Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Thursday Napoleonics: Baccus 6mm Austrian Hussars and French Generals

Hello friends.

Solid progress on the Napoleonic front this week.  Two regiments of tiny Austrian hussars from Baccus (their code NAU08) were mustered into their Kaiser’s service.   While my painting style is somewhat generic in this scale, these are done to represent the No 8 (Wurmser) regiment in the green (left) and the No 11 (Szekler) regiment in the dark blue (right), though really, they’re just happy to portray any Austrian light cavalry as required.

Honestly I don’t know a lot about these Austrian regiments, but Haythornthwaite and Fosten, in their Osprey Book on the Austrian cavalry, note that the Szeklers were pretty tough customers who “enjoyed a reputation not only for elan but for an uncompromising attitude;  Marbot, for example, claimed with some disgust that the Szeklers were responsible for two attacks upon French flags of truce, assassinating the French plenipotentiaries at Rastatt in 1799, and cutting up the French delegation outside the gates of Vienna in 1809”.    Charming fellows.

 

Also finished this week is this pack of Baccus French generals (Baccus code NFR 11).  I’ve based single figures as brigade commanders, two figures as divisional and three as corps commanders, including bald Marshal MacDonald bottom right.

 

Finally, as today is the 200th anniversary of the death of l’Empereur, here is Napoleon and his glittering staff, just in case the Great Thief of Europe is ever needed on the tabletop.

 

 

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes and Vive l’Empereur!

14 comments:

  1. O my these look fantastic Mike!
    So small yet you’ve done a wonderful job on the toy details.

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    1. Thanks so much mate. Learning to paint these little chaps is very much a skill - the trick is to aim for an overall effect rather than for crisp detail everywhere. Mind you, I'm sure lots of more experienced 6mm painters achieve that crisp detail!

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  2. Very nice! I suspect the Szeklers came out of Transylvania.

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    1. Thanks Pastor - you are right, the Osprey book confirms the Transylvania connection. Perhaps they were also vampires. Hmm ... vampire hussars ....

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  3. Excellent work, you have made great progress and achieved some terrific units.

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    1. You are generous with your praise as always, your grace.

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  4. Now I want to dig out and paint some 6mm. They look great!

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    1. Thank you - 6mm is very rewarding as you can achieve a lot in a very short period of time, relative to how I paint larger scales, at least!.

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  5. These look excellent. I really like the range of your command stands.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you kindly James, I am looking forward to getting them on the table soon!

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