Tooling is proceeding well and we are looking at release some time in July. Two of the box designs are finished for the Austrians 1798 –1809 wearing helmets and the Austrian Grenadiers 1798-1815. Currently working on the boxes for the Austrian infantry 1806-1815 and Austrian Landwehr. We have some fantastic cover art on the boxes which reflect poses in the box and are great guides for painting your miniatures. Regimental colour guides are on the back of the boxes.

Each box contains 56 figures. 48 infantry, 2 officers, 2 drummers, 2 standard bearers and 2 lovely mounted colonels. The infantry can all be in marching poses but we do have some arms to enable you to make some figures, firing, loading and advancing with levelled musket or at porte. Most of the figures are easy to assemble so you can get your units built quickly, however we have added a few extras to add some individuality and character to your miniatures so they don’t look like production line robots!

Austrian infantry 1798-1809
These are the classic looking Austrians that most people think of when envisaging Austrians of the Napoleonic wars. Wearing the helmet with yellow and black crest.

The helmet was officially replaced in 1806 by the shako. However as in most armies of the Napoleonic wars equipment was replaced slowly. Many Austrian infantry, possibly more than half continued to wear the helmet in 1809 and some time after.

Austrian Grenadiers 1798-1815

Grenadiers were part of the Line regiments, however they were mostly brigaded to together in combined Grenadier battalions. These proudly wore their distinctive fur mitres and moustaches.

Austrian infantry 1806-1815

This set depicts the Austrian infantry from the 1806 reforms wearing shakos. These can happily fight alongside helmeted Austrians up to 1809 and a bit after.

Austrian Landwehr 1808-1815

The Austrian Landwehr came into being in 1808 and were present in large numbers during the Wagram campaign. They were the distinctive Corsican style hat. Looking a bit like a top hat crossed with an Australian bush hat! The Landwehr wore many varied colour schemes and will add a nice uniform change to your armies if you want to break up the white ranks a bit. The Hat decorations were many and varied from regiment to regiment. We could not cater for all hat decoration styles. However we will include uniform guides to enable to you alter the hat decorations simply by cutting bits off or cutting off pompoms and gluing elsewhere on the hats.

We have included 2 types of backpack in the sets. The first type has a bayonet attached. The second type has a bayonet and sword. This is due to the fact Grenadiers and some Landwehr carried swords and bayonets, whilst the ordinary infantry simply carried a bayonet. The backpack has the water-bottle, bayonet and cartridge box attached. This enables a greater level of detail on these items and prevents undercut issues. They very easy to glue on with no tiny parts.

And finally in each set there will be 2 flags. The regimental flag and colonels flag. There will be the 1792, 1804 and 1806 patterns. The earlier 1792 pattern was used by some units up to 1815. We will also be producing some extra flag sheets sold separately.

BrookM wrote:But will it sell? Why risk it on a sci-fi / fantasy range that might not work when they are making money on something that does work?

LunaHound wrote:

BrookM wrote:But will it sell? Why risk it on a sci-fi / fantasy range that might not work when they are making money on something that does work?

Im guessing it would , like Mantic?

LunaHound wrote:I just wanted a company that can make Helghast sci fi minis ( the great coat was ....... no comment )

We now have some of the first plastic test shots of the infantry frame wearing helmets. The majority of positions are for marching figures, but if you wish, you can make some other poses, such as firing and advancing, etc... You can see a few of those poses illustrated below. Andrew Taylor and Darren from Gripping Beast are painting a few up for us at the moment, so we will have some painted samples to show next week. Also, we are eagerly expecting to get test sprues of the command frame later this week. We will show you those as soon as they come in.
Once we have tests of all of the four sets, we will be putting them on pre-order - so not long to wait now!

Also, our metal British Light and Heavy Dragoon packs are with Nick at North Star at present as he does the casting. We should have some castings to show of these fabulous figures in the next couple of weeks. There are command packs, and the trooper packs have arm options to give you more variety. These have been sculpted by the ever-busy Paul Hicks. Paul is currently working on the Russian Dragoons, and firing line for the Russian line infantry and Grenadiers.

Whilst we are awaiting test shots of the rest of the plastic Austrian boxed sets we thought we would show you some of the beautifully painted Austrians we have just recieved from Darren at Gripping Beast and Andrew Taylor.

We are sure you will agree both have done a really fantastic job on these figures.

It is intersting to note the way both have handled the difference between the white uniform and the white crossbelts. Painting all of them the same would look dull, however by doing what Darren and Andrew have done here by painting the uniform an off white with creams, and then painting the straps brighter and shaded with greys really lifts the strapwork away from the body.

The Austrians used many and varied colours for their regimental facing colours, making for a very striking looking army. We asked Darren and Andrew to show a good mix of facing colours on these painted samples.

We should have more figures to show you soon.