Tuesday 26 September 2017

1866 - S range Austrian Conversions -Part 2 Cavalry and Artillery

Following on from the article on the 1866 Austrian Infantry, I tried my hand at the Austrian Cavalry and artillery.

 Having made a conversion to make Sardinian Cavalry a little while ago, I had the basics for the Austrian Cavalry helmet.

 The head swap was obvious, although it needed a little cleaning to remove the band on the helmet.  Then I had to find a body.  

 Dragoons
For the Austrian Dragoons the choice for fairly obvious and required only a head swap for the Prussian Dragoon,  

John Cunningham had sent me some samples of the S Range ACW cavalry he stocks.  As well as the usual 'Sword in the air' figure, there is also an officer with a pistol. Again a simple head swap gave me an Austrian Dragoon Officer with a pistol.  

The standard bearer is simply made by removing the carbine and drilling through the hand and inserting a brass rod.
 




Cuirassier

Again the basic head swap, but I did experiment with the body.  My first try was with a Turkish cavalryman.  Although it looked okay, the coat seemed two long.

Then I tried the ACW rider and this seemed to be a better option.  Again I made the Officer and Standard bearer as set out above.

Artillery

The artillery figures are simple head swaps.  The basic figures are the two FPW artilleryman.  The third figure with the rammer is the ACW artilleryman again with a head swap.

I decided on the French Zouave Officer as having the best 'shako'.



Part 3 will cover the some of the forces allied to either the Prussians or Austrians.
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6 comments:

  1. Vintage Wargaming26 September 2017 at 11:46

    Great as ever. Might these become available from John C in due course?

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  2. ABC Wargammers26 September 2017 at 14:21

    Many thanks for your comments, glad you like them. Having fun with the allies which will be in a future post. Not sure it is a matter for John really.

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  3. Wellington Man27 September 2017 at 09:28

    You have an excellent eye for the conversion potential of these fabulous old figures, ABC. Your Austrians are simply brilliant.

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  4. ABC Wargammers27 September 2017 at 12:32

    Hi WM, as I said to the Vintage Wargamer I am enjoying messing about with the figures. I keep getting sidetracked when I see an idea for a different conversion to the one I am working on. I have just done a one hour conversion to make a FPW Officer with binoculars to help your Prussian Artillery Officer work out which one is 'Will'!!!!

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  5. Matt28 September 2017 at 15:10

    The 19th Century Austrian army is probably the prettiest one out there in my opinion. Great conversion work indeed.

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  6. ABC Wargammers28 September 2017 at 15:29

    Hi Matt, glad you like them, the basic Austrian Hussar can come from the Napoleonic range but I have been fiddling about with the Jaczygier Volunteer Hussars using a Zouave head on a hussar body. The principal works, but I think I left too much neck on the Zouave and he looks a little out of proportion. Have to have another go, but I am onto the Allies.

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