Monday, June 27, 2011

Imex 1/72 Austrians Paint Conversion

In this picture,  the Revell Prussians have surprised the new Imex Austrians (converted British Redcoats) while they were in the middle of a fashion show to see their facings, while General Lacy (top right of center) looks on. Meanwhile General Loudon tries to thrust his sword into a Prussian Grenadier-Garde, Alt  6 man's head.

He would turn around to see what's holding up Lacy's reinforcements if he had time. Just like that time at Liegnitz in 1760. (Legnica)


Imex does not have Austrians for the SYW, Revell does, or at least they did. It's hard to keep up with the changes in the plastic 1/72 producers. Plastic Soldier Review can help sort most of it out. Some are out of production, some are not yet available but in the pipeline, and others have changed names two or three times.

So the ones on Peter's Cave the other day (see blogroll) are the exact same figures, and rather better painted than mine, but instead of calling them Imex he is calling them Revell, and before both of them the same figures were Accurate. Since I have a supply of both Accurate and Imex, and they are almost identical,  I'd have to think but this particular set was sold as Imex when I got them in late 2003.

I don't have the patience to track down the proper Austrians to go with those Prussians I found last week, but I had a set of what are supposed to be Imex British Redcoats for the American Revolution. I'll try to get the right ones later if I can, but I need Austrians now. I have already waited too long.

Back in 2003 I picked up some of these Imex for the Revolution but had not finished painting them. This set was going to be the French regulars and were halfway done in white uniforms. Another one actually are British redcoats, and there are blue ones and other types too.

I probably still will use these for French of the Revolution come to think about it, until I add some proper ones later. Even then, these could probably be used for the pre-79 uniform ones well enough. 


There is a French set out there by somebody else, but they are in the post-1779 issue uniforms. The French who came to fight in North America are believed to have worn both the older and the newer uniforms depending which force they are. So those too, I'll keep an eye out for them for later.

I kind of don't care about the differences that much. This whole plastic project started with a nostalgia for the days when we only had a few troops types to use, two for the Revolution and I can think of about seven types to cover the whole Napoleonic Wars. So we'd use the 1815 Highlanders to storm Fort Ticonderoga in 1758 if that's what we wanted to do that day. The muskets were basically the same, but their hats were different.

It was considered cool then to do conversions, lopping off heads of one kind to make another, but I had two problems with that. I never thought I had enough troops to waste like that, and once you did you couldn't use the other ones any more, unless by some miracle the hats were appropriate for the donors.

I finally did make some English Civil War figures from Napoleonics and American Civil War types, but it really made me ill to have to do that out of desperation. It ruined the original figures for the periods they came from, and within a couple weeks I would regret it.

I did not feel so badly about the simpler 'paint conversion,' since it is theoretically reversible when you change your mind back. These coats could go back to red, or blue, pretty quickly, if I ever wanted that.


So I have a long history fortified by nostalgia for the dilemmas caused by too limited a line in plastics. There are a lot more choices nowadays, but still not enough.

There are dragoons available nowadays, and there were always hussars if you will rob the Waterloo collection, plus now there are proper hussars with mirliton hats. But cuirassiers with tricorne (robbing Waterloo again) would call for conversions. I could get tricornes from certain American militia types.

And then the Worst Thing Happened

While I was thinking about all that, I started looking at my Napoleonic British and French, a rebudding little collection, and started to think about not wanting to rob them, because I will want to use them and regret it later. Why not leave their hats alone and just use French 1815 Cuirassiers as SYW cuirassiers, nobody has to know...then they can still go back to Napoleon later, no commitment, no strings...I can ignore the hats, and maybe the colors, just till I get the right ones...

The bane of the wargamer is to be distracted to a different project, before getting the other one done.

And then my thoughts started to drift to the vast half million man Voelkerschlacht, the biggest bloodiest battle of the 19th Century before World War I broke all records:

Leipzig, 1813!  The Battle of Nations.

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21 comments:

  1. Hi, Interesting figurki.Vot only pictures malenkie.Poblizhe would.

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  2. Already 5 cm from camera, falling on keyboard, look Grenadiers in rear! Not rich like in Russia! Netbook open like oyster! Spasibo!

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  3. Уже 5 см от камеры, падая на клавиатуру, посмотрите гренадеров в тылу! Не богат, как в России! Нетбук открытым, как устрица! Spasibo!

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  4. Лоудаун находится слева, с мечом. Ожидание Лейси исходить от показа, чтобы помочь ему.

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  5. I can tell you love the plastics, but why not get into metal, then you can get exactly what you want without lopping off heads and being made to feel ill in the process.

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  6. Metal? That's a great idea.

    Ray you will be pleased to know that I do also have a heavy collection of SYW 15mm figurki, with Prussians and Austrians just like these but maybe a little shorter and maybe just about the same size, since the Old Glory especially were probably too tall anyway.

    The Airfix George Washington's Army are 20mm, the Revell Prussians there are 26mm, and the Imex might average 23mm or so, so I'll have to look at the 15mm again with a ruler.

    A collection next to them has American Revolution figures which I think are Minifigs British generals and some dragoons, but not as many, and still in the bags, waiting till I do the SYW ones.

    I'd have to take a closer look before I chop up since I do have lots of lead Cuirassiers and Dragoons, now that you mention it. Might even be hussars in there. I cannot remember if there is artillery, but I can vaguely remember an Austrian train so I might even have wagons or limbers.

    They are at least three makes in 15mm: There should be Minifigs, Old Glory and Frontier.

    But when I was painting them I was waiting to be mobilized for the Gulf War, so there is a nervousness associated with them from that, so I have not dug them out for a long time since I moved to these other scales.

    We went as far as pre-mobilization measures but they did not need us due to decisions how to handle the war.

    Somehow painting those figures is caught up in the trauma of those memories, causing a sort of block on that scale.

    I also have 2mm, and 10mm ACW in metal, plus two nearly identical sets of 6mm SYW from the large 6mm Adler and the smaller 6mm Heroics and Ros, and also a few Irregular early Franks such as Charlemagne or earlier really, and Huns from Attila the Hun, all cavalry in 6mm, plus an army of Old English Saxons.

    Can't recall if there are Vikings or Normans to go with them, but that just means I will need some.

    Then I noticed that I also have a collection of 6mm Marlburian stuff, even though I still would look in catalogs and wonder what they looked like, because I forgot I already had some and only needed to look what I have already.

    I also have two complete copies of Grand Army by Sam Mustafa, and still hovered around his free Internet version wishing I had the better book version, because I forgot I already had it--and bought it twice at the wargame shop without ever realizing I already had it.

    And even then looked at the free version. I have found other duplicates in my collections too.

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  7. Good work and progress, don't let the projects distract you either but now and again you can overdo a project and just need to step away and take the edge off and maybe do a little work elsewhere.

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  8. Metal is ok...depending on the person who makes the molds, the original sculpts and the age of the molds...plastic and resin are way better IMHO.
    great little collection there.bigger photos please :-D
    Cheers
    paul
    PS...Karl May, look him up on google. The winnetou series is great as is the Old surehand...both of which have been made into Tv serials..originaly only in German, but now in english. The indians in them are always very brightly dressed
    Great books, great films
    http://www.karl-may-filme.de/

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  9. How come you can't just focus on one thing and finish that?

    You can visit my NEW blog here.

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  10. because Ray said the word 'metal'

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  11. They look nice to me. You say you bought the Imex figures in 2003, didn't you have some riders in that set? I bought a set of them last year, and that box had the same figures in it as the Revell box.
    I wanted the figures of the two bottom rows:
    http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=186
    I hope to find them some day ;-)

    Keep up the good work!

    Greetings
    Peter

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  12. Wow, that's a nice little army you've got there :)

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  13. Yes, the 2003 set did have them.

    There is a shop in town here with the big boxed set and I will probably get that later today. But I already read on the box no mention of cavalry, but instead infantry and artillery.

    The 2003 set had two sets of redcoats, two sets of militia, and the two old Airfix sets in it, with no artillery.

    On one of the two redcoat sets were the figures you mentioned, and on one of the two militia the similar ones. Also the Airfix George
    Washington and the British Grenadier in that Airfix set, so a total of six mounted figures. Two Airfix, four Imex.

    I expect the newer box I will get today will have artillery in place of the Airfix sets, and normal redcoats and militia without the horsemen, but it is still a good deal and useful to me.

    If you will go to my contact page you can email me a physical address and I will mail you those figures free on these conditions--that you will paint them in your usual style, and make a photo that I can use on my blog as a header image, which has been lacking.

    I expect it will show the British in proud arrogance but also pain, and carrying off the treasure, in short these figures could make a perfect microcosm of the Revolution worth 1,000 words, like I like to think my little piece with Generals Lacy and General Loudon above illustrates something like their caricatures.

    That's why I shortened the article to only explain that in a few words in Russian.

    It would be revenge for them sculpting the only 1/72 18th century American flag dragging in the mud! They sold millions of those, including several to me.

    I know when I flew to Amsterdam it only took six or eight hours to land in Schipol Airport, but it will take me much longer to deal with the line at the post office.

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  14. Thanks! Message send. Check your e-mail ;-)

    Greetings
    Peter

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  15. Unfortunately, I'm a fifteen-year-old girl so I'm not too sure about what you just did, but...

    DID YOU MAKE THOSE FIGURINES?

    That's AMAZING.

    If you did...wow, that's awesome!

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  16. Hi Lemons,


    Thanks, yeah the guys here do this all the time, even way better, so they think mine are just passable, but some of them do museum pieces and stuff like that, that really are AWESOME.

    They are from about 30 or so different countries, so that's why the Russian, and whatever other languages. That particular guy lives in Siberia, but other ones England, Belgium, and a bunch of other ones.

    I have no idea why some of the ads keep coming up Chinese, but if it was romanized pinyin I'd take a shot at it too. The characters get too hard for me to type otherwise. There's a translating thing at the top.

    You could figure out how to stick one of those on yours, too, if you thought you needed it.

    Thanks for comment and compliments, your blog was interesting to read was what happened.

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  17. I just don't understand where you take the money and room needed for this hobby.

    You can visit my NEW blog here.

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  18. Hi, P.

    Yes you have a good blog there.

    Since my answers are sometimes as big as articles, I will answer with a new article.

    Thus two birds, one stone.

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  19. I just got done with Giglolia's picture now I must get you in the picture too at 1mm distance from her. I see your 18th century photograph but it is too small. I will try to use it anyway
    Yours with great respect and esteem,
    Colnel Michael Esh

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