Sunday, December 13, 2020

A Dispatch from Proxia

One of the projects that has mostly lain dormant this year are my imaginary 19th-century countries, Occiterre and Elabrün. (For more information on them and their various neighbors, please consult this map, or reference the Encyclopedia of Proxia - now available in a new and updated edition!) However, a recent hitch in my supply chain caused me to dredge up a couple of units that had sat on my desk since the end of last year, and get them finished off:

The fellows on the left are more Occiterran infantry (from Emhar's French Infantry set), but the origins of the Elabrüner cavalry on the right are a little more complex. For my Elabrüner infantry, I've been using Waterloo 1815's Austrian Infantry, but for some reason that set is oversupplied with officers - each box comes with both four officers on foot and four mounted officers. I decided to press some of the latter into service as cavalry instead. Unfortunately, the horses they come with are in a dramatic rearing pose, and I didn't particularly want a whole unit of these, so I scrounged up some spares to remount them: 

Cavalry conversion in progress

Their uniforms are loosely based on this and similar images of Austrian hussars from the era (though I did not bother trying to add a pelisse):


Doing these up in a more "classic toy soldier" style made for a nice change from the Bronze Age figures I've been working on, but I do have one more army I'd like to complete for that project before the end of the year. After that, we'll see - I do owe Elabrün a second artillery piece at some point...

5 comments:

  1. Very nice job on this rider! His horse looks like an old Airfix Cuirassier mount.

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    1. Yes, those look like the right ones! I picked some up at a flea market a couple of years ago - unfortunately without the bases!

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    2. The bases are not the worst thing to replace, the cardboard and the glue are your friends :) Nice job on this horse

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  2. Those are looking good! I hope the old Airfix horse are in good shape; some vintage Airfix figures have exhibited embrittlement issues. I look forward to playing with these post-pandemic...

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  3. Always good to have things waiting in the wings. Toy soldiers can be very patient.

    They look btw.

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