Sunday, December 18, 2016

Austrian Cavalry Battery

With about 6 inches of snow outside, these somewhat wintry pictures seemed appropriate to post.


Austrian cavalry Battery, 1809 - Perry Figures, 28mm


The assembly of the long, leather covered  seat that the Kanoniers rode upon was difficult to figure out - in the end I did one right and one wrong!


It is surprising how few manufacturers do these iconic Austrian guns in 25/28mm. 


Feuer! 
Unlike most other nations, there were no uniform distinction for the gunners of the cavalry batteries as opposed to the "Foot" batteries"; of course, unlike other nations, the Austrians rode the long seats rather than being mounted on horses. 


Top down view. The turned up Korsehut was worn by the artillery from about 1790 to 1798, and then again from 1803 - 1806., and officially again in 1811, changing in style with each iteration. The Bicorn, as worn by these troops, was in use from 1806, and from a practical standpoint, by most Austrian artillerymen until the end of the Napoleonic Wars

View from the back of the house yesterday AM; Let it snow!


I had these guys ready for the Austerlitz game (was it only 2 weeks ago?), but the cannons themselves were not quite completed. Here are the crew in "summertime".


Perry only sell their guns with their crew figures, which I find annoying. The Osprey shows 1800 gunners in a helmet with red crests and the brass plate bearing a cannon badge. Evidently this was worn from 1798 - 1803, if not universally. I don't think I have ever seen those figures done... so probably they are  due to roll off Jon's painting table tomorrow, like the 1798 Jagers just did LOL!


I painted up the 2 extra figures as the members of the unskilled "Handlanger"Corps, with their attractive light blue facings. They will be assigned to assist the engineering and sapper department. 
Note the famed "bricoles", ropes and leather parts used for dragging the artillery when unlimbered.

16 comments:

  1. Great looking artillery unit, I really like the retro feel of the Austrian artillery while everyone else are wearing shakos they're sticking to their bicornes! Nice brown uniform, nicely painted.
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks, Iain. The shade of brown the Osprey shows is a Rather ugly, light yellow to orangish hue. I prefer the deeper, slightly reddish shade used here.

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  2. Nice pair of guns and crew! Sorry to disappoint Peter but my 1799 Austrian artillerymen wear either the bicorne or casquest. I don't recall seeing any in any helmet either. This requires more investigation!

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    1. I think I( recall reading somewhere else (maybe by Dave Hollins) that the helmet with the red crest may have been one of those things that made it into the regulations, but never actually appeared in the filed. Still, they would be kind of cool!

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    2. Artillerymen in helmet would be cool. Perhaps some conversion work is in order?

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    3. It would be a fairly simple conversion...

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  3. Ah yes those wurst seats were a challenge to figure out too! Good job Peter :)

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  4. Very nioe. I have a couple of units of these in 6mm too I have to say that looking at those seats it must have taken great courage to sit on those fearsome things while bouncing across rough ground. Although these are indeed called cavalry artillery I often wonder how they compared in effectiveness and mobility to regular horse artillery, perhaps because of the difficulty of riding the damn things at speed.

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    1. The Austrian apologists claim that there were advantages to the system over mounting the crew, which may be, but one suspects that it was more financial than military. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the carriages more lightweight construction and that had an impact of their durability after heavy use. Regardless, the fact that no one copied them during or after the Napoleonic Wars is probably sufficient judgement by history!

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  5. Very nice! We rarely see the Austrian horse artillery. I painted some of those 2 years ago and they are lovely sculpts, nicely animated.

    IIRC the helmet with red crests were never adopted on the field by the gunners. The helmet experiment had proven less than successful and the idea of equipping the artillery with it was abandonned.

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    1. The Cavalry guns are iconic Austrian for our era, regardless of how succesful or not they were. As I commented to Jon above, I also seem to recall that the red crests never made it from regulation to actual use. Not that it would stop me from raising at least one battery just for the novelty. The Austrians were also unique in having NO uniform distinctions for the gunners of the Cavalry batteries vs the foot ones, and the red crested helmets would have been a neat bit of uniform bling for them had the Kaiser been so inclined!

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  6. Great work Peter and I must say, as with the above comments, I find it difficult to look at a picture of a wurst seat without involuntarily wincing.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence. Yes, I think if I were a rider on such I'd be holdin' der Hoden, as it were!

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  7. Most Impressive !!
    It's a funny thing about wargame scales, the first figures I saw were photographs in the book Charge! So I immediately bought some SYW Spencer Smith 30mm figures.
    Then 20mm Hinton Hunt and Miniature Figurines Napoleonic figures. Then 25mm Napoleonic.
    Then 15mm was the thing. I could buy 100 of those for the cost of one 28mm figure now but I've just bought a full platoon including HQ section. It cost me £15-00 per section.
    WWII 1940 Brits & Germans.
    Still that's a wargamer for yo. See something new and you've got to try it

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    1. Thanks! I've stuck with 25mm almost exclusively since I started this hobby with Flats in the late 1960's, but the size of today's figures and my original Scrubys and early Minifigs is certainly not the same!

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