Battle of Kolin - Part 1

We have just had an enjoyable day re fighting the Battle of Kolin using the 40mm semi flats.

Setting up the Game

The table size?

This was the club 'Christmas Game', so I decided to put on something big for the occasion. To make the best possible impression I decided to find a battle which would need most/all the 40mm figures we have.

Having added up all the units we could field I decided we could just about fill a 16' or possibly a 20' wide board.

I looked through the books and came to the conclusion that Kolin would fit nicely onto a 16' x 6' table. There is an excellent description of the battle on Jeff Berry's Obscure Battles blog; which also has some useful maps and an order of battle.

As you can see the 16' x 6' table fits nicely over the map, so next to scale

Game Scale

Without going into too much detail, Having decided on the battle and table size, I arrived at the figure scale by looking at the frontages of infantry formations (deployed in line) as shown on the map, and then figured how many 160mm wide wargames units would occupy that same space on the table, which worked out at a 2/3 scale (i.e. 2 wargames units equals 3 actual battalions).

The troop density is about right, and the Prussians strung out in march on the Kaiserstrasse are the right length - so far so good.

Rules - King of the Battlefield

My preference for gaming the period is currently 'Field of Battle', although 'Maurice' are good for two player games. However as this was going to be a big game, with inexperienced players, and limited time I decided to go for the 'King of the Battlefield' rules; a few of us have played a 'practice games' with these rules and they seemed to be just the job for what was wanted.

The rules are actually aimed at 15mm games with lots of units, so we scaled up the distances in proportion to frontages, KoB uses 90mm frontages with moves in inches; whereas my units are on 160mm, so scaling up gives 160/90x25=44mm. I opted for 40mm as the basic distance, and made movement sticks to suit. The choice of 40mm was also influenced by the fact that it put the Kaiserstrasse just out of range of the Austrian artillery on the ridge.

The Armies

The actual battle was between Prussians and the Austrians, supported by a few units of Saxons. However we don't have enough of those types, so we opted to have the Russians support the Prussians, giving a dark hue, and the Austrians gained support from the French and Saxons, so mainly white.

Prussians

• Infantry - 19,500 in 32 batallions, so 2/3 x 32 = 22 battalions
• Cavalry  - 14,000 in 116 squadrons, KoB assumes 5 squadron units, so 2/3 x 116/5 = 15 units.
• Heavy guns (battalion guns counted in infantry) -  28; KoB assumes 10 guns per model, so 2/3 x 28/10 =  2 batteries

Austrians

• Infantry - 30,000 infantry in 51 battalions and 43 grenadier companies, so the equivalent of about 60 battalions, we used 39 (not all came on). 
• Cavalry - 17, 700 in 171 squadrons. Austrian squadrons seemed smaller, so I assumed cavalry pro rata numbers. 17,700/14,000 x 15 =  19 units
• Heavy guns  - 60; so 4 batteries (not all came on). 

So we had about 1,000 figures on the table.

I'll post a battle report in the near future............

Merry Christmas!

Sorry, I did not get around to any festive photos.

I would just like to say thank you for all the help and support I have had over the last couple of years.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Steve

Russian 'Hybrid' Cavalry - Painted

(Updated with extra photos 29/12/15)

I've finished the Russian 'hybrid' cavalry in the usual toy soldier style. I'm quite pleased with them, I think fitting the SYW infantry heads onto the Karoliner cavalry results in a fine set of figures.

Some of the details are not quite right, it depends how fussy you are - certainly an option for any 'imagination' armies.

My apologies for the photos, my wargames table and lights are not easily accessible, so just a lamp on the desk in front of the PC!

Cuirassiers

The Russian SYW heads are a great improvement on the original head, a bit larger and much more detailed.

Horse Grenadiers

No standard yet as I am waiting for it to arrive - only ordered it yesterday!

I think the grenadier head sits very well, and results in a splendid chap.

So if you have the Karoliner cavalry moulds and the new Russian infantry they are worth a play.

Presented with flags

(Added 29/12/15)

The cavalry have now been presented with their flags, and blooded on the battlefield.

The cuirassiers lead the cavalry

Followed by the horse grenadiers - what a large flag you have!

Cuirassiers decide charge Saxon grenadiers - not a good idea - they will learn!

Russian (Karoliner/SYW) Cavalry

Don't get too exited!

For the last couple of years, with the arrival of the new SYW range I have concentrated on the new infantry figures and held off painting any more cavalry waiting for the new moulds.

However, I could do with a few more units of cavalry for a game I am putting on over the Christmas break. The new SYW cavalry is some way off, so I decided to use old Karoliner castings that have been sitting in a box in the garage for the last few years.

The Karoliner cavalryman K-931 is a nice figure (possibly not quite as stylish as the old HE version, but much more suitable for fitting in with the new range), and I already have a few units of them in my Karoliner/French army.

Although a nice figure, with the small head and hat it will not really fit in with my new infantry units, so I decided to have a play and see what this figure looks like with the new heads.

The Karoliner range have their belts on the outside, so are only really suitable for Russians and some cuirassiers, so I decided to do a Russian - probably cuirassier! I used the Russian officer's head, as this has formal curls, and also a large cockade on the front.

The head cuts off very easily with a heavy duty knife, and leaves a wide enough area to drill to accept the peg on the head. The fit is bang on, and if you use some thick super glue there is no need for any filler.

I think the more detailed and head and larger hat (the heads are cast in Model Metal for more detail) really bring the figure alive. I was so impressed that I decided to try a horse grenadier with the Russian grenadier head, which I think is also a good fit!

And even the trumpeter (K-931) and standard bearer (K-933) are easy to swap heads.

I have a small unit (8 troopers) of each on the painting table, I will post some pictures when they are finished.

I hadn't really noticed before, but these figures, particularly the trumpeter must be wearing very tight corsets to get a waist like that!

I'm sure the new cavalry will be an improvement on the Karoliners when they come out, and are needed for all the nations with the sword belt under the coat. However if you want to get some more mileage out of those old Karoliner moulds, or like me have some castings hanging around, this is worth a try.

After all...........if you look at the first few posts on this blog; when I first contacted PA all I wanted was some new heads!

SYW range is going digital!

First Sculptures

Chris Tubb (the sculptor) has decided to move to digital sculpting, as you can imagine there is quite a learning curve involved. This has contributed to the slowing up of figure production, but should pay dividends in future.

Changing to digital sculpting part way through the range needs to be done carefully. In order to 'calibrate' the digital design, rather than go straight to the cavalry it was decided to produce some French infantry to get the proportions, and 'feel' right.

The approach he has taken is to manually sculpt an 80mm infantry torso to mimic the pose of the figures already done, and then 3D scan this to form the basis of the new digital sculpts. The first figure digitally sculpted is a French Infantryman advancing, he is shown below with an Austrian in a similar pose for comparison (I know the Austrian grenadier should have a sabre, but it is a similar pose).

The pose matches quite well. Looked at side by side there is quite a difference due to the clean nature of the digital sculpt, however I doubt that would be anything like as obvious in a painted casting.

The musket is probably a more realistic thickness, but i just wonder if it might benefit from thickening up a bit?

Chris is planning to 'print' the figure in the next few days, after which he will make me a mould and I will cast some up to see how they look in the tin.

If you have any comments PLEASE let me have them, and I will pass them on.

Release of French Infantry?

It was originally planned to release the cavalry next, however with the move to digital the plan was side tracked (to a great extent by me), in order to try and get the feel right.

With the French so well advanced, after some test casts have been done it might be worth finishing off a French infantry range and get them into production, I would suggest a couple of moulds as discussed back in August.

Mould 1

• Rank and file (turn backs) advancing - as above
• Rank and file march attack (turn backs)- arms changed on above
• Tricorn - fusilier - as above
• Tricorn - grenadier
• Bearskin with bag - grenadier

Mould 2

• Drummer (no turn backs)
• Officer (no turn backs), there was a suggestion that he could double as standard bearer - anyone have any ideas on pose?
• Tricorn - officer
• Bonet de Police
• Bearskin with no bag - Cuirassiers du Roi (if it will not fit in the cavalry mould)

Mould 3

Easy to add an 'early' version of mould 1 with no turn backs for WAS etc.

Comments

The change to digital is happening, and if not done right could spoil this range. Your comments are important and welcome, so please make them, they will be listened to.

Cartridge box and sword

Rahway commented on the depth of the cartridge box, I thought it looked shallow as well and discussed with Chris, who sent me an additional image from the rear, the depth is OK.

The images seem to have some quirks, for example the base above looks tapered, but I am assured it is not!

The image raises another point we have been discussing. Putting the sword outside the coat leaves a large gap between the sword and leg, details like this may be OK for commercial spin casting, but not for producing the home casting moulds, there are not many options to make it suitable for home casting:

• Fill in the gap, less work but could be ugly
• Make the sword septate and glue on

We think that a separate sword is the answer, as:

• It will look better, even if a bit more work
• Later in the war the fusiliers did not carry swords so not needed anyway
• For grenadiers and early war it can be glued on

Has anyone noticed he has two bayonets, one on the musket and one in the scabbard?

Irish TV visit to Prince August factory

For any of you who are interested here is a link to an RTE visit to the Prince August factory.

RTE programme

There is not much relating to the SYW range, but there are a few glimpses of the moulds being made. The process requires the masters to be repeatedly pressed between the rubber blanks, which explains why the figures have to be very robust.

There is also a lot of coverage of the Waterloo display, this is very impressive, but staging it has been the main reason why the production of the new SYW moulds have been so slow!

The Russian infantry has arrived

Well, at long last PA have released the Russians!

Below are the assembly instructions which I downloaded from the PA website. Not very good quality I'm afraid as I had to download PDF and then scan to JPG, as you can't load PDFs into the blog............unless you know better?

The figures look good, and as you can see on moulds 3110, 3111 & 3112 we did get the pouch to add to the waist belt to make the grenadiers, so something came of the delay. (I had to make my own pouch from plasticard).

I've not actually seen these black moulds, so I would be interested to receive feedback on how they cast.

The SYW range has been out quite a while now, does anyone have any painted up units they would like me to load onto the blog?

As always, comments welcome.