Wednesday 15 August 2018

Austrian Grenz Infantry, Perry 28mm

Some improved photos of my Grenz, and I've just finished adding a couple more regiments, so 120 figures in total now.

Grenz or Grenzers were border troops from Hungary, serving the Austrian Empire. Good troops with their own irregular fighting style that were somewhat compromised  in effectiveness by having to fight in regular formations. The figures by Perry are nicely done - holding their muskets at all sorts of casual angles rather than in parade drill or march attack.



Some close ups of one of the regiments.



Note that likely only a few of them should have red cloaks, but I had done too many of them before I remembered, and kept going! Most of them having grey cloaks would probably be more historically accurate. I might repaint them at some point, but I actually quite like the red cloaks so I won't be in any hurry to do so! (EDIT - see further helpful commentary and link on this issue of cloak colour in comments section below, by John Edmunson!).


I've done two skirmisher bases for each regiment, bringing numbers of each regiment to 30 strong.





Advice for doing Hungarian trousers (other than "DON'T!"). Paint the trousers blue. Paint the yellow stripes and twists, which will need a white base coat first as yellow doesn't paint over blue very well. Then tidy up with blue around the stripes and twists. Then for the twists - dot in some black dots using end of a toothpick. Use same technique with the toothpick to get the black dot in the centre of the yellow helmet badge.

32 comments:

  1. Wow you have done a wonderful job on these Grenzers Mark - nice basing too, which is always the last 10-15% of good looking figures!

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    1. Thanks and yes basing I think adds a lot!

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  2. Great looking grenzers, lovely basing and I like the red cloaks , that's one vote in favour!
    Best Iain

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  3. Terrific work and I vote for maintaining the distinctive red cloak too!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan, looks like I might keep the red cloak for longer then :)

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  4. Very impressive! As mentioned above, great uniform color scheme and they look great in such large numbers too!

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  5. Top drawer painting, as usual, Mark!

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  6. Fantastic work Mark. Your quality and quantity turnout is quite incredible!

    What is your recipe for the brown coat?
    I think you hav2 nailed the tone of colour. Cheers, Mark

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    1. Thanks Mark, for these it was Beast Brown from Coat d Arms (and vallejo Bestial Brown colour is similar), highlighted with a little yellow ochre from vallejo.

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    2. Thanks for taking the time to reply and please keep posting your fantastic work. Totally inspiring!!

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    3. Will do thanks for your comments Mark! :)

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  7. They look fantastic, Mark. I am glad to see no white coated outfits, no matter how historical it might be. There is evidence to suggest the Siebenburger ( = Transylvanian) regiments may have had black cloaks. May be one such regiment with black, one with grey, and... the rest red! :-)

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    1. Ah yes I remember the blackcoated guys from your blog Peter, may have to add a regiment! :) Thanks.

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  8. Brilliant as always Mark. Love your painting style.

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  9. Hi Mark,
    FWIW, my impression regarding the red cloak is that it was pretty popular for Regts 1-13. Even though they were issued the standard coats, many preferred the traditional red cloaks and they had been granted the right to continue to wear it.

    The Siebenburgen Regiments (14-17) were from the "unregulated frontier" and, while theoretically issued with the "salt and pepper" coloured coat of mid-brown with white flecks, many evidently preferred the black capuchin (hooded) coat instead. It's also possible that their hausmontur was darker than that of the other Grenz regiments. I suspect the term 'uniform' was more aspirational than actual for these 4 regiments, especially 3rd or 4th battalions.

    Aside from the usual Sources (Hollins' Ospreys), I got some information from David Hollins in a conversation I had with him here:
    https://wargamerabbit.wordpress.com/2017/06/16/battle-of-gospic-1809/ Go to the comments section at the bottom if it's of interest.

    Cheers,
    John

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    1. Very interesting! Many thanks for the information and link John :)

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  10. Oh, and of course, great painting of your figures :-)

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  11. Fantastic work; a rare combination of painting talent combined with an impressive output.

    I have a love-hate relationship with Perry metals, mainly due to the difficulties seeing the detail and cleaning them up for painting. But for Austrians, I think they really are the way to go.

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    1. Thanks Robert, yes they take a bit of cleaning up, but good for range, character, and getting large quantities relatively cheaply!

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  12. Beautiful work as usual Mark, and you did a terrific job with those trousers. The yellow looks nice and solid. I have to admit that painting anything yellow is not something I enjoy, even with a decent brown undercoat I find I have to go over it several times.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence, yes yellow is a not a great colour to paint. White undercoat for yellow bits is what I do now, followed by dark yellow and light yellow for highlights (or just a medium yellow if the area is small like on these).

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  13. Very nice Mark. I like the mix of brown and light blue.

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  14. great work! Your blog has inspired me to complete more Austrians over the winter

    cheers
    Matt
    Herce Salon de Guerre
    Mayenne France

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