austrian cavalry

Austrian Infantry, artillery, command

Austrian Infantry and artillery

Austrian cavalry

Austrian cavalry

Austrian Infantry

Austrian Infantry

Austrian Infantry

Austrian Infantry
Allied Infantry

33 comments:

  1. What a great collection thanks for sharing
    Peace James

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  2. My, my that's a mighty fine collection!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Ray! Next step is to actually get them into a game.

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  3. Really impressive, a great collection!

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    1. Thanks, Phil! THey never are really finished, are they? Not mine!

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  4. That's one very, very fine collection!

    Christopher

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  5. That's a cracking collection sir! Thanks for sharing.

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    1. You are welcome, Millsy! Thanks for stopping by for a look.

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  6. Now that's something for which to aim.

    FMB

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    Replies
    1. Certainly not much "instant" gratification in our hobby, is there?

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  7. Thanks, Andrew! It is good to remind myself of the process as well before memories fade.

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  8. Wow, that's quite a collection there, sir!

    What rule set are they based for?

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    1. Thanks, Rob. As for rules, those are yet to be determined. I have a few candidates including Maurice.

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  9. Quite a display of force their, Jon. So your infantry units have 24 figures (grenadiers aside), cavalry ? 12 figures, Artillery ? 2 guns and 8 crew... is that roughly correct. Guesstimating from your painting log, it looks like roughly 1200 Austrians (and Friends)... a little less than my 25mm French Napoleonics. You'd think that would be enough Austrians (or French)... but I think I need another 4 Line and another Legere unit. Have to do a group shot of the army some weekend I'm feeling insane (because of the time to set them up and then put them back on the shelves), LOL!

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    1. Thanks, Peter. Correct on the infantry and artillery basing. Cavalry field 6 figure squadrons. Man-to-Figure ratio is about 25:1. Also good estimate on the total Austrian force. Roughly 1,200 is very close.

      Although this collection has yet to be tested in battle, I have more units to paint. In particular, I want to bring the cavalry regiments up to their full squadron complement.

      Please do pull your 25s from their cases and take some group photos. I would enjoy seeing those.

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  10. This is a thing of true beauty and breathtaking in its scope! I can only imagine the time it took just to sort out the colors for each of these units. I've had a hankering to find a bigger, longer term project but this, this is epic. I love it! You must find a way to get it out and play it.

    Maurice-you can get it cheap, it's fast, it's not too draining and I love the card driven aspect. Its best played with a partner and not solo, given the interaction of the cards and interrupting your opponent's turn and such. Our ancients players play this because it's fun.

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    1. Thanks for the very kind comments, Monty!

      I did pick up Maurice as have (I believe) two of my gaming buddies. We really should give Maurice a try.

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  11. Well, your buddies won't need to paint up armies, that's for sure! the first time I played Maurice in a public space, we actually had an audience because the card driven aspect is something an observer can grasp. If you give it a try, you have to let me know.

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    1. For sure! We discussed giving Maurice a try just this morning. Now, we need to work our schedules to actually accomplish that task.

      When we do give it a go, you'll likely see a report here...

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  12. A beautiful collection, highly inspirational.

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  13. Awesome job! Please accept my sincere congratulations.

    Vasiliy

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  14. Sorry I'm late seeing this,but it is truly impressive. Thanks for taking the trouble to set it up and show.
    Chris
    http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Thanks, Chris! Always better late than never, right? I am a fan of your brushwork as well.

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  15. These photos are so impressive. I would never do it in such a way. But it's looking breathtaking.

    Excuse me for responding very late on your postings. Maybe I had not earlier found your blog and started to look into the actual postings, when I found the blog.

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    1. Andre', I am happy to see your replies to such old postings! My SYW armies have grown even more impressive over these intervening seven years. Perhaps, I should make another parade?

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    2. It would be nice and I noticed that you already have some French or Swiss in French pay. I never painted Swiss myself, prefering Irish.
      But a new parade would be a very nice idea. I will make photos of my redcoats too, when I finished two more batallions.

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    3. Yes, a few battalions of Swiss are present in my armies. I really ought to make a point of another SYW parade. First, I need to clean off the gaming table which may take awhile.

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